Determination of promising areas of advanced training of teachers based on an analysis of their digital skills

The research problem and the rationale for its relevance. The article deals with the problem of determining the actual topics and organizational forms of professional retraining and advanced training programs for teachers in the situation of digital transformation of education. We propose the use of methods to identify teachers' deficits in the field of digital skills; in particular, a special questionnaire of self-assessment of digital skills of the teacher is developed to solve it. The goal of the research was to identify professional deficits of teachers in the field of digital skills and determine on this basis, promising areas and forms of advanced training and professional retraining. However, both issues of the content of education (a list of modules for programs) and issues of organization of education (methods of distance support, building individual educational routes, implementing feedback with teachers during training and after its completion) were considered. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the provisions of the andragogic and system-activity approaches. A questionnaire has been developed that allows the teacher to turn to introspection of their digital skills. During the study, various categories of teachers (representatives of the administration of educational institutions, teachers of primary, secondary and high school, school psychologists and social pedagogues) were surveyed using this questionnaire. The study also analyzed the work performed by teachers at advanced training courses at the Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education and at the St. Petersburg Center for Educational Quality Assessment and Information Technology. Forums and chats that are built into distance courses that support professional development programs have also become an important source of information about professional deficits. Results. The study showed that there are deficits primarily in the use of a variety of digital resources and technologies in educational activities. This is largely due to the fact that teachers are not familiar with the new (digital) learning theory, which is significantly different from the current classical didactics. In this regard, it is very important to integrate the theoretical module “Digital didactics” and the practical modules “Digital educational resources”, “Innovative lessons in the digital educational environment”, “Use of mobile devices in the educational process”, “Implementation of formative and inclusive assessment using digital resources.”