The paper considers modern specific features and requirements for engineering education. The authors show changes in the forms, methods and means of professional education. The main engineering activities are specified for training area "Agroengineering". The paper underlines the importance of the comprehensive development of future engineers’ thinking, in particular, theoretical thinking, and the ability of performing logical actions with scientific concepts, using mental operations of comparison, concretizing, generalizing and abstraction. To check the development level of theoretical and logical thinking, the authors developed an educational and diagnostic test on the "Electrical Materials" course to note the necessity and possibilities of using computer testing for the strategic, systematic and objective assessment of students’ knowledge, in terms of the development of their professional thinking and competencies. There is a description of the procedure of elaborating test materials, and the test results are presented. The authors analyze the digital test results at the stage of ongoing control and the number of mistakes that students made when performing tasks of different subtests and sections. Assumptions are made about the possible reasons for the poor outcomes; possible ways to improve the test procedure are offered.
The concept of intellectual readiness for learning, which is considered as the main condition for successful education at a university, is defined. Developed competencies of BSc students in training area 35.03.06 “Agro engineering” were analyzed. This analysis demonstrates the importance of knowledge of the basic mathematical and natural laws for solving typical problems and participating in experimental professional research. The role of the “Electrical Materials”course in the development of students’ general professional and specific professional competencies is revealed. The paper presents the research results identifying the relationship between the mental development level, formed in general education, and the success of mastering the “Electrical materials” course. At the same time, knowledge of scientific concepts, the development of the classification mental operation and the ability to perform mental actions by analogy turned out to be determining. According to the results of the research, five groups of students were identified. They differ in the success of the acquisition of knowledge and proximity to the socio-psychological standard. Quantitative and qualitative indicators of their mental development characteristics were also described. The specificity of the relationships between the parameters of intellectual readiness and success in mastering the discipline is described. It is concluded that it is necessary to stimulate the mental development of students in the process of developing professional competencies, taking into account the specific features of the structure of intellectual abilities, improving methods for assessing intellectual readiness.
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