The underpinning of my philosophy of teaching was best expressed ...

Alastair HudsonQMULto do some extra work at home and practise some exam questions he wouldhappily take them on and give us feedback.A. ……..it was very clear what you had to do if you wanted to do wel..C. ‘He knows everything about Trusts. Absolutely everything!He missed nothing. It just didn’t happen. You got the feeling that you couldrely on what he said.’Three elements in particular emerge from these evaluations First, experientialdescriptions of a lecturing style which demonstrates my determination to structure thematerial clearly and to present it with enthusiasm and commitment. Secondly, anappreciation of the various on-line resources which I make available to students.Thirdly, positive responses to my pastoral care and genuine commitment to creatinga high quality learning community based on ‘cognitive apprenticeship’. (Bandura, A1997, Social Learning Theory). All these issues are considered in greater detailbelow.Other student testimonialsThere is, to my never-ending embarrassment, an area on ‘Facebook’ (I am reliablyinformed) called the ‘Hudson Adoration Society’ which contains 44 enthusiasticstudent comments 83 student have joined the group).. A colleague also found thefollowing statement on ‘The Student Room’ web-site:By the way, as an update, I revoke the ban on applauding for any lecturegiven by Alastair Hudson. That last lecture was fantastic, and he earned themid-lecture applause (followed by his bow) for his rant on love, Lexus cars,PE teachers and death.This ‘rant’ is an annual feature of my second year lectures when I feel students needreassurance that all their hard work will pay off in the long run. The occasionaltransformation of my lectures into entertainment should never be overlooked, nor mydetermination to empathize with their experience and ambitions as students.The 2002/03 Undergraduate Yearbook (the only year in which one was produced)recorded 39 unsolicited, complimentary comments from students about me, out of120 students with a Yearbook entry. Comments included:a positive ray of sunshinefunny, intelligent and friendlyenthusiastic and humorous lectures….[he] goes beyond his duties as alecturer in looking out for the well being of his studentsmade the hardest subject easiest to understand …. I’ve greatly enjoyed hislecturesthat rara avis, a top-class academic and visionary with a keen sense ofhumour.Page 3 of 10

Alastair HudsonQMULnearly 40% in the May exams. This had been a course feature for some time since aformer lecturer had attempted to impose a conceptual organisation for the coursewhich was supported by no textbook and which, by way of example, required everystudent to access a single copy of a textbook held on weekly loan in the library forone particular tutorial.I restructured the course so that early tutorials followed on explicitly from the casereadingskills element of the foundation course. This gave students greater continuityfrom their foundational studies. It also increased their confidence by putting their coreskills to work. The course was further reorganised around one of two recommendedtextbooks and easily accessible cases. The initial course topic in the rearrangedprogramme – on the distinction between leases and licences – was deliberatelychosen because it: was rich in case law (so that each student could prepare a casethemselves to present in tutorials); was the easiest three-part rule on the course (andso easy for an first-year student lacking in confidence to assimilate) and it began thelearning process with a general topic (i.e. the law of leases) the subject matter ofwhich is much more accessible than, for example, the abstractions of landregistration. When aggregated these improvements increased student progressionrates to nearly 80% in subsequent exams without jettisoning any of the morechallenging material.My approach to curriculum structureMuch of the success of a law course lies in its structure, just as the success of astory lies in the order and the manner in which it is told. In structuring law courses, Ibegin with fundamental theoretical concepts which are illustrated by comparativelyeasy technical ideas to generate student confidence and momentum. Progressionthrough the course is then dependent on acquiring a greater volume of technicallegalprinciples and theoretical perspectives, and moving through increasinglyconceptual and abstract ideas which build on earlier threshold concepts. Thisfacilitates student’s momentum through progressive levels of achievement.When writing for students and structuring university programmes of study I invariablybegin with foundational principles and add, layer-on-layer, more complex ideas whichlearners need to absorb in order to reach a level of attainment necessary for theintellectual integrity of the course. This approach to the acquisition of higher orderthinking skills has a sound, proven foundation in cognitive learning theory (Ausubel,D et al 1978 Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View). By contrast, when writingfor practitioners, one approaches these issues in a conceptual order that is lessconcerned with imbuing the reader with skills.I have developed systems of assessment, support and feedback including: ‘commonproblems with essays’ documents; suggested solutions; lecture support of seminars;visual, tick-box assessment forms organised by skills exhibited in the assessment;and so forth. I undertake a large amount of problem-answering and essay-writingwork in lectures to illustrate the skills which the students must develop. In part this ismotivated by questions of equity and a desire ‘to level the playing field’ betweenstudents who are taught in seminars by part-time teachers and those who are not.The same is true of my podcasts.The effectiveness of the approach is evidenced by the large number of students whoprogress from this mode of study into conducting research in these fields by way ofan optional, dissertation course under my supervision.Page 5 of 10

