METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE COMPETENCE APPROACH TO THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ TRAINING IN UKRAINE Iryna V. Sekret Dnieprodzerzhinsk state technical university Ukraine irenesekret@mail.ru Abstract Competence is viewed to be the key point of the university training according to the Bologna declaration of the European education space transformation. The concept of the competence requires scientific defining which is in most cases determined by the methodological background dominating in a certain educational area. Countries on the post-Soviet territory inherited theories and methodology of their joined past. And now on the way of their further development they are in the process of adopting new approaches and standpoints. To make it smoothly it is urgent to take into account predominant scientific background in order to entwine naturally new trends and overcome society’s and experts’ rejection. To see possible problems of new concepts’ implementation and to find optimal decisions, it is important to analyze the methodological background of the educational area which is expected to adopt innovational ideas. 1 PRELIMINARY REMARKS The predominant theory in the Ukrainian education is the activity-oriented approach which is aimed at the development of the student’s knowledge, habits and skills. Any human’s activity is scrutinized mostly as a process which can be presented by the complex of the interconnected psychological mechanisms. The duration of the activity is traced from the starting point such as personal intrinsic needs and motives up to the activity results. Another influential scientific trend at all levels of education in Ukraine is the student-centered approach aimed at the development of a student’s personality in the complex unity of one’s motives, interests and values. As for the reality of the students’ training, the observations and personal interviews demonstrate that graduates face a number of problems when entering professional environment. The real life problems are mostly determined by the fact that students obtain a vague idea of the profession they are prepared for and of the professional tasks they are expected to fulfill. Therefore the development of the students’ professional competence in the unity of their knowledge, habits and skills, as well as personalized experience gained at different levels of education is viewed to be an approach which is intended to break the border between learning and real life profession. Practicality as a fundamental feature of the competence approach is contrasted to the theoretical vector of the activity-oriented approach, while the student-centered teaching can contribute to the development of the students’ professional competence. Among barriers to the competence approach implementation into the university, so-called “corporative egoism” is discriminated. Meanwhile, the lack of the administrative bodies and teachers’ competence to change a traditional way of their interaction with students as well as their habits of conducting teaching prevents them from achieving sufficient results on the way of innovations. 2 METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE COMPETENCE APPROACH Acquisition of the professional competence of the future specialist was researched by such Ukrainian scientists as O.E. Antonov, I.D. Bekh, V.P. Bespal’ko, M.B. Yevtukh, I.A. Zyazyun, V.G. Kremin’, V.I. Luhovoy, M.F. Stepko, YU.M. Shvalb, O.V. Tchaliy and others. However, despite a number of scientific studies, which have been conducted recently, the problem of the development and realization of the competence approach in the higher professional school of Ukraine requires theoretical grounding. 2.1 Bologna Process and Competence Approach Proceedings of EDULEARN09 Conference. 6th-8th July 2009, Barcelona, Spain. ISBN:978-84-612-9802-0 004640