Law professor wins alumni teaching award

by Mike McNeney

It all boils down to enthusiasm. Law professor John Kilcoyne, winner of the 2003 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UVic Alumni Association, says he can’t help being enthusiastic about teaching — he gets it from his students.

“I’m unbelievably fortunate to teach students who are intelligent, highly motivated, mature and engaged,” says Kilcoyne. “It’s impossible to resist the sort of energy they bring.”

Colleagues and students, past and present, nominated Kilcoyne — a specialist in labour relations and collective bargaining — for his knowledge level, the amount of preparation he puts into his classes, the participation he gets from students, his motivation skills and his accessibility.

“He really is incredibly enthusiastic about what he’s teaching and he’s incredibly up-to-date (with his teaching materials),” says second-year student Jennifer Schmidt. “He has a passion for teaching, even if the subject would normally seem boring. I wasn’t interested in labour law before I took his class and now I think it’s fabulous. I wouldn’t have become interested in it if it wasn’t for his course.” She’s currently doing a co-op work term in labour relations with the B.C. Public Service Agency.

By making a point of dealing with students on an individual level, Kilcoyne not only practises the open door policy that’s a trademark of the law faculty, but those conversations help him tailor his teaching methods to the needs of the class.

Kilcoyne was a member of law’s first graduating class of 1978 and says his techniques were influenced by two of his professors — Keith Jobson and founding dean Murray Fraser. “I was always treated as a human being, on an individual basis,” Kilcoyne says. “It was made clear to me from the first moment coming into this school as a student that the objective here was to focus on learning. That kind of respect for students had a big impact on me and it’s still a significant part of the ethos of this faculty.”

Kilcoyne grew up in Hamilton and spent his earlier years delivering sailboats between the Caribbean and the northeast U.S. He hadn’t completed his undergraduate degree when he was admitted to UVic. After graduating, he articled at a local law firm and took his master’s at York University. He’s been on faculty at UVic since 1984.

His preparation — including two course books that he revises every year — begins with establishing objectives and then deciding how best to accomplish them.

“I’m not sure how to be an ‘excellent’ teacher but I think to be a good teacher there is a logic of instruction. In law, my objectives may be knowledge-based, they may be more analytic objectives, they may be functional skills of advocacy or mediation. Once I have a handle on what I want to accomplish, I spend time thinking about the best way to do that — is it self-instruction, a lecture, handouts or Web sites? I try to use an array of methodologies in the hope that one of those is going to spark with (students).”

In his collective bargaining class, students (after two weeks of preparation) engage in a day-long simulation exercise where bargaining teams try to reach a negotiated settlement based on a set of given facts.

“The thing I like about it is that it’s active learning, which is where it’s at. Secondly, it’s an excellent way to deal with functional skill development. It involves as much negotiation within a team as it does across the table.”

There is room for levity in the law and Kilcoyne’s class is usually fun. He keeps it human. He hands out a sheet at the beginning of the term to help students decipher the obscure abbreviations he uses on the chalkboard. And he always tries to find aspects of law cases that reveal the “frailty of humanity” that can be gently amusing.

“I use humour strategically. In a lecture format it serves as a learning technique to get people into the moment. I don’t want to sound too pompous but in trying to acquire a mastery of a subject I think humour and humourous analogies — because they resonate so deeply — can put knowledge objectives into shape. If the study of law isn’t enjoyable, then we’ve got problems.”

Kilcoyne accepts his award with modesty. He’s not competitive, and says the honour has as a lot to do with the quality of his students and his colleagues. “I’m just really lucky. I’m not trying to be disingenuous either — I think I’m a good teacher. And other professors collectively support each other in dealing with teaching issues. It makes me a better teacher.”

The Award for Excellence in Teaching includes a $2,000 cash prize and will be presented at June convocation. Kilcoyne will also be honoured, along with the 2003 distinguished alumni and Vikes Hall of Fame inductees, at the Legacy Awards dinner in November.