When managing a team, managers are often more fascinated by the status and exciting functionality of the manager than by caring about the quality of management services provided.
Nevertheless, the manager is responsible precisely for the competent implementation of management. After all, even if the organization has a strong leader who will inspire the team, show the goal and challenge, without effective implementation of processes it is pointless to count on a good result.
Will management skills pass the test?
Becoming a great manager requires a wide range of skills, from planning and delegation to communication and motivation. From this list, it is enough to use only a few components and this will already give some kind of result. But if your goals are more global, and your ambitions do not allow you to be satisfied with little, then you need to develop yourself in all facets of leading people.
Before starting any development, it is important to transparently understand the level of proficiency in each competency that is important in management. This approach will allow you to hit the target, saving time on analyzing illusions and images of an imaginary result. The test below will help you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, thereby extracting maximum benefit from the former and managing the latter.
Test instructions
The test contains 20 statements. For each of them, you need to write down a score for the answer that most corresponds to reality. When taking the test, it is important to describe the actual situation, and not the one in which you would like to find yourself and which is considered correct. Upon completion of the test, you must sum up the resulting scores.
Test:
| 20 statements | Never | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Always | |
| 1 | When I have a problem, I try to solve it myself before asking my boss what to do. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | When I delegate work, I give it to someone who has more windows in their schedule. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | I correct team members whenever I see their behavior negatively impacting customer service. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | I make decisions after careful analysis rather than relying on intuition. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | I do not allow the team to waste a lot of time discussing strategies and assigning roles; many changes can still occur during the implementation of tasks. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 6 | I wait before disciplining an employee, giving them a chance to improve on their own. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Being able to do the job my employees do perfectly are the skills I need to be an effective manager. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 8 | I set aside time to discuss with the team what is going well and what needs improvement. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 9 | During meetings, I take on a facilitator/facilitator role when necessary. This helps the team reach a better understanding of the issue or reach consensus. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 10 | I fully understand how business processes work in my department and eliminate bottlenecks. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 11 | When it comes to assembling a team, I determine what skills are needed and look for the people who best meet the selected criteria. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 12 | I do everything I can to avoid conflicts in the team. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 13 | I try to motivate people by tailoring my approach to suit each employee's needs. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 14 | When the team makes a big mistake, I report it to the boss and then review the importance of the lesson learned. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 15 | When conflict arises in a new team, I perceive it as an inevitable stage in its development process. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 16 | I discuss with team members their individual goals and integrate this with the goals of the entire organization. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 17 | If I form a team, I choose similar personalities, ages, length of service in the company, and other characteristics. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | I think the statement: “If you want it done well, do it yourself” is true. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 19 | I find an individual approach to everyone to ensure effective, comfortable and productive work. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | I keep team members informed about what is happening in the organization. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Result:
| Point | Interpretation |
| 20 — 46 | Managerial skills urgently need to be improved. If you want to become an effective leader, you need to learn how to organize and control the work of a team. Now is the right time to develop these skills and increase the success of your team. |
| 47 — 73 | The right path to becoming a good manager has been chosen. A number of competencies have already been successfully developed and provide a certain amount of comfort at work. At the same time, certain skills and abilities still need to be upgraded. It is necessary to focus on those elements where the lowest score was obtained. |
| 74 — 100 | Strong work being done in team management! It is important not to stop there and continue to build your skills. Competencies with a lower rating are those that await improvement! |
Effective management requires a wide range of skills, each of which is complementary. The manager’s task is to develop and maintain all these competencies in order to guide the team to achieve stable results. It is important to remember: as soon as development stops, degradation begins! Below is a “feed” for the brain that allows you to become even stronger and more professional as a leader.
Model of effective management
The test is based on eight essential management skills. These are precisely the fundamentals, the secret of success that demonstrates aerobatics in managing people.
Understanding team dynamics and developing good relationships.
Personnel selection and development.
Effective delegation.
Motivating people.
Discipline management and conflict management.
Information exchange.
Planning, decision making and problem solving.
Understanding team dynamics and forming good relationships
Questions: 5, 15, 17
Competent management implies awareness of the principles of team work. As a rule, each team adheres to a certain development model:
1) Formation.
2) Conflicts.
3) Rationing.
4) Execution (effective work).
It is important to encourage the passage of each stage of development, this contributes to the rapid formation of an effective team. When forming a team, the manager's role is to ensure balance in recruiting the diverse skills of team members. Undoubtedly, it is easier to manage a homogeneous group, but only with the maximum diversity of people can mistakes be almost completely avoided. The most valuable competency in this area will be the ability to direct all differences in the right direction.
Selection and development of people
Questions: 11, 17
Finding the right people and developing them is the shortest path to success. Systematic training and analysis of the need for it quickly take the team to a new level.
Effective delegation
Questions: 2, 18
Some managers, especially those coming up from lower positions, tend to do most of the work themselves. They are convinced that only this will allow them to produce high-quality results. In such cases, a valuable rule is forgotten: a leader is needed to manage, not to execute. And the team can achieve much more if all the work is distributed among the right people, rather than concentrated on one person. Sometimes it is difficult to trust; in this case, it helps to realize that if the team has the appropriate functionality, people are trained and motivated, and, as a rule, the work will be done efficiently.
Motivating people
Questions: 13, 19
Another skill needed in management is motivation. Motivating yourself and motivating someone else are completely different things. It is necessary to remember that motivation is individual and what warms one is completely uninteresting to another. Just as life values and goals differ, so do the methods of motivation. If you have warm, trusting relationships with team members, then motivation will not be difficult.
Discipline management and conflict management
Questions: 3, 6, 12
Sometimes, despite all efforts, some subordinates have difficulties in their work: systematic failures, underachievement of indicators. If you turn a blind eye, letting things take their course, and not adjusting or correcting such failures, this will have a negative impact on the entire team. Staff motivation decreases when they have someone working next to them who consistently fails to meet expectations.
There are often cases when direct conflicts arise between employees due to differences in values. The manager’s task is not to panic, but to facilitate the solution of the situation. But it is important to remember that disagreement also has a positive side; it highlights systemic problems and areas of possible failure in the organization. In any case, when conducting confrontation, it is necessary to work with the cause of the disagreement, and not to suppress symptoms or avoid them.
Information exchange
Questions: 8, 9, 16, 20
The ability to communicate and convey information correctly is significant in any profession, but for a manager it is of particular value. It is necessary to convey to the team everything that is happening within the company. Employees need to understand the nature of decisions made, job changes and other situations. This not only eradicates rumors, discussing issues allows you to establish contact.
Planning, decision making and problem solving
Questions: 4, 10
This competence acquires particular significance when a manager is promoted from an ordinary employee. At the initial stages, priorities shift from planning and resolving team issues to developing yourself as a former specialist. Without changing your development priorities, without switching to improving your management skills, you can very quickly end up in a puddle and return to your previous position. You need to constantly make sure you are focused on what matters most!
