Difficulties in teaching innovation in legal areas. Compatibility between the acquisition of specific professional competences and compliance with global aims.

Abstract

Renewal of teaching methodologies is one of the main challenges currently faced by Law teaching. This renewal meets with special difficulties in legal areas, due to the pedagogical conservatism that has remained throughout history and due to the fact that the introduction of new activities is intended to be done without undermining the traditional aims in any way (that is, without affecting the transfer of the same theoretical knowledge that has always been demandable) through an accumulation (rather than restructuring) of strategies. In this sense, the curricula of new Degrees do not entail any guarantee of compatibility between both aspects.

This work specifically supports the need to pursue the balance between innovation activities aimed at the acquisition and practice of specific professional abilities which require great dedication in terms of time and the inalienable compliance of global programmatic aims, which must be guaranteed through appropriate evaluation techniques.

On the other hand, the imminent approval of the “Status of Teaching and Research Staff”, whose draft is herein analyzed, compels us to critically watch the computation criteria of the dedication of the teaching staff, in such a way that the multiplication of the activity arising out of new methodological uses is timely reflected.