Pedagogical support for the training of technical university students in the field of housing and communal infrastructure: methodological approaches

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the need to improve the training of engineering personnel for the housing and utility sector (HUS) in Russia. The existing gap between theoretical education in technical universities and the practical requirements of the industry leads to difficulties in graduates’ adaptation and insufficient effectiveness of their work. The aim of this work is to develop, implement, and assess the effectiveness of a pedagogical support model aimed at forming comprehensive professional competencies in students that meet the modern challenges of the industry. The study was conducted in 2021-2023 at the Volga State Technical University. The pedagogical experiment involved 86 students divided into a control group (n=43), trained under the traditional program, and an experimental group (n=43). For the experimental group, a pedagogical support model based on systemic, activity-based, and competence-based approaches was implemented. Key elements of the model included integrative course project work, solving industry-specific case studies, tutor support, and extended industrial internships. To evaluate the results, a set of methods was used, including testing, surveys, expert assessment of projects and final works, as well as statistical data analysis using Student's t-test and Pearson's correlation analysis. The results showed statistically significant superiority of the experimental group in all key indicators. The level of theoretical knowledge mastery in the experimental group reached 85,7% compared to 71,3% in the control group. The level of practical skills formation, assessed by experts, reached 8.9 points compared to 6.4, and the proportion of students with high academic motivation increased to 76,7% compared to 39,5% in the control group. A strong positive correlation (r=0.78) was revealed between the duration of industrial internship and the quality of the final qualification work. Data analysis confirms that the proposed pedagogical support model effectively addresses the problem of the gap between theory and practice. The integration of project-based learning and close interaction with enterprises not only enhances students’ practical readiness and motivation, but also contributes to deeper and more conscious assimilation of theoretical material. It was concluded that there is a need to revise curricula towards increasing the share of practice-oriented forms of learning for training competent engineers capable of ensuring the sustainable development of housing and utility infrastructure.