The first teaching talk will for the new Semester be on Wednesday 1st October in the Moot Court.
We will be asking a few people to talk about small things they have done that have made a difference to their teaching or course.
A summary of the event will appear here.
Personal reflections on an exciting day for the Law School – Natasha Semmens
On Wednesday 30th April, the School of Law held a special day-long event on research-led teaching. The aim of the day was to encourage staff to reflect on their research and teaching roles and to explore ways of involving our students in the research process.
The Scholar’s Apprentice (Margaret Freeman)
We started the day with a session led by Margaret Freeman, our Faculty DTLD. The first stage was to define our professional roles and this was a really interesting process because colleagues were in agreement that the labels ‘teacher’ and ‘researcher’ fail to capture the true essence of our professional role. We concluded that we are best described as ‘learners’ and ‘scholars’. We then thought about how we learn. We discussed how we learn best through practice and application, seeing what can be achieved, learning rules and methods and by being shown what to do. All of these things, we thought, fitted an ‘apprenticeship’ model which we all felt can be a rewarding process, for both the ‘apprentice’ and the ‘master’. This led us to think about our own students and how they are ‘apprentices’ in a modern university context. Large student numbers and the IT revolution take us a long way from the ‘Oxbridge’ tutoring model which many of us experienced as students and this means that our students need a quite different model of apprenticeship to support and inspire them. I think this was a tremendously important discussion to have because we talk so much now about managing student expectations – it became clear to all of us how important it is to remind ourselves that we too are learners and that this lies at the heart of the synergy between teaching and research! It was an engaging session and raised some very important themes which were developed in later sessions.
I Love Legal History (Fergal Davis)
Fergal’s session was really inspiring because it demonstrated the potential for teaching-led research in a dramatic way. Fergal has developed a Level 3 module in Legal History in which students build their own ‘course guide’ through the use of a wiki. Fergal told the story of this project, highlighting how his pedagogic interest in wikis ultimately ended up steering his research interests. He discussed how the concept of ‘collective intelligence’ has informed his work on constitutional responsibility. He also showed how the students’ research has forced him to read materials which he would otherwise have dismissed, bringing a fresh perspective to his work. It was very exciting to see how this synergy enables Fergal to thrive as a scholar in his own discipline but also to contribute to the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoTL) in a significant way. It is not surprising that his work on this project, together with Ian Loasby, is award winning!
Using Student Research (Mark Taylor)
Mark began his session with three important assertions which set the context for his demonstration of techniques for utilising student research. First, that he considers himself a true learner – there is a limit to his knowledge and he is constantly discovering new things. Second, that he spends a lot of time with people who are brilliant and who work hard – our students! Third, that lectures are most effective when they are about ideas and not simply information. Mark then went on to demonstrate how these assertions have shaped his teaching in his research specialism – Human Rights and Human Genetics. He talked about his use of ‘video shorts’ which have enabled him to deliver information in a more effective way, freeing up lecture time for more exploratory and analytic discussions. He showed how he has effectively utilised discussion boards to encourage students to express their ideas and share resources, building an impressive research resource which he can himself use in his research. What was most exciting about this, though, was the fact that Mark uses the students’ work in his lectures. He is able to draw examples and pull out ideas which the students themselves have created, allowing them to feel a sense of ‘ownership’ over the module. He concluded his demonstration by exploring the potential for actually integrating student research activities into research design – some of his students are building a wiki resource at the moment which is contributing to a major EU-funded project http://www.privileged.group.shef.ac.uk/
Students as fieldworkers in Family Law (Cathy Williams)
In her session, Cathy explained how her students in Family Law conduct fieldwork which contributes to her own research. Each year, Cathy develops a questionnaire based on her current research and requires students to conduct interviews with members of the public. The data is collected and analysed and Cathy has been able to publish the findings. We talked about the value of hands-on research experience for students and it was exciting to think about the potential for more opportunities like this in our other modules. We thought about the potential problems of ethics, reliability, validity and safety and it was interesting to think that students could themselves be involved in these debates (which do, of course, take place in real-world research). It was also exciting to explore the potential for future collaborations between staff – we have a group of staff with expertise in research methodology and there are real opportunities for staff who are not experienced empirical researchers to collaborate and learn new skills.
