The theoretical generalization was made in the dissertation and the solution to the scientific problem of developing legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff by way of the scientific grounding the theoretical and methodical basics, developing and experimental verifying the effectiveness of the methodical system for the development of teachers’ legal competence was suggested. The analysis of the peculiarities of the professional evelopment of economic colleges teaching staff of the Ukrainian educational theory and practice made it possible to state that there are sufficient opportunities in the Ukrainian educational environment to ensure the quality of the continuous professional development of economic colleges teaching staff. At the same time, wider introducing the dual form of organizing the professional development is required as well as the availability of opportunities to improve the necessary competences in foreign educational institutions at the expense of budget funds and recognising the individual components of informal education as measures to improve the professional level, etc. Based on the analysis of the psychological and pedagogical theory and empirical experience, the state of the development of the problem of improving the legal competence of the economic colleges teaching staff was revealed. It was found that the problem of developing this phenomenon is insufficiently studied and requires the implementation of systematic scientific and pedagogical researches to solve it.
The dissertation grounds and advances the author’s concept of developing legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff. The established concept is based on methodological approaches (competence, systemic, activity-oriented, person-oriented, synergistic, integrative, andragogic and acmeological), pedagogical laws, regularities, general and specific principles. Grounding on the results of the expert evaluation, pedagogical conditions were determined and theoretically substantiated: developing the contents of the educational programmes for improving the qualifications of economic colleges teaching staff by introducing integrated courses of the legal nature; creating the informational and educational environment in post-graduate education institutions to contribute to meeting the educational requirements of pedagogical staff; the use of innovative learning technologies for the development of legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff; forming teachers’ sustainable motivation to increase the level of their legal competence. The methodical system of purposeful developing the legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff was scientifically substantiated as a multi-level construct dialectically combining the goals and tasks of developing the legal competence of teachers, the contents, teaching/learning technologies, forms and methods. The system technologically subordinates the contents, methods, forms, and means of professional and legal developing economic colleges teaching staff, modernized with digital technology tools, to a set of strategic, tactical, and operational goals. The model of the methodological system for developing the legal competence of pedagogical staff was designed visualizing the studied mechanisms and procedures with the interconnected structural blocks: methodology and target, substantive, technological, evaluation and results. The programme and stages of the experimental study of the process of developing the legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff were characterized. The effectiveness of applying the author’s system for developing the legal competence of teachers was experimentally verified and proven which is represented by the positive dynamics of the levels of formation of the specified ability of economic colleges teaching staff. Prognostic directions for developing the legal competence of economic colleges teaching staff were identified and grounded: introducing the educational and professional training programmes for teaching staff of professional pre-higher institutions; developing and approving the professional standards for the positions of teaching staff of institutions of the professional pre-higher education; introducing the legal component into the contents of the professional development of the pedagogical staff.