How to avoid common manager mistakes
Questions: 1, 7, 14
Building interaction in a team helps to avoid a number of difficulties and simplifies procedures. A common mistake is the reluctance to think for yourself and the inability to ask yourself the question “What can I do myself to solve the situation?” Often, novice managers knock on the doorsteps of their leaders, urging them to solve the problem that has arisen, thereby distracting them from completing more global strategic tasks.
Another mistake is shifting development priorities when moving from a line employee to a management position. It is necessary to tell yourself “stop” in time, otherwise the entire routine of the department may fall on the shoulders of the manager, because he will try not to teach others to do tasks correctly, but to take on more responsibilities than he should.
Delegation, motivation, communication, and understanding team dynamics are some of the key skills needed to be a leader. With these skills, along with patience and a developed sense of balance, they reach incredible heights in management.
For the successful development of a company, as a rule, competent personnel are needed. Today, the most effective method for assessing an applicant’s abilities is a competency-based interview.
What is a competency-based interview?
Competency interview is an interview method based on assessing the degree of development of a person’s qualities necessary for the successful implementation of activities related to a specific position. The interview is conducted to identify the candidate’s personal and business abilities, which affect the effectiveness of the implementation of a particular type of activity.
Interviewing is conducted in the form of situational questions and answers. A candidate for a position is asked to explain how he would behave in a certain situation. Before starting an interview, the applicant must be prepared.
A competency-based interview solves the following problems when selecting a candidate for a position:
- assesses the level of a specific set of personal and business qualities in a future employee;
- predicts human behavioral reactions in a specific situation;
- helps to select the most suitable candidate who can effectively perform a certain type of activity.
The structure of the interview consists of blocks of questions. Each block is aimed at identifying the degree of manifestation of each criterion corresponding to a specific position. The number of questions may vary depending on the time available and the purpose of the interview.
What qualities does it allow to determine?
To evaluate personnel for suitability for a particular position, a set of certain qualities is compiled, which are tested in potential employees during an interview. Typically, 7-10 competencies are compiled that an employee must have in order to achieve success in his field.
The list of competencies is compiled depending on the level of the position held: HR manager, director of the company, top manager, etc.
A list of the main qualities that are most often assessed in job applicants during competency-based interviews, regardless of the position of the future employee: 
- Leadership is the ability to inspire a team to achieve the desired result, maintaining effective relationships between employees.
- Ability to plan and organize things.
- Initiative is the ability to make decisions independently.
- Communication skills - the ability to competently, clearly and accurately convey information orally and in writing.
- Resistance to stressful situations - the ability to control oneself in stressful situations, to have stability in performing work in case of lack of time or other interfering factors.
- The ability to work as a team and delegate authority – the ability to provide assistance in a group to achieve a common goal, the desire to resolve conflict situations, the desire to put forward one’s own ideas to resolve issues, and show interest in the point of view of other employees.
- Multitasking.
- Business awareness is the ability to recognize and exploit favorable business opportunities.
- Goal orientation is the ability to set and achieve goals.
- Flexibility – the ability to adapt to various situations, including non-standard ones, without loss of efficiency.
In what cases is competency-based interview used?
Competency interviews are used in the following cases:
- Employment interviews with job applicants to determine the skills and abilities that a person should have for a particular position.
- Determining the level of development of a person’s professional qualities in order to analyze a person’s behavior in various situations in order to plan a career move or form a team to complete tasks within a specific project.
- Planning the individual development of an employee (identifying strengths and weaknesses to build a further plan for individual growth).
What is it, why is it needed and how is it carried out? In our article you will study all aspects of certification.
Why is the personnel management system so important in an enterprise? you will learn what it is and why it is so important.
You will find all the tips on personnel evaluation methods in an organization.
How to conduct a competency interview correctly:
- Conducting a behavioral interview requires careful preparation:
- formation of a concept model;
- compiling a list of questions to assess the qualitative characteristics of the applicant;
- Preparation of an assessment form for a candidate for a position.
The concept model is a list of qualities and characteristics that a candidate for a position must have in order to successfully perform his duties. An individual list of characteristics is compiled for each profession.
For example, when recruiting personnel for a management position (top manager), the following abilities of the candidate are checked: 
- Leadership.
- Stress resistance.
- Ability to work in a team and delegate responsibilities.
- Initiative.
- Communication skills.
- Ability to analyze information.
- Multitasking.
To assess the ability to demonstrate a particular characteristic, the candidate is asked questions about each competency. Questions are formulated in the form of examples that describe a specific situation where the candidate must demonstrate his behavior.
Questions related to the same competence are asked several times scatteredly, but in different wording. This approach allows you to objectively assess the manifestation of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
A certain amount of time is required for each question: from 5 to 7 minutes.
In our country, some Western methods of conducting competency interviews are used: STAR and PARLA.
After compiling the question form, it is necessary to create an evaluation form for the candidate for the position. For a more effective interpretation of the interview results, a list of characteristics and a scale for assessing behavioral qualities are written on the form.
The most common is a five-point scale for assessing a candidate’s abilities.
| No. | Grade | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ND | Lack of skills in this skill. |
| 2 | Competence is not developed. Negative manifestations of this characteristic have been demonstrated. | |
| 3 | 1 | “Below average”: competence is in the development stage, the manifestation of positive indicators is about 30%. |
| 4 | 2 | |
| 5 | 3 | Medium level: Negative and positive manifestations were demonstrated in equal proportions. |
| 6 | 4 | Skill level. The maximum number of positive manifestations of competence is demonstrated. |
Examples of competency assessment questions
Responsibility
Questions assess whether the candidate is able to see guilt in his actions and whether he strives to fulfill his obligations.
- Tell us, what important task did your manager entrust to you?
- Demonstrate a situation where you took responsibility, but soon realized that you overestimated your capabilities.
- Think back to a time when you failed to achieve a goal.
Employee motivation
To assess whether the candidate is able to help the employee cope with the situation and give him motivation for fruitful work, the applicant needs to answer the proposed questions.
- Tell me about a time when you needed to get more performance out of an employee.
- Tell us how your subordinate lost interest in work.
The questions presented will help identify the candidate’s ability to provide assistance in a team to achieve a common task, and the desire to put forward his own ideas for solving the issues raised.
- Remember how you had to team up with employees to solve a common problem.
- Tell us a situation when it was most difficult for you to work in a team?
Result oriented
The following questions will help to assess a person’s ability to set goals and achieve them, despite any obstacles.
- Think back to a time when work on a project was not productive.
- Tell us about a time when you set a big goal for yourself and achieved it despite obstacles.
- Do you consider yourself persistent? How much?
- Tell us when your persistence came in handy.
Planning and organization
The questions presented will help to identify how the candidate is able to plan things and make decisions on organizing activities aimed at implementing the project.
- Tell us about your experience in planning and implementing tasks and projects.
- Tell us how you calculated the budget for this project.
- How did you organize the work to implement the project?
- Did you encounter any difficulties associated with the implementation of this project?
A competent interviewer, after analyzing the answers, determines how suitable the candidate is for a specific position.
A competency-based interview is an effective method of personnel selection that can assess the main qualities of an applicant on which the successful functioning of an organization depends: leadership, initiative, responsibility, ability to work in a team, ability to set goals and achieve them, etc.