Research-led Learning (students from the Innocence Project and the UL1 Student-Tutor Team)
The student-led session was, perhaps, the most exciting session of the day because it was a rare opportunity for staff to hear students reflect on the ‘research experience’. The Innocence Project team described how their extra-curricular work on real-life legal cases has had a major impact on their attitudes towards the law and towards their own learning. They showed how they have thrived as independent learners, developing key skills of team work, task management, communication, problem solving and information gathering. We were extremely impressed to see our students talking about the relevance and application of the law – things we constantly try to get them to engage with (often without success). They were able to explain how they now appreciate the social and emotional impact of the law and to understand that things are rarely ‘black and white’. The Student-Tutor team raised similar themes, explaining how the process of tutoring on a first year module has had a major impact on their own attitudes towards learning and on their own skills as researchers. It was interesting to hear the tutors talk about ‘learning to learn from others’, something that seems to happen most effectively when delivered by peers instead of staff. Indeed, they clearly demonstrated how students themselves can bridge the gaps between staff and student expectations that we had highlighted at the start of the day. It was so exciting to see both sets of students fully engaged in conversations about learning and research. They eloquently demonstrated that students can really flourish when given the opportunity to apply, test and develop their skills. Even more importantly, they showed that are happier when they are challenged and taken out of their ‘comfort zones’. The session gave us a lot to think about in terms of how we might create further opportunities like these and draw stronger links to the curriculum.
Final thoughts…
It really was an inspiring day and it was very fulfilling to see colleagues genuinely excited about developing their teaching and research interests together. We started some very important conversations about what motivates us and what makes us good at what we do – conversations which we often have about our students, perhaps forgetting that we are learners too!
It was great to see that we are doing some very exciting work which contributes to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in a meaningful way. It was clear for everyone to see that our contribution to our academic discipline can (and sometimes should) include questions about how we pass on our knowledge and skills to future generations.
So often we find ourselves separating our teaching and research responsibilities, struggling to manage the constant ‘pull’ between the two. What I learned was that I can be a much better scholar if I try to bring them together. And a happier one too! I hope that we will have further events like this to build upon what we achieved. It is clearly very important to give staff the time and space to think about their professional roles and the opportunity to explore ideas about scholarly development with students.
In 2004 the commercial game design company 42 Entertainment launched the website I Love Bees. Primarily, I Love Bees was a game to advertise a game but it was also an experiment in collaboration. It was a ‘kind of investigative playground, in which players could collect, assemble and interpret thousands of different story pieces related to [the computer game] Halo. By reconstructing and making sense of the fragmented fiction, the fans would collaboratively author a narrative bridge between the first Halo videogame and its sequel’. Thus I Love Bees was not just an advertising gimmick it was ‘a tutorial in collective intelligence’.
When Ian Loasby and I decided to use a wiki to teach Legal History I thought we had stumbled upon an innovative means of engaging students with a subject which might appear overly academic and irrelevant in today’s world. What I discovered was a whole new way of thinking about everything. Mass collaboration and collective intelligence are ideas which are now influencing my teaching, my research and will hopefully change my approach to admin.
Dr Fergal Davis has been a lecturer in law at the University of Sheffield since September 2001.
we are holding a Spotlight on Research Led Teaching at this end of this month (30th April).
This will be an excellent opportunity for us to think about how we develop the synergy between our teaching and research activities and to demonstrate how some colleagues in the School have developed teaching approaches which immerse students in the research process.
More information about the programme and activities will follow in due course.
Wednesday 23rd April at 1.00pm, Led by Norma Hird.
Rescheduled for 7th May
Clare Campbell – 21st November 2007
10th October 2007
Fergal Davis – The use of a wiki in the teaching of Legal History
Rachel Cooper – using LAMS (Learning Activity Management System)