Alastair HudsonQMULEnhancing the teaching- research nexusPublished research in law – whether in the form of student textbooks, practitionertreatises or journal articles – constitutes primary material if the research is cited incourt by judges, as my work has been, or if they genuinely conceptualise and orderthe existing case law and statutory principles. In this sense my published researchconstitutes a body of teaching materials. My student textbooks in particular havedeveloped novel ways of presenting material in my specialist fields, both in terms ofaccounts of technical concepts and also in terms of the teaching of self-reflectiveskills which I embed and undertake through these materials. On-line podcasts andessays then personalise skills teaching and advise on assessments withoutinterfering with pedagogic study.I take tremendous professional pleasure in my research, whether it has been writtento teach law to students or to provide an analysis of for practitioners. Frequently,especially in the field of finance law, my research acts as a primary resource forscholars and practitioners in frontier areas where little has been written or decided bythe courts.The best example of this marriage of teaching and research is my textbook Equity &Trusts (5 th edition, Routledge-Cavendish, 2007). There are a number of distinctivefeatures which I believe make this book more ‘student-friendly’ than others:the book is written with a controlled enthusiasm I do not discern in many otherlegal textbooks;it is written primarily to teach students rather than to impress otheracademics;each section begins with a summary of relevant principles before going on toanalyse these in depth. This means students know what principle they areseeking to study before they begin their reading. This acts as an ‘advancedorganiser’ which is essential to the successful study of law and encouragesdeep learning;each chapter has easy-to-understand, worked examples of legal principles,before then turning to the detail of the decided cases and statute. Again, byworking through hierarchical levels, students more easily develop coreunderstandings before seeing these worked through;the book advances a thesis of the nature of equity over its 1,200 pages (thusengaging with key pedagogic debates) as well as discussing the technicalmaterial which all trusts law courses require. This makes the book a bettercompanion over the course of a programme of study because it is constantlygiving a perspective on the technical material and so lifts the student out ofthe drudgery of note-taking;the book is interspersed with essays providing summations of severalchapters which tend to be studied separately by the typical student reader.Each essay is supported by free-to-air podcasts. The overall intention is toteach detailed concepts within an accessible theoretical framework. No otherbook in the field takes this approach.One review of the 3 rd edition of Equity & Trusts considered that:‘Any textbook on English law that quotes Aristotle and discusses chaostheory is likely to contain an interesting approach. Equity & Trusts does notdisappoint. … [it] takes a radically different approach from other books …Page 6 of 10

