Giving Reflective Practice a Try

You can start applying what you’ve learned in this course by trying the following reflections.

What types of reflection have you used in the past?

You likely already reflect quite a bit in your daily practice. Reflection is something we all do, although most of it is often done implicitly.  Having a reflective practice means doing this explicitly, consciously, and systematically, with the intention of learning and improving your legal practice.  

Identify three different instances where you used one or more types of reflective capacity as outlined in Types of Reflection.  For each of them, describe the context and the type of reflection you used and explain what pushed you to reflect. 

Did you make a mistake and wanted to learn from it? Were you required to reflect (e.g. in a course or because your principal asked you questions)?

In what ways are you reflecting in your practice? 

Review and reflect on any of the statements below to get you thinking about how much you already reflect in your practice. In the following statements, “events” can refer to meetings, situations or experiences. The statements are also suggestions on how to improve in any one of these areas. Keep in mind that ideally, you would want to use many of these types of reflection in any given situation to embody what Leering refers to as the Integrated Reflective Practitioner. 

You can use the scale below to help you reflect on the statements. Try to be honest with yourself. The purpose of this exercise is not to come up with a score, but to identify your areas of strengths and opportunities for growth. It may be helpful to print this page and record where you fall on the scale below for each statement.

Scale depicting never, sometimes and always

Reflection-before-action

  • Before I carry out a task, have a meeting, make a decision, go to court or take any other action in my work context, I take time to think it through, plan for it or prepare. 

Reflection-in-action

  • During my interactions with clients or colleagues, I recognize when my pre-existing beliefs are influencing the interaction. 
  • During interactions with clients or colleagues, I consider how my personal thoughts and feelings are influencing the interaction.
  • During interactions with clients or colleagues, I recognize when their pre-existing beliefs are influencing the interaction.
  • During interactions with clients or colleagues, I consider how their personal thoughts and feelings are influencing the interaction. 
  • During interactions with clients (or colleagues), or during events, I write notes which I review later.
  • I make decisions about events as they happen.
  • I change my behaviour or actions as events happen. 
  • I observe events that involve me as they are happening. 

Reflection-on-action

  • After interacting with clients or colleagues, I spend time thinking about what was said and done. 
  • After interacting with clients, I think about the client’s experience of the interaction. 
  • After interacting with clients and colleagues, I think about my own experience of the interaction. 
  • After interacting with clients and colleagues, I think about how things went during the interaction. 
  • I think about events and reasons for my actions afterwards. 
  • I think proactively after events to plan for future action. 
  • I research or investigate issues to solve problems. 
  • I explore theories, models and concepts relating to my issues. 
  • I think about my strengths.
  • I think about my weaknesses. 
  • I think about how I might improve on my weaknesses. 
Self-reflection
  • I understand my own ideas and beliefs. 
  • I understand how and why I think the way I do. 
  • I know what my values are. 
  • I question my assumptions. 
  • I empathize with others’ views. 
  • I think about my career goals and aspirations. 
  • I have a career plan. 

Critical Reflection

  • I seek alternative views and perspectives on my issues (e.g.by researching, reading, talking with others). 
  • I am aware of my own biases and challenge them regularly. 
  • I critically evaluate the strategies I use in my work. 
  • I think about how the legal system works or doesn’t work for people.

Collective Reflection

  • I talk with others (colleagues, friends) about events or issues that are ongoing. 
  • I talk with others (colleagues, friends) about events or issues afterwards. 
  • When talking with others about my work, I become aware of things I had not previously considered. 
  • When talking with others about my work, I develop new perspectives and gain new insights.
  • I find that reflecting with others about my work helps me to work out problems I might be having. 
  • I seek out feedback from mentors, colleagues and clients in order to improve. 
  • Talking with others helps me to develop a plan for further action. 

Factors to Consider

Think about the considerations or factors that influenced your answers to these statements. Also consider the factors that influence whether you take the time to reflect in these situations, for example:

  • Do you reflect when you are unsettled by an interaction or unhappy with an outcome?
  • Do you reflect on successes as well as failures?
  • Do you habitually reflect and if so, about what and how often? 
  • Do you reflect in writing or mostly by talking with others? 

Your answers will be an indication of whether you have a made a conscious practice out of reflecting, or whether you reflect mostly as a reaction to unsettling events or circumstances.

In the next section, you can practice reflecting with some sample activities relating to critical incidents and CPD learning activities.