The article reveals scientific approaches to substantiating and developing technology to form social information competence of future Iraqi journalists based on using a dynamic pedagogical site. After pre-interviewing students of the Journalism Faculty at Al-Imam Al-Kadhim University College for Islamic Sciences in Baghdad, the authors came to the conclusion there are issues on defining the essence of social information competences. It is established that the majority of respondents do not feel satisfied with the conditions for forming these competences in the education institutions. At the same time, there were also positive trends as most future journalists recognized the importance of these professional competences for their professional development and had a desire to attend additional courses, including distance learning ones. Subsequently, the authors focused on social information competence of future journalists, which is a key issue according to European requirements. The authors describe the essence of this competence as an integrative quality of personality, which characterizes an ability to select, transform information and allows to organize effective professional communication on the basis of the use of modern communicative technologies in the process of individual or team work. Based on the analysis of literary sources, its components are determined: motivational, cognitive, operational and personal. The researchers came to the conclusion that it is necessary to develop a technology for forming social information competence of future journalists based on the use of modern information technologies. The necessity of technology implementation through the preparatory, motivational, operational and diagnostic correction stages was substantiated and its model was developed. The authors found that the main means of technology implementation should be a dynamic pedagogical site, which, unlike static, allows to expand technical possibilities by using such applications as photo galleries, RSS modules, forums, etc. Technically, it can be
created using Site builder. Further research will be aimed at improving the structure of the dynamic pedagogical site of the developed technology. 1 1.1
Globalization of modern society, economic changes cause the intensification of the
competent approach to training modern specialists. It is the level of its formation that
determines their competitiveness in the labor market. As a result, there is a need to
implement a competent paradigm in vocational education that involves radical changes
in methods, forms and means of learning [
They introduce fundamental changes in the professional training of future journalists as they allow to implement a person-centered approach on a high level of requirements in following the competence paradigm. However, at the present stage, there is a clear discrepancy between the growing demands of society for forming social and information competence of future journalists and the lack of development of the necessary technologies, based on effective information resources, in relevant higher education institutions in Iraq.
The purpose of the paper is to substantiate and develop the technology of shaping the social information competence of future Iraqi journalists based on the use of a dynamic pedagogical site. 1.2
Today, there is no doubt that the competency-based approach should become the basis
for fundamental changes in vocational education [
To obtain objective information on the state of implementing the competency-based approach in the training of future journalists at higher education institutions of Iraq, we carried out a questionnaire survey among the students of the Journalism Faculty at AlImam Al-Kadhim University College for Islamic Sciences in the city of Baghdad.
The reliability coefficient for the questionnaire had a value from 0.85 to 0.91 (for p < 0.01), which proves its high reliability.
The survey was carried out during the 2018–2019 school year. There were 58 students in the second year of study. According to the respondents data, the age ranged from 20 to 25; there were 35 male and 23 female students.
The questionnaire had sixteen questions, mostly closed-ended questions and some open-ended, which were meant for open answers of respondents. At this stage of the research we focused on guaranteeing students’ understanding of concepts “social” and “information” competencies. Next, there will be the results of the survey which students offered when answering open-ended questions (with the maximum of the original language).
The question “Do You know the concept of social competence?” got 85% positive answers. For the question “Are you aware of the concept of information competence?”, 97% of respondents chose “Yes”. From this, we concluded that most students are familiar with the concepts of “social competence” and “information competence”. But further, there was a certain contradiction. Providing an answer to the question “How would you define the concept of “social competence?”, 85% of respondents gave mostly chaotic answers, e.g. that it relates to the protection of people, especially those that have special needs. 5% of students understand this competence as “the ability to put the right person in the right place” and 10% did chose the option “I don’t know”.
More accurate responses were received from half of the respondents when answering the question about the essence of the concept “information competence”: 28% of respondents stated that “it is when a journalist has sufficient knowledge in collecting information”; and 22% said “it is when a journalist has a full understanding of scientific, social, or political information”. The other half of respondents chose the option “I don’t know”.
So, although most students have certain knowledge of “social” and “information” competence, as the answers to the first two questions proved, but they haven’t got necessary profound knowledge. As the additional survey showed, the reason for this was the lack of attention to these competencies when teaching professionally oriented disciplines.
The questionnaire had a task of ranking qualities according to their importance for a journalist: a. ability to study new ways of activity; b. the ability to make a decision; c. the ability to build communication; d. the ability to study situations in society; e. the ability to organize an individual and group work.
