Methodological competence of students as a basis for developing professional competence

In connection with the modernization of education in the Russian Federation and the integration of Russia into the European community, it becomes necessary to move the assessment of educational results from concepts such as "education" and "preparedness" to the concepts of "competence" and "competence". With regard to the content of education, it is assumed that the transition from "knowledge and skills" to "methods of activity."

Competence is understood as thinking control superstructures over activity, that is, such activity management structures that rely primarily on the ability of thinking, reflection, communication, understanding and can answer the question of how to integrate the subject's activity into the current context.

Great attention is paid today to the problem of improving the quality of education and training of the future teacher. But the formation of a teacher's professional competence is associated with the development of students' methodological competence. It is methodological knowledge and methodological competence that are inextricably linked with the development of professional competence.

Methodological competence is understood as a level of education at which a student will be able to independently solve ideological and research problems of a theoretical and applied nature. In addition, this is the unity of methodological reflection, i.e. analysis of their scientific activities, the ability for scientific substantiation, critical thinking and creative application of concepts, technologies, forms, methods, means, etc.

The development problems of future teachers of methodological competence were considered even in the era of antiquity, although the term itself did not exist at that period, but, judging by the sayings of the great ancient thinkers, the meaning of this concept reflected its modern essence.

In general, the need for the development of methodological competence was described by many scientists, teachers and thinkers, claiming that it contributes to the acquisition of new and better knowledge, personal and professional development of the teacher. From a pedagogical point of view, this concept is understood as the creation of qualitatively new values that are important in the process of personal development based on the independent acquisition of subjectively new knowledge, skills and abilities.

Indeed, methodological competence reveals whether a student corresponds to the level of education presented to him. The criteria for establishing this correspondence are not only knowledge, abilities and skills, but also the world outlook, psychological qualities of a person and the ability to produce new knowledge and acquired personal values.

To determine the level of proficiency of a student, a future teacher, methodological competence, it is important to take into account such skills as the vision of the problem and the correlation of the content of the material with it, the ability to put forward a hypothesis and imagine possible ways of its implementation, anticipation of difficulties and the readiness to search for new options for their solution, or their avoidance, the ability to self-critically assess the results achieved and reflect on this.

The main sign of the formation of methodological competence among university graduates is the desire and ability to use scientific pedagogical knowledge in the analysis and improvement of their work.

Being a methodologically competent teacher means having knowledge of methodology, mastering research methods, adopting a teacher-researcher as a personally meaningful position, and having experience in conducting research and being able to teach research activities.

Students during their research activities are looking for new ways to search for information, new methods of studying and processing the found material, new approaches to presenting the results. And, most importantly, they try to present their research in an original form, using various innovative technologies, which indicates the inclusion of their creative potential in the research process.

We suggested that students perform some research operations, for the implementation of which it is necessary to show methodological competence. Let's clarify that the work was done in pairs. The pairs were randomly selected, which, in turn, made the task more difficult, since the students had to come into contact with strangers and, at the same time, conduct research, and therefore develop the skill of working in a team in non-standard conditions.

All students received an algorithm for performing this work, which included the search for articles on the topics: "Competence and Competence", "Research Work of Students (SRWS)", "Independent Work of Students". It was necessary to indicate the sources, review the literature on the topic, highlight the main idea and prepare abstracts based on the materials found. Then create a questionnaire (questionnaire) based on your analytical work with content on the research topic, conduct a survey, process and analyze the data obtained, and then present the results of the research work in its original form. All this demanded from the students a creative approach to the task received. As for the formulation of topics, their choice was due to the desire to attract students to educational research and research activities, to reveal the basic concepts on these issues, to show them the advantages of this type of work, and, at the same time, to test the knowledge gained in practice.

Since this type of activity within the framework of the ongoing pedagogical event was one of the competitions, the criteria for evaluating the work received were also highlighted. These were: the degree of processing of the results, the originality of the text, forms of work on the text, methods of searching for key information; the consistency of the material presented, which means the consistent development and completeness of thought, the competent use of the methodological apparatus of the research and the originality of the presentation of materials.

The work was attended by 28 students, i.e. 14 couples. It is important to note that all students, without exception, coped with the task assigned to them. As a result of the analysis of research papers, it was found that all 14 pairs of students correctly selected articles on topics, but only 12 pairs were able to properly make an abstract review, as for the remaining two pairs, they did not write the abstracts quite correctly, since their material was close to retelling the articles read. Despite this shortcoming, in all the works it was possible to trace the logic, from the presence of a set goal, the presentation of the main content and conclusions. The last thing we evaluated was the creative presentation of the research. It is interesting to note that students used completely different forms, means and modern methods of presenting materials, such as presentations, diagrams, visual display of response percentages, spreadsheets, Google Forms and others. This indicates that the students who took part in this study are versatile people with the skills of research and creative work, who are able to work with information and create new knowledge that is significant for their development. On the basis of this, we have established that, by paying more attention to educational research and research work, they can become methodologically competent professionals.

Thus, methodological competence is indeed the basis of a teacher's professional competence. With the development of this competence, there is an activation of the creative potential of the individual, the teacher's activity reaches a new level, there is an active active ascent of a person into the professional environment. The activity of the teacher acquires a search and creative character, and the status of the teacher in the teaching staff and in the collective of students rises. In our opinion, the acquisition of professional competence by a teacher is impossible without the formation of his methodological competence, since a teacher of a new formation is, first of all, a teacher with a highly developed level of pedagogical thinking, intuition, ready to solve problem situations in the learning process, and also adequately to reflect on their pedagogical activities.