The research is devoted to the problem of forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training. The scientific pedagogical analysis of the raised issue was conducted; the essence of such concepts as “the legal culture of the future lawyer” and “forming the legal culture in future lawyers” were specified. Some aspects of forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training in Ukraine and abroad were described.
The legal culture of the future lawyer is a multidimensional, systematic and dynamically personal entity, which is a set of legal knowledge, skills and attitudes towards the law as a value manifested in lawful activity and characterized by general respect for the law. The structure of future lawyers’ legal culture includes cognitive, operational, activity-related, personal and axiological components. The cognitive component of future lawyers’ legal culture reflects the system of professional knowledge (fundamental and specialized) that is key to the successful implementation of future professional activities in various fields of the law. The operational and activity-related components reflect the system of legal skills and skills of lawful activity, which ensure the practical realization of the system of professional legal knowledge in practice. The personal and axiological components reflect the legal values of future lawyers, which show the individual’s attitude towards rights, personal qualities necessary for the successful pursuit of professional activities (responsibility, perseverance, ability to study, honesty, justice, ability to work with people and inspire trust, etc.), as well as a respectful attitude towards the law. The criteria (cognitive, operational, activity-related, personal and axiological), indicators and levels (low, average, high) of forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training were determined.
The determined pedagogical conditions provide a comprehensive impact on the development of all components of future lawyers’ legal culture.
The structural and functional model for forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training, which combines the target, methodological, functional, diagnostic and operational blocks, was developed. The target block includes the threefold purpose: the general purpose of model development is the process of forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training; educational goals; the purpose of legal education. The methodological block contains the main provisions of the concept of developing higher legal education in Ukraine, the concept of improving legal education for professional training of lawyers in accordance with European standards of higher education and the legal profession, the concept of direct ties of the courts with the public, the national programme of legal education of the population, the concept of distance learning development in Ukraine; methodological approaches; universal pedagogical (scientificity, visuality, fundamentalism, role perspective, parity, humanism) and specific (initiative, interactivity, intensification and integration) principles of forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training. The functional block reflects the functions of future lawyers’ legal culture (cognitive, normative, axiological, communicative, law-socializing, prognostic), learning technologies (modular-tutor technology, mind mapping technology, resource-based learning, 4I technology), forms, methods and means of training that directly contribute to forming the legal culture in students, forms, methods and means of legal education. The diagnostic and operational block is represented by criteria, indicators and levels of forming the legal culture in future lawyers and reflects the expected result from the implementation of the structural and functional model – the positive dynamics in the forming of the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training.
Educational and methodological support for forming the legal culture in future lawyers during professional training was developed and implemented in the educational process of higher education institution.
