Professional and Teaching Training of Masters in Engineering: Challenges and Solutions

The paper focuses on some aspects of organizing the training of Master of Engineering for future professional and teaching activity. We carry out a brief overview of the genesis of master’s education in Russia to provide higher education with educators. We discuss the challenges of the higher education system to (1) prepare teaching staff and (2) increase their qualification mobility. The paper analyzes (1) the expediency of including the teaching component in the education programs for masters of engineering, (2) the demand for masters of education in technical universities, and (3) the motivation of masters of education for professional and teaching activity. We obtained the presented empirical material during the research conducted in the 2017–2018 academic year and the 2018-2019 academic year at the Institute of Mechanics and Energy of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. The study involved 109 students getting a master’s degree and passing the teaching practice at the university

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

MECHANISM FOR DESIGNING COMPETENCE-ORIENTED TASKS IN VARIOUS ACADEMIC SUBJECTS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS

The research objective is to develop a mechanism for designing competence-oriented tasks in various academic subjects and requirements for its implementation in higher educational establishments. Methods. The authors conducted a theoretical analysis of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature sources on the research issues to implement the objectives of the study; Russian and foreign educational experience on the use of study tasks in the study process is studied and summarized; educational and syllabus documentation and training materials are analyzed (syllabi, textbooks, manuals, task and exercise books, etc.); normative documents are studied (State Educational Standards, Federal State Educational Standards, Main Syllabi, curricula, instructional acts, etc.). Empirical research methods involve observation, testing, questioning, modeling, peer review, pedagogical experiment and statistical interpretation of the study results. The study was carried out from 2007 to 2012 in the Engineering-Pedagogical Faculty of Moscow State Agroengineering Goryachkin University. 240 students were engaged in the pedagogical experiment. The following Moscow colleges provided facilities for the peer review of the list and solution frequency of vocational education tasks by secondary vocational school teachers: Colleges of Civil Engineering No 1 and No 12, Small Business College No 48, Polytechnic College No 13, Printing and Publishing College No 56, and Electromechanical College No 55. Results. The research findings demonstrate that the competence-oriented tasks are shown as an integrative didactic unit of professional competence development. Its functions, classification, and structural components are given. The mechanism of designing competence-oriented tasks in various academic subjects is developed and tested. The proposed mechanism is an invariant for academic and teaching staff of educational establishments at all levels of professional education, including both higher and secondary specialized educational establishments. Currently, the mechanism is implemented in academic and teaching staff’s methodical and teaching activities in RSAU-MAA named after K. A. Timiryazev, and the system of training and criterion competence-oriented tasks is included in educational and methodical packages for different subjects and applied in the University study process. Scientific novelty. The authors have systemized and extended general theoretical didactical views on the need for competence-oriented tasks as the educational ones (as a component of the teaching content and technology) and the criterion ones (as a method and means of monitoring the process and the result of developing students’ professional competence in the process of studying of different subjects); have specified the structure of the competence-oriented tasks (the structure elements: a condition, a requirement, and a construct) and determined the functions of the competence-oriented tasks in the modern university study process (gnostic, subject-and-activity, educational, axiological, creative, managing, motivation and incentive, control and assessment). The grounds for the classification of the competence-oriented tasks are considered: its position in the hierarchy of the formed competencies, professional activities stated in the State Educational Standard, types of the formed skills, the content of tasks and its intended purposes, the mode of learning and cognitive activity of students, the study forms implying the use of the tasks, and the number of students involved in the problem solving. The criteria for constructing a system of competence-oriented tasks (completeness, reliability and validity) and indicators (the system completeness coefficient, the didactic capacity coefficient, the overload factor of students, the degree of mastering the activities) are identified. The model of competenceoriented tasks, including regulatory, informative, technological, diagnostic, organizational and administrative units in their integrity and unity ensuring the effectiveness of the development of students’ professional competencies is worked out. The authors show the mechanism of designing a system of competence-oriented tasks in a subject matter, including the following stages: analytical and constructive, verification and implementation, control and correction. Practical significance. Much attention is given to the implementation of the model of a system of competence-oriented tasks in the study process in the Engineering-Pedagogical Faculty of Goryachkin University (MSAU) contributed to improve the quality of training students in General and Professional Pedagogy, the development of their subject, subject-cycle (the psychological-pedagogical cycle), as well as a certain set of general cultural and professional competencies. The proposed mechanism of designing competence-oriented tasks is invariant and can be used to elaborate a system of competence-oriented tasks in other academic subjects taught in higher educational establishments. The obtained research results contribute to the implementation of the competence-based approach in the study process of modern higher educational establishments and can be used in further training of university academic and teaching staff