Formation Of Environmental Competence Of Graduates Of A Technical University

Abstract

This article substantiates the idea that the problem of formation of environmental competence in the field of production safety in technical universities has not been sufficiently investigated: a comprehensive system of environmental knowledge, skills, actions in conditions of environmental risks in the process of studying professional disciplines has not been developed. The need to study the formation of environmental competence in the field of production safety is especially necessary in maritime educational institutions, since graduates are marine specialists who must be able to independently make decisions in isolated conditions, taking into account the requirements of the International Conventions in the field of maritime safety. The article pays special attention to the methods of competence-risk and situational-risk approaches as the basis for building a model for the formation of environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of production safety. The conditions for the phased formation of personal and professional characteristics of the environmental competence of cadets are determined. The authors propose criteria for assessing the level of formation of environmental competence of a university graduate. Based on the analysis of the personal characteristics of university graduates, the level of formation of environmental competence is determined. The concept of formation of environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of production safety developed by the authors provides training of a marine specialist in the field of production safety.

Keywords: Competence formation, environmental competence, production safety, risks

Introduction

As you know, the development of engineering education is aimed at the content of environmental training of engineering personnel responsible for environmental safety at work. Today, when changes in the environment have raised the question of the survival of mankind, the training of engineers is a key task in solving the problems of personal protection and environmental protection (Federation of European National Associations of Engineers-FEANI).

The Federation of European National Associations of Engineers (FEANI) evaluates engineering training programs based on competence in relation to the environment and society. In relation to the specifics of technical education, the problem of competence in the field of environmental ecology is of particular importance, since students during the training period must learn to work in special, extreme conditions - conditions of increased risk and responsibility. On the example of marine technical universities, the need for environmental training of specialists has led to the need to change approaches to the formation of competence in the field of marine ecology and the operation of water transport. As you know, the professional activity of a seafarer is associated with the risks of extreme situations that can cause negative consequences for human life and the natural environment. Marine specialists who are at sea for a long time must make competent decisions on their own in various environmental situations: reducing accidents, risks, security threats, and environmental pollution.

Thus, the formation of environmental competence in the field of industrial safety of graduates of the maritime university acquires an important theoretical and practical significance. First, the requirements of International Conventions are aimed at the formation of competencies in various areas of safety; professional standards define the labor functions of marine specialists in the field of environmental ecology, human ecology, and industrial ecology; the requirements of the Federal State Environmental Standards are aimed at the formation of competencies (universal, general professional, professional, special, etc.). Second, the maritime university should create conditions for the formation of students' environmental competence and use educational technologies aimed at studying environmental risks, identifying hazards, designing scenarios for their development, reproduction and risk management. As the analysis of the survey conducted in 2016 in the specialty "Navigation" showed, the cadets have a low level of formed environmental competence in the field of industrial safety (18% of 254 people respondents) (Danilenkova, 2018).

Problem Statement

Thus, we concluded that the problem of the formation of environmental competence in the field of production safety has not been sufficiently studied at the maritime university. The place of risks and their influence on stress resistance, on the level of adaptation of cadets have not been determined. The system of environmental risk management processes has not been identified. The system of educational technologies has not been developed to ensure the formation of environmental competence in a university graduate. There are no principles and methods for constructing a theoretical and practical model for the formation of environmental competence in a university graduate. Based on the foregoing, the relevance of this study is determined by the need to develop and substantiate the pedagogical concept of the formation of the environmental competence of graduates of the maritime university.

Research Questions

• The first is the concept of forming the environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of production safety.
• The second is competence-risk and situational-risk approaches as the basis for the formation of a model of environmental competence of graduates of a technical university.
• The third is conditions for the gradual formation of personal and professional characteristics of environmental competence of cadets.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research is development and experimental verification of a model for the formation of environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of production safety.

Research Methods

When performing the work, the following methods were used: situational-risk, competence-based approaches as the basis for building a model for the formation of environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of industrial safety.

Findings

Various environmental situations arising in educational and then production activities require their resolution taking into account safety. For this, it is necessary, depending on the environmental situation, to own a system of environmental knowledge, skills, abilities, actions, that is, to be competent in making effective management and technological decisions (Bugakova, 2016). Based on this, in our study, we applied a situational-risk approach, which is aimed at determining the needs of students in recognizing educational, educational, professional, industrial environmental risks by simulating various extreme situations that arise in the educational and then in the industrial environment to ensure personal safety, environmental safety and production (Baeva, 2005; Bugakova, 2016).

During the study, we came to the conclusion that the basis for designing a model for the formation of environmental competence is the search for avoiding losses arising from the action of various risks. One of the aspects of the formation of environmental competence is the conditions for the development of the graduate's personal characteristics: environmental friendliness, adaptability, stress resistance, communication.

The competence-risk approach puts forward in the first place the study of competencies in conjunction with environmental risks, knowledge of which will ensure safety in production, resolve conflicts, adapt to various environmental situations, be resistant to stress (Chernova & Kudryavtsev, 2003).

