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This is the first in a series of occasional articles on aspects of the law which are of relevance to the retailer. L.B. Curzon, who is a Barrister, is also Principal of the College for the Distributive Trades in London.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb016402. When citing the article, please cite: L.B. Curzon, (1975) “Learning the law”, Education + Training, Vol. 17 Iss: 10, pp. 263 - 266.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb016402. When citing the article, please cite: L.B. Curzon, (1975) “Learning the law”, Education + Training, Vol. 17 Iss: 10, pp. 263 - 266.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb001904. When citing the article, please cite: L.B. Curzon, (1976), “Learning economics”, Education + Training, Vol. 18 Iss: 3, pp. 89 - 94.

Dismay and disappointment! These emotions characterised the reactions of a large group of young students questioned recently on their feelings at the end of the first lesson in a course on General Principles of English Law. Dismay at the mass of material which, clearly, had to be digested and assimilated if the subject was to make sense, even at an elementary level. Disappointment at the somewhat arid nature of the subject content which seemed totally removed from the exciting picture of the legal process painted so often by fiction writers and the news media. So it is for many students of the law who must come to terms with its difficulties. There are no short cuts to competence in legal studies; so texts which hold out to the reader a promise that the law will be made easy, or that its essential features will be clarified in ten simple lessons, can give no more than a sketchy outline of some few topics. A difficult journey lies ahead of the young student, whether the goal be ONC/D, HNC/D with a law content, or the law examinations of the professional bodies. But the journey can be made much easier, much more enjoyable, once the inescapable rigours are accepted and precautions taken to mitigate their severity.

The object of this article is the setting out of some of the major problems which may confront the student who is taking his first steps into the realms of economic theory, together with some suggestions which may make that journey easier and more productive.

Industrial Training: Mr Marsh's progress report By the end of this year the Government hope to have set up Training Boards for the electricity, water, gas industries, the group of industries covering quarrying and the manufacture of cement, bricks, pottery and glass, woodworking and furniture, part of the textile industry, motor vehicle repair, passenger transport and road haulage. So stated Mr Richard Marsh, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, speaking at the recent sixth Managing Directors Conference at Eastbourne.

Suggests a particular practice should be developed when dealing with difficult adult learners. This involves changing the purpose of conventional “tutorials” to “learning clinics”. These would be one‐to‐one, in order to diagnose learning needs, and embed a learning culture designed to develop critical, independent learners. Critical practice in this forum is suggested through evaluating a number of verbatim learner/teacher exchanges including role and behaviour of teacher, use and purpose of language used, and how decisions are made. Suggests a critical framework based on adult learning theories. Includes particularly, the role of experience, as potential barrier as well as resource.

Higher education has a key role and responsibility in creating change and addressing issues of fundamental human concern such as inequality and social justice, globalisation and development, environmental protection and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to describe how RCE‐Ireland, established in September 2007, aims to develop awareness and engagement with these realities and ensure they become integrated into education in Ireland.

Action research is based on a cyclical process of action, observation, reflection and adaptation, and has been adopted by RCE‐Ireland as key to reorienting the practice of education towards sustainability. Two case studies of action research projects are the focus of the paper: Critical Thinking in Large Scale Lectures, University of Limerick, and Reorienting Course Content towards Ethical and Ecological Consumerism, St Angela's College, Sligo. The methodologies employed include both qualitative and quantitative data collection, and address critiques of action research while remaining true to the aims of democratic teaching and engaged scholarship.

The case studies demonstrate action research as a valuable and valid research methodology in itself, as well as recognising its appropriateness in reorienting education towards sustainability. The University and University‐based educationalists have a unique role here by linking research and practice, blurring the boundaries of research as objective and value‐free, and in demonstrating innovation and leadership in addressing global challenges and human concerns.

The University can provide opportunities for reorientation towards sustainability, as well as presenting challenges to this work. There is much evidence that higher education settings find it more difficult to adjust their practices than to adjust their content. One approach to engender such change in practice is the promotion of action research in higher education settings, where the twin roles of the academic practitioner as teacher and as researcher are brought together to adapt educational practice.

There has traditionally always been a place for the amateur in our society — the amateur sportsman, the amateur actor or actress, the amateur gardener, and the amateur teacher. Nowadays, although you have to be a fully qualified teacher to work in schools, the amateur still retains a toehold in colleges of further and higher education, especially if he is professionally well‐qualified and is an evening class teacher. It is true that a few colleges employ only full‐time staff, but they are a tiny minority. Most colleges supplement their teaching strength by appointing part‐time teachers with business or industrial experience. In the present economic climate it could be argued that the chances of employment are slim, but this is by no means certain; adult evening students are expected to pay fairly substantial fees towards covering the cost of the class, and it is cheaper to appoint a part‐time rather than a full‐time teacher. A small to medium‐sized college could have a hundred or more part‐timers on its pay roll. Remuneration depends on the grade of the work, but ranges roughly between £3.50 and £5.50 an hour for most classes — a not ungenerous reward for what can be an absorbingly interesting job.