Celebrating 10 years of Arena Fellows: Alan Brener

Dr Alan Brener, Associate Professor (Teaching) became a Fellow in 2018. We asked him to reflect on his experience of the programme.

1. What is your role?

I am an Associate Professor specialising in teaching at UCL’s Laws Faculty. 

2. Why did you apply for Fellowship?

It was a job requirement when I was first appointed as a Teaching Fellow. 

3. Tell us about your experience of applying for Fellowship.

It was a bit of a challenge since I had limited teaching experience and the terminology and objectives were new to me. However, I had great support from the Arena team who were invaluable in getting me through the process. 

4. What are the ways that gaining Fellowship has helped you to teach differently and/or advanced your career?

By way of background teaching in the Laws Faculty is very traditional consisting of formal lectures and small group tutorials. The vast majority of students, both undergraduates and masters, are looking for technical knowledge as part of their career plan to qualify as lawyers. Getting on both courses is highly competitive and, as a result, the students are highly motivated and extremely bright. All the modules have vast amounts of reading and much of the work is self-study. Students come from across the globe with a very wide range of cultures. For the three year undergraduate programme student expectations will depend, largely on what year they are in. First year students mainly come straight from high school. Invariably, they will have been top of their class and won armloads of school prizes. They will join a cohort of 150 to 200 students just like themselves. This can come as a bit of a shock. Studying law will be new to almost all of them. Final year students are much  ‘knowing’ and at this point largely focused on the competition for the best training contracts with the major global legal firms (or the equivalent as barristers). Almost the whole year will select modules with a strong commercial law content since this is what their prospective employers expect. 

There is much more… 

All this needs to be reflected in my approach to teaching and as a result the Fellowship and Arena courses generally, have been extremely valuable. The Fellowship certainly gave me a broader perspective on teaching and particularly the need for adaptability. Arena courses such as those covering acting skills and the use of story-telling have greatly helped. For example, I always, now, act out (very badly) many of the case law examples in lectures to two hundred or so students. Students find this funny, engaging and memorable. I also use story-telling for teaching all my students, adapted to their experience and expectations. 

In terms of my career I come to teaching after many decades of working in business, government etc and my aim is to continue to perfect my teaching abilities for the benefit of my students.  

5. Do you have any advice for someone thinking about applying for Fellowship?

Get all the help you can, particularly, from the Arena team and also from those in your own Faculty/Department who have already achieved Fellowship status.