COMPETENCE ORIENTED TASKS IN FORMATION OF FUTURE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES

Abstract

The actual direction of research in the field of higher professional education is the improvement of the quality of future software engineers’ professional training in a reduced period of study at universities. This is due to contradictions between the list of competencies defined in curricula, fewer numbers of disciplines in the curriculum and the competencies already available to students. We believe that competence oriented tasks are means to gain this point. Such tasks involve the organization of students self-work to solve professional problems. This orientation motivates undergraduates to cognitive activity and contributes to the formation of professional competencies. The purpose of this article is to analyze the use of competence oriented tasks in the process of future software engineers’ short-term training at universities. Scientific publications devoted to various aspects of the use of competence oriented tasks in the training process are analyzed. Their definition, classification, structure, and recommendations for design are given. The concept of professional competence by definition of the TUNING project and professional competence of the software engineer in particular are considered. The characteristics that allow to consider competence oriented tasks as means for formation and evaluation of future software engineers professional competencies are determined. Examples of such tasks aimed at the formation and evaluation of the level of professional competencies in «Programming» course are given. Further research is aimed at evaluation the effectiveness of the implementation of educational and criterion functions of these ones in the training of future software engineers.

Keywords

• competence oriented tasks; professional competences; short-term education; software engineer