EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF RESEARCH COMPETENCE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Contemporary geopolitical challenges affecting the exchange of knowledge and advanced technologies have created a pressing need for Kazakhstan to intensively develop its national intellectual capital and accelerate the generation of new scientific knowledge. These processes underscore the relevance of studying the concept of research competence as a key phenomenon in the context of higher education and scientific development. The purpose of this article is to identify the main approaches to defining the essence of research competence in educational science through a theoretical analysis of the works of national and international scholars.

The study is grounded in the competency-based approach. The primary research methods include analysis and synthesis of national and international scholarly works focused on defining the essence of the concept of research competence.

 Over the past two decades, several theoretical approaches have emerged in educational science to conceptualize research competence. These include the systemic, activity-based, value-activity, axiological, process-technological, competency-based, and synergetic approaches. In the international literature reviewed, research competence is predominantly viewed as a set of skills necessary for conducting scientific inquiry. Moreover, foreign scholars often associate the concept of research competence with research literacy, understood as a collection of competencies related to an individual’s cognitive and intellectual activity.

The diversity of approaches to defining and conceptualizing research competence that has emerged in national and international scholarship over the past two decades enables a comprehensive examination of this phenomenon. As society continues to evolve—driven by trends in digitalization, technologization, and the development of networked cooperation among universities and other institutions—there is a growing need to reconsider the components of research competence. These developments highlight the relevance and necessity of further research aimed at identifying and substantiating the criteria and methodologies for developing research competence among  students.