In contact with
"Personnel officer. Personnel records management", 2009, N 2
We create an electronic test to assess the competencies of document specialists
The modern economy places increasing demands on the professional training of personnel involved in documenting the activities of both commercial and non-profit organizations. Choosing an effective method for assessing personnel qualifications becomes a vital task for the organization. Assessment of business and personal qualities is carried out during hiring, training of personnel, as well as in the process of personnel control and strategic personnel planning. The article describes the principles and methods of developing computer testing of knowledge in documentation support of management.
Successful management of any process, enterprise, or business is impossible without the use of modern technologies for document management support (hereinafter referred to as DOU).
Preschool education as a field of activity exists in a developing information society under the influence of information technology (hereinafter referred to as IT) and scientific and technical achievements in the field of informatization.
With the development of new forms of economic relations, managers increasingly began to realize that they can only entrust a preschool educational institution to an organization (firm) to a professionally trained specialist. This understanding of the role of the preschool educational institution came in market conditions, when incorrect actions of employees of preschool educational institutions can lead to significant economic losses. In order to select the right personnel for the preschool educational institution service, the manager must have in his hands a “tool” for assessing them.
It should be noted that all employees of the organization work with documents. Documents are always created solely for some purpose: either to consolidate information when performing assigned tasks, or at the request of regulatory authorities.
A specialist working with documents must have professional competence, defined as a combination of theoretical and practical skills.
Competence should not be opposed to professional qualifications, but also should not be identified with it. The term “competence” serves to designate the integrated characteristics of the quality of a specialist’s training, the category of the result of his education.
A competent document specialist must not only know the essence of the organization’s preschool education problem, but also be able to solve it practically using the current regulatory framework and the most suitable IT. In addition, competence presupposes constant updating of knowledge, mastery of new information for successful application in specific conditions.
We must strive to ensure that the language of competencies and their “nomenclature” (composition, list) are understandable to various professional and social groups and are clearly perceived by all participants in business relations.
To find out the opinions of employers about the importance of certain competencies among employees involved in preschool education in various organizations, you can offer a questionnaire (Fig. 1).
Fragment of the questionnaire
for assessing document specialist competencies by employers
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Questionnaire |
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Competencies of a preschool educational institution employee |
The importance of competencies |
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1. Professional competencies |
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Knowledge of government information policy |
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Ability to apply regulatory |
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Ability to apply normative methodological |
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Ability to create local regulatory |
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Ability to initiate policy in the area |
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Date of filling out the form: _______________ |
Core competencies are related to the strategic priorities and values of the enterprise in the field of preschool education and are applicable to all office staff.
Of the many methods for assessing office staff, testing is the most cost-effective. The rapid development of IT has caused a wave of interest in computer training and testing. Testing is one of the most technologically advanced forms of automated control with controlled quality parameters. In this sense, none of the known forms of monitoring students’ knowledge can compare with testing.
Currently, quite a lot of knowledge testing systems have been developed. To assess the knowledge of subjects, the following types of test tasks are usually used:
Open form, when the task requires the subject to give an arbitrary answer to the question posed;
Closed form, when the subject is asked to choose the correct answer from several possible ones. Varieties of closed form include tests for compliance presented in a certain way and tests for establishing the correct sequence.
Computer-based testing most often uses closed-form, single-choice tests, as well as matching and sequencing tests. The use of one form or another of test items, their presentation (for example, the use of graphics in questions and answers) and methods for assessing test results are related to the capabilities of the software shell.
The widespread use of computer tests is hampered primarily by the need to include components in the software that ensure user communication with the system in a professional dialect of natural language. As is known, to date the problem of creating such components has not found a final solution, primarily due to its great complexity.
To reduce the test taker’s familiarity with the test, open-type questions can be used in tests that require a definition of a term that is uniquely understood in the subject area. The most important terms and their definitions are presented in regulatory documents at various levels, primarily in federal laws and GOSTs. For example, the terminology of the preschool education sector includes terms that denote everything related to the processes of creating documents, their processing, retrieval, storage, and use. They are enshrined in a number of federal laws, primarily in the Federal Law of July 27, 2006 N 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” and in the State Standard fixing the terms in the field of general office work (GOST R 51141-98) .
In order to ensure control over the memorization of terms, you will need a simple set of questions on this topic. There is quite a lot of experience of this kind at the moment. There are many test programs offered, the questions of which for the most part fall into the closed category.
However, what is more important when learning in any subject area is understanding rather than rote memorization. Although if we consider this problem more broadly, the learning goals can be divided into 6 large groups (B. Bloom's classification scale (taxonomy): 1) memorization; 2) understanding; 3) application; 4) analysis; 5) synthesis; 6) assessment.
Moreover, the complexity of the tasks that a student can solve increases as he moves from the level of simple memorization of factual material to the ability to assess the factual validity of various points of view. These 6 groups of learning goals constitute a ladder to complete mastery of theoretical knowledge.
To ensure a more competent assessment of knowledge of terms in any field, it is necessary to monitor the degree of implementation of all of the above learning objectives by choosing the most effective method of presenting knowledge.
One of the main problems is the optimal combination of two contradictory concepts: the generality of the knowledge representation system and the efficiency of its use. The fact is that the more general the knowledge representation model is used, the less effective it is in terms of the speed of finding a solution.
All knowledge representation models can be divided into the following classes: declarative; procedural; special. Each class of models has certain properties that distinguish it from others. Each class of models can have its own subclasses (Fig. 2). The task of implementing automated control of knowledge of the terminological basis can be solved using a database (hereinafter referred to as the DB).
Classification of knowledge representation models
┌───────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ Declarative │ │Procedural│ │ Special │
└───────┬───────┘ └───────┬──────┘ └──────┬───────┘
┌───────┼────────┐ │ ┌──────┼───────┐
│ │ │ │ \│/ │ \│/
\│/ │ \│/ \│/ ┌──────┴─────┐│┌──────┴─────┐
┌──────┴──────┐│┌───────┴──────┐┌──────┴─ ────┐│Using││ │Using│
│Production│││ Reduction ││ Planner ││ relational│││ algebra │
└─────────────┘│└──────────────┘└──────── ────┘│ algebra ││ │ fuzzy │
│ │ │││ sets │
│ └────────────┘│└────────────┘
│ ┌──────┴───────┐
\│/ \│/ \│/
┌────────┴────────┐ ┌──────┴──────┐┌──────┴─────┐
│ Predicate │ │Semantic││Frame networks│
│ │ │ networks ││ │
└─────────────────┘ └─────────────┘└────────────┘
For this reason, in recent years, a direction that was the subject of active research in the late 70s - early 80s of the last century has developed - semantic, or conceptual, modeling in databases. Its main goal is to organize the end user interface with the information system at the level of software ideas, and not at the level of data structures. Interest in this area has increased due to the development of computer-aided database design tools based on CASE technologies.
Dictionary of personnel records management. CASE technology is a software package that automates the technological process of analysis, design, development and maintenance of complex software systems.
CASE technology supports teamwork on a project through:
Using the capabilities of the local network;
Export/import of any project fragments.
