Rachael Field Associate Professor, QUT Law School ALTC Fellow 2010

Queensland University of Technology

CRICOS No. 00213J

Stimulating strategic change in legal education to address high levels of

psychological distress in law students

Rachael FieldAssociate Professor, QUT Law School

ALTC Fellow 2010

CRICOS No. 00213Ja university for the worldrealR

Introduction

• The psychological health of law students has now been identified a critical issue for Australian legal education.

• A study of the Brain and Mind Institute released in 2009 was one of the first empirical Australian studies to establish that more than one third of Australian law students suffer from psychological distress (BMRI, 2009).

• My ALTC Fellowship argued that strategic change in the legal curriculum is necessary to promote psychological well-being in law students.


Psychological Health of Law Students

• Academics have anecdotally acknowledged that law school is a place where students experience high levels of psychological distress.

• The US the literature has acknowledged this for some time. See Watson, 1968; Beck & Burns, 1979, Benjamin et al, 1986, Daikoff, 1994.

• In 2009, the Brain and Mind Research Institute of the University of

Sydney (BMRI, 2009) empirically established that Australian law students suffer disproportionately high levels of psychological distress.

• This research has been affirmed by:• Leahy et al - 2010• Hall, Townes O’Brien and Tang – 2011• Larcombe, Nicholson and Malkin – 2011• Lester, England and Antolak-Saper - 2011


In what ways does law student psychological distress manifest itself?

• The symptoms of psychological distress identified in a study by Benjamin in the US included:– depression, – obsessive compulsive behaviour, – feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, – anxiety, – hostility, – paranoia, – social alienation and – isolation.


What are the possible causes?

• The are a range of possible contributing factors. For example:

• The personality type of students who choose to study law (Daikoff, 1994).

• The competitive and adversarial nature of both legal education and legal culture (BMRI).

• Law students are often extrinsically motivated (Vines et al - UNSW)• Students’ thinking skills shift to a linear/rational approach at law

school and students lack a sense of professional identity (Hall et al – ANU).

• Australasian Survey of Student Engagement Report (AUSSE) - a

lack of engagement in law students?


Psychological Health of Legal Practitioners

• The issue is a significant one for the profession also (Thomson, 2007).

• The BMRI Report indicated that one in three solicitors experiences high to very high levels of psychological distress, although barristers’ levels are lower at one in five.

• The Legal Services Commissioner for Queensland says that emotional distress features in 30% of the disciplinary matters dealt with by his Commission (Britton, 2009).


The Problems Begin in the First Year of Legal Education

• The literature suggests that psychological distress is experienced as a direct result of the way the law and legal culture are taught (Britton, 2009; Stuckey et al., 2007; Hall et al 2011).

• Benjamin et al. found in 1986 that symptoms of psychological distress rose significantly for students in their first year of law (compared to levels in the general population at that time), and persisted throughout the degree to post-graduation.

• • Iijima (1998) also asserts that the problems ‘begin during the first

semester of law school’.

• This has been affirmed in Australia by recent research at the ANU College of Law, Melbourne University and Monash University.


An Imperative for Action.

• The BMRI note that ‘mental illness and psychological distress are often portrayed in the popular media as issues relating to individuals’ (2009).

• The psychological health of law students is ‘a problem for communities’ (2009).

• Discussions with Law Schools centred on awareness raising and our ethical duty to our students.


An Imperative for Action

• It is an ethical responsibility of legal educators to work to ameliorate the high levels of distress experienced by our students.

• We might also consider it to be an issue related to our duty of care to the students, or to the fact that there are elements of a fiduciary relationship with them.

• Kath Hall (2009) notes that the legal academy must overcome its cognitive dissonance, as well its rationalisation tendencies, on this issue.


Aim of the Fellowship

To stimulate advancement in the legal curriculum, its pedagogy, and assessment practice to better engage, motivate and support student learning of law, focussing on the potential of non-adversarial legal practice.


ALTC Fellowship

• The Fellowship’s program of activities include approaches that try to:

• 1. Raise awareness in the legal academy of the importance of law student psychological health.

• 2. Persuade the legal academy to accept the need for strategic change in legal education, and the efficacy of the proposed approaches for achieving that change.

• 3. Model good curriculum and assessment practice that engages, motivates and supports students.


A Focus on the Law Curriculum

• A broad definition of curriculum is necessary to acknowledge the range of activities currently in place at different law schools.

• My ALTC Fellowship focuses on a narrower definition of ‘curriculum’ – what we teach, how we teach it and how we assess it.

• Hess notes that legal academics have not capitalised on the opportunities presented by the legal curriculum (in the narrower sense) to address psychological distress.


Australian Law School Activities

• A range of diverse activity in response to the BMRI and other research is taking place at law schools around Australia.

• Links with Threshold Learning Outcomes for Law – especially TLO 6 on self-management.


Key themes for law curriculum reform arising from the Fellowship:

• Psychological well-being can be supported through the curriculum via:– Engagement– Collaboration– Autonomy– Including ethics and ADR in the first year curriculum.– Motivation (intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic)– Threshold concepts and skills (eg legal reasoning and thinking

like a lawyer)– Reflective practice– Development of a positive professional identity– Resilience.


Fellowship Curriculum Reform Activities

• Curriculum content – – incorporating dispute resolution content and skills in LLB;

supporting students to learn key threshold concepts; reflective practice; harnessing intrinsic motivation; supporting a professional identity; supporting resilience.

• Curriculum delivery – – engagement, activity, flexibility.

• Assessment – – Initial idea was to focus on redesigning approaches to law exams

and tutorial performance; but Fellowship work went towards reflective practice.


Curriculum content strategy

• A focus on non-adversarial practice, the development of a positive professional identity from the first year, reflective practice, intrinsic motivation, threshold skills.

• Knowledge/content versus skills: what lawyers need to know versus what lawyers need to be able to do.

• Embedding of a model first year dispute resolution unit in QUT Law Curriculum and non-adversarial content for inclusion in the Priestly 11 core subjects.


Curriculum delivery strategy

• Active learning, engaging delivery and blended approaches, a conversational framework modeled in LWB150.– A focus on the promotion of engagement through classroom and

online activity – particularly discursive activity.– Motivating methods.– Flexibility in delivery approaches to support students in balancing

complex life matrices, and to accommodate different learning styles and approaches.


Assessment strategy

• Reflective Practice:

• Teaching and assessing the 4Rs method from the DRAW project (Ryan and Ryan, ALTC Project).

• Model assessment instructions and CRA.


Wellness Network for Law


Wellness Network and the ADR Forums 2012 and 2013

See: www.adrforum2012.com

•and http://wellnessforlaw.com/forums/forum_2013/program/

•Also wellnessforlaw.com.

•Resources on TJMF site: www.tjmf.org.au

•And Twitter: @WellnessForLaw


Final Fellowship Stats

• 2 x national Forums (also in 2014 at QUT)• 28 x presentations (3 international)• Media coverage.• 1 x model subject + collation of motifs• Book contract for text book• 6 x HERDC journal articles• 2 x HERDC book chapters• 2 x HERDC conference papers•


Thank you!

• ALTC/OLT• Prof Sally Kift• Siobhan Lenihan• The ALTF

Documents

Rachael Field Associate Professor, QUT Law School ALTC Fellow 2010