Unfortunately, only 46% of the respondents did the ranking task. Ranking the responses as the most important was as follows. “The ability to build communication” was number one in almost 58% of those who answered the question; “The ability to study situations in society” was number one for 23% of respondents; “The ability to study new ways of activity” was chosen by 11%; “The ability to make a decision” was the most important for only 4%; “The ability to organize individual and group work” was also chosen by 4% of the respondents. It’s crucial to emphasize that 54% of respondents did not answer this question. The results of the survey are in Figure 1. %70 s ten60 ond50 sep40 r fo30 s er 20 w sn10 A 0 the ability to build communication
the ability the ability to study situations to study new in society ways of activity
the ability to make the ability to a decision; organize an individual and group work When answering the question, “What, in your opinion, contributes to the formation of social competence?”, the answers were as follows: 10% chose the disciplines of Civil freedom and Sociology; 4% – Culture of freedom; 86% chose the option “I don’t know”. When answering the question, “What, in your opinion, contributes to the formation of information competence?”, 5% of the students chose Sociology, 5% – Information culture; and the vast majority (90%) chose the option “I don’t know”. Therefore, the answers to these questions can be traced to insufficient knowledge and understanding of the deep connections between academic disciplines and their influence on the formation of the concepts of social and information competence in general.
Students were asked to answer the question of whether they find the conditions of forming social competence satisfactory at the education institution. The results showed that only 14% of the respondents were satisfied with the conditions, while the majority (86%) believed that they were insufficient. When answering the question whether they find the conditions of forming information competence satisfactory, 100% of the respondents chose the answer “No”. The results indicate dissatisfaction of students with the conditions for forming social, and especially information competences created at Al-Imam Al-Kadhim University College for Islamic Sciences.
The students were also asked the following question: “What contributes to the formation of a single information space?” with the following options to choose: a. computer technology; b. information resources; c. international communication.
Only 48% answered it. Ranking on the most important position was as follows: “International communication” by 54% of the students who answered; “Information resources” by 29% of respondents and 17% of the respondents chose “Computer technology”. The results of the survey are in Figure 2.
%60 s tn 50 e d on 40 p s re 30 f o sr 20 e w sn 10 A 0 international communication information resources
computer technology
Fig. 2. The results of the respondents when answering the question What contributes to the formation of a single information space? The students were asked to determine what classes stimulate the creativity of future journalists. Only 55% of the respondents offered answers. The ranking of the responses showed the following results: practical classes were chosen by 57% of the students, group classes – by 31% and 6% of the respondents chose individual tasks and lectures respectively (Fig. 3).
There was also the question: “Are you interested in the problems of forming future journalists competence?” 66% of the respondents answered affirmatively and 17% chose the option “Sometimes”. The question was of no interest for 17% of the survey participants. practical classes group classes chose individual tasks
lectures Fig. 3. The results of the respondents when answering the question What classes stimulate the creativity of future journalists? The students were asked the following open-ended question: “What qualities, in your opinion, determine the level of competence of the future journalist?”. The results showed that the overwhelming majority of them (90%) identified such qualities as honesty and determination; 5% pointed out that “they are the ability to collect information and to form a level of social relations”; and 5% of the respondents did not answer this question.
It was of interest to us whether students believe social and information competences have a significant impact on the level of journalist professionalism. The answer was unanimous: 100% of them chose the answer “yes”. We got the same answer to the question of whether they would like to attend additional courses in order to form social and information competences. The students’ answers prove importance of the competencies for professionalism and show they are ready for additional training. To clarify the last question, we asked whether the students would like the extra courses to be organized remotely? 96% of them chose the answer “yes”. The answer demonstrates their readiness to implement new information technology of education in the process of vocational training.
Thus, the analysis of the survey results of the students at the Faculty of Journalism at Al-Imam Al-Kadhim University College for Islamic Sciences, Baghdad, shows that students were not always active, especially when it was necessary to show their knowledge and define the notion. The conditions for forming information and social competences created at the education institution were not satisfactory for most of the students. However, there are also positive trends – most of them recognize the importance of these professional competencies and are ready to attend additional courses for their formation, including those in the remote mode.
It is worth noting that for the Arab educational system, the competency-based approach is fundamentally new today. Its implementation doesn’t get much attention and it remains at the periphery of vocational training. Therefore, managing the quality of education and training of journalists in Iraq requires urgent adjustments. Moreover, at the present stage, the training of future journalists should be directed towards the formation of their ability to use modern information technologies in their professional activities and the ability to manage information coming from different sources. The practical implementation of the competency-based approach will certainly increase the level of competence of Iraqi journalists.