Frame (English frame - frame, frame) - in the most general case, this word denotes a structure containing some information in web design: an area of the browser window for presenting a separate web page.
Dictionary of personnel records management. Modern CASE tools cover a wide range of support for numerous information system design technologies: from simple analysis and documentation tools to full-scale automation tools covering the entire software life cycle.
Typically, CASE tools include any software tool that automates one or another set of processes in the software life cycle and has the following main characteristic features:
Powerful graphical tools for describing and documenting information systems, providing a convenient interface with the developer and developing his creative capabilities;
Integration of individual components of CASE tools, ensuring controllability of the information systems development process;
Using a specially organized repository of project metadata.
When it is necessary to control not just memorization, but understanding of definitions (terms of the professional field), then when organizing testing it is important to take into account the semantic relationships that exist between the terms.
Any terminological standard consists of a set of definitions of terms that have different semantic connections. When building a semantic network to represent knowledge about terms, semantic connections will connect individual terms rather than expressions, unlike, for example, representing knowledge using frames. This means that with the help of the semantic network, building an automated testing system aimed at testing knowledge of terms and their relationships will be most convenient.
If you analyze the definitions of terms, you will notice that they consist of 3 fragments: 1) the terms themselves, which are established by the normative act; 2) words that are not defined in this normative act, but are essential for understanding the meaning of the term; 3) words that are necessary to construct a phrase.
Thus, the tops of the network should be terms that are established by a normative act (law, standard), and words that are not considered in it, but which are also fundamental and without them it is impossible to clearly convey the meaning of the definition. Let's call these vertices terms and auxiliary concepts, respectively.
The semantic connections between terms can also be classified.
The definition of one term may include a concept that is established by a normative act, i.e. another basic term. These are, for example, the terms “document” and “media”. The term "documented information carrier" is defined by the standard and participates in the definition of the term "document". We will call such a connection a connection of the “includes (on)” type.
Along with this, the definition may include a concept that is not defined in the standard, but which is fundamental, i.e. auxiliary concept. For example, "document" and "information". The concept of “information” is involved in the definition of the term “document” and is fundamental, but is not considered in GOST R 51141-98. We will call such a connection a connection of the “means (omn)” type.
There are cases where a term is defined as part of another term. Here we are talking about basic terms, such as, for example, “props” and “document”. By definition, a prop is part of the document. Therefore, we will call such semantic connections connections of the “included (in)” type.
Based on the content of the normative act, we can conclude that some terms are synonyms, thus, when determining the relationship between terms, you can use the “synonym (syn)” relationship. So, for example, concepts such as “office work” and “preschool educational institution” can be distinguished as synonyms.
If to describe a term it is necessary to use additional terms or auxiliary concepts that are an integral component of the term being described, it is advisable to use the connection “has (it)”. This type of connection exists between such concepts as “office work”, “documentation”, “organization of work with documents”.
Finally, several terms may be variations of a single term. So, for example, the terms “visual document”, “graphic document”, “audiovisual document”, “film document”, “photo document”, “iconographic document”, etc. are variations of the term "document". We will call such semantic connections connections of the “maybe (maybe)” type.
In table 1 shows the types of semantic connections that are proposed to be used in the network, and their designations when constructing the structure of the network.
Table 1
Introduced types of semantic connections and their designation
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ Designation of the type of connection │ Explanation of the designation │
││ Term │ on │ Term ││Relationship “includes” - definition│
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││of the term includes │
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││basic term │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│┌────────────────┐ ┎ - │
││ Term │ meaning │ Term ││the definition of the term includes │
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││auxiliary concept, │
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││describing term │
│└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘│ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐│ │
││ Term │ in │ Term ││Communication “in” - one term │
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││is defined as part of another│
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││term │
│└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘│ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐│ │
││ Term │ m.b.│ Term ││Connection “maybe” - several│
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││terms are │
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││varieties of one term│
│└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘│ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐│ │
││ Term │ im │ Term ││Connection “has” - one term │
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││contains a mandatory │
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││component │
│└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘│ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐│ │
││ Term │ syn │ Term ││The connection “synonym” means │
││(auxiliary├─────>│(auxiliary││that one term is │
││ concept) │ │ concept) ││synonym of another term │
│└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
Having studied the main problems of the organization and technology of preschool educational institutions, the semantic model of concepts can be built according to four main concepts: a semantic model with the key concept “Document” - concept, classification, types; a semantic model with the key concept of “Office work”, which, according to GOST R 51141-98, includes the concepts of “Documentation” and “Organization of work with documents”.
The relationship of terms with different types of connections is shown in Fig. 3 and 4.
Fragment of the semantic network with the “Document” vertex
┌──────────────┐
┌────────────────────┤ Document │<────────────────────┐
│ └───────┬──────┴───────────────────┐ │
\│/ \│/ \│/│
┌────────┴───────┐ ┌────────┴───────┐ ┌─────┴─┴──────┐
│ Information │ │ Media │ │ Props │
└────────────────┘ └────────────────┘ └──────────────┘
Fragment of the semantic web using
"maybe" connections
┌────────────────┐
│ Document │
└───┬┬┬──┬──┬┬┬──┘
┌───────────────────┐ m.b. │││ │ │││ m.b. ┌────────────────────────┐
│ pictorial │<────────┘││ │ ││└───────>│ electronic document │
└───────────────────┘ ││ │ ││ └────────────────────────┘
┌───────────────────┐ m.b. ││ │ ││ m.b. ┌────────────────────────┐
│ photographic document │<─────────┘│ │ │└────────>│ phonological document │
└───────────────────┘ │ │ │ └────────────────────────┘
┌───────────────────┐ m.b. │ │ │ m.b. ┌────────────────────────┐
│ sound recording │<──────────┘ │ └─────────>│ video document │
└───────────────────┘ │ m.b. └────────────────────────┘
┌──────────┴─────────┐
│ text document │
└────────────────────┘
The concept of “document” includes two terms: “props is a mandatory element of the design of an official document” and “a carrier of documented information is a material object used for fixing and storing speech, sound or visual information on it, including in transformed form”, defined terminological standard, as well as the concept of “information”, which is not defined by it. All these concepts are an integral part of the concept of a document and are defined by the “has” relationship.
The documentation process is defined by GOST as recording information on various media according to established rules.
Documentation includes such concepts as the procedure for drawing up documents (requirements for the text of documents), requirements for the execution of documents (requirements for document forms, the procedure for addressing, agreeing, signing, approving, putting marks on a document). In many cases, documentation is mandatory and required by law (Figure 5).
Fragment of the semantic network with a basic concept
"Documentation"
┌────────────────┐
┌─────────────────┤Documentation├──────────┐
im │ └────────────────┘ │ im
┌─────────┴─────────┐ ┌───────────┴───────────┐
│Compilation procedure│ │Requirements for registration│
│ documents │ ┌──────┤ documents │
on │ └───┬────────┬─── ─────┬─┘
im │ \│/ │ \│/ on │
\│/ ┌───────┴───────┐ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ │
┌─────────┴─────────┐ │Document form│ │ │ Order │ │ on
│Text requirements│ └───────────────┘ │ │addressing│ │
│ documents │ on │ └───────────┘ \│/
└───────────────────┘ \│/ ┌─────┴───────┐
┌──────────────────┴──────┐ │ Marks │
│Agreement, signing,│ │on the document│
│ document approval │ └─────────────┘
└─────────────────────────┘
In the practice of documentation, general requirements have developed for the texts of documents. First of all, the test taker must know that the official document is intended to induce some action, to convince.
