Reaping the Digital Dividend: Is it Time to Take the Great Leap?
Five years ago I wrote about some of the key issues and problems that confronted academic law libraries, and speculated about what the future might hold. I discussed trends in legal education and developments in legal research instruction; the changing physical environment of the library, including an idea that was once anathema, the growing move to allow patrons to eat and drink in the library. Time has passed all too quickly and there have been many momentous changes in the world, including the trauma of September 11, 2001, and the protracted war in Iraq.
Current Awareness
Abstract Compiled by Katherine Read and Laura Griffiths at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Initial Teacher Training: the French view
ABSTRACT This paper, against the background of trends in the development of initial teacher training in Europe as a whole, identifies and explains some of the recent, radical reforms which were introduced in France by a socialist government. These include the need to raise the status and the competence of the teaching profession; the creation of new teacher‐training institutions of university status (Instituts universitaires de formation des maitres); the introduction of common entry qualifications at degree level for both primary and secondary levels; the harmonisation and the extension to 2 years of the post‐degree teacher‐training course and the increase in emphasis placed on professional training, both theoretical and practical. These reforms provoked a storm of protest and an examination of the reasons for this reveals a multiplicity of crucial questions which have far‐reaching implications.