The revision of curricula for journalists, changes in the content of curricula, the use of innovative forms and methods of organizing the learning process, the creation of a modern set of methodological support will help solve the task. It is extremely important to organize independent work of students, since it contributes to the development of motivation for further development of information technologies, self-organization of the student’s activity, and allows them to be independent in decision-making.
Further, social information competence of the journalist was of prior interest to the study as it belongs to be the key competences and is viewed by the European community through such indicators as knowledge of information technology, critical attitude to social information, etc. [3, pp. 428–429]. It systematically covers the peculiarities of both the social and informational competences of future journalists.
The preliminary work allowed for the authors to define the concept of social information competence (SIC) of journalists as an integrative quality of personality, characterizing an ability to select, process, transform information and organize effective professional communication based on the use of modern communicative technologies in the process of individual or team work [1, p. 13].
When conducting the study, we determined the components of social information competence of journalists and their content: 1. Motivational component: implies an interest to the formation of social information competence, the development of motives for self-improvement. 2. Cognitive component: includes knowledge about information technologies used in journalism; knowledge of the social technologies of the journalist’s activity; knowledge of norms (ethical and legal), regulating professional activity. 3. Activity component: ensures the formation of skills that allow collective and individual activity in the information environment for future journalists; abilities to search, collect, represent, and transmit information; abilities to analyze information from different sources and synthesize new knowledge; abilities to creatively comprehend information and create as well as share in the information space own tools based on information technology 4. Personal component: involves the formation of personal qualities necessary for future journalists, namely, responsibility, independence, diligence, organization, perseverance.
To address the problem of implementing these components in the process of professional training of future journalists is Iraq, technologies for forming social information competence of journalists were substantiated and developed.
Technological approach to education is traditional. In the study, there is the position that the structure of pedagogical technology includes the conceptual framework; content (learning objectives, contents, training material) and procedural (organization of educational process, methods and forms of educational activities, diagnosis of the educational process) parts [7, p. 907].
Based on these conclusions and taking into account the structure of social information competence of future journalists, the stages of study technology were identified, which included preparatory, motivational, operational, and diagnostic corrective.
The preparatory stage of technology has the objective of carrying out organizational and methodological work. One of the basic tools of technology will be a dynamic pedagogical site of the teacher and the textbook that will meet the requirements of forming social information competence of future journalists. They will be developed at this phase. Simultaneously, it is necessary to take organizational steps in introducing them in educational process of education institutions. Previuosly, it is necessary to deal with teachers to increase their attention to this competence in the educational process. Therefore, the enhancement of classroom training to form social information competence of future journalists is the first pedagogical condition of implementing the technology of study.
Next, it is about detailing the work on the development of a dynamic pedagogical website which is the main tool of the presented technology. Dynamic websites differ from static ones as they allow to expand opportunities through applications such as photo galleries, RSS modules, forums, etc. Today websites of this type are actively used by teachers, therefore, it’s called “pedagogical”. In our study, this dynamic pedagogical site should be the tool of the teachers, which will allow them to systematically and promptly provide information on the formation of social information competence of future journalists.
Thus, a dynamic pedagogical site for formation a journalist’s social information competence is an information-pedagogical construct that allows the teacher to positively influence the formation of the communicative and information components of the professional activity through the complex use of measures to form theoretical and practical training, also professional qualities through the mobile use of information technology.
Site builder was used. This is an online service that allows to create a website and publish it in the Internet without programming skills. Only an Internet-enabled computer and a web browser are required to use it.
The advantage of Site builder is that it allows you to customize virtually every element of the template without programming. In particular, it allows you to make the following changes to the template: 1. Adjust the position of the header. 2. Change the font layout of the entire site. 3. Specify the font, height and spacing of the logo font. 4. Change the background image, types and kinds of links, etc.
Based on this constructor, during the study, the website was developed to organize the independent work of future journalists. It includes the following structural components, which are located in the menu bar: 1. Home. 2. The program of organizing independent work of students. 3. Tutorials, textbooks and teaching materials for self-education.
4. Dictionary. 5. Video appendices (including video lectures by the teacher on the “Student Independent Work Program”, interesting video information on journalistic topics, etc.). 6. Audio Add-ons. 7. News in Journalism. 8. Conferences, forums symposia on journalism.
9. Grants, training for journalists. 10. Knowledge tests. 11. Tests to determine the personal qualities of future journalists. 12. Forum. 13. Help.
The last component is not obligatory. It consists of information about the basic elements of using a pedagogical site and includes instructions that are necessary to navigate there.
The site has a photo of the teacher, contains the national symbols, allows learning in two languages: Arabic and English (Fig. 4). Creating a learning social informational environment based on a dynamic pedagogical site that promotes self-education of future journalists is the second pedagogical condition for implementing the mentioned technology.
