PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT: EXPERIENCE OF THE "TEACHER OF THE YEAR 2022" COMPETITION, "INFORMATICS" SECTION

Abstract

For a significant period of time, the teaching profession has experienced a gradual decline in prestige. However, in recent times, teachers have become the focus of attention from the government, parents, and students. Students often possess better digital skills than their teachers. Therefore, creative educators who are proficient in a growing array of digital technologies and employ engaging teaching methods have become more appealing to students. Respect is earned by teachers who actively involve students in their learning process and cultivate self-reliance, promoting critical thinking among their students and demonstrating their own expertise. Modern students no longer solely respect authority based on age or profession; they recognize authority in interesting, recognized, active, and contemporary individuals.

The restoration of prestige to the teaching profession is also facilitated by the government, including increased teacher salaries, making teacher certification an optional choice rather than a mandatory element of their work, and the certification of educational professionals. All these measures encourage teachers to engage in professional development and lifelong learning, motivating teachers to demonstrate the methodological solutions they apply in their pedagogical practice. The advancement of education in Ukraine is further supported by the "Teacher of the Year" competition. This event allows educators who serve as examples to their colleagues and students to be recognized.

This work aims to analyze professional juries' experience and develop methodological recommendations for creating practical tasks for the second stage of the All-Ukrainian competition "Teacher of the Year" in the field of computer science.

The paper examines the experience of members of the professional commission for the "Teacher of the Year - 2022" competition. Jury members developed test questions and programming tasks similar to Olympiad tasks, reviewed and evaluated online lesson components, designed practical tasks similar to Olympiad assignments in digital technologies, selected topics for open lessons, and shortlisted real student assignments for further evaluation by competition participants. Practical tasks allow assessing the knowledge and skills of a teacher in working with presentations, text, electronic spreadsheets, and databases. The paper addresses the challenges of organizing the competition, offers a review and analysis of developed practical tasks, and provides examples to assess the practical nature of these tasks. When preparing a student for an Olympiad, a teacher considers the interests and aspirations of learners, ensures the implementation of individualization and differentiation principles in teaching, identifies gifted students, develops their talents, and helps them build a path of individual development. Even when a teacher can attempt to solve similar tasks under stress, their assistance to students becomes more qualitative and meaningful.