Latviešu valodas kompetences pilnveide Latvijas darba un studiju vidē
Authors:   Biznesa, mākslas un tehnoloģiju augstskola „RISEBA”, Tauriņa Žanete 
Published: October 2022

Educational processes in contemporary Europe need to be seen in a multifaceted way, in the context of the cultural diversity of society, people’s economic and social rights, human rights, equality and gender equality. Education today is not only about teaching and learning, but also about lifelong learning, mobility, integration, further education, self-assessment and other areas. A new learning culture, which requires the development and improvement of new competences, has emerged outside formal and non-formal education. A learning culture in the modern sense means that learning is self-organised, empowering, competence-centred and designed for the broad development of competences. Summarizing and analysing the research and available international documents on the trends of educational development in the 21st century, as well as on the understanding of the concept of competences, observation and self-assessment of competences, competences should be perceived as the basis of independent thinking and creative activity of a person, it is a proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and methodological abilities in work or learning situations, in professional and personal development. Competences related to personal responsibility and autonomy consist of: 1) a dynamic set of cognitive and metacognitive skills, 2) the ability to understand and apply acquired knowledge, 3) interpersonal, intellectual and practical knowledge and abilities, and ethical values. The concept of competence is understood as a person's initiative to carry out self-organised mental and physical activities; in this sense, initiative is defined as the disposition to organize oneself and is characterized as the disposition to organize oneself. The competence self-assessment “Your Competence Map” was carried out by 91 students at University B. The students analyse their competences, map them on a visualized competence map and evaluate their possibilities for improvement in perspective: 1) in the dimension of socio-communicative competences: self-management competence, social competence, emotional competence, communication and cooperation competence, language competence. 2) in the dimension of methodological competences: presentation competence, thinking and analytical competence, knowledge management competence. 3) in the dimension of action and change: cognitive competence, innovation competence, competence for purposeful action. The author has analysed in detail the students’ reflections on language competence, and the self-assessments highlight several gaps in Latvian language competence, for example, Latvian is not the native language; education was acquired outside Latvia; foreign language is dominant in the work environment; work outside Latvia has been carried out for several years. Students acknowledged that in today’s diverse media environment it is difficult to ensure correct, literate, and complete use of the Latvian language. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has had an impact on the development of society as communication processes have been digitized.