The motivational stage of the technology is aimed at encouraging students to form their social information competence as an important component of their professionalism. This will be done through a dynamic pedagogical site, the materials of which will collectively give an idea of importance of the competence and the process of managing its formation. A significant role is assigned to the teaching staff of the education institution, which should pay much attention to the competence in the process of teaching academic disciplines in order to provide relevant professional interest in it.
Forms of stage implementation: lectures, seminars, individual work.
Methods of stage implementation: persuasion, interactive conversations in the Internet, case-technology.
Means of stage implementation: dynamic pedagogical site, computer.
The operational stage of the technology is the basis of the formative stage of the pedagogical experiment. It is aimed at forming necessary knowledge, skills, experience and professional qualities of students that will correspond to the essence of the future journalists’ social information competence. To implement these tasks, all the webpages of the dynamic pedagogical site and a set of cases will be used. It is necessary to strengthen the work of the teaching staff by intensifying attention to the formation of this competence.
Forms of stage implementation: problem lectures; seminars, individual, group and pair work; individual work.
Methods of stage implementation: persuasion, interactive conversations and online case decisions, case-technology, personal example.
Means of stage implementation: dynamic pedagogical site, computer, cases.
changes in the formation of social-information competence of future journalists and to carry out corrective technological measures (if necessary) on this basis. This work was carried out at the control stage of the pedagogical experiment.
The model of technology of forming social information competence (SIC) of future journalists on the basis of a dynamic pedagogical site, which in addition to educational functions, included also managerial (organization, planning, decision-making, control over the qualitative formation of SIC). This model was implemented in the educational process of Anbar University (Er Ramadi) and Tikrit University (Tikrit). The study involved 52 individuals. The implementation of the developed technology led to positive changes in the quality of students education. A complex of diagnostic methods was created, which included three blocks: a cognitive block of test tasks for testing students’ knowledge, an activity block of tests for testing their practical skills and a personal block of psychological tests for determining the formation of professional qualities. The results showed that almost 42% of the respondents improved theoretical knowledge and 38% – practical skills. Among personal changes, abilities to selfdevelopment, to work with information, and attentiveness were reported improved. More detailed results will be presented in the following article.
The model of the technology developed during the study is shown in Figure 5.
Thus, the use of the technology of forming social information competence of future journalists on the basis of a dynamic pedagogical site led to positive changes in the quality of professional training. 3
Conclusions 1. The analysis of scientific literature provided grounds for determining the essence of the concept of “social informational competence” of future journalists as an integrative quality of personality, which characterizes an ability to select, process, transform information and allows to organize effective professional communication based on the use of modern communicative technologies in the process of individual or team work and identify its components (motivational, cognitive, activity and personal).
The aim of the technology: to form SIC of future journalists The content of the structural components of SIC for future journalists l a n , so , on re ley tia p z f m i o a n
n a on ,s rg tia its ,o
l e m a c r n n o r e f u g eh jo ili ce t e d n s r , a lev tfuu cen rev iovn rfo edn rsee
e p t: ry p en ssa edn n e i o c , p e y
n ti m s il lco itie isb a l n son auq spo r re e
P Diagnostic corrective E T I S L A C I G O G A D E P C I M A N Y D t n e m e p h o t l o e t v t e s d e r e te th tn in ,e e an cen evm s t o e e r il p p p
m im m o it: cn lfe en ito rs n a fo o m s p r e m fo iv o n t c i o la lia m on co fo i s t a f v o i t n o io
t M a m r o f f o e t g ;y g obu led iitv tian a w t l eg kno sac egu d r leow li;sm lit’s ,l)ag n a a e y k rn rn l ti sed jou jou and ticv i:lcnuteonn iisseeudgn itlfseegooh itl(rsecahm ilfrsseaanoo pm loo on on p o n h f c h ce o ev tce tl eg i a d it on ic le n i o g t s o a w o e n C rm th k o f n i , s t l ttsah itaon llceco lzey enw tiaon tnoo titlilfrrfsssaeeeunhoonokmii:ttteccooyvpnnAm liiiitlllltitiitifreaeaceaccauddvnvndooyvnhnowm ,lijtt;tiilititrfrrfrrsssseeacaeeanouuounnovbohm ,itittti;liititrfrrrsssaeaaaaaeeeondnnnponbonmm tiititifrfrfrrfssssaezeeeaceondonouonndynhmm ittitlii;llirrfrseeeaceaeeecvobgydonophndnowmm tillititