Excellence in teaching

Peter Creighton, of the Law School, has fourteen years' teaching experience, four here at UWA and ten at King's College, University of London. Peter specialises in Constitutional Law and the Law of Trusts and won an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1994. The Excellence in Teaching Awards represent a joint effort between The Guild and The University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching at UWA.

Peter says about teaching:

In my first week as an Articled Law Clerk I was instructed to arrange for the release of an arrested ship. It held a cargo of perishable goods and it was essential that it be free to sail that afternoon. I knew nothing about shipping law - nor did anyone else in the office. I had to find out for myself and do so quickly.

That experience (and many more like it that followed) significantly influenced my approach to teaching law. Although legal education is often seen as a means by which students learn about the major areas of law, I think it is at least as important that they acquire the capacity to teach: : to teach themselves the new information and processes they will need in whatever career they follow and to convey their knowledge to others.

I aim to facilitate this by encouraging students to grapple with difficult legal materials for themselves: to read, analyse and organise material in advance of class discussion, to criticise it and be able to apply it in resolving legal problems. This can be a struggle for those students who might prefer a neatly packaged account of 'the law', but it is important for fostering both an appreciation of the complexity of the subject and also independence in learning.

I also attach importance to developing students' communication skills. Giving students the opportunity to practice their written and oral communication skills is not enough. I think it is necessary to address specifically and in a practical way what one can do to communicate more effectively, and to provide feedback to students on their mode of expression as well as on the substance of their ideas.

For most of us, understanding only comes when we see the themes and connections within a mass of information. I think the teacher can help the student to draw these links in various ways: by structuring the course to reflect the themes, by building on the students' existing knowledge (both technical and experiential) and by providing regular opportunities within the course to review'the big picture'.

My abiding perception of tertiary education is the enormous potential of our students. If we avoid under-estimating it, we may come closer to unleashing it.