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DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL
COMPETENCE IN STUDENTS
AS A PRESSING PEDAGOGICAL ISSUE
N. T. Akhmedova
A considerable amount of research studies have been dedicated to the issue of the development of professional competence in a teacher. However, this issue continues to be in the focus of scientists’ attention, indicating its special importance and relevance at the present stage of modernization and development of the system of lifelong pedagogical education.
The analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature on the research theme has showed that many authors often regard the concepts of “professional competence” and “professionalism” as synonyms. However, there are differences in defining their essence. These differences become essential as the research focuses on psychological and pedagogical conditions contributing to the development of professional competences in a future teacher of a secondary education institution, rather than the competence of a specialist having pedagogical background and being at a certain level of pedagogical excellence. It should be noted that, among psychological and pedagogical researchers, there is very little agreement about how to define the term “professionalism”.
The following groups of skills are considered as essential characteristics of the professionalism of teachers: Gnostic, communication, management and projective skills. Hence, specific features of teacher professionalism are largely determined by the peculiarities of their work.
The analysis of works on the activities of a teacher allows the singling out of peculiarities connected with the object, ways of delivering results of labor, goals and objectives of these activities. A labor object is another person - an active participant in the pedagogical process, with their own goals, and motives, ever developing and on their way to professional perfection. In other words, a teacher has a varied object of activities. Teaching activities are characteristic of an integrated nature and remoteness of the ultimate goal, and the vagueness of targets set by an actual contingent of students. Setting pedagogical tasks and decision making are performed by a teacher in the face of uncertainty; they (the tasks) are in terms of time far from the results. The choice of work methods is determined by the principle according to which the spiritual world of an individual can only be affected by the spiritual world of another individual - the teacher, the methods are integrated in nature. Results of the work of a teacher are estimated by positive quality changes in the mental development of a student, and are hard to measure. Based on this, it is easy to understand that professionalism in pedagogical activities, according to N.B. Kuzmina, is “an introduction of the elements of scientific research for the purposes of control and self-control over the level of its efficiency”. Furthermore, productivity is characterized as a “system and sequence of pedagogically appropriate actions connected with the solution of pedagogical problems, ensuring, during a certain period of time allocated for the educational process, the achievement of a desired outcome for all or most of the students”.
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Thus, professionalism is a premium quality, a deep mastery of the profession, its qualitative and efficient execution. Together with this, as noted by R.K. Zhurayev, a high level of professional competence and personal commitment to a productive solution of pedagogical problems are qualitative characteristics of a teacher, as a subject of pedagogical activities, that is his professionalism. These concepts have a one-way vector of the perfection of activities, premium quality, and level of its implementation. The professionalism of a person, together with competence, is ensured by the professional orientation and presence of professionally important qualities in the person. A high level of professionalism is achieved through mastering and long continuous performance of activities. Therefore, the professional competence of a teacher is the basis of developing professionalism in a specialist, and they do not mean the same.
In Russian pedagogy and psychology, there are various approaches to defining the essence, content, structure, dependence and possibility to develop professional competence.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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