The Use of a Competency-based Approach to Forming Professional Culture in Pre-service Lawyers

Abstract

The article foregrounds the problem of forming professional culture in the preparation of future lawyers based on the competency-based approach. It also focuses on problems related to its implementation in the educational process of a modern education institution. The research reveals the essence and structure of a future lawyer’s professional culture. Thus, a lawyer’s professional culture is a set of various cultural components (esthetic, legal, informational, economic, and political) and legal rules put forward to a lawyer while performing his/her main functions and professional principles. A questionnaire survey has been carried out to identify students’ attitudes towards a supervisor and his/her impact on forming professional culture. In addition, to diagnose a level of professional culture formation, a psychological study has been conducted based on students’ personal and professional qualities. The research has provided the assessment of socially educational work at the Law Faculty at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. It has been stated that the creation of certain psychological and pedagogical conditions for forming the professional culture of the student youth is one of the priorities of socially educational work at the Faculty. The main forms of socially educational work directed towards forming the professional culture of future lawyers are educational talks, seminars, a case-method, thematic meetings, student conferences, excursions, business and simulations, meetings with experienced practitioners, etc. Besides, the originally designed integrative course entitled “Professional culture of a specialist” has been implemented in the educational process. It uses the main principles of the competency-based approach to training students for their job as a lawyer as well as to demonstrate the main forms, methods, and techniques of working with different subjects. This process required the application of interactive teaching methods. It has been specified that the implementation of the competency-based approach to legal education enables us to determine its substantive content and impact. It provides an adequate standard for the professional culture of future lawyers.