The structure of the model is step-by-step and provides a level-by-level formation of environmental competence of cadets, which allows us to trace the process of development of students' relevant environmental knowledge, skills, and actions.

The formation of environmental competence of cadets in their development goes through three stages: the first-knowledge, the second-skills, skills; the third-skills, actions, control. At the same time, it is very important to determine the sources of environmental risks and their impact on environmental situations in the educational and industrial environment at each stage, depending on the period of study at the university (Danilenkova & Samsonova, 2015).

For clarity, we present the generalized content of environmental competence in the field of production safety of a marine specialist in a tabular form (Table 01).

Given that the competence of the environmental safety of the production of a marine specialist is formed in stages, taking into account the requirements of the Federal State Environmental Standards, International Conventions and professional standards, we need to determine the indicators and evaluation criteria.

The criteria for assessing the state of formation of environmental competence of a university graduate will be the satisfaction of students, the importance of conditions for improving the quality of environmental training of students, environmental friendliness as a means of ensuring safety at work.

The characteristics of the level of environmental competence formation at each stage will be the personal qualities of the graduate: adaptability, stress resistance, communication skills. Indicators of the level of environmental competence of a marine specialist will be the analysis of the state of risks, the ability to manage and anticipate them to eliminate or limit threats in production activities. Tables 02-03 show the dynamics of the growth of the levels of environmental competence in the graduates of the maritime university (Tables 02-03).

At this stage of the experimental study, based on the methods of mathematical statistics (the T-Wilcoxon criterion), it was found that according to these criteria, the level of environmental competence of cadets is growing. The following indicators are of particular importance for our study: stress resistance and environmental friendliness, since their dynamics indicate the formation of the level of environmental competence of a graduate of a technical university. Since these indicators are responsible for the quality of environmental training of students, it can be concluded that it is necessary to take into account risks in order to perform practical tasks in emergency situations during the period of study at the university.

After analyzing the indicators of the formation of the level of environmental competence of a graduate of a technical university at the stages: knowledge, skills, actions and control, we came to the conclusion that the competence-risk and situational-risk approaches can improve the level of environmental training of cadets. Personal (adaptability, stress tolerance, communication skills) and professional (satisfaction, significance, environmental friendliness) components of the environmental competence model will ensure safety at work, namely, the ability to manage and anticipate risks to eliminate or limit threats in emergency situations.

The analysis of the above data shows that the concept of forming the environmental competence of a graduate of a maritime university in the field of industrial safety has great potential:

- it creates conditions for the gradual formation of personal and professional characteristics of environmental competence of cadets on the basis of environmental knowledge, skills, actions and control;

- it ensures the application of environmental knowledge in the practice of risk management in the field of production safety.

Conclusion

Thus, as a result of the research, a scientific result was obtained, the essence of which is the step-by-step (knowledge, skills, actions and control) formation of environmental competence of graduates of a technical university on the basis of competence-risk and situational-risk approaches. Competence-risk and situational-risk approaches in the field of environmental training of students allow us to form a model of environmental competence in the field of industrial safety of graduates of a maritime university, taking into account the requirements of International conventions, professional standards, and Federal State Educational Standards. The effectiveness of the model for the formation of environmental competence of graduates of a technical university depends on the study of risks, hazard identification, design of scenarios for their development, reproduction and management. The current state and trends in the formation of environmental competence of graduates of a technical university indicate that, along with the traditional concept of the educational process, competence-based risk and situational risk approaches based on the study and management of risks are increasingly used, thereby ensuring the quality of environmental training of students. Moreover, the results of the study indicate the need to form a model of environmental competence of graduates to ensure the safety of production.

Acknowledgments

The study has been conducted in MADI as an activity under the project “Effective training model of technical discipline lecturers for the purpose of obtaining “International Educator of Engineering University” certificate - “ING-PAED IGIP”. MADI is recognized as a Federal Innovative Platform according to Order № 1580 from 25.12.2020 (registered on 03.02.2021).

References

• Baeva, I. A. (2005). Psychological safety in education. Soyuz.

• Bugakova, N. Yu. (2016). Methods of research of the quality management system of higher education in a technical university. System analysis in design and management, 402-407.

• Chernova, G. V., & Kudryavtsev, A. A. (2003). Risk Management. Nauka.

• Danilenkova, V. A., & Samsonova, N. V. (2015). Environmental risks in the educational environment of a modern technical university. Proceedings of the Baltic State Academy of Fishing Fleet: Psychological and Pedagogical Sciences (theory and Methodology of professional education), 3(33), 45-48.

• Danilenkova, V. A. (2018). Features of formation of competence of environmental safety of students of the maritime university. Proceedings of the Baltic State Academy of Fishing Fleet: Psychological and Pedagogical Sciences (theory and methodology of professional education), 24(44), 264-268.