Exploring a set of professional competencies of the supplementary education teacher: instruments and results

Introduction. The development of supplementary education for children (hereinafter SEC) requires the formation of a set of professional competencies in a teacher working in this sphere. The elaboration of tools to identify the needs and deficiencies in professional training of supplementary education pedagogues is relevant today in all countries developing SEC systems. This article aims to describe the results of applying a number of diagnostic tools for assessing a set of professional competencies of a SEC teacher. Materials and methods. The toolkit proposed for the research was developed on the basis of competence-based, level-specific, personalised, meta-disciplinary and value-based approaches. The core method was the analysis of options chosen by supplementary education teachers for solving a number of key professional tasks offered to them in the case-testing format. The empirical study involved 639 supplementary education teachers from different regions of the Russian Federation (Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yaroslavl Region, Republic of Karelia, People’s Republic of Donetsk, Luhansk People’s Republic). Results. The results obtained in the course of the research made it possible to conclude on pedagogues’ competence deficiency and the required directions for improving the system of their training and professional development. In particular, the respondents – supplementary education teachers – showed certain deficiencies in the field of teaching under supplementary general education programmes (19%); in organisational (24%) and methodological (9%) work as well as in demonstration of metadisciplinary and universal pedagogical competencies. Conclusion. The novelty and practical significance of the research lie in the development and validation of a diagnostic toolkit for studying a set of teachers’ professional competencies, as well as the generalisation of existing trends and problems in SEC specialist’s training identified with its help. The obtained results can be used both in the development of teacher training programmes and for designing a system of professional development and monitoring of teachers’ professional deficiencies.