2007년 ‘법과 사회’ 교육과정이 개정됨에 따라 이에 근거한 새로운 교과서 개발이 예정되어 있다. 새로이 개정될 ‘법과 사회’ 교과서에는 어떤 범위의 내용을 어떻게 담아야 할 것인가는 주요과제로 되어 있다. 어떤 범위의 내용이 담길 것인지에 대한 큰 틀은 교육과정에서 제시하고 있지만, 그 구체적인 범위와 깊이에 대해서는 아직 제안된 바가 없다. 기존의 ‘법과 사회’ 교과서는 그 내용의 방대함과 난해함으로 인해 여러 차례 비판받아 왔고, 이로 인해 학생들이 쉽게 접근하기 어려웠다는 점을 감안할 때, 새로운 ‘법과 사회’ 교과서에서는 이러한 문제를 해결하려는 시도가 있어야 할 것이다. 특히 ‘법과 사회’ 교과를 학습하는 학생들이 어려움을 겪는 문제 중 하나는 법률 용어가 지나치게 많다는 것이었다. ‘법과 사회’에서 모든 법의 내용을 다 다룰 수 없는 만큼 학생들에게 필요한 적절한 수준에서 개념의 난이도를 고려하여 사용하는 것이 필요한데, 그동안은 이러한 것들이 고려되지 않았다. 본 연구에서는 개정된 ‘법과 사회’ 교육과정을 기반으로 할 때 포함될 수 있는 주요 개념들 중 학생들이 이해하기 어려워하는 개념이 무엇인지, 꼭 필요한 개념이 무엇인지를 실증적으로 확인함으로써 새로운 ‘법과 사회’ 교과서의 서술 방향을 제안하고자 하였다. 연구 결과, ‘법과 사회’ 교육과정에 제시된 개념들에 대해 교사들이 인식하는 중요도와 학생들의 이해도 간에는 상당한 차이가 존재함을 확인할 수 있었고, 특히 중요도와 학생들의 이해도 간에 괴리가 큰 개념들을 실증적 분석을 통해 확인한 바, 이들 개념의 경우 교과서 개발 시 각별한 주의와 보완 노력이 필요하다는 결론을 도출할 수 있었다.

The Street Law program seeks to promote legal literacy among young people to ensure that they possess that minimum amount of practical, legal knowledge needed to understand the system as a whole and how it can work in their behalf. It delivers units in Housing, Consumer, Family, Criminal, and Constitutional Law at the respective school sites. In Korea, the 'Law and Society' official curriculum has been revised in 2007. When developing the new 'Law and Society' textbook according to the 2007's revised 'Law and Society' curriculum, it is necessary that what and how the concrete contents should be included. The previous 'Law and Society' textbook has been continuously criticized by teachers and students for it's hard and vast contents. And it makes the teachers and students hard to take the subject. So such problems should be solved in the new revised 'Law and Society' textbook. The survey in this study shows that in the revised 'Law and Society' curriculum, what law terms are most important in theory and what law terms are most difficult for students to understand. Especially in many cases, the importance and the difficulty of concepts of law terms are different. So the importance and the difficulty of concepts of law terms should be deeply and widely considered. Especially, the law concepts which have big gaps between importance in theory and students' understanding, we should make much effort to make up for the difference. In this way, we hope that 'Law and Society' promote in students a willingness and capability to participate effectively in the legal and political systems.

The Street Law program seeks to promote legal literacy among young people to ensure that they possess that minimum amount of practical, legal knowledge needed to understand the system as a whole and how it can work in their behalf. It delivers units in Housing, Consumer, Family, Criminal, and Constitutional Law at the respective school sites. In Korea, the 'Law and Society' official curriculum has been revised in 2007. When developing the new 'Law and Society' textbook according to the 2007's revised 'Law and Society' curriculum, it is necessary that what and how the concrete contents should be included. The previous 'Law and Society' textbook has been continuously criticized by teachers and students for it's hard and vast contents. And it makes the teachers and students hard to take the subject. So such problems should be solved in the new revised 'Law and Society' textbook. The survey in this study shows that in the revised 'Law and Society' curriculum, what law terms are most important in theory and what law terms are most difficult for students to understand. Especially in many cases, the importance and the difficulty of concepts of law terms are different. So the importance and the difficulty of concepts of law terms should be deeply and widely considered. Especially, the law concepts which have big gaps between importance in theory and students' understanding, we should make much effort to make up for the difference. In this way, we hope that 'Law and Society' promote in students a willingness and capability to participate effectively in the legal and political systems.

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Street Law, Practical Law, Legal Literacy, Citizen Education in the Law, 2007's Revised "Law and Society" Curriculum, Law and Society Textbook