Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking

Law with Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics

Midterm Paper

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for Legal Research and Writing

by

ROEJENN RIZZ PANGANIBAN HUMIWAT

October 2023

1
 ABSTRACT

1. Title: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education:

Linking Law with Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics

2. Type of Document: Midterm Exam

3. Type of Publication: Unpublished

4. Keywords: Law, Children understanding, political understanding

5. Abstract:

The 1987 constitution of the Philippines lays down the

foundation of the Philippines’ education system and protects the
right of all citizens to quality education at all levels. However,
there are few studies on children’s economic and political
understanding. This study aims to narrate some of the relevant
concepts of Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal
Education: Linking Law with Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics.
It uses a purely narrative approach in order to understand some
important concepts and approaches in child legal education.

2
 Table of Contents

Page

CHAPTERS

1 INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study.....................................………………4

Review of Related Literature...............................................5

Importance of the Study......................................................11

Statement of the Problem....................................................11

Objectives of the Study.............................................................11

Definition of Terms............................…………………………….12

2 METHODOLOGY

Scope and Delimitation of the Study...................................13

Sources of Data...................................................................13

3 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Child Legal Education..........................................................14

Connection of Law to Social Sciences, Ethics, and

Civics...................................................................................16

Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal

Education.............................................................................20

4 CONCLUSION

Conclusion...........................................................................24

REFERENCES..............................................................................25

3
 Introduction

Background of the Study

Understanding the law is essential for our world to be fair and just.
An important legal principle says, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
“After all, if you don’t know what your rights are, how are you supposed to
make sure they are respected and upheld?’
In a world based on science and technology, education determines
the people's prosperity, welfare, and security. Education provides the
concept of the economic and social order for which the country's youth
should be educated (Aggarwal J.C, 2008). But has the world been
providing access and promoting the improvement of children’s legal
education?
Currently, children learn to interpret the world through a great
variety of data sources. Over the past 30 years, the making of textual
meaning has steadily become a more elaborate enterprise for young
learners, who must absorb how to orchestrate an increasing variety of
information channels (Wiley, 2013). However, the World Bank’s World
Development Report stresses the recent expansion of education does not
guarantee the immediate achievements of important learning outcomes so
more attention must be paid to measuring and improving the quality of
learning.
All aspects of development are very important and interrelated. If
the pace of national development is to be accelerated, there is a need for
a well-defined educational policy to vitalize, improve, and expand
education. According to Gardner (1991), student’s regression to the naïve
conception possessed before school learning has often been found in the
fields of physics and natural sciences. The material foundations of a
splendid education system have been laid, but the more difficult problem
of adjusting the educational program to the needs of the people remains to
be solved.
In Piagetian view, the source of cognitive development lies in the
child’s actions, which can hardly be considered the main source of
knowledge of social institutions. This knowledge appears to lag behind the
skills and knowledge that might be derived more directly from a child’s
interaction with objects and persons, such as logical operations and
physical and psychological concepts (Berti and Andriolo, 2001).
Unlike the Piagetian approach, in the domain-specific approach to
cognitive development posits that children acquire several largely
independent, theory-like, conceptual structures rather than an
interconnected collection of across-the-board intellectual skills (Wellman &
Gelman, 1992). For instance, the domain of psychology, changes in
children’s understanding of belief and desire influence their conceptions of
traits (Yuil, 1991). Although there are several studies on children's
understanding of social rules, investigations into other aspects of
children’s understanding of society from a domain-specific view are still
very scanty (Berti, 1994).
Children’s economic and political understanding was carried out
from 1960s to the 1980s however the study of its antecedents in childhood
and the process promoting its improvement has never been a concern for
developmental and educational psychologists (Berti & Andriolo). It could
be said that, when a student emerges into adulthood with his or her talent
nurtured and developed, it is a miracle because there are so many that
encroach on talent development (Piirto, 1941). Materials should be
organized in light of the needs of civilization and the capacities of children.

4
 When asked what intelligence is, people on the street agree that
there are three facets to intelligence (Neisser, 1979): (1) the ability to solve
practical problems; (2) having verbal strength; and (3) having social
knowledge. Adults think that, as children grow older, their intelligence is
shown by how well they can solve problems and reason (Piirto, 1941).
Social science examines the relationship between individuals and
societies as well as the development and operation of societies, rather
than studying the physical world. Civic education is a collaborative
dimension of Social Studies in building and bringing about good
citizenship and in the attainment of political ethics. Ethics are built upon
responsibility, as individuals, organizations, and societies are responsible
for the actions that they take (Laudon, et al, 1996).
On the other hand, Borman and Haras (2019) state that law
education includes learning styles, multiple intelligences, multitasking and
other fallacies often referred to by neuroscientists as neuromyths-
commonly held beliefs about the way the human brain affects learning that
are patently wrong. Their cognitive principles are discussed in the review
of related literature.
Voyvodic and Medcalk (2004) believe, in that interdisciplinary
approaches combine law with social work of service, interdisciplinarity has
been defined in this century: as a methodology, a concept, a process, a
way of thinking, a philosophy, and a reflexive ideology, It has been linked
with attempts to expose the dangers of fragmentation, to re-establish old
connections, to explore emerging relations, and to create new subjects
adequate to handle our practical and conceptual needs. Cutting across all
these theories is one recurring idea. Interdisciplinarity is a means of
solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily
addressed using single methods or approaches.
In the present study, it is to review Interdisciplinary Approaches in
Child Legal Education: Linking Law with Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics.
The skills and proficiencies involved in the practice of law are manifold
and from this complex stem the problems of legal education. Social
sciences and law are extraordinarily interconnected with each other
(Iftikhar, 2020). Iftikhar considered law as one of the most imperative and
strong pillars of civil society while social sciences are the prime base and
source of law.