Requirements for the text of documents are displayed on the network (Fig. 6).
Fragment of a semantic network with a vertex
"Procedure for drawing up documents"
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│Procedure for drawing up documents│
└──────────────┬───────────────┘
┌──────────────┴───────────────┐
im \│/ \│/ im
┌─────────────┴─────────────────┐ ┌──┴──┐
│ Requirements for the text of the document ├─────┐ │ F │
└─────────────┬─────────────────┘ │ └─────┘
├────────────────┐ │
┌───────────────────┐ │ VKL \ │/ └─── parade
│Argumentation│<────┤ ┌─────┴────┐ вкл │
└───────────────────┘ │ │ Circle │ │
┌───────────────────┐ on │ └─────┬────┘ │
│ Logical │<────┤ м. б. ┌────────┴───────┐ м. б. │
└───────────────────┘ │ \│/ \│/ │
on │ ┌────┴────┐ ┌────┴ ────┐ │
│ Completeness │<────┤ │ Один │ │Несколько│ │
└───────────────────┘ │ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ \│/
┌───────────────────┐ on │ im /│\ im /│\ ┌────┴────┐
│ Objectivity │<────┤ ┌────┴────┐ ┌────┴────┐ │Структура│
└───────────────────┘ │ │ Simple │ │ Complex │ │ text │
┌───────────────────┐ on │ │ document│ │ document│ └────┬────┘
│Clarity in presentation│<────┤ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ │
└───────────────────┘ on
┌───────────────────┐ on │ \│/ \│/
│ Precision of presentation│<────┤ ┌───┴───┐ ┌─────┴───┐
└───────────────────┘ │ │Sections│ │Semantic│
┌───────────────────┐ on │ │ │ │ parts │
│Brief presentation│<────┤ ┌──────────┐ └───┬───┘ └─────────┘
└───────────────────┘ │ │Subsections│<─────┤ вкл
┌───────────────────┐ on │ └──────────┘ │
│ Reliability │<────┘ ┌──────────┐ │ вкл
│ information │ │ Items │<─────┘
└───────────────────┘ └──────────┘
The introduced types of semantic connections make it possible to link into a semantic network all the basic terms in the field of preschool education, which specialists involved in office work must know.
In addition, the structural features of the semantic network make it possible to construct from concepts corresponding to network nodes sentences that describe some of the processes that take place in preschool educational institutions of organizations and enterprises.
Such sentences can be considered as a condition for the occurrence of some event or as its result. To systematize information of such content, a model based on “if... then” rules (production model) can be used.
As an example, we will build a production model using the example of the process of processing incoming correspondence.
The nodes of the network are specific statements, which can consist of one or more nodes of the semantic model, i.e. contain one or more concepts from the semantic network.
Having analyzed the stages of processing incoming documents, it is necessary to group the selected nodes and additional statements into a table. Each node of the production network is assigned a serial number, depending on the sequence of execution of each of them.
In accordance with regulatory documents, work with incoming correspondence begins with checking the correctness of delivery. Erroneously delivered documents are returned to the post office for forwarding to the addressee. It follows from this that the first node of the production network is the statement: “Reception and preliminary processing of documents.” It should be assigned the number 2. Pre-processing, in turn, involves “checking that the document has been delivered correctly.” This statement is assigned number 3, etc. (Table 2).
table 2
Example of characteristics of network nodes simulating operation
with incoming correspondence
|
Statement |
|
|
The document is incoming |
|
|
Reception and primary processing of documents is carried out |
|
|
The correct delivery of the document is checked |
|
|
The document was delivered incorrectly |
|
|
The document was delivered to the address |
|
|
The document is returned to the sender |
|
|
The integrity of the packaging is checked |
|
|
Packaging damage is detected |
|
|
The completeness and safety of attachments are checked |
|
|
A violation of the completeness or safety of attachments was detected |
|
|
Violations in the completeness and safety of investments are not |
|
|
Documents are being registered |
|
|
Preliminary review and distribution is carried out |
|
|
Making a decision to submit a document for consideration |
|
|
The document bears the resolution of the head of the organization |
|
|
Information about the |
|
|
A mark of execution is given |
|
|
Submitting the document to the case |
|
|
The document is being sent |
It should also be noted that a feature of the production model is that when performing certain actions, a specific statement can be the result of these actions and at the same time is the basis for performing subsequent actions.
In other words, the same statement can appear in the model in the “THEN” part (i.e., be the result of a previous action), and then in the “IF” part (i.e., be a condition, the fulfillment of which generates a specific result).
When composing statements that are nodes of the network, key concepts are used that are the tops of the semantic network, auxiliary concepts that are not used in the network, as well as prepositions and conjunctions used to connect words (Table 3).
Table 3
Examples of definitions participating in the product network
|
Number |
Concepts, statements, |
Auxiliary |
Unions, prepositions, |
|
Incoming document |
Implemented |
||
|
Reception and primary processing |
Delivered |
||
|
Checking the correct delivery |
|||
|
Checking the integrity of the package |
|||
|
Preliminary review and |
Package |
||
|
Execution of the document |
Damaged |
||
|
Execution mark |
Reported |
||
|
Collection of information |
Sender |
||
|
Registration of documents |
The decision was made |
||
|
Outgoing document |
Placing |
||
|
Referral to the case |
|||
|
Sending a document |
Intelligence |
||
|
Document |
|||
|
Checking the completeness and |
Written response |
||
|
Transfer of the document to the contractor |
Supervisor |
||
|
Executor |
Attachments |
||
|
Control |
Detection |
||
|
Coordination |
Is |
We construct each statement of the rule network using numbered words. For example, the sentence corresponding to node number 1 (“Incoming document”) corresponds to code A1, because the concept "Incoming document" is part of the concepts used in the semantic network.
The sentence “The document was delivered to the address”, and accordingly the network node 4a can be represented as the following combination: A15, B2, C1, B3.
This information is used later to build a subsystem for editing and updating knowledge in an automated knowledge testing system.
Analysis of the data obtained shows that to study a certain process in office work, knowledge and use of the basic terminology presented in the semantic model is not enough. In order to build with the help of terms, and then test knowledge of the logical chain of actions, it is necessary to use auxiliary concepts that are not enshrined in regulatory documents.
From the statements discussed above, a production network is created, which takes into account the logical connections between statements. The network consists of nodes and arcs. Nodes correspond to statements, and arcs are determined by cause-and-effect relationships between statements.
