Didactic engineering: designing new generation learning systems

Introduction: the article deals with the organisation of training activities in the man-made environment. Didactic engineering is seen as a methodology within which problems of didactics are solved with application of pedagogical, psychological, engineering methods. It is obvious that in order to implement the training of future engineers in a competence-based format (according to educational standard) a new type of teaching system is needed, with new capacities (properties). These systems should set each student towards the development of professionally significant (key) abilities, taking into account his/her psychological characteristics; ensure training on the verge of permissible difficulties (developing training), and thereby achieve rapid development of key skills, through his/her zone of "immediate development"; to diagnose the quality of possession of a competence in the academic sense. For the objectivity and reliability of assessment of the level and depth of learned knowledge it is necessary to generate this evaluation in a metric format. As a result, we created a didactic system, which combines all the listed properties and the properties of classical systems. This allowed us to construct a new generation of didactic systems. Materials and Methods: the research is based on a systematic analysis of the activity of an engineer; on models of "zones of immediate development" by L. S. Vygotsky; on "developmental education" by L. N. Zankova; on the use of pedagogical and psychological patterns as well as taxonomic methods, didactic engineering, theory of probability and mathematical statistics. Results: constructed is a model for training engineers in the metric format of competence, which envisages a rapid development of students project and constructive abilities based on their knowledge learned. Discussion and conclusion: the parameters defining the probability of engineer's success have been described; the taxonomic scale for assessing the quality of ownership competence have been constructed, the model system of education in a metric format of competency have been developed; methodology for assessing the complexity of tests and courses have been offered; library shell, which is a tool for the formation of a training course for preparation of students in the metric format developed competency have been constructed. The system is implemented and can be accessed in the Internet (www.myknitu.ru).