Review of Related Literature

This literature review shows existing research of scholars on child

legal education, political understanding, existing approaches on child legal
education, and children’s understanding of society.
William James, a psychologist, attempted to address the needs of
schoolteachers in what was then surely a paradigm shift for science.
Today the corollary might be the misapplication of neuroscience to
classroom teaching, ideas about the way brain works that have been
misunderstood and misapplied to learning for decades yet continue to
exercise a toehold on the public imagination.
Borman and Haras (2019) states that law education is not immune
from the influence of these certitudes, which include learning styles,
multiple intelligences, multitasking and other fallacies often referred to by
neuroscientists as neuromyths-commonly held beliefs about the way the
human brain affects learning that are patently wrong.
They also mentioned cognitive principles and what they can tell us
about teaching the law. First, prior knowledge, in other words, the lifetime
of our experiences, memories, beliefs, and frameworks. Our prior

5
knowledge determines our approaches to teaching and learning. The
cognitive principle of prior learning is this: People learn new things by
referencing what they already know. The way we process and integrate
new information affects how we think about and remember new
knowledge. Activating prior knowledge acts as a hook to learning.
The principle of prior knowledge is already used in the law
classroom. One example is the use of analogies, which make implied
relationships explicit and connect existing with future knowledge. By
connecting with our own future knowledge, law faculty can structure
curriculum to take advantage of incorrect prior knowledge such as
misconceptions. Prior knowledge is highly influential in learning. Issues
arise, however if our prior knowledge is wrong.
Second cognitive principle is Knowledge Transfer. To learn and
retain information from working memory (which can store only so much) to
long-term memory to be stored for later retrieval. But transfer is not about
just the content of long-term memory, but how the knowledge is structured.
Learning experiences need to be meaningful for the brain to retain
information. One way to do this is to have students organize materials
themselves, which in turn gives meaning to content.
Third Practice and Feedback also exert strong influences on
learning. Feedback, the information student receives tells them whether or
not they are taking the right approach, is the converse of instruction.
Effective feedback provides information on correct rather than incorrect
responses and builds on changes from previous work. It should give clear
information that helps a student to progress to meet the goal.
Lastly, testing, as a retrieval practice, fortifies memory. Successful
retrieval practice that “interrupt forgetting,” especially helpful for law,
include short quizzes deployed immediately after reading a text ir hearing
a lecture, produces what is know testing effect- that is, better learning and
remembering, as opposed to less effective methods as such as rereading
the text or highlighting.
Prior knowledge also affects how a student organizes new
information. A goal of learning is to incorporate new information into the
existing organization of memory. A student uses that existing structure to
assimilate new information, for example, in the absence of any string
signals to the contrary, a student who was a history major before
matriculating to law school is one-way learning history is organized.
In the journal of Md Wali Iftikhar he stated that law is considered as
one of the most imperative and strong pillar of civil society. Law not only
enlightens about the basic rights of human beings but also use to
centralise its focus on the basic duties of individual. Social sciences and
law are extraordinarily interconnected with each other. Law is prolific
shape of Social Sciences. It acts as an indicator of social change. Law
also uses to transform with Social Change and it is rightly said that for
accomplishment of social sciences law use play an enormously imperative
and crucial role. Law is embedded and engrained in the heart and soul of
social sciences which creates a socio-legal network and also plays a very
important part in modernization and social transformation of culturally
civilised society.
Voyvodic and Medcalk (2004) believe, in the interdisciplinary
approaches combines law with social work of service, interdisciplinarity
has been defined in this century: as a methodology, a concept, a process,
a way of thinking, a philosophy, and a reflexive ideology, It has been linked
with attempts to expose the dangers of fragmentation, to re-establish old
connections, to explore emerging relations, and to create new subjects
adequate to handle our practical and conceptual needs. Cutting across all

6
these theories is one recurring idea. Interdisciplinarity is a means of
solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily
addressed using single methods or approaches.
The notion of interdisciplinarity has enchanted and perplexed legal
educators for many years, especially with respect to scholarship, teaching,
and burgeoning efforts to create interdisciplinary legal clinics.
Interdisciplinarity, however, is not a “magic bullet,” as suggested by the
second quotation above; collaboration must be taught as a skill, and the
needs of the individuals who will be collaborating must be anticipated and
met with information and appropriate training. In other words, the goal and
value of interdisciplinarity must be made explicit.
Berard (2009) states that the relevance of social science for our
understanding of law has been suggested by a disparate variety of
scholars, including many associated with such interdisciplinary fields as
law and political science, law and sociology law and economics, law and
anthropology, law and psychology, and law and history.
He further that social scientific perspectives on law can
complement more traditional law school pedagogies, either within the law
school; within established prorams of non-legal or pre-law education; or in
other contexts such as paralegal education, joint degrees, and continuing
legal education. Thus students can gain valuable insights and skills
relevant to legal education and legal careers in many educational settings,
including settings in which law professors are largely unwilling or unable to
teach, and in which social scientists are both willing and able to
communicate knowledge and skills that have been identified by legal
scholars, law schools and bar associations as relevant to the legal
profession and legal education.
He concluded that law schools certainly have an important role too
play in the evolution of legal education, but currently organized a staffed,
their efforts would predictably be slow and incomplete relative to both the
critiques of legal education and the benefits of an increasingly inter-
disciplinary legal education.
In their report to the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education,
Packer and Ehrlicj argue that up to the present, legal education and
admission to the bar and bar organization have combined to force the
profession, at least on the surface, into a common mold, based largely on
obsolescent patterns of practice. This has greatly inhibited the formal
recognition that lawyers, after all, are not members of a homogenous
profession.
In the 2nd Annual Civic Education Conference, 2019, Law
awareness is an essential element in the implementation of the life of the
nation and state because it is the foundation of citizens' compliance and
constitutional awareness of their rights and obligations in carrying out their
roles and positions. This awareness also serves to maintain the
appropriateness of government implementation with the fundamental norm
contained in the contents of the constitution so that it does not deviate and
be distorted and can be carried out by the constitutional mandate.
Civic education has the aim to prepare the mentality of
citizens who are mind to be and community-oriented. In achieving these
goals, citizens must equip with the knowledge and skills in carrying out
their rights and obligations as part of the community. Through this LRE,
young citizens are preparing early on to learn, which later will become
provisions for themselves as adults in carrying out the life of the nation
and state. In civic education learning using this LRE approach treatment,
students learn to recognize the meaning and value of justice and learn

