Laboratory of pedagogical skills of teachers as integrative component of modern technical higher education

Realizing the importance of constant self-development and self-improvement of the scientific and pedagogical worker in order to increase his professional and pedagogical competence, we decided to set up our own Laboratory of Pedagogical Skill, which has all the possibilities to become a school for the formation of professional competence of teachers of Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. By the way, our project is not a single phenomenon of modern high school. Similar projects are implemented, as a rule, in higher pedagogical educational institutions; also in Kiev-Mohyla Academy it is organized its own certified School of Professional Development of Teachers. The purpose of the article is to analyze the level of development of vocational and pedagogical competence of teachers of modern higher education institutions and to propose effective ways to increase this competence in order to improve the pedagogical process and improve the quality of education at Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Objectives of the research: 1) to determine the structure of vocational and pedagogical competence of the modern teacher; 2) to find out the correlation between the concepts of "professional-pedagogical competence" and "professional self-development"; 3) to determine the role and place of the Laboratory of Pedagogical Skills in the structure of Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture as the center of the progressive teaching community in questions of European integration educational problems. Conclusion. A modern teacher as a scientist and a teacher should go beyond the scope of his special disciplines, constantly expand his own competencies, be aware of innovations in pedagogical science. Generally, students knowingly and unknowingly copy their teachers, and in order to prepare a highly skilled, competitive young specialist, teachers must be super professionals in their field, capable to self-actualization in scientific and pedagogical activities that are engaged in constant self-development and self-improvement. Consequently, on the agenda of the modern high school there is a change in the culture of teaching, which requires extraordinary efforts on the part of teachers (who are forced to seek new forms of classes, modern didactic materials, methods of communication, assessment systems), and on the part of the administration of higher education (providing modern information system, educational materials, organization and support of innovative forms of training organization), as well as from students (who are aware of their partner position in the educational process and personal responsibility for the results of learning).