Yakimets Y. Formation of designing skills for future technicians-mechanics of road transport industry in the process of studying professionally oriented disciplines

The thesis is devoted to the problem of improving the quality of vocational education of future technicians-mechanics of the road transport industry through the development of designing skills while studying professionally oriented subjects. The purpose of the study is to provide a theoretical substantiation and experimental verification of the pedagogical conditions for the development of future mechanics’ designing skills while studying professionally oriented subjects as a preparation for diploma project. The object is the training of mechanics of road transport at higher schools (colleges). The subject is designing skills’ formation while training mechanics of the road transport industry. The theoretical bases of formation of designing skills of future technicians-mechanics of the road transport industry while studying professionally oriented subjects are found out; the pedagogical conditions were substantiated, the model of forming the designing skills while studying professionally oriented subjects was developed and tested; the criteria, indicators and levels of formation of their designing skills were determined; the educational and methodological support for the formation of technicians-mechanics’ designing skills was developed. The pedagogical conditions for the development of their designing skills as a means of preparing for diploma project were theoretically grounded, namely – the development of the future mechanics’ motivational-value attitude towards further creative project activities; the continuity and interconnection of theoretical knowledge and practical designing skills; mastering the complex of designing skills with the help of specialized ICT tools; the integration of professional and designing skills while performing the diploma project. The main principles of the training of future mechanics for the road transport industry are the consideration of designing as an independent activity, as both a teaching method, and a component of the content of education; the purposeful teaching of students in design thinking; taking into account the peculiarities of the practical training of technicians-mechanics, based on current industry demands; the need for an individual approach to students; the development and refinement of the criteria for the designing skills formation in accordance with the requirements of employers; the awareness of design activities as a system of integrated knowledge and skills, experience in solving specific problems; and the focus on the formation of a design culture as a component of a specialist’s competence. The model of formation of designing skills of future mechanics of the road transport industry while studying professionally oriented disciplines was theoretically grounded and constructed. The model is based on the modern scientific approaches and the author’s theoretical positions that determine its component and consists of conceptual-methodological, content-designing, organizational-technological and criterion-value blocks. The molding pedagogical experiment revealed a significant improvement in the quality of training technicians-mechanics of the road transport industry as a result of the implementation of the developed and tested models, the pedagogical conditions and methods. A statistical verification using Pearson’s chi-squared test confirmed the hypothesis of the study and showed the feasibility of introducing the author’s innovations. The practical significance of the results obtained is the development and implementation of methods of forming the designing skills of technicians-mechanics of the road transport industry while studying the professional subjects using ICT, in particular the optimized content of these subjects on the basis of competence and integrative approaches and tasks for developing the designing skills through the allocation of components of a specialist’s professional activities and guidelines for their use.