The history of women in science a seminar at the University of Regensburg,FRG

We provide here an outline of a course on the role of women in the history of the natural sciences. All students and members of faculty were free to attend. We report our experiences in teaching the courses and some of the literature used. The conclusions we came to on researching this topic are summarised. A combined historical and biographical approach was the most useful. We divided history into epochs in which we examined the cultural political and religious roles of women in society. Then we reported on important women scientists in each period, looking at their autobiographies and summarising, where possible, their scientific contributions. We discussed how the contributions of women scientists are forgotten or suppressed and ways in which the course participants themselves had internalised the ‘androcentric’ view of science. The most important finding for us was that throughout history women scientists were numerous, gifted—and forgotten.     

Oh the irony! A reflective report on the assessment of reflective reports on an LLB programme

Reflective practice is generally regarded as an important part of legal education, and the typological models of reflection created by the likes of Schon, Boud, Mezirow and Moon to develop and evaluate the reflective practitioner are becoming as instrumental in LLB curriculum design as the learning models of Bloom, Gibbs and Kolb. What is less clear is the most appropriate methodology for the assessment of reflection, and, in particular what constitutes good reflective writing in this context. By using the medium of reflective writing this piece will explore and evaluate the approach taken to the assessment of the reflective report component of the problem-based learning LLB at York Law School. Reflective practice is an important part of the design of the problem-based learning curriculum and is fully embedded in the learning and teaching at York Law School. It will be shown here that it is just as important to engage the marking team in the rationale and educational benefit of reflective practice as it is the students. Only with a clearly defined task, a structured assessment framework, and ongoing marker training and development, will reflective practice have a meaningful place as an assessed component of the LLB.