Beyond foundations

Archie Zariski Murdoch University School of Law

I came to the fledgling Murdoch University Law School in 1991 with little experience in teaching, having practised law in Canada for 15 years prior to that. The more experienced staff I started working with were certainly helpful and supportive but when I noticed the Foundations programme it seemed like a lifesaver. Murdoch had no tertiary teaching course at the time so I enrolled at UWA.

The Foundations programme opened my eyes to many issues and possibilities in university teaching and learning and challenged me to continually improve my teaching practice. I decided to build on the Foundations programme and continued my study through the University of New South Wales, earning a Graduate Diploma in Higher Education. This background in teaching and learning has given me the confidence to pursue innovative teaching practices such as group work, peer assessment and online teaching in my law units. It has also given me the reflective skills to recognise the strengths and weaknesses in various teaching practices and to modify my approach as I accumulate experience with them.

I have also found that studying tertiary teaching and learning has encouraged and equipped me to undertake some research in the area, such as studying how law students react to group work and how clinical legal education affects students’ values and professional attitudes. As academics we instinctively want to know why and how things happen. This curiosity should extend to our roles as teachers. From my experience, discovering more about tertiary teaching and learning has been personally and professionally rewarding.