Vera Bermingham

National Teaching Fellow 2010 Vera Bermingham has a wide range of teaching experience across all levels of undergraduate legal education. In module evaluation questionnaires and staff student consultation meetings students consistently rate her teaching in the top two categories of satisfaction. Vera's role as Director of Studies is primarily focused on the student learning experience and in this role, as a means of gaining insight into the academic and pastoral support needs of students as they progress through their studies, she undertakes teaching across all levels of the programme. This enables her to develop and review her own practice and to encourage her colleagues to review and develop their teaching practice and collaborate and learn from others. This results in the dissemination of good practice within the Law School and the Faculty. Many of the initiatives with which Vera is involved are aimed at helping students in the early stages of their law degree to develop legal and professional skills that will increase motivation, improve their confidence and ultimately enhance their career opportunities. In commenting that Vera has always focused on how students successfully learn and has adapted her own and others' teaching practice in order to achieve this Nicola Rees, the LLB Course Director, says: "I have worked with Vera Bermingham since I began my teaching career ten years ago. Her interest and expertise in learning and teaching helped to enthuse and support me in my work. When developing my own modules, it is always Vera that I turn to for discussion about how to incorporate learning skills. Vera has developed a number of learning and teaching initiatives, for example, a self-marking exercise that requires students to use our grading criteria to assess their own work. This exercise actively engages students with materials that they otherwise may not use in this way. "Vera has also been the driver of staff development in learning and teaching in the Law School. She has organised and hosted workshops and away-days that bring all the staff together to discuss learning and teaching issues, particularly those staff that are new to Kingston."