7
knowledge and skills deemed necessary, provide tools to help citizens to
identify and possibly solve legal-related problems.
Law-Related Education teaches essential concepts related to law,
justice, power, equality, ownership, and freedom as well as an
understanding of the primary documents of democracy. It relates to
concepts for political, cultural, and community functions. Law-Related
Education has four characteristics that serve as the basis for implementing
legal-related education, namely 1) learning materials, 2) instructional
practices and contexts, 3) skills, and 4) attitudes, beliefs, and values. In
general, the characteristics of Law-Related Education can explain as
follows: 1) learning materials are those that contain the scope of the
context of teaching materials. In this case, the realm of law, 2) practice
and instructional context are characteristics that include the strategy,
direction, and direction of teaching implementation, 3) skills, which include
psychomotor aspects to be developed and 4) attitudes, beliefs and values,
includes the orientation of the affective aspects to be learned.
Student responses to citizenship education learning activities using the
Law Related Education approach as an effort to foster student legal
awareness which divided into three aspects, namely 1) preliminary
activities, 2) core activities, and 3) closing activities, showing the average
score of teaching and learning activities in an overall has a positive
response.
In Sun (2015), Carrying out necessary legal education is a very
important task to ensure the teenagers grow up in a healthy atmosphere in
our country. No matter is the school, the family or society all should apply
legal education for teenagers, to play a necessary role in improving their
legal literacy. Although the overall planning and promotion of legal
education still exists some shortcomings in our country at present, we
have realized the important role of juvenile legal education, and constantly
improve their work style in combination of the actual situation. China is a
developing country in the primary stage of socialism in the world, the
current social problems are may unavoidable in the development, and
juvenile legal education has a long way to go, only the whole social work
together, play together can we ensure the education content promote
better. Assuring the adolescent thrive in healthy atmosphere, and
contribute themselves into the cause of socialism with Chinese
characteristics.
Research by Berti et al. (1997) showed that the restrictive view of
the law found in primary school was coupled with knowing examples of
penal law only (such as the prohibition of stealing and killing). However,
secondary school students also quoted examples of constitutional
principles (such as those of freedom and rights) and civil law (such as
those about marriage, employment, and contracts) in addition to
expressing a regulative view of the law.
In sum, domain-specific view, the erroneous ideas highlighted by
research on political conceptions can be seen as misunderstandings that
occur as a result of children receiving fragmentary and scattered
information when they do not yet possess a skeletal naïve theory that
allows that information to be interpreted and integrated. If the main tasks
of a state (making laws, providing for internal and external defense) and
the hierarchical organization (central and peripheral authorities, division of
the territory in districts) are defined. In contrast to the Piagetian view, great
advances can be made through intervention.
On the other hand, Berti (1999) expected children to know nothing,
or very little, about the law and political institutions and to misconceive the

8
role of public servants, such as teachers and police, by not differentiating
them from other employees, rather than having entrenched beliefs.
In the experimental study of Berti & Andriolo (2001), 23 23 third
graders were chosen rather than younger children because, because
according to the literature, at this age children already possess the notions
of employee and political roles and show interest in the political events
shown on television than younger children.
Twenty children who were knowledgeable about laws mainly
attributed to them the functions of promoting generic positive results, such
as good behaviour and respect for others and the natural world or
described very specific functions associated with examples of laws
mentioned (e.g., preventing car accidents). Two children said that the law
is for preventing disorder and misbehaviour.
Regarding the origin of laws, most knowledgeable children gave
incorrect or partially correct answers, mentioning political authorities
different from Parliament, such as government, state, mayor, or local
council, or well-known individual personalities such as Dini or Berlusconi.
In sum, most of the children, in the pre-test, viewed school and the
police as autonomous systems, run by their members or heads. And
financed by their heads (sometimes with the help of banks). About half dd
not know about judges; the others described their functions as deciding
about guilt or penalties; only a very small minority mentioned settling
disputes as a function of judges. Most children did not know anything
about central authorities, whereas those who did assigned to the
government, state, or some politicians the generic functions of “governing”
or “helping people,” or the specific but incorrect function of making laws or
paying workers. Hardly any child knew about Parliament. The word state,
when familiar, mainly evoked the idea of a territory or group of cities and
villages. About half the children did not know about the law; the others
appeared t have a rather rudimentary knowledge, restricted to traffic rules
and codes of behaviour and not clearly differentiated by more general
social rules.
The comparison group’s answers at post- and delayed post-test
showed that in the absence of explicit and systematic teaching, little
changes occur in 8- to 9-year-olds’ political conceptions over a period of
about 1 year. Some progress, highlighted by post-test or delayed
post0test, was of a rather trivial accretional type, consisting of the addition
of isolated information such as the name of the capital of Italy or the
existence of Parliament without any understanding of what a capital city is
and what the tasks of, and means of appointing Parliament, are.
Generally, unless somebody is explicitly taught about law and the
mechanism of the judicial system, information about penal law and penal
proceedings is more available than information about civil and
constitutional laws, thanks to movies and new about crimes. Therefore, it
is hardly surprising that the first conceptions of law underline its coercive
and restrictive side.
The results confirm the role of domain-specific information in the
acquisition of political knowledge and suggest that the developmental
sequences identified by cross-sectional studies of political understanding
could also be caused by the interaction between information available at
different age levels and the relevant conceptual structures already
possessed by children (such as the notions of institutional role, employee,
government, and rule).
The success of the intervention and the participating children’s
interest (as testified by their teacher) suggest that political concepts

9
should be introduced into the third grade syllabus and invite the idea of
experimenting with the curriculum in even lower grades.
Today’s children are undoubtedly gaining early exposure to the joys
and challenges of polyvalent text forms, in ways that allow them to
oscillate not only among the various channels of communication but also
between perceptual and structural zones and are highly skilled at
assembling and assessing multiple sources of data to create world of
fictional pleasure.
In the research conducted by Barrett et al. (2019) having a better
shared understanding of how the design of school infrastructure affects
educational outcomes is very useful for those doing education sector
work. This will make it possible to develop better projects and to meet the
specific needs of the children increase the efficiency of the resources
invested in school infrastructure projects and will lead to more effective
cooperation between the different specialists involved in the development
of school infrastructure.
The assumption that child development knowledge is essential for
early childhood teachers emerged in a survey conducted in England (Early
Childhood Education Research Project, 1994). The majority of head
teachers representing every type of early childhood ranked “Knowledge of
Child Development” as the single most influential contributor to the
professional development of practitioners who work with children under 8
years of age. The teachers surveyed ranked “Knowledge of School
Subjects” relatively low as a factor contributing to the competence of early
childhood practitioners. Even the head of the school for statutory -age
children rated “Knowledge of School Subjects” lower in importance to the
teaching competence than knowledge of child development.

