For the past two years, Lindsey Harrison has been a senior lecturer in construction law in the School of the Built Environment. She teaches the compulsory law modules on the surveying, construction and real estate courses at undergraduate and post graduate level. Lindsey additionally is a senior writer and examiner on the international solicitors’ qualifying exam – a qualification lawyers from other countries need to obtain before they can practise in this jurisdiction. Her current position at Brookes involves her teaching Law to non-law students.
She says the role has required a radical change in teaching and assessment styles moving from teaching law to law students and teaching law to non-law students. Many students regard the law modules on their courses at best as a necessary evil. It is not a subject they have actively chosen or one that emphasises their best skills. To make the subject more accessible, Lindsey has overhauled all the law modules, and none more radically than the Advanced Procurement and Dispute Resolution module – mixing lectures and workshops to enable delivery and practice of real life legal problems and discussion of solutions.
This is a final year module which they study after returning from their year working in industry. She capitalises on the practical experience they have gained in the year by encouraging them to bring real life problems they have encountered to class discussion and explore how various dispute methods could have been used to resolve them. By making such a direct link between the subject and practice the students are really well engaged and it makes the law less of an abstract concept for them.
She also reviewed the assessment strategy to align it better with the aspects of dispute resolution the students would be expected to carry out in practice, that is to prepare disputes for trial and represent their company in the adjudication proceedings. The classroom time is spent in practising these skills to prepare for the eventual assessment which is a mock trial, based on real life construction disputes. The aim is for the students to play the advocate to gain a deep understanding of what the process entails and to demonstrate their mastery of preparing their arguments and persuasively delivering them ‘in court’ to Lindsey who plays the construction adjudicator.
Her guiding principles have been to make sure teaching is relevant to students in all years and to remind them that they are taking qualifications that will one day lead to a professional qualification. She believes that it is important from the earliest sessions to show them what professional behaviour and judgment look like and to encourage them to adopt these practices for example, handing work in on time, punctuality, and expressing themselves in formal language whilst engaging in formal (courtroom) dialogue.
Furthermore, the design for the new law assessment now involves the students performing tasks that they will be doing in future employment. Lindsey says from the first session with her, they are expected to act as a qualified surveyor and engage is a professional way with the assessment task. Feedback from the students has been very positive with many commenting on how they have really improved their presentation skills and confidence in speaking in such a formal setting. By binding the classroom expectations with employability skills and the assessment method, the module has encouraged student confidence and engagement with tricky legal material as well as enabling them to hit the ground running in their eventual professional career.