Assessment of the balance of the competence formation process: analysis of the curricula of Russian universities

Abstract

Introduction. Curricula are the main tool for organizing the educational process in Russian universities. The quality of education and the possible level of formation of the graduate's competencies directly depend on their validity and balance. Going on a competence model of education demanded change in the principles of drawing up of curricula. However, until now, the quality of curricula is assessed according to formal criteria that are weakly related to the competence-based approach. Also, answers to simple questions have not been formulated: how many disciplines can and should form one competence, how many competencies can be formed within one discipline and within one semester, how the presence of gaps in the process of forming competencies affects the final level of their formation. The aim of the work is to propose quantitative characteristics for assessing the balance and consistency of the process of forming competencies based on a statistical analysis of the current curricula of Russian universities. Materials and methods. As a material for the study, curricula were chosen in the specialty "Applied Informatics" of federal state budgetary and autonomous educational organizations (45 institutes and universities in total). Methods of mathematical and statistical analysis were applied: frequency analysis, methods for comparing means, analysis of standard deviations. Research results. On average, each competency forms from 2 to 8 disciplines. The largest number of disciplines in most curricula forms 1, 2 or 3 competencies. There are relatively few disciplines that form more than 4 competencies in the curricula of most universities. It is shown that the lack of continuity and development, the presence of gaps in the process of forming competence can reduce the achieved level of competence to 30% of the possible due to forgetting. The discussion of the results. The presence of deviations from the average indicators may in some cases indicate an insufficient balance of curricula. In the future, it is possible to embed the proposed methodology into an intelligent system for assessing the characteristics of the educational process within the framework of the university's QMS.