Educational System in the Philippine

The 1987 Philippines Constitution lays down the foundation of the

Philippines’ education system and protects the right of all citizens to
quality education at all levels. Section 1 of Article XIV provides that the
state shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education
at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education
accessible to all. Section 3 Paragraph 2 of Article XIV also provides that
the state shall inculcate patriotism and nationalism, foster love of
humanity, respect for human rights, appreciation of the role of national
heroes in the historical development of the country, teach the rights and
duties of citizenship, strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop moral
character and personal discipline, encourage critical and creative thinking,
broaden scientific and technological knowledge and promote efficiency.
Additionally, Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 otherwise known as the
Education Act of 1982 provides for the establishment and maintenance of
an integrated system of education. In accordance with Section 2, this act
shall apply to and govern both formal and non- formal systems in public
and private schools at all levels of the entire educational system.
In recent decades, the government has sought to create a more
inclusive education system in the Philippines. In 2004, DepEd issued an
order that called for a standard curriculum in Muslim schools – the majority
of which are concentrated in Mindanao – due to concerns that the highly
specialised teaching taking place in private Muslim schools was “turning
students into virtual foreigners in their own country.”
The basic education in the Philippines Central to the K-12 reforms
was the provision of one year of kindergarten schooling for every child in

10
the Philippines, which is done before elementary school. Elementary
school in the Philippines covers grades 1-6.
The K-12 reforms to elementary schooling included a curriculum
better suited to the needs of Christian and Muslim pupils; Muslim children
now have the opportunity to learn Arabic.
The DepEd also acknowledged that “public schools do not include
Arabic language and Islamic values, making the Muslims ignorant of their
religion.” As a result, Muslim school now include a course in Arabic
Language and Islamic Values (ALIVE) as part of their core curriculum.

Importance of the Study

The purpose of the study was to understand the Interdisciplinary

Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with Social Studies,
Ethics, and Civics. The study shall be beneficial to the following groups:

Parents. The study provides a brief study on child legal education.

The summary will provide street-wise information regarding
Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with
Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics.

The researcher. This study set a foundation for the researcher, as a

law student, to understand child legal education.

Statement of the Problem

The main aim of the study was to understand Interdisciplinary

Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with Social Studies,
Ethics, and Civics. Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is Child Legal Education?

2. What is the extraordinary connection of law to social

sciences?

3. What are the interdisciplinary approaches in child legal

education?

Research Hypothesis

The interdisciplinary approaches in child legal education are

effective. If the data are within the acceptable range, then the existing
approach is effective.

Objective of the Study

The general objective of the research is to review studies about

Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with
Social Studies, Ethics and Civics. It specifically aimed at achieving the
following objectives:

1. To discuss child legal education

11
 2. To identify the extraordinary connection of law to social
sciences.

3. To identify the interdisciplinary approaches in child legal

education.

Definition of Terms

The following items were the key important terms used within the
research.

Civics Studies. Is a dimension of Social Studies in building and

bringing good citizenship.

Social Institution. The established patterns of belief, behaviors, and

relationships that organize social life.

Social Science. Examines the relationship between individuals and

societies as well as the development and operation of societies, rather
than studying the physical world.

Law. A system of rules governing a community.

Political Ethics. The principle of response or behavior expected of

the political class in the process of serving the community or the nation in
general.

Ethics. The principle of behavior the society expects and accepts.

12
 Methodology

To prepare this paper, the researcher reviewed published

publications devoted to children’s learning development and child legal
education, including blogs, curricula, and research reports.
The narrative is organized in the format of a review, which provides
an opportunity to

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The focus of this study is to conduct research on Interdisciplinary

Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with Social Studies,
Ethics, and Civics. The research was conducted over a limited period of
less than a month.
The study is limited in giving a narrative concept of Interdisciplinary
Approaches in Child Legal Education: Linking Law with Social Studies,
Ethics, and Civics.

Sources of Data

The sources of data are the available and existing literature in

relation to the topic Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education:
Linking Law with Social Studies, Ethics, and Civics.

13
 Findings of the Study

This chapter will show the discussion of findings on the objectives

of the study.

