View from afar...a personal reflection

In this article from the Spring 2008 issue of Directions Helen James, then UKCLE’s Academic Developer, reflects on her time at the Centre, highlighting in particular its work on the provision of professional development resources for learning and teaching in law.

Helen, now at the University of Winchester, has taken this work further – Supporting new law teachers: a study to determine needs appeared in The Law Teacher 43(2):July 2009, along with two further articles on the new law teacher experience.

I worked at UKCLE as Academic Developer from March 2005 until December 2007, when I left to join the new law school at the University of Winchester. I hadn’t planned on leaving at this particular time, but the right opportunity presented itself and I felt it had to be seized.

When I first arrived at the Centre I had lots of enthusiasm for learning and teaching in law, and from an academic’s perspective hugely valued the work of the Centre in promoting good practice in the field. I still do. What I did not have was a true grasp of the bigger picture. I had been teaching law in higher education for around five years within one institution, and had a fairly scant knowledge of what went on in other institutions and of the importance placed on learning and teaching in the wider higher education environment or the mechanisms that exist to support and promote their development.

Working at UKCLE was a hugely enriching experience, enabling me not only to bridge these gaps in my knowledge but to further develop my own practice and beliefs in what is important in legal education. So today I find myself sitting in my office in Winchester reflecting on my time at the Centre and considering some of the factors that might influence its future priorities, at least in terms of the provision of professional development resources for learning and teaching in law.

Approaches to developing and supporting good practice in learning and teaching in law vary widely across the sector. Many appear to rely solely on the in-house provision of educational development units (EDUs), participating in accredited programmes and occasional professional development seminars and seeking little external input from organisations such as UKCLE, the Higher Education Academy or Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs). Having talked to a number of educational developers over the last few years it seems to me that much of this provision is of extremely high quality, but that it often struggles to deliver in a way that meets the subject specific needs of all participants. It is indeed quite a task to deliver a seminar looking, for instance, at innovative assessment techniques in a way that will meet the needs of mathematicians, psychologists and lawyers.

The provision of discipline oriented staff development is becoming much more of an issue, for both EDUs and law departments, in the light of the Academy’s recently updated Professional Recognition Scheme. The scheme introduces a significant subject specific element that must be met by those seeking recognition as Associates, Fellows or Senior Fellows of the Academy. Whilst this is to be applauded in its attempt to address long standing concerns that much institutional staff development was too generic in nature, it does have major resource implications for institutions. It is simply not possible in terms of time or cost for most to offer separate provision for individual disciplines, and an increasingly creative approach is called for. There are signs that institutions are now looking to Academy subject centres such as UKCLE to assist in bridging the gap.

During my time at the Centre there was a definite increase in requests from individual law schools for professional development events, and, for a time at least, a dip in attendance at larger themed seminars and workshops open to all, presumably as a reflection of departments seeking to address their own specific development needs. Latterly it became noticeable that attendees, especially at larger events, were requesting certificates of attendance to provide confirmation of the subject specific skills developed at the event, in order to evidence their professional development in accordance with the criteria of the Academy scheme.

One of the most impressive characteristics of UKCLE is its ability to respond quickly to the needs of its subject community, no doubt a reflection of the close links the Centre has established with that community over the years. One of the Centre’s major difficulties, given the lack of a bottomless money pit on which to draw, has been how to respond in the most effective way to these changing needs. The Centre exists for the benefit of law schools across the UK, and therefore has a duty to disseminate resources as widely as possible. This is of even greater importance in light of the criteria of the Professional Recognition Scheme, and has demanded a creative and thoughtful response.

The Toolkit for law teachers project is the most obvious example of the way in which the Centre is responding to the subject specific development needs of new law teachers. This online resource will be developed and released in stages over a three year period, and will address issues specifically highlighted as being of concern to new law teachers during a needs survey conducted in 2006. The toolkit will be available online free of charge to all law teachers, whether new or experienced, across the UK and beyond. It is an excellent example of effective resource dissemination that will assist law teachers in meeting the requirements of the Academy’s Professional Recognition Scheme.

There is still a significant role to be played by the Centre in the provision of events, both one off bespoke events for individual law schools and larger national or regional events. The 2007-08 events programme included an e-learning seminar series and a seminar on creativity in law teaching. Clearly not all law teachers will be able to attend, but the events will give rise to valuable website resources and other publications enabling a wide distribution of the materials covered.

The Academy’s Professional Recognition Scheme appears to have made something of an impact on the approach to professional development taken by law schools. UKCLE has been swift to respond to this in a variety of ways that will ensure maximum dissemination of information and support for law teachers in meeting the criteria of the scheme, which, despite initial scepticism on my part, does indeed appear to be making a difference.

Finally, I would like to say how much I enjoyed my time at the Centre. Not only do I believe its work to be of huge value to the legal education community, but I was fortunate to meet some wonderful people from UKCLE itself as well as colleagues and friends I made along the way. I will keep in touch with many of you and would like to wish you all the very best, and to thank you for the generous support you gave me.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010