Legal method and legal reflection: experiential learning in the law school

The two main themes of the conference centre around teaching experiences in legal education and theme and international and European perspectives in legal education.

Reflective practice: the enduring influence of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory

Since 1984 David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) has been a leading influence in the development of learner-centred pedagogy in management and business. It forms the basis of Kolb’s own Learning Styles’ Inventory and those of other authors including Honey and Mumford (2000). It also provides powerful underpinning for the emphasis, nay insistence, on reflection as a way of learning and the use of reflective practice in the preparation of students for business and management and other professions. In this paper, we confirm that Kolb’s ELT is still the most commonly cited source used in relation to reflective practice. Kolb himself continues to propound its relevance to teaching and learning in general. However, we also review some of the criticisms that ELT has attracted over the years and advance new criticisms that challenge its relevance to higher education and its validity as a model for formal, intentional learning.

Reflection is alive and well, but not what you think

More and more, Business and Management students (and those in other disciplines) are being asked to undertake written reflection upon their learning as part of assessed course-work. This paper examines this trend and explores the thinking behind it: why lecturers see reflection as valuable to students, whether they undertake reflection themselves, what theoretical underpinning they perceive as justifying and explaining their views. The results of a survey undertaken among Business and Management lecturers are reported, which appear to show that the most influential writer on the subject of reflection in learning – the one most frequently cited by the respondents – is David A. Kolb, author of the well-known Experiential Learning Theory (1984), and one of the moving forces behind experiential learning in general. His ideas have attracted a good deal of criticism, but are still current, having been suitably updated and defended, (2005). The paper critically re-examines Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, challenging its relevance to most of Higher Education, as characterised by Peter Jarvis in his useful table of learning situations as “formal and intended” (2004; 108). Other criticisms of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory are advanced that are entirely new. Returning to the survey, the papers discusses the reasons lecturers believe reflection is valuable to students and concludes that Kolb’s model, and others such as Schön’s (1987), fail to adequately explain or even identify them.

Reading the landscape: the development of a typology of literary trails to inform experiential design

This article explores the under-researched field of self-guided trails. The focus of the research is on the experiential aspects of self-guided literary trails from the perspective of both the developer and user. An examination of existing literature on self-guided trails and literary tourism was undertaken and supplemented with a review of experiential design principles. Content analysis of a sample of literary heritage trails was then carried out and three distinctive typologies were developed, informed by aspects of experiential design. The research reveals that few literary trails developers utilise these principles and the article concludes with proposals for the design of more effective literary trail experiences.

Reality-experiential history documentaries: the Trench (BBC, 2002) and Britain's modern memory of the First World War

Culloden (BBC, 1964) The Great War (BBC, 1964) 1914-18 (BBC/KCET, 1996) Haig: the Unknown Soldier (BBC, 1996) Veterans: the Last Survivors of the Great War (BBC, 1998) 1900s House (Channel 4, 1999) The Western Front (BBC, 1999) History of Britain (BBC, 2000) 1940s House (Channel 4, 2001) The Ship (BBC, 2002) Surviving the Iron Age (BBC, 2001) The Trench (BBC, 2002) Frontier House (Channel 4, 2002) Lad's Army (BBC, 2002) Edwardian Country House (Channel 4, 2002) Spitfire Ace (Channel 4, 2003) World War One in Colour (Channel 5, 2003) 1914: the War Revolution (BBC, 2003) The First World War (Channel 4, 2003) Dunkirk (BBC, 2004) Dunkirk: The Soldier's Story (BBC, 2004) D-Day to Berlin (BBC, 2004) Bad Lad's Army (ITV, 2004) Destination D-Day: Raw Recruits (BBC, 2004) Bomber Crew (Channel 4, 2004) Battlefield Britain (BBC, 2004) The Last Battle (ARTE/ZDF, 2005) Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC, 2004, 2006) The Somme (Channel 4, 2005) [From the Publisher]

When the shift hits the critical fan: a Foucauldian analysis

In the past 15 years in the UK, the state has acquired powers, which mark a qualitative shift in its relationship to higher education. Since the introduction and implementation of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 and the Higher Education Act 2004, a whole raft of changes have occurred which include the following: Widening participation; the development of interdisciplinary, experiential and workplace-based learning focused on a theory-practice dialogue; quality assurance; and new funding models which encompass public and private partnerships. The transformation of higher education can be placed in the context of New Labour’s overall strategies for overarching reform of public services, as set out in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit’s discussion paper The UK Government’s Approach to Public Service Reform (2006). An optimistic view of changes to higher education is that they simultaneously obey democratic and economic imperatives. There is an avowed commitment through the widening participation agenda to social inclusion and citizenship, and to providing the changing skills base necessary for the global economy. A more cynical view is that, when put under critical scrutiny, as well as being emancipatory, in some senses these changes can be seen to mobilise regulatory and disciplinary practices. This paper reflects on what kinds of teaching and learning are promoted by the new relationship between the state and the university. It argues that, whilst governmental directives for innovations and transformations in teaching and learning allegedly empower students and put their interests at the centre, reforms can also be seen to consist of supervisory and controlling mechanisms with regard both to our own practices as teachers and the knowledge/ learning we provide for the students.