Results of experimental work on assessing a smart approach to training teaching staff in the field of applied digital technologies

<jats:p>The aim of the research is to assess the pedagogical effects of training teaching staff in the field of applied digital technologies, implemented on the basis of a smart approach to enhance the ability to successfully solve information activity tasks in a continuously changing digital environment. The article presents the results of experimental work from 2017-2025, covering more than 3,400 learners across four educational organizations of higher and continuing professional education under conditions of three levels of transformation of the digital educational environment. Pedagogical effects were evaluated according to a triad of criteria – effectiveness, optimality, and satisfaction – as well as the development of learners' proactivity and smart position based on the results of completing situational practical (marker) tasks, with the comparability of the control and experimental groups confirmed by baseline diagnostics. The scientific novelty lies in establishing a logical connection between the training conditions and means designed from the perspective of a smart approach and the development of learners' proactivity and smart position as new targets, associated with an increase in the specified criteria across all categories of trained teaching staff. It was also established that the smart approach, as a component of the theoretical and methodological foundations of such training, ensures statistically significant pedagogical effects even with limited possibilities for transforming the digital educational environment, while its completeness determines the intensity of these effects. As a result, a statistically significant increase in each of the criteria was obtained across all experimental groups, with the learners in the experimental groups demonstrating a more pronounced formation of proactivity and a smart position, reflecting the ability to independently master new digital tools, as well as critically evaluate and revise customary ways of working.</jats:p>