Abstract:

Now it is stated that many teachers of higher education found themselves in conditions of uncertainty in the implementation of their professional activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the education digitalization that rapidly hit them.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the emerging transformations of teachers' abilities in the implementation of professional activities in conditions of uncertainty during the global digitalization of education and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objectives are:
- to clarify the concept of ‘teacher abilities’ and ‘professional abilities of a teacher’;
- to propose a classification of uncertainties encountered in the professional activities of higher school teachers;
- to characterize the uncertainties encountered in the implementation of the professional activities of higher school teachers during the global digitalization of education and the COVID-19 pandemic;

Three research methods were used: the methodology of the study was based on the effect of the uncertainty principle in the socio-economic sphere, which allowed us to deduce the range of uncertainties during the global digitalization of education and the COVID-19 pandemic; the interviewing method allowed us to deduce the most significant situations for teachers in pedagogical practice that relate to situations of uncertainty; the method of questioning of higher school teachers was applied to identify attitudes to professional activity in conditions of uncertainty.

The results of the study are: the concept of ‘professional abilities of a teacher’ comprises professional competence and professional activity of a teacher, including in a digital educational environment that requires the teacher’s technological knowledge and digital didactics; transformations of teachers’ abilities determine the correlation of externally set goals realized in the professional activity of a teacher with internally accepted goals by students through educational activities in the conditions of global digitalization; virtually the teaching experience and age of teachers do not affect their attitude to the implementation of professional activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

Teacher abilities, professional abilities, the digitalization, higher school teachers, uncertainty.