Child Legal Education

Although social cognition was intended as knowledge of another

person as individuals and social relation between people at the diadic and
group level, developmentalists mainly focused on children’s conceptions
of persons and interpersonal relations, leaving the investigation of
knowledge of societal institutions to the field of political socialization (Berti
and Andriolo, 2001).
In the study conducted by Berti and Andriolo, 2001 they have
added domain-specific literature on children’s political understanding.
Then they present an empirical study aimed at testing the extent to which
children’s conceptions can be changed through aimed at testing the extent
to which children’s conceptions can be changed through a didactic
intervention that teaches the relevant notions explicitly.
Their results confirm the role of domain-specific information in the
acquisition of political knowledge and suggest that the developmental
sequences identified by cross-sectional studies of political understanding
could also be caused by the interaction between information available at
different age levels and the relevant conceptual structures already
possessed by children (such as the notions of institutional role, employee,
government, and rule).
The success of the intervention and the participating children’s
interest (as testified by their teacher) suggest that political concepts
should be introduced into the third grade syllabus and invite the idea of
experimenting with the curriculum in even lower grades.
The assumption that child development knowledge is essential for
early childhood teachers emerged in a survey conducted in England (Early
Childhood Education Research Project, 1994). The majority of head
teachers representing every type of early childhood ranked “Knowledge of
Child Development” as the single most influential contributor to the
professional development of practitioners who work with children under 8
years of age.
Currently, children learn to interpret the world through a great
variety of data sources. Over the past 30 years, the making of textual
meaning has steadily become a more elaborate enterprise for young
learners, who must absorb how to orchestrate an increasing variety of
information channels (Wiley, 2013). However, the World Bank’s World
Development Report stresses the recent expansion of education does not
guarantee the immediate achievements of important learning outcomes so
more attention must be paid to measuring and improving the quality of
learning.
In Sun (2015), Carrying out necessary legal education is a very
important task to ensure the teenagers grow up in a healthy atmosphere in
our country. No matter is the school, the family or society all should apply
legal education for teenagers, to play a necessary role in improving their
legal literacy. Although the overall planning and promotion of legal
education still exists some shortcomings in our country at present, we
have realized the important role of juvenile legal education, and constantly
improve their work style in combination of the actual situation. China is a
developing country in the primary stage of socialism in the world, the
current social problems are may unavoidable in the development, and

14
juvenile legal education has a long way to go, only the whole social work
together, play together can we ensure the education content promote
better. Assuring the adolescent thrive in healthy atmosphere, and
contribute themselves into the cause of socialism with Chinese
characteristics.
Implementing the strategy of governing the country by law is the
inherent requirement of building a socialist country ruled by law,
"improving legal education, enhancing citizens' legal consciousness and
concept is the foundation of engineering construction of socialist legal
system, and it is also the important content of strengthening the
construction of socialist spiritual civilization.

Equal Opportunity in Education

Today, in most of the countries, people have been provided with the
possibility of equal opportunity in education before law. However, this does
not mean that all individuals in the society have been fully provided with
equal opportunities in education. Although there are no legal obstacles, it
is a fact that there are individuals who do not benefit from education
equally because they have insufficient financial means (or because they
work, because they are sick or gave birth). Therefore, in order to be able
to discuss about equality of opportunity in education, people should have
the right to have equal education before the law and to have the possibility
to use this right (İnan and Demir, 2018).
Education is both a means that provides equal opportunities and
the equal opportunity itself (Lazenby, 2016). The aim of the principle of
equality of opportunity in education is to eliminate social and economic
concessions that individuals face in gaining their social status and roles.
Although there is consensus in the literature about the idea that education
leads to equality of opportunities, it has become complicated due to the
discussion of whether equality is for access to education (school)
resources or quality in the results of schooling (Coleman, 1975). In other
words, there are discussions based on providing equality in the inputs or
outputs of education. However, these debates do not open up a
discussion of the function of providing equality in education.
Equality of opportunity in education means that those in different
social classes have the opportunity to access education, or even if they
reach education, they achieve similar educational quality. Today, the
concept of equal opportunity in education tends to be used in a broad
sense. In this respect, the concept goes beyond the social classes and
has started to expand to include other factors such as age, gender, marital
status, working conditions and disability, illness or place of residence,
regardless of social class. In this study, the concept of equality of
opportunity in education will be discussed in a broad sense. In other
words, the issue of equal opportunities in education will be discussed in
terms of legal, social and economic barriers as well as other factors
mentioned above. One of the tools providing equal opportunities in
education is the use of technology in which online education/distance
education is included.
Education, the superstructure of the society is also in relation with
the other institutions. Developing technologies and training the labor force,
which are required for economic development, are driven by educational
institutions. At this point education meets economics, interacting with each
other (Atlas, 2018). It is unlikely to state that people within the social
structure can access to social, economic, educational, employment, and
health rights and services under equal conditions. The poor, the children,

15
the disabled, the women and other disadvantageous groups are
experiencing setbacks while accessing above-mentioned services and
rights. It is possible to consider the adult students among the
disadvantageous groups, who are in the labor force. Due to the restrictive
nature of their shift, they are deprived of the opportunity to benefit from
face-to-face education, namely formal education. With other words, these
students are falling behind compared to the students who are not in the
labor force and cannot benefit from equal opportunities in regards to
educational services.

Connection of Law to Social Sciences, Ethics, and Civics

There has always been some recognition in legal education of the

fundamental fact that law cannot be adequately understood in its strict
terms. Statutory construction can frequently involve the interpretation and
in consideration of the purpose of the law.
The notion of interdisciplinarity has enchanted and perplexed legal
educators for many years, especially with respect to scholarship, teaching,
and burgeoning efforts to create interdisciplinary legal clinics.
Interdisciplinarity, however, is not a “magic bullet,” as suggested by the
second quotation above; collaboration must be taught as a skill, and the
needs of the individuals who will be collaborating must be anticipated and
met with information and appropriate training. In other words, the goal and
value of interdisciplinarity must be made explicit (Borman and Haras,
2019).
Berard (2009) concluded that legal education is too often
circumscribed by a narrow professional ideology about what type of
education is relevant to the study of law and the practice of law. It is too
rarely involved in the type of broad and critical self-examination of the law
and the legal profession that might enable legal education and educational
institutions to develop and demonstrate much-needed autonomy with
respect to the most immediate pressures of the profession.
The degree of interdisciplinary social scientific and socio-legal
scholarship and learning actually incorporated within legal education has,
by comparison, been extremely modest. Law derives a significantly from
economic and political elements which are active in the society. Legal
provisions have many societal and cultural aspects.In law schools,
students have to several other subjects apart from core legal subjects.
Nowadays law schools teach sociology, political science, economics, legal
history etc.
In a 1980 report, a Special Committee for a Study of Legal
Education, associated with the American Bar Association, suggested an
ambitious agenda for social science in legal education: The interaction of
law and social science is something with which the law student will want
more than a passing familiarity. Ideally, this would include exposure to the
methodology of the social sciences, including some statistics; the student
should be equipped to exercise some. critical judgment upon claims
advanced by social scientists whether in economics, political science,
sociology, psychology, or anthropology. Law is a social science. The other
social sciences are vital to law since law is preoccupied with human
behavior and its implications.