Thus, the use of a production model, or a rule-based model, which is based on the semantic network, allows you to create an automated testing system and test knowledge not only of definitions of terms, but also test the test taker’s ability to independently make decisions in critical situations related to preschool educational institutions , which will be included in the production model. A prerequisite for ensuring the ability to adapt the testing system to the required competencies is to establish a correspondence between the elements of the list of these competencies and subsets of the vertices of the semantic network. Depending on the importance of competencies, determined by the requirements of a particular enterprise, the order of activation of focuses during testing is formed, as well as the testing strategy for a specific employee.
Literature
1. Fionova L.R. On the issue of assessing the professional competence of specialists working with documents // Monthly professional magazine "Secretary Affairs", 2006, No. 2, p. 46 - 51.
2. Bidenko V.I. Competence-based approach to the design of State Educational Standards of Higher Professional Education: Methodological manual. - M.: Research Center for Problems of Quality of Training of Specialists, 2005.
3. Watersan D. Guide to expert systems: Trans. from English - M.: Mir, 1989. - 388 p.
4. Fionova L.R., Usmanova I.V., Khusyainova D.B. Intellectualization of professional testing of the level of training of managers of the XXI century // Training of management personnel in the XXI century: Proceedings of the II All-Russian scientific and practical conference / Ed. I.V. Rezanovich. - Chelyabinsk: SUSU Publishing House, 2004, p. 203 - 207.
5. Fionova L.R., Usmanova I.V. Application of the concept of competencies for the development of knowledge testing systems // In the book: "University education MKUO - 2007", XI International Conf., Penza, PSU, 2007, p. 202 - 204.
L. Fionova
Professor,
Head of Department
"Information Support
management and production"
Penza State
university
Signed for seal
- 1. The components of competence do not include:
- a) management;
- b) human resource management;
- c) leadership;
- d) responsibilities.
- 2. Conscious incompetence is:
- a) low productivity, lack of perception of differences in components or actions; the employee does not know what he does not know, what knowledge and skills he needs;
- b) low productivity, recognition of shortcomings and weaknesses; the employee realizes what he lacks for successful work;
- c) improved performance, conscious efforts aimed at more effective actions; the employee is able to consciously adjust his activities.
- 3. Professional competence does not include:
- a) functional competence;
- b) intellectual competence;
- c) conscious competence;
- d) social competence.
- 4. In the structure of professional competence, the following are not included in the qualification elements:
- a) behavior;
- b) knowledge;
- c) skills;
- d) skills.
- 5. There is no type of competence:
- a) individual;
- b) corporate;
- c) key;
- d) mixed.
- 6. A type of competency whose main components are productivity, equity, sustainability and empowerment:
- a) individual;
- b) corporate;
- c) key;
- d) mixed.
- 7. Author of the first approach to determining corporate competence:
- a) M. Armstrong;
- b) M.K. Rumizen;
- c) R. Boyatzis;
- d) G. Kannak.
- 8. Competence is:
- a) the employee’s ability to coordinate his activities with colleagues and be useful to team members;
- b) knowledge, abilities and skills;
- c) a certain personality characteristic necessary to perform certain work and allowing its owner to obtain the necessary results of work;
- d) the ability of an individual who has the personal characteristics to solve work problems to obtain the necessary work results.
- 9. Is not a carrier of competencies:
- a) employee;
- b) industry;
- c) organization;
- d) living organism.
- 10. Individual competence is:
- a) the degree of mastery of techniques for self-realization and individual development within the profession, readiness for professional growth, the ability for individual self-preservation, non-susceptibility to professional aging, the ability to rationally organize one’s work without overloading time and effort;
- b) a system of interrelated knowledge, skills and abilities, personal characteristics, motivations, as well as behavioral patterns based on this, allowing the employee to effectively perform the tasks assigned to the employee in a given workplace at a given point in time;
- c) the competence of personnel at the level necessary for the organization to achieve its main goals: economic, scientific, technical, production, commercial and social;
- d) integration of abilities, skills, abilities, i.e. synthesis of knowledge covering all the skills available in the relevant key departments of the organization, located at the center, rather than at the periphery, of its competitive success.
Test 2
- 1. Competence is:
- a) knowledge, abilities, skills;
- b) a certain personality characteristic necessary to perform certain work and allowing its owner to obtain the necessary results of work;
- c) the ability of an individual who has the personal characteristics to solve work problems to obtain the necessary work results;
- 2. Substitution of the competencies of the ZUV or PVK threatens:
- a) receiving invalid results;
- b) obtaining a conflict situation that reduces the result to zero;
- c) discrepancy between the amount of costs and the results obtained;
- d) the fact that the results obtained in the process of applying the model will be fragmentary in nature and will not provide the desired quality of work.
- d) professionally important qualities: individual qualities of the subject of activity that affect the effectiveness of the activity and the success of its development.
- 4. An extremely large set of competencies can lead to:
- a) to obtain a conflict situation that reduces the result to zero;
- b) to simple values of the costs of operating the model relative to the results of its application;
- c) to a discrepancy between the amount of costs and the results obtained;
- d) the impossibility of obtaining valid results.
- 5. The competency model is:
- a) a structured set of necessary, identifiable and measurable competencies with behavioral indicators;
- b) a structured detailed description of the job position based on professional competencies;
- c) a set of competencies that allows an employee to perform his professional job responsibilities as efficiently as possible;
- d) a set of competencies interconnected into a single semantic block.
- 6. The reason for the defective operation of the competency model when faced with a conflict situation that reduces the result to zero is:
- a) lack of understanding of the usefulness of the competency model among the organization’s personnel;
- b) an extremely large set of competencies;
- c) incomplete in the structure of competence;
- d) immeasurability of competencies.
- 7. Behavior indicators are:
- a) professionally important qualities: individual qualities of the subject of activity that affect the effectiveness of the activity and the success of its development;
- b) standards of behavior that correspond to the effective actions of an employee with a specific competence;
- c) a structured detailed description of the job position based on professional competencies;
- d) the ability of an individual who has the personal characteristics to solve work problems to obtain the necessary work results.
- 8. Consequences of immeasurable competencies:
- a) impossibility of obtaining valid results;
- b) obtaining invalid results;
- c) obtaining a conflict situation that reduces the result to zero;
- d) simple values of the costs of operating the model relative to the results of its application.
- 9. A defect in the competency model that is eliminated in the process of “running it in”:
- a) incomplete indicators of behavior;
- b) discrepancy between the model configuration and the purposes of its application;
- c) repeatability of competencies;
- d) an extremely large set of competencies.
- 10. Method for eliminating the defect of the competency model “repeatability of competencies”:
- a) improve the information collection process;
- b) inform personnel using all corporate information channels available in the organization;
- c) double-check the presence of all its elements in the competence structure;
- d) check using the method of paired comparisons.
Test 3
- 1. Possibilities of using the competency model in recruitment:
- a) drawing up a collective agreement;
- b) preparation of vacancy announcements;
- c) drawing up a plan for labor standardization.
- 2. The report on assessing the effectiveness of work execution includes:
- a) interpersonal relationships in a team;
- b) the main character traits of the employee;
- c) recommendations for further development of the employee.
- 4. Assessment center is:
- a) assessing the competencies of participants by observing their actual behavior in business games;
- b) a center for assessing the competencies of participants through comprehensive testing.
