People in legal education
This page includes the ‘people’ section from recent issues of Directions, the UKCLE newsletter, celebrating the work of colleagues whose contributions to legal education have received external recognition.
Spring 2010:
Autumn 2009:
- New National Teaching Fellows in law: Paul Raffield and Penny Wiggins
- UKCLE staff changes
New members of the UKCLE support team
A very warm welcome to Melanie Hughes, Lauren Goodchild, Paul Swain and Paul Cockrell. Melanie joins the Centre as a part-time administrative assistant; Lauren as the Centre’s new information officer; Paul Swain, also as an information officer, with specific responsibility for the Simshare project, and Paul Cockrell as technical support developer. We wish them every success during their time with UKCLE.
Tracey Varnava, UKCLE Associate Director, will be on study leave from 1 April to 30 September. During this period she will not be responding to email. If you have any queries relating to the areas of work that Tracey normally takes responsibility for, please contact Danielle Lysaght in the first instance.
Paul Maharg, who is currently working with UKCLE on the Simshare project, has moved from Strathclyde University Law School to take up a new post as Professor of Legal Education at the University of Northumbria. We wish Paul every success in this new role.
UKCLE is pleased to report that Gary Watt, the winner of Law Teacher of the Year in 2009, has been awarded a personal Chair by the University of Warwick. Many congratulations to Gary.
Judy McKimm, co-author of the recently published UKCLE/ MEDEV report on Teaching, learning and assessment of law in undergraduate medical education, has recently been awarded a Senior Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in recognition of her work as an outstanding champion of teaching and learning in higher education.
New National Teaching Fellows in Law
Paul Raffield is an associate professor at Warwick School of Law where he leads the tort module and teaches two options of his own devising – Origins, images and cultures of English law and On trial: Shakespeare and the law. Both these courses derive from Paul’s research interests in early modern legal history and the representation of law in Renaissance drama and incorporate innovative teaching practices. They are taught in performance linked teaching spaces developed by the two CETLs located at Warwick, the Reinvention Centre and the CAPITAL Centre – see the Academy profile.
“My teaching methods derive to a great extent from my work as an actor and theatre director”, says Paul. “That experience has equipped me with many of the skills which I consider to be prerequisites for effective teaching. Since joining Warwick in 2004 I have been given the opportunity to apply the techniques of the rehearsal room, acquired during a career of 30 years in the theatre, to the learning environment. Fundamental to the achievement of my objectives is the strong emphasis I place on the development of a communitarian ethos within the class. Group work, in which students engage jointly in an assessed project, is the primary means through which individuals bond into an interdependent community of scholars. This teaching method is intended to encourage students to consider, as crucial aspects of the learning process, both the responsibility owed to their peers and the quality of their separate inputs into a collective project.”
Penny Wiggins is Associate Head of the School of Law at the University of Hertfordshire and a Learning and Teaching Fellow of the Blended Learning Unit, the university’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Penny was one of the original authors of Iolis, the interactive, resource-based CD ROM that supported learning on core LLB modules. She is also an enthusiastic user and shaper of the university’s managed learning environment – see the Academy profile.
Penny’s approach to learning is based on the principles of active engagement both in and out of the classroom. “Initially my work focused on the student learning experience in the classroom but with the advent of technology I grasped the opportunity to extend opportunities for learning”, comments Penny. “I am self taught in the use of technology, partly because in my leadership role I need to be able to define the level of complexity and time requirements of particular techniques in order to encourage other staff and also because I feel the best way to develop the underlying pedagogy is to experiment personally, not simply accept others ways of using it.”
“The Fellowship has already raised my profile within the university. I understand Hertfordshire is the only university to have received an NTF award each year. Our CETL has been very effective in raising awareness of the opportunities and concepts underpinning blended learning. I was seconded to the unit for three years which has enabled me to broaden my range of contacts across the university and other subject disciplines and beyond. I am very grateful to all my colleagues, including those at UKCLE, for their support in my developments.”
UKCLE welcomes Danielle Lysaght, who was appointed in June to the new post of UKCLE Centre Manager, and says farewell to Hollie and Victoria.
Hollie Wright has left the Centre to take up a financial administration role in Warwick Medical School. Hollie joined UKCLE in August 2005. As Centre Assistant she provided administrative support for all UKCLE activities, taking on an increasing share of financial administration during her time at the Centre. Despite claiming a low opinion of both academics(!) and students, Hollie quickly became a valued member of the UKCLE team. Her good humour, hard work and countless stories of the latest antics of Roxy the dog are much missed by us all.
Victoria Macfarlane joined UKCLE as Centre Administrator in June 2007 having previously worked for the Open College Network. Victoria soon grasped the challenges and complexities of Centre administration, and in her relatively short time with UKCLE came to play a significant role in its management. Victoria left the Centre in May to take up the post of Centre Manager for the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods at Cardiff University.
We wish both Victoria and Hollie every success in their new jobs.
Last Modified: 4 June 2010
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