Professionalism and Ethics

The Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers, suggests that

‘[a] focus on the formation of professionals would give renewed

16
prominence to the ideals and commitments that have historically defined
the legal profession in America. Apropos of ethics, this report states
‘[t]here is evidence that law school typically blares a set of salient, if
unintentional, messages that undercut the likely success of efforts to make
students more attentive to ethical matters. Another recent review of legal
education in the US asserts that law schools do not currently foster
professional conduct; just the opposite. Some fundamental changes are
needed if law schools want to teach professionalism effectively.
Although many law schools have added various courses in
professional responsibility and/or ethics, these steps have not
sufficiently addressed the relevant concerns. The content, even when
it is mandatory, is generally too little, too late, and too marginal to the
course of legal education. Although many of the concerns about
professionalism and ethics in legal education have been voiced by those
inside the legal profession and from within the ranks of law faculties, and
although some steps have been taken within law schools to combat this
problem, social science instruction is a resource which has largely been
left unexplored. Yet social science is invaluable both for informing students
of the social facts and conditions which occasion ethical decision-making
and for offering them a rigorous and informative framework in which to
discuss professionalism and ethics (Berard, 2009).
Berard (2009) furthers with respect to teaching professionalism, it is
important to recognize that the study of professions is a social scientific
endeavor. As Packer and Ehrlich note, law professors often have only a
minimal understanding of what a profession is,64 and they may even be
‘remarkably vague and inarticulate about the purposes of law school.

Relevance of Social Science Perspectives for Promoting Civic

Responsibility and Public Service

One of the most widely reported and discussed crises in legal

education is the perceived failure of legal education to foster notions of
civic responsibility and public service. Indeed, many suggest that even
those law students who are motivated to study law partly for idealistic
reasons of public service are frequently disabused of such notions before
completing their degrees (Berard, 2009).
Sarat (2004) argues that Law schools generally try hard to undo the
naïve, innocent impulses of their entering students, in particular their
impulse to think about law in moral or political terms. Much of the effort of
law professors is devoted to differentiating law from moral reasoning or
political argument, to focusing the mind of the would-be lawyer on the
content of the positive law, and to teaching the skills of manipulating,
distinguishing, and evading rules.

Relevance of the Social Sciences for Legal Education

Berard (2004) concluded that law schools certainly have an

important role to play in the evolution of legal education, but as currently
organised and staffed, their efforts would predictably be slow and
incomplete relative to both the critiques of legal education and the benefit
ts of an increasingly inter-disciplinary legal education. Part of the
constraint is simply the limited time students spend in any one degree
program and the limited number of courses they can take. Other contexts
and opportunities of legal education need to be considered as
complementary to the experiences and functions of law school. In the
US, where law students take four years of undergraduate coursework

17
prior to law school, the institutional timing and location of potential
interdisciplinary legal education is a relatively easy question. In other
national contexts, as well as in the US, additional opportunities for
exposure to social scientific scholarship could involve greater use and
diversity of continuing legal education, and potentially on-the-job-training
programs as well. Of course, the existence of paralegal professionals and
paralegal training programs suggests another important venue and
resource for integrating social science scholarship into legal education,
broadly conceived.
Legal scholarship and legal education have, to some degree,
although very inconsistently, acknowledged and incorporated social
scientific concerns or social scientific scholarship into legal scholarship
and legal education. Different schools of legal thought have raised social
scientific issues about the effectiveness of the law, the ideological nature
of law, or the way law works in practice. These issues range from legal
realism to critical legal studies and other critical approaches, to the new
interest in ‘empirical legal studies’ (which have a much longer and richer
history than this novel label).

Interrelation with other Sciences

The interrelation of law with social sciences according to Iftikha,

(2020) are:
• Law with History. History is the study of the past which gives
an idea about the present; there is a close interrelation of
law with history. History provides us with the exact design of
law, what is law, why the law is made and for what law is.
History gives us a vital background in relation to the life
history of human beings from the Stone Age till the present
modern era. In short history and law can't be separated just
because history is the most essential guiding factor in the
study of law and legal systems because it traces the basic
fundamentals of humanity and by the deep knowledge and
understanding3 of history one can surely connect with the
elements of law and the foremost example for the relation of
law with history is clearly analyzed by the "Historical School
of Jurisprudence" which says that law is found not made and
also illustrate the foundation and central origin of law and
secondly there is legal history which is related to the
historical civilization of society and tells us about the brief
practices which are way back executed in the society.
• Law with Political Science. Law and political science or in
other words political theory is in itself an individual subject
because law also deals with administrative matters and
political science illustrates the governmental regime and
political systems. For example, the Rule of Law, Separation
of Powers, Judicial Review, Organs of Government, and
Balance of Powers they all are the basic exponents of law
and also comes under the purview of political science and on
the other hand the theories of state and the approach of
Plato and Socrates combines the introductory structure of
political science, but it also has a relevance in the science of
jurisprudence. So basically, politics or political science
interprets the law according to the political philosophy and
the linkage of law with political science depicts the clear
picturisation of administrative legal mechanism.

18
 • Law with Sociology. It's been aptly said "That man is a
social animal he can't live without society". Law and
sociology are the sailors of the same ship. Law is developed
for the society which includes the general public and
sociology is defined as a science of society furthermore
society is governed by law which shows the inner
connectivity between sociology and law. There is also a
Sociological School of Jurisprudence that talks about the
welfare state and also about social duties, societal progress,
and the interaction of human beings in social crowds. Law
comes from sociology and it's a basic part of sociology but
law acts as a guiding factor because it is codified.

