Pak Yu., Pak D., Zherebtsova Ye.

Каraganda State Technical University, Каzakhstan

COMPETENCE MODEL IN NEW GENERATION

EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

In the system of higher education in Kazakhstan within the period of 1995 to 2010 there were developed 4 generations of state educational standards. Each generation of SES solved concrete social-economic problems of their time. In these standards there prevailed the “knowledge” approach oriented to knowledge accumulation.

In present day economy knowledge plays the same role as power resources do in industry. In the conditions of information boom and scientific-technical progress professional knowledge becomes obsolete very quickly. In order to preserve high competitiveness it’s necessary to return periodically to the educational environment for qualification improving.

At present in Kazakhstan, with its population about 16 mln., there are 148 higher educational institutions. Mass demand for higher education caused the appearance of private higher schools that make 2/3 of all higher schools. Low quality of education is mainly connected with the appearance of private sector. In reality the problem is not in higher schools number but in the education quality.

The course marked in the State program of the RK development for 2011-2020 for developing a network of new type innovation universities is a serious step on the way of integration and approaching the level of the best ranking universities in the world. A selective support of the leading higher schools with strictly limited financial resources of the state is known in the world practice. It is quite explainable in the conditions of the world economic crisis. Nevertheless, it does not solve the main problem, i.e. increasing the level of the whole society’s education. The education quality requires costs, and high quality – large costs. The costs for education mean in the long-term perspective highly profitable investments in the future.

In Kazakhstan still before the signing of the Bologna declaration in state educational standards there were marked the elements of the competence approach. Already at that time the academic public felt the shortage in the triad “knowledge, abilities, skills” for characterizing an integrated result of the educational process.

What causes the necessity of introducing the competence approach into higher education? Firstly, Kazakhstan signed the Bologna declaration and confirmed its readiness to follow the common-European tendencies of integration, harmonization of the European higher education system architecture and the educational paradigm changing.

Now it is very important to assist the information level of scientific-pedagogical public and of the society on the whole about the Bologna process. There are necessary system measures to form a critical mass of awareness and social-psychological readiness of our higher schools to accept the changes in accordance with the Bologna agreement.

In higher technical education of Kazakhstan there are brightly emphasized some contradictions between the growing amount of knowledge (information) and the limited term of studying in baccalaureate; the ratio of general educational and special disciplines; the level of natural-scientific and vocational training; the ratio of a compulsory and institutional components; the increased requirements to the teaching staff and low social status, etc.

In connection with Kazakhstan entering the Bologna process, there is necessary a scientific-methodological analysis of the existing educational standards of baccalaureate specialties. The new generation of state standards is to be designed so that they could satisfy the present day requirements of the society, a personality, and the labor market.

Unfortunately, the knowledge paradigm experiences crisis caused by the high dynamics of changes in the world of knowledge. The period of competence half-decay is commensurable with the cycle of studying at a higher school. This makes inefficient the traditional approach of knowledge transfer. In the conditions of globalization and dynamically changing market there are in demand not the knowledge itself but specialist’s readiness (ability) to use them successfully in professional activity. Here there is seen the essence of the competence approach.

The attempt of designing educational standards in which the f training final results are shown in the form of competences are evaluated as an innovation element permitting to form a new quality of higher education. Competence formulations in the new generation standards should be sufficiently generalized but not have a purely frame character.

Actualization of the competence approach is conditioned by the necessity of the practical realizing of the Program of forced industrial-innovation development and Kazakhstan joining the Bologna process. Forming educational programs oriented to the specialist’s competence model is the main line of overcoming the gap between the education final results and present day requirements. Without denying the significance of the complex of knowledge and skills, it emphasizes the achievement of the integrated result, as there serves competence.

At present the competence approach causes an ambiguous response in the academic environment. There is absent an established definition of this concept. The existing diversity reflects the authors’ subjective orientation and partiality. This makes it necessary to carry out systematic scientific-methodological studies of the problem taking into consideration the Kazakhstan reality.

In the foreign practice competences are defined not as educational results but as multi-aspect characteristics of the workers not from the position of the functional purpose but from the point of view of the personal qualities and potential.

Thus, new generation SES supposes designing the educational results based on the qualification characteristic of a graduate in the competence format. This will require a care approach to the structure, form and content of the evaluating and diagnostic instruments in the process of the graduates’ final certification.

The competence approach is to assist harmonization of the labor market requirements to the educational sphere. Business-community is to become not only a consumer and a customer of specialists but also an equal in rights partner of the whole educational community, a partner professionally ready to arrange competently the interests conflicts and able to share responsibility.

For justice’ sake it should be noted that far from being civilized Kazakhstan market is not quite ready to active cooperation. Business-community is weakly informed of the essence of the Bologna process and coming reforms in higher education. The absence of professional standards is a serious problem on the way of business active participation in improving the new generation SES. Kazakhstan higher school has a significant experience of forming qualification characteristics that are included in the previous generations standards. This experience should be used in the process of modernizing educational programs. It is also necessary to take into consideration the positive and negative moments that became a subject of discussions in European educational systems in connection with the Bologna process.