- 5. The assessment center allows you to evaluate:
- a) level of development of competencies;
- b) the employee’s income level;
- c) the socio-psychological state of the employee.
- 6. The procedure included in the Assessment Center is:
- a) sports competitions;
- b) structured interview;
- c) career guidance.
- 7. There are three types of Assessment Center:
- a) circular, one-sided, shortened;
- b) straight, double-sided, universal.
- 8. The competency-based assessment method is called:
- a) “180°” technique;
- b) “365°” technique;
- c) “360°” technique.
- 9. List the three reference groups of the “360°” technique:
- a) group “top”, “side”, “bottom”;
- b) group “above”, “behind”, “around”;
- c) group “top”, “side”, “behind”.
- 10. How many stages does the “360°” technique include:
- a) three;
- b) five;
- at four.
Test 4
- 1. The elements of competence include:
- a) general knowledge, professional knowledge, professional skills, communication skills, management skills;
- b) motivation, general knowledge, professional skills;
- c) general knowledge, professional knowledge; professional skills, communication skills;
- d) professional skills, communication skills, management skills.
- 2. Sequence of steps when constructing a model of personal competencies according to G. Hamel and K. Prahalad:
- a) model of the organization’s business processes, organization strategy, model of personal competencies, key business competencies;
- b) key business competencies, strategy of the organization, model of the organization’s business processes, model of personal competencies;
- c) key business competencies, a model of the organization’s business processes, the organization’s strategy, a model of personal competencies;
- d) model of the organization’s business processes, model of personal competencies, key business competencies, strategy of the organization.
- 3. Professional knowledge is:
- 4. For each competency, a scale is drawn up, including five levels. The first level is called:
- a) level of incompetence;
- b) level of limited competence;
- c) basic;
- d) high competence.
- 5. Levels of competency management are:
- a) personality level;
- b) level of organization, level of personality;
- c) level of organization;
- d) level of management of the organization.
- b) a certain personal characteristic necessary to perform certain work, allowing its owner to obtain the necessary results of work;
- c) standards of behavior that correspond to the effective actions of the employee;
- d) knowledge, abilities, skills.
- 7. A system that includes the concept, program and organization of the educational process is called:
- a) system for creating a job profile;
- b) system of personal competencies;
- c) development of professional competence;
- d) organizational and corporate competencies.
- 8. General knowledge is:
- a) knowledge acquired in professional activities;
- b) skills necessary to perform functional duties;
- c) presentation and self-presentation skills;
- d) knowledge gained as a result of basic education and self-education.
- 9. Author of the book “Competing for the Future”:
- a) G. Hamel;
- b) K. Prahalad;
- c) R. Boyatzis;
- d) G. Hamel, K. Prahalad.
- 10. The job profile is:
- a) a detailed description of the job position based on professional competencies;
- b) standards of behavior that correspond to effective action;
- c) important qualities for the profession, regardless of a particular organization;
- d) a behavioral characteristic that affects job performance.
Test 5
- 1. A logical description of the elements and functions of competencies applied in an organization is:
- a) competency model;
- b) competence;
- c) behavior indicator;
- d) cluster of competencies.
- 2. The competency profile is:
- a) a convenient tool that allows you to work with the competency model, actually representing its fragment;
- b) grouping of competencies into clusters and levels;
- c) a set of competencies that an employee must have corresponding to the position held;
- d) basic standards of behavior.
- 3. The competency profile is drawn up in the form of a figure:
- a) circle;
- b) diagrams;
- c) square;
- d) parabolas.
- 4. The competency model is most often used in the following areas:
- a) business;
- b) accounting;
- c) personnel management;
- d) research activities.
- 5. The type of specific activity through which the competency model works is:
- a) planning;
- b) model;
- c) method;
- d) function.
- 6. The competency model is used:
- a) in assessing and managing the performance of employees;
- b) in the formation of a corporate culture that corresponds to the strategic goals of the organization;
- c) in the development of job descriptions;
- d) in developing a plan for the employee’s career growth.
- 8. A competency model that contains basic standards of behavior and a set of behavioral indicators that is the same for all positions is:
- a) competencies without level;
- b) competencies by level;
- c) precise competencies;
- d) two-level competencies.
- 9. The qualitative content of the competency model must meet the following criteria:
- a) immeasurability of competencies;
- b) maximum set of competencies with repetitions and overlaps;
- c) high level of development of competencies;
- d) compliance with the strategic goals of the organization.
- 10. The ability of an individual with a personal characteristic to solve work problems is:
- a) competence;
- b) competence;
- c) behavior indicator;
- d) standard of behavior.
- Competence is: a) knowledge, abilities, mastery of skills; b) a certain personality characteristic necessary to perform certain work and allowing its owner to obtain the necessary results of work; c) the ability of an individual who has the personal characteristics to solve work problems to obtain the necessary work results;
- Factors influencing the employee’s performance (select the odd one out): a) home; b) organizational; c) managerial; d) personal; d) evaluative.
- Competence is: a) a mechanism that allows you to turn strategic business imperatives into models of effective behavior of enterprise employees: from managers to workers;
- The content of competency models includes: a) planning; b) a full set of competencies and behavior indicators; c) innovative technologies; d) levels of competence.
One of the most pressing issues of our time is how to assess the quality of professional training of students and graduates of colleges and technical schools. It is clear that this requires new methods and tools, cost-effective and easy-to-use procedures. And as it turned out, they already exist. Thus, in St. Petersburg, the small innovative enterprise “Academy of Information Technologies” has developed and put into practice several computer systems (programs) that make it possible to quickly diagnose the level of leading professional competencies of students studying in the specialties “Medical Optics” and “Emergency Medical Assistant” , “Laboratory Diagnostics”, as well as employees of relevant profiles (more details - www.ait.spb.ru). Similar systems can be created for many other specialties, thereby helping to improve the quality of vocational education and informatize the process of assessing the competence of workers.
A new method for diagnosing the professionalism of mid-level specialists is presented by the General Director of the Academy of Information Technologies, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Alexander KHODAKOV, Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Petersburg Colleges, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Viktor SMIRNOV and Executive Director of the Board of Directors of St. Petersburg Colleges, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation Roman PAKHALYUK.
We proceed from the fact that a specialist is an integral subject of professional activity, possessing a set of special competencies. Considering that in practice professional activity is a set of typical, repetitive tasks and problems solved by a specialist, we can propose such a working definition of professional competencies as the willingness (ability) of an employee to independently analyze on the basis of consciously acquired knowledge, skills, acquired experience, and all his internal resources and practically solve significant professional problems, typical tasks (problem situations).
To conduct professional diagnostics, you should use a set of leading final competencies for a specific specialty. Let's say it will be an emergency medical technician. For this specialty, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor I.P. Minnullin identified 10 leading final competencies: conceptual, diagnostic, technical-diagnostic, pharmacological, educational-manipulative, technical-hardware, treatment-tactical, organizational-tactical, psychological and deontological. All of them meet the basic requirements of the professional standard and together can serve as a comprehensive assessment of competence, that is, show the level of professional preparedness and compliance with the requirements of modern practice of both a graduate student and a specialist who has worked for many years in a medical institution. In other words, these are competencies that reflect the outcome of mastering a profession. They must be logically connected with “modular” ones, intended for ongoing monitoring of the educational process and tied to individual educational modules provided for by the new educational standards. Leading final competencies generalize “modular” ones and integrate them.