As well as it is also equipped with specific sections on

different subjects of law so it gives us an idea of how the
situations used to be controlled which are generated or
accidentlly resulted in the world and may harm the social
order and the human race. It is generally accepted that
sociology and law are the branches of the same tree and the
attachment of both subjects will be fruitful for the
indispensable application of laws in the times to come.
• Law with Psychology. Psychology is a behavioral science it
is mainly related to the behavioral patterns of human beings.
The field of psychology is very wide and it is also linked with
criminal law on account of its existence with criminology and
penology. Psychology is quite often termed as social
psychology because it also deals with society in different
ways and secondly, as criminal psychology because
abnormal psychology gives rise to criminality because
abnormality has many facets every abnormal human is not a
criminal but may give rise to criminality as it defers from
person to person. The study of the human mind is the
essence of psychology and humans may be negative or may
be positive it depends on the structure of the human body is
in the command of the human mind and the mind can be
destructive or creative The theories of punishment like the
deterrent theory, preventive theory, retributive theory,
reformative theory are somewhere have a close tie and
attachment to psychology The activities of criminal behavior
which results in a criminal conspiracy, abetment, homicide,
sexual offenses, suicide, mischief, violence, road rage, child
abuse, domestic violence, etc, illustrate and describe the
complete picture of psychology with criminal law. Last but
not least law and psychology are two different sides of the
coin but are quite similar in many ways for example lawyers
used to provide laws for justice and on the other hand
criminal psychologists used to research the reformation of
criminals and the improvement of socio legal system.

Interdisciplinary Approaches in Child Legal Education

Teenagers are the future and hope of our country, the teenagers’
crime rate has remained high in recent years, it has had a great effect on
the future of our modernization construction, so paying more attention to
the legal education of young people, improving the legal literacy and
guiding the conscious are the serious work for prevention of teenager’s
crime.
19
 Packer and Ehrlich suggest that a proper study of Law focuses the
student’s attention on the conception of a legal system; who operates in it,
how they function, what impact they have, how the system changes, the
impact the system has on other elements in our society, and vice versa.
Here the effort is to give the student an idea of law as a social process,
the functions it performs, the institutions involved, and how change takes
place. It gives at least an introductory idea of the structures and processes
involved in society’s efforts to shape and organize individual and group
behavior — a view of law as an ordering process a study of law opens up
questions of how social ends and means interact and reveals the
complications involved in attempting to create or recreate the ongoing,
working institutions of a society. Theory and practice meet and interact.
Values, ends, means, information, and theory all intersect. Such a study of
law is not so much another discipline as an education in the relation of
specific social problems to various sources of knowledge and modes of
thought.
Law awareness is an essential element in the implementation of the
life of the nation and state because it is the foundation of citizens'
compliance and constitutional awareness of their rights and obligations in
carrying out their roles and positions. This awareness also serves to
maintain the appropriateness of government implementation with the
fundamental norm contained in the contents of the constitution so that it
does not deviate and be distorted and can be carried out by the
constitutional mandate.
Law-related education teaches essential concepts related to law,
justice, power, equality, ownership, and freedom as well as an
understanding of the primary documents of democracy. It relates to
concepts for political, cultural, and community functions. Law-related
education has four characteristics that serve as the basis for implementing
legal-related education, namely 1) learning materials, 2) instructional
practices and contexts, 3) skills, and 4) attitudes, beliefs, and values.
Civic education learning is oriented towards development in terms
of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning activities. These three
aspects also become the basic orientation of Law-Related Education,
which included its characteristics, which specifically developed in the
realm of law. The characteristics of LRE have a positive contribution to
learning and developing effective delinquency prevention.

The Relevance of Social Science Perspectives for Promoting Civic

Responsibility and Public Service

One of the most widely reported and discussed crises in legal

education is the perceived failure of legal education to foster notions even
those law students who are motivated to study law partly for idealistic
reasons of public service are frequently disabused of such notions before
completing their degrees. Law schools generally try hard to undo the
naïve, innocent impulses of their entering students, in particular their
impulse to think about law in moral or political terms. Much of the effort of
law professors is devoted to differentiating law from moral reasoning or
political argument, to focusing the mind of the would-be lawyer on the
content of the positive law, and to teaching the skills of manipulating,
distinguishing, and evading rules.
Scheingold suggests a similar concern, noting that ‘law is not a
parlor game, it is a social institution bound up with the most important
dimensions of human freedom and oppression … the rule system is
important primarily as it relates to societal goals; it is a means rather

20
than an end. Scheingold goes on to note that ‘lawyers are led to
think of their services as a product which is sold rather than as a vital
public necessity.
According to Sarat (2004), Liberal arts instruction in legal studies
provides an arena in which the complex, contingent, and
varied ways in which law expresses, and/or represses, moral judgment
and political position can be brought to the center of concern. This is
particularly true with respect to social scientific studies of law. Despite
concerns to avoid indoctrinating students, and despite obstacles to
teaching ‘civics’ such as the increasing consumerism and juridification of
faculty–student relations,33 still the social sciences remain invaluable for
engaging students with civic concerns. This is true whether engaging
students means teaching them civic values, awakening an interest in
questions of public life or exposing them to alternative perspectives on
issues facing society and nation.
Legal education therefore stands to benefit greatly from
increasingly critical and reflective approaches to law. Critical and reflective
questions about law will speak to or increase many students’ motivation to
learn, and they will also lead to a higher quality of graduates. More critical
and reflective graduates will be capable not only of solving conventional
legal problems instrumentally, but also of reflective practice involving a
greater ability to draw connections between general knowledge and
particular cases and increasing potential for adapting previous knowledge
and skills to new situations. Perhaps most importantly, cultivating critical
and reflective skills will counteract a widely perceived shortcoming in legal
education. Legal scholarship in the social sciences, among other liberal
arts disciplines, seeks ‘to reconnect what professional legal education
seeks to separate with beneficial results for legal education and the legal
profession. n. The message that a lawyer’s responsibility is to represent
clients and to handle legal business competently is a very ingrained
element of legal education and professional ideology. (Berard, 2009).
Berard (2009) states that Law school education often does little to
expand the understanding of law as a professional calling, and a form of
public service and civic participation, for those students motivated
primarily by salary and status. Another parallel concern is that law schools
themselves are becoming increasingly corporate and vocational. The
argument that legal education obfuscates the role of morality and politics
in the law, and stunts or poisons students’ moral development with a
servile careerism, is perhaps most associated with critical legal studies,
critical race theory and feminist legal theory.

