THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES THROUGH PARTICIPATING IN MINI PROJECTS

Abstract

Project activities are an important component of education. They allow students to develop not only their academic but also personal skills. In connection with this, the objectives of our research were formed: to determine the main advantages of project activities by describing the competencies developed during the project implementation; to conduct a survey of university teachers to discover their attitude to the use of projects in education; to develop possible recommendations based on the results obtained. It was decided to divide the study into two stages. The first stage of the research was a survey of Russian university teachers. The questionnaire consisted of eight questions directly or indirectly associated with project activities. A total of 43 teachers from different departments of the four Russian universities participated in the survey. At the second stage, skills developed by the students through participation in project activities were identified on the basis of the survey of teachers. The second stage of the study revealed that project activities are sufficiently implemented in metropolitan universities. Based on the data obtained, we formulated some recommendations that can make project activities more comprehensible in the preparation of students: an explanation of the importance of project activities, as well as the curriculum review, if necessary. There is a need for a more extensive study to assess the situation in the regions since our research does not allow us to consider it.