Key Competences of Secondary General Education: Competence in the Field of Natural Sciences

Abstract

The article highlights the theoretical foundations of the formation of students' competence in the field of natural sciences, which is considered as an order of society to prepare school graduates with a scientific understanding of nature, modern technologies, capable of entrepreneurship and initiative. The normative-legal acts of the organization of the educational process at the level of basic secondary education, which determine the structure, content of basic secondary education, requirements for the mandatory learning outcomes of students, the total volume of the educational load, were considered.
The focus on the modernization of science and mathematics education, which is built on the principles of a personal approach, constant updating of the content of education in accordance with new achievements of science and the requirements of the labor market, is outlined. The significance of the introduction of a complete didactic system, the basis of which is the implementation of inter-subject, inter-branch and intra-subject integration of science subjects and the design of student learning outcomes, has been determined. Competence of students in the field of natural sciences is characterized as a desire to seek and propose new ideas, observe and research, formulate assumptions and draw conclusions based on conducted experiments, learn about oneself and the surrounding world through observation and research. It is important that basic secondary school students, based on the acquired knowledge in the field of natural sciences and cognitive experience, should be able to assess the possible consequences of human activity in nature, be aware of the integrity of the natural-scientific picture of the world, analyze the influence of natural sciences, techniques and technologies for the sustainable development of society.
It is substantiated that the support of students' curiosity, the development of their scientific thinking are cross-cutting content lines of the formation of competence in the field of natural sciences in secondary general education. It has been proven that the priority of the formation of key competencies of students is personal qualities, their social, cultural and educational experience; needs and interests that motivate learning.