Social Science Theory and Legal Education

Priest addressed the intellectual trend in the structure of law school

and it changes. The law school will of necessity become itself a university.
The law school will be comprised of a set of miniature graduate
departments in the various disciplines. Introductory courses may be
retained (if not shunted to colleges). Even then, a wedge deeper than the
one we see today will be driven between those faculty members with
pretensions of scholarship and those without. The ambitious scholars on
law school faculties will insist on teaching subjects of increasingly narrow
scope. The law school curriculum will come to consist of graduate courses
in applied economics, social theory, and political science. Specialization by
students, which is to say, intensified study, follows necessarily.
The law school will of necessity become itself a university. The law
school wIll be comprised of a set of miniature graduate departments in the

21
various disciplines. Introductory courses may be retained (if not shunted to
colleges). Even then, a wedge deeper than the one we see today will be
driven between those facuIty members with pretensions of scholarship
and those without. The ambitious scholars on law school faculties will
insist on teaching subjects of increasingly narrow scope. The law school
curriculum will come to consist of graduate courses in applied economics,
social theory, and political science. Specialization by students, which is to
say, intensified study, follows necessarily.
Currently, to the student, legal education resembles undergraduate
education. The student takes a sampler of courses. The objective of the
course of study is a liberal education: to exposes the student to a broad
set of different subjects. There is little writing and little specialization. From
the standpoint of the instructor, however, legal education is more primitive
than college education, and most closely resembles high school or
perhaps junior high school education. Today, virtually every law school
faculty member is able to teach every subject in the curriculum. One might
grouse if one were assigned a remote course. But most of us, I would
guess, would pride ourselves on our ability, were it important enough to
the institution, to teach any subject at all in the law-school curriculum.
Indeed, the response of all but the junior faculty would be to engage in a
challenge as to whether one needed one week's preparation or one day's.
In contrast, the virtues of the generalist are foreign to college faculties and
unknown in graduate departments. In this respect, the faculties of modern
law schools resemble the faculties of medieval universities.

Family Mediation

Family mediation is promoted as a way to increase efficiency in the

dispute resolution process and improve party satisfaction among
separating parents (Emery & Wyer, 1987; Benjamin & Irving, 1995; Kelly,
1996). In addition to the belief that mediation is less likely to result in
further conflict than litigation, researchers and practitioners argue that
parents know their children better than a judge and thus know what is best
for their children (Emery, Otto, & O’Donohue, 2005). Also, parents may be
more willing to stick to an agreement they mediated rather than one
handed down to them by the court (Bautz & Hill, 1989; Emery, Matthews,
& Wyer, 1991). As a result, mediation is a widely used family law
intervention. (Emery, Sbarra, & Grover, 2005).
In the experiment conducted by Munroe, et al (2013), their results
provide evidence that interdisciplinary law and psychology training
increases knowledge gained by law students. Law students experienced
significant increases in their knowledge of relevant family law after both
baseline training and interdisciplinary training. This is important because it
demonstrates that adding a psychological component to law student
training does not reduce the students’ gains in relevant law information.
The interdisciplinary training had the added the benefit of increasing law
students’ knowledge of psychology research findings on divorce and
program evaluation research methods, increases not seen among law
students in the baseline semester. Such knowledge gains may help law
students in real world future family law careers and in understanding the
new evidence-based practice movement in law.
Analyses of focus group discussions also suggest that
interdisciplinary training had a beneficial impact on the law students’
educational experience. Analyses revealed significant differences from
pre-training discussions to post-training discussions. Law students had
greater confidence in their understanding of mediation and research after

22
receiving interdisciplinary training. Getting to work with another discipline
was also associated with gaining new information and enjoyment of the
process for law students (Berard, 2009).

23
 Conclusion

Under the constitution, Implementing the strategy of governing the

country by law is the inherent requirement of building a socialist country
ruled by law, "improving legal education, enhancing citizens' legal
consciousness and concept is the foundation of engineering construction
of socialist legal system, and it is also the important content of
strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization."
Society has been full of all kinds of thoughts in people's daily lives
since the reform and opening up policy was carried out. Teenagers, in the
physiological and psychological growth stage, will be affected by various
social bad thoughts and behaviors easily. Because the school education of
the legal system is not perfect and the legal education in the family is
lacking.
Youth legal education is not only the responsibility of school, but an
important task for the social, school, and family. The need to build system
of teenager legal education should be made up of a continuous, and
extensive education system, young people are the object of it, and the
community, schools, and families are the main body, to form a legal
education for all-round and multilevel based on the values.
This notion that the study of law is not one discipline, but rather the
study of a substantive topic which is illuminated from a variety of
disciplinary perspectives, is an insight worth preserving and implementing.
A general knowledge base in the social sciences can help students to
maximize the professional benefits from legal education and develop legal
competence.

24
 Sources:

Advancing Social Justice Through an Interdisciplinary Approach to Clinical

Legal Education: The case of legal assistance of Windsor by Voyvodic and
Medcalf, 2004

Civic Education Learning Based on Law-Related Education Approach in

Developing Student’s Law Awareness by Baeihaqi, 2019

‘Crossing Boundaries: From Disciplinary Perspectives to an

Integrated Conception of Legal Scholarship’ by Sarat, 2004

Development and Planning of Modern Education Aggrawal J.C

International Handbook of Research on Children’s Literacy, Learning and

Culture by Wiley, 2013

Interdisciplinary psychology and law training in family and child

mediation: An empirical study of the effects on law student mediator by
Munroe et al, 2013

Legal Education in the United States Albert J. Harno

Something Borrowed: Interdisciplinary Strategies for Legal Education

Talented Children and Adults: Their Development and Education by Jane

Piirto,1941

Third Grader’s Understanding of Core Political Concepts Before and After

Teaching, Berti and Andriolo, 2001

The relation of Law with Social Sciences by Md Wali Iftikhar, 2020

The Relevance of the Social Sciences for Legal Education by Berard,

2009

The Method of Teenager Legal Education from the Perspective of the Rule
of Law by Sun 2015

25