Abstract:

The paper presents a universal method for the assessment of the behavioural component of competences, personal qualities and professional abilities, based on the use of an electronic portfolio. The research objective is the development of an innovative method for assessing the behavioral component of competencies, personal qualities and professional abilities. The research object is the personal and professional development of students in the context of the informatization of higher education. The methodological foundations of the research include sociological, competence, system, metasystem, qualimetric and probabilistic-statistical approaches. The methods used in the research are the analysis of scientific literature and advanced practical experience in the development of students' competences, modelling, methods of set, relation and graph theory, methods of qualimetry (theory of latent variables), methods of infometry, survey methods, methods of probability theory (primarily the scree plot method). Applying these research methods, the authors assessed the foreign language competence, research competence, and intercultural competence of 2748 students who started their university studies in the Russian city of Krasnodar in the years from 2014 to 2016. The analysis of the actual data showed a high differentiating ability of the criterion proposed by the authors: a universal criterion for the formation of the behavioural component (i.e., a criterion applicable to any competence, personal quality and professional ability), the calculation of which is based on the scree plot method, and the obtaining of primary information is based on the analysis of the electronic portfolio. The theoretical significance of the research results is connected with the possibility of further scientific understanding of the development of competences, personal qualities and professional abilites of students in the educational environment of modern university. The practical significance of the results of this research is the possibility of using them for the design of technologies applicable in the development of relevant students’ competences, qualities and abilities, as well as for the assessment of the quality of higher education and the effectiveness of the educational environment.

Acknowledgement:
The research was carried out with the financial support of the Kuban Science Foundation in the framework of the scientific project № FSR-HS-20.1/37.

Keywords:

Assessing, competence, personal quality, professional ability, behavioural component, electronic portfolio, higher education.