SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO ANALYZING THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

The article analyzes the modern scientific and methodological approaches to the study and analysis of professional competence of future primary school teachers that corresponds to the requirements of the state education reform and the trends of implementation of competence approach as a key in vocational education. Based on the materials of the state standards and the Law of Ukraine on higher education, the author gives the definition of “competence”, formulates modern understanding of the category of “professional competence”. Scientists describe the professional competence as an ability to use knowledge, skills and personal abilities (social and / or methodological) in the work and training for professional and personal development. Understanding the concept of professional competence in relation to any specialty helps to understand its specification. We consider that the study of professional competence of future teachers, especially of primary school teachers, should focus on the following approaches: - a systematic approach, which provides the research of professional competence of future teachers as a multidimensional notion of interrelated and interconnected elements; - a personal approach, which focuses primarily on the personality of a future teacher; - an axiological approach that considers the attraction of the values of culture and arts as an important strategy for the professional development of future teachers; - a cultural approach that defines the phenomenon of professional pedagogical competence of future teachers as a set of cultural components (educational culture, the culture of communication, information culture, etc.). In addition, the categories of competence approach are important; they have become now the leading criteria of the quality of primary school teachers training to become professionals.