The nature of service - Judy Allen

Work pidgeon holed as service consumes huge chunks of my working time but it cannot be cordoned off from the other aspects of my work, particularly teaching.

Much of it is expressly directed to supporting the quality of teaching and learning at UWA. I've chaired both the Law School and the ECEL Teaching and Learning Committees and I've been a member of the University Teaching and Learning Committee. Each of these committees spins off other tasks. At University level these have included serving on the working parties that examined the University Honours programs and reviewed the introduction of Syllabus Plus, serving on committees considering applications for teaching and learning grants and on the Teaching and Learning Infrastructure Advisory Committee.

This involvement has certainly influenced my individual teaching. Particular practices become entrenched in different disciplines and it is easy to assume the methods of immediate colleagues are the universal norm. Discussion of issues in meetings with colleagues in different disciplines forces me to re-examine my assumptions and avoid complacence. For example, when I visited other departments to survey supervision and assessment practises for the Honours Working Party I was amazed by the differences. I had to refine my own objectives in Honours supervision and re-focus on the means to achieve them.

My role as a member of the University's Human Research Ethics Committee gives me coal face experience in applying principles of consent, confidentiality and privacy in ethical evaluations. These are also central to the content of the units I teach in the Law School - Medicine and the Law and Torts. So, I gain a better understanding of the practical interface of the principles and research practise.

Serving as a board member of the Australian Institute of Health Law and Ethics gives me contact with leading people around Australia from these various disciplines. The benefits flow to my students and research.

Recent research in the United States examining the motivation and values of law students found that orientation towards intrinsic values (self-acceptance, emotional connection, and community contribution) decreased during the first year of law studies. There was a corresponding increase in orientation towards extrinsic values (money, popularity, fame, and beauty) and an accompanying fall in psychological well-being ( Krieger, forthcoming). If these findings are applicable to Australian law students, and to students in other disciplines too, then we should be alarmed by the ramifications for the type of professionals we are training and for their health.

This research suggests that we need ways of nurturing intrinsic values while students are at university to produce well balanced professionals. Explicit modelling of service roles in our professional lives could help.