FORMING 9TH GRADE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SUBJECT SKILLS IN LAW

Traditional forms and methods prevailing in the practice of teaching law disciplines are focused on the acquisition of theoretical knowledge cannot provide the gaining of the experience of relevant activities. It requires such techniques which would help to apply theoretical knowledge in real life situations, develop school students' general and subject knowledge and skills, value orientations, legal competence. The paper aims to substantiate the technique of forming 9th grade school students' subject skills of using legal information sources, namely the textbook and statutory instruments (extracts from them) in order to conduct legal analysis of situations and perform relevant exercises. The experiment carried out throughout 2015-2017 academic years, involved 205 school students studying at the 9th grades, who were divided into control and experimental groups. The initial stage of the experiment implied the distinguishing of the levels of the respondents' subject skills as follows: initial, medium, sufficient, and high. At the beginning of the survey the respondents had roughly equal testing results. Then the teaching technique was implemented into the curricula of the experimental group, and the control group school students were taught according to traditional methods. The basic form of teaching in terms of the experimental technique was practicals focused on studying the new material, as well as generalizing type of lessons. The main form of work at the lessons involves the following activities: work with the textbook and statutory instruments, case-study, role-playing games, imitation exercises, etc. The comparison of the testing results conducted before and at the end of the experiment has confirmed the efficiency of the implemented teaching technique into the curriculum of the experimental group. As a result, these children have gained practical skills of using legal information sources.