For rapid diagnostics of professional competencies in computer programs, special test systems are used. This or that test models a specific production or cognitive situation in which the test taker must comprehend a typical professional problem, show his understanding of its essence and suggest ways of the correct and best solution. It does not involve any speculative questions with a list of ready-made answers, among which false judgments predominate.
Test tasks, if possible, are given such a character that the test taker has to actively think, perform some conditional actions, search for and make conscious decisions, maximally mobilizing his internal resources. They are intended not so much to measure specific knowledge, but to assess the level of understanding of the subject, the degree of maturity of his professional thinking.
Test items were developed by experienced specialists. In particular, for emergency medical assistants they were compiled by employees of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after. I.I. Dzhanelidze.
Completion of test tasks is assessed according to a single scheme:
- the number of correct (answers) solutions (A) is counted;
- the number of errors is counted (B);
- The time spent on completing the test task (T) is recorded.
For each subject, the program, at the user’s command, automatically calculates five different scores, reflecting various features of professional preparedness. The results are displayed in the form of tables and graphs.
The value of the main assessment for any competency - On is calculated using the following formula:
Where Amax is the maximum number of correct solutions for a given test. In all cases, it varies from 0 to 10. The sum of all grades is considered as the individual final grade (the maximum possible is 100).
In the process of testing the system, intended for ambulance specialists, 16 student trainees and 106 medical workers were tested. For both the first and second groups, the main scores turned out to be in the range from 43 to 74. On the one hand, this indicates the high measuring ability of the test systems used, which successfully record individual differences in the training of the examined students and workers, and on the other hand, the difference (heterogeneity) in the level of professional competence of both college graduates and staff. And in normal practice, this difference cannot be correctly recorded using traditional methods.
The program easily and quickly calculates the group (total) assessment of all competencies - Op (average value for a given sample). For students who are mastering the specialty “Emergency Medical Paramedic,” this score turned out to be 57.5, for medical workers - 70. The program also easily builds a profile of professional competencies for each group of people who have passed the test.
Figure 1. Group profile of professional competencies for students and emergency medical workers.
Thus, computer diagnostics makes it possible to obtain a detailed description of the level of preparedness of a group of students and at the same time see what was learned better and what was worse (strengths and weaknesses of training). If testing is carried out in the middle of the final year of study, it is possible to make timely adjustments to academic work and, in the remaining time, purposefully eliminate shortcomings in the preparation of graduates. And if we take into account that the program clearly ranks the tested individuals according to the value of the assessment and thus identifies the students who have mastered the competencies most and least well, it turns out that the head of the educational institution has the opportunity to draw a conclusion which professional tasks future specialists will be able to cope with successfully and which ones will challenge them. they have difficulties.
A profile of professional competencies (individual schedule) can be built for any test participant. It is only necessary that when entering the system, he fills out an electronic personal card, in which he indicates his last name, first name, and gender. Students note their course of study, and medical workers note their education and work experience in their specialty.
One click, and the user will see tables in which comparative assessments of competencies will be presented. Let us give as an example the data obtained as a result of testing a group of students at the St. Petersburg Medical-Technical College studying in the specialty “Medical Optics” (Table 1).
Table 1. Average ratings of professional competencies for students of different courses (53 people).
The information presented clearly shows the effect of professional training: the total (final) assessment of competence turns out to be noticeably higher among senior students.
The advantage of the developed computer program is that it is possible to analyze the dynamics of indicators related to different types of competencies. The table clearly shows that the greatest “increase” in professional preparedness comes from production, technological and instrumental competencies.
The program allows you to build tables that show the dynamics of an employee’s competence as his work experience increases (example in Table 2).
Table 2. Basic assessments of professional competencies of emergency medical workers with different length of service.
The table reveals the complex and contradictory dynamics of professional competence. The On score gradually increases when moving from the first group of health workers to the third. The most interesting thing: it seems that with the accumulation of a certain working experience, a specialist’s competence freezes at the achieved level, although he has very significant reserves for professional growth (an On score of 71 is not the limit of competence). Such information is extremely important for improving the system of advanced training of specialists.
Computer testing is a good tool for individual diagnostics of a student’s (specialist’s) professional preparedness.
For each subject who has passed the test, it is easy to obtain a personal profile of professional competence, since tables and graphs clearly reflect many important features of the preparedness of a particular graduate student or employee.
Note that the computer program allows you to additionally calculate (for each test) an assessment of the productivity of actions - Ra and an assessment of the accuracy of actions - Pb.
where As is the average number of correct answers in the sample
where Bs is the average number of errors in the sample
Personal data shows by what parameters a high level of student preparedness is observed, and by what parameters failures in preparation are detected. As an example, we present testing data for two students studying at St. Petersburg Medical College No. 3 in the specialty “Laboratory Diagnostics” (for ease of presentation, the names of competencies are not given):
Figure 2. Personal profiles of professional competencies of students A and B (Ra scores).
For all competencies, the testing results of student A turned out to be lower than the group average (all Ra scores are negative), with the worst results for competencies 2, 3 and 9. Student B has a different picture. With the exception of tests No. 1 and 4, the subject demonstrates results higher than the average for the sample.
For each student, you can build a competency profile using the Pb assessment. It will be a good basis for individual work.
Based on the results of professional competency testing, special tables are compiled. Below is a fragment of one of them - for an emergency medical assistant, whose main assessment of On was below the average value for the sample (Table 3).
Table 3. Assessments of professional competencies of emergency medical assistant.
For all competencies, with the exception of psychological, Ra's assessment is negative. The weakest point in the preparedness of this specialist is the performance of therapeutic manipulations: a low result combined with a large number of errors. He also faces considerable difficulties when working with technical and diagnostic equipment, as well as when solving organizational and tactical problems.
At the user's command, the program creates a meaningful six-page report for each person tested. This greatly simplifies the procedure for analyzing the results.
Personal results reflect important individual characteristics of workers and specialists. Slow and fast employees are detected; working carefully, accurately and making many professional mistakes; effective in solving certain professional tasks and insufficiently competent in some issues of their activities, etc. Based on these results, it is possible to more accurately determine the nature of the consulting assistance that a particular employee needs to improve his level of competence.
It is useful to conduct “entrance” testing of applicants for vacancies available in a given organization.
Both the educational institution and the production organization will greatly benefit if they introduce regular monitoring of the professional competence of graduate students and specialists.
Computer systems designed for diagnosing competencies are distinguished by their fundamental novelty, simplicity of technical solutions, ease of use, and great information and analytical capabilities.
In our opinion, the proposed methodological tool can be successfully used in the emerging certification and professional qualification centers, which are designed to carry out an independent examination of the level of preparedness of university and college graduates.