Assessing universal competencies of students of non-linguistic specialties

The rapidly developing labor reality requires a modern specialist to be ready for rapid adaptation in the professional space, mobility within the labor market and constant self-improvement. The training of such specialists at the university aims at the formation of both highly professional and “flexible” (universal) competencies that provide the ability to think systematically, critically assess problem situations and search for a variety of resources for solving professional problems. Universal competencies are represented by eight groups which suppose that University training in its basic part should be identical at all university levels of education and for all areas and specialties. And it is grounded on the principles of universalism. The purpose of the paper is to present the concept of “universal competencies” in a meaningful and structural way and to determine the possibilities of the case-testing method in their evaluation. The research methodology is based on the principles of flexibility and variability applied to research process organization, practice-oriented principles of the results of research procedures. It is focused on a holistic, reflexive-analytical and methodological-instructive presentation of the results of diagnostics that reflect the development of universal competencies.

The following research methods are used: theoretical analysis and content analysis of normative documents that describe the structure of universal competence and determine the contribution of the discipline «Foreign Language» to the development of this type of competence among students of non-linguistic specialties; generalization of Russian and foreign experience in assessing competencies to identify the best practices for diagnosing their development; analysis of current and interim control test-tasks designed to evaluate universal competencies that can be found in the OmSPU evaluation funds; interviewing teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages (interfaculty chair) of OmSPU that aims at showing the advantages and disadvantages of case-testing in assessing the universal competencies of students of non-linguistic specialties.

As a result of the research, a model evaluation case is going to be designed and the recommendations for University teachers how to use it in their work will be given. The scientific novelty of the research includes the ideas developing a universal approach to the University training as well as the ideas enriching a competence-based approach how to organize and evaluate universal competencies. The practical significance is seen in the possibility of using the materials of the paper to improve the funds of evaluation tools for the discipline “Foreign Language”; developing an educational module for advanced training courses.