RELEVANT COMPETENCES OF THE TEACHING STAFF FOR THE ORGANISATION OF DISTANCE LEARNING

Abstract

Relevance: The Covid-19 pandemics has radically changed the organisation of the teaching process at education institutions in general and at vocational (vocational and technical) ones in particular. These changes include partially distance teaching. Accordingly, the teaching staff at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions had to learn how to interact with the educational process subjects using distance communication platforms. It stimulated them to master new forms, methods and technologies of organising the educational process and helped them acquire relevant competences.

Aim: analysis and determination of relevant competences for the teaching staff to organise distance education at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions.

Methods: analysis and synthesis to clarify the status and the level of investigation of the research problem; systematisation and generalisation to formulate conclusions.

Results: The definitional and academic understanding of the teaching staff’s competence at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions has been explored. It has been established that the concept of the competence-based approach in education aims to shape the personality of a future specialist with a positive worldview, a system of values and the ability to quickly adapt to new and unexpected life and professional situations. The informational and communicative competence has been highlighted in the narrow and broad understanding. It has been found that the informational and communicative competence of the teaching staff at vocational education institutions must include actual teaching that uses modern info-communication technologies and takes place in information environment. Therefore, it must include knowledge about the use of specialised software in the education process that is instrumental in organising the distance mode of education (Moodle, Classroom, Unicraft, Microsoft Teams, Edmodo, etc.). The technological competence includes knowledge and skills related to the organisation of the teaching process at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions using distance learning technologies and choosing optimal electronic means and corresponding electronic didactic materials.

Conclusions: The organisation of distance learning at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions follows a competence-based approach and is based on the principles of the Lifelong Learning Concept. The development of informational, communicative and technological competences in the teaching staff at vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions contributes to a higher quality of future qualified specialists’ distance education.