Structure and Content of a Teacher’s Subject-Specific Competence in the Context of Agile-Oriented Training of Future IT Professionals

Abstract

The article examines the problem of a teacher’s subject-specific competence in the context of Agile-oriented training of future IT professionals. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the implementation of the Agile approach in higher IT education requires not only the renewal of the content, forms, and methods of teaching, but also a reconsideration of the teacher’s role as one who is able to organize iterative learning, facilitate teamwork, ensure flexible planning, continuous feedback, and orientation toward intermediate and final results. The aim of the article is to determine the structure and content of a teacher’s subject-specific competence in the context of Agile-oriented training of future IT professionals. The study employs analysis of scholarly sources, generalization of approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of “competence,” “professional competence,” and “subject-specific competence,” as well as theoretical modeling of the structure of a teacher’s subject-specific competence. It is substantiated that a teacher’s subject-specific competence is a specified component of his or her professional competence and is directly related to the specifics of the field of training, the content of education, the ways of organizing the educational process, and the requirements for the outcomes of professional training. It is determined that, in the context of Agile-oriented training of future IT professionals, the structure of a teacher’s subject-specific competence should include the following interrelated components: methodological and didactic, design and organizational, facilitative and communicative, digital and instrumental, evaluative and analytical, and reflective and adaptive. It is shown that their combination ensures the holistic implementation of the Agile-oriented approach and serves as an important factor in shaping future IT professionals’ readiness for professional activity. Prospects for further research are associated with substantiating the pedagogical conditions and means for developing a teacher’s subject-specific competence and with empirically verifying its influence on the outcomes of Agile-oriented training.