Alastair HudsonQMULI have taught international audiences of legal and financial practitioners in Geneva,Malta, Dublin, Catania and frequently in London. Each of these ventures has led torepeated invitations to speak, always as sole presenter, and frequently to run one- ortwo-day seminars. My CV records work as an external examiner in eight otheruniversities, including the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London and HongKong University. I consider service of this kind essential for benchmarking my ownteaching practice and for ensuring our departmental procedures are rigorous and fitfor purpose.3 DEVELOPING EXCELLENCEResearching, publication and the production of student-focused teaching texts aremajor vehicles for reviewing and enhancing my own performance. Together, theyform a powerful means of securing continued professional development andachieving improvement in the quality of my students’ learning experiences. Othermechanisms include:Developing my own web-siteI have built, written and maintained my own web-site for a number of years previousto this (www.alastairhudson.com). The intention was twofold: first, to supplement myteaching and, secondly, to provide an outlet for my writing more generally. I createdthe web-site initially so that I could both keep my courses up-to-date with case notesand essays, and also to provide students with gateways into further study and selfdirectedresearch. In my LLM course Advanced Equity & Trusts, I was able to keep alog of class discussions on-line so that we could trace and evaluate the directions inwhich we had taken the material: this facilitated an experimental, open-texturedapproach to the subject without students feeling we might lose our moorings.As a means to reach out to that small part of the lecture hall which was still notconnecting with teaching provided solely through classes and textbooks, in 2005 Ibought an MP3 recorder, some web development software and some sound mixingsoftware myself so that I could record podcasts.My web-site now contains over 50 podcasts, most of which were recordedspecifically to support my textbook, Equity & Trusts. I produce podcasts for studentsat two levels: the first provides introductory materials for students about to begin theirstudies and the second provides pathways into further research. Each podcast canbe downloaded and played on any MP3 player or through a computer. The soundhas been mixed so that podcasts take up minimal memory space and yet arerecorded at a suitable volume level.Beyond the ordinary support materials for my taught courses, the web-site alsocontains hundreds of pages of social theory, fiction and other material which bothinforms and runs parallel to my teaching. As I am also responsible for the QMULWebCT areas relating to my taught courses I can ensure provision from either sourceis complementary.Participation in ongoing review of teachingI have served as Senior Tutor and Deputy Head of the Law Department (a positiondefined at the time as bearing ‘responsibility for the delivery of the LLB programme’).At the same time I directed the Foundation Course, and taught land law, equity andPage 9 of 10

Alastair HudsonQMULtrusts, and company law. As course leader I am responsible for the review of parttimeteachers and their CPD through mentoring.At this time I also chaired the Undergraduate Affairs Committee and the Staff-StudentLiaison Committee, as well as being responsible for the Department’s response toQAA Teaching Quality Assessment. I was responsible for the Internal Review of Lawin 2001 and for Law’s participation in the 2004 QAA Institutional Audit. Currently Iserve on the Law School Teaching and Learning Committee in my role as AcademicTutor. It is in this role that I participate most obviously with colleagues in consideringacademic policy relating to the delivery of teaching and the relationship betweenacademic staff and students. I also serve on the Law and Social Sciences FacultyBoard, which is responsible for teaching quality matters.MentoringI undertake a lot of mentoring on an informal ad hoc basis. One, long-standingexample may illustrate this: I mentored R.H. during her undergraduate studies atQueen Mary and then continued in that role informally when she studied for an LLMat King’s College, before she returned here to begin a PhD under my supervision. Onbeginning her doctoral studies she also began teaching land law as part of my QMULteam. I have thus known R. through all stages of her university career.The mentoring I provide entails frequent discussion of teaching strategy, especiallythe enhancement of optimal learning and formative assessment methods for ourcourses. We speak at least once a week about our teaching and this serves as anear-constant process of monitoring individual student performance on the differentcourses we teach. Importantly, it also helps scrutiny of our own in-class performance.We are contracted to write a textbook together for Routledge-Cavendish called TheLaw of Property, which will open a new chapter in our professional development andco-operation.R. is by no means the only ‘student-into-colleague’ I have helped and encouraged. Asimilar mentoring process has supported five other former students through theirtransition to university teachers and colleagues.ConclusionWorking at Queen Mary has provided me with a fertile and challenging environmentin which to develop my practice, reflect on what I do and contribute to theenhancement of student learning. I hope this application reflects both mycommitment to an effective pedagogy for law and my enthusiasm to deploy researchledactivities for the professional formation of intending and practising lawyers. Bothare clearly linked. When engaged with either my approach can be summarised as: Icommunicate. I connect. I care.* 4894 wordsPage 10 of 10