Legal education at the secondary school: teachers’ attitudes
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Abstract
This article analyses studying law as a factor making a systematic and positive influence on legal consciousness. The aim of law studies is to nourish a person’s willingness to obey the law and motivate him/her to remain law obeyant in the future. It also presents the possibilities of teaching law in Lithuania, in view of the scholarly literature and curriculum at schools. The object of this study is teachers’ attitudes towards studies of law at secondary school. The study employed methods like as analysis of scientific data and teachers’ written quiz. 149 teachers from Kupiškis district primary, secondary, and high schools were surveyed.
The survey, suggests the following conclusions: a) studying law is a systematic and positive factor for a person’s legal consciousness as the main element of legal culture; b) in contemporary Lithuanian secondary schools only separate subjects on law are taught, e.g. morals, history, civic education etc.), and only in high schools (gymnasiums) curriculum it is possible to develop an independent legal education as a separate discipline; c) law is a rather important subject at secondary schools. The quality of teaching it is mostly influenced by teachers’ professional readiness to develop the curriculum, the possibilities to improve their knowledge and educational competences in this area, and legal education environment establishment of both specific school context and in the society in general, d) it was also established that, according to the teachers, 62% of all problems related with legal studies, were linked to communicational issues among students, teachers, and parents.
The survey, suggests the following conclusions: a) studying law is a systematic and positive factor for a person’s legal consciousness as the main element of legal culture; b) in contemporary Lithuanian secondary schools only separate subjects on law are taught, e.g. morals, history, civic education etc.), and only in high schools (gymnasiums) curriculum it is possible to develop an independent legal education as a separate discipline; c) law is a rather important subject at secondary schools. The quality of teaching it is mostly influenced by teachers’ professional readiness to develop the curriculum, the possibilities to improve their knowledge and educational competences in this area, and legal education environment establishment of both specific school context and in the society in general, d) it was also established that, according to the teachers, 62% of all problems related with legal studies, were linked to communicational issues among students, teachers, and parents.
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