Abstract:

The relevance of the research:
The activities of a specialized university teacher in the process of developing students' personalities and preparing them for the world of work go far beyond the limits of teaching. The learning paradigm emphasize the multi-activities of the teacher, including the development of learning environments for education and expertise, presentation of new ideas and scientific knowledge for the society. The concept of educational competence is used in this article to define the competence of a higher education institution teacher in a broader.
Thus, given the assessment of learning paradigm requirements for a higher education institution, it is important to determine how the teachers themselves qualify the expression of educational competence, what they assign their main focus on: knowledge, competences, skills, experience, personal characteristics, or any other attitudes and values corresponding the learning paradigm that determine the teacher's successful support for the learner‘s participation in the system of formal education.

Research question:
The article attempts to answer the question of how specialized university teachers assess educational competence expression, what expression areas they identify as important, what competencies they believe they are missing or what they fail to associate with their personal educational competence expression.

The aim of the research is to determine the expression of educational competence in the learning environment of the specialized university.
The objectives of the research are the following:
1) To reveal the specifics of educational activities of the teacher of a specialized university with regard to the requirements of learning in the modern knowledge society;
2) To determine relevant areas of teacher educational competence expression.

Theoretical framework:
The article is based on theoretical positions that highlight constructivist provisions, favourable environment for the student empowerment in the system of problem learning, assumptions for the origin of deep learning, and specificity of contemporary learning and higher education.

Methodology, method.
The methods of scientific literature analysis and written survey have been employed in this research. An original questionnaire for the survey has been designed (34 statements, N=120, Likert scale). Scale of competence: pedagogical (Cranbach‘s α= 0,869), communicative (Cranbach‘s α= 0,857), organizational (Cranbach‘s α= 0,864). The data has been processed using a quantitative statistical analysis. Qualitative content analysis was employed for the analysis of the responses to open questions.

Conclusions:
Teachers' educational activities at the specialized university are distinguished by the fact that the majority of the teachers do not have traditional teacher education, and, thus, it is highly important for them to learn from experience, acquire educational competence excellence, and create a learning environment on a parity based relationship between teachers and students. The results of the research show that the teachers of the specialized university give a positive evaluation to their educational competence expression; they identify the competences of traditional knowledge transfer and communication with students as most important; they identify the competences of the mastery and employment of modern technology, and meta-learning (the teacher, as a learner in their activities) as most problematic.

Keywords:

Educational Competence, Specialized University, medical studies.