PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC STAFF BY MEANS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES: THE UKRAINIAN EXPERINCE

Abstract

The article explores the issue of professional development and academic staff readiness for implementing innovations. Japanese higher education is well-known for its academic excellence, internationalization, and progressivity. Among several its unbiased advantages there is innovative encouragement, entrepreneurial culture of higher education institutions, collegiate professional support. All these issues are the matter of interest for the Ukrainian education system. The article examines focal points: recent innovation trends in higher education globally, academic staff readiness for implementing innovations in two education systems. It was found that the readiness of scientific and pedagogical staff to introduce key innovations in higher education is built on the basis of specific components of professional competence. In particular, such components focus on the organized acquisition of additional knowledge and skills of professional implementation, aimed at the professional development of specialists in the information society.This concept is related to the desire and the ability of the teaching staff to acquire additional professional knowledge and skills to meet the demand of modern education. This is especially urgent under uncertain socio-economic circumstances, particularly, in Ukraine where teaching is not considered an attractive career to choose. The paper seeks to examine the level of university staff readiness for implementing innovations in Ukraine by means of information and communication technologies. The analysis of university staff readiness to implement innovations was carried out on the base of a remote survey. All the participants attended at least two training programs (advanced training courses, seminars, workshops) in years prior to the survey. The analysis showed the evident need of research and teaching staff to improve their own information and communication competence, and also the need to refer to the modern information and communication technologies. It was found that the use of the information and communication technologies in the educational process of higher education is a favorable factor in the development of readiness of research and teaching staff to implement educational innovations in their own professional activities. In future research, it is recommended improving Ukrainian experience for professional development of academic staff in the dimension of information and communication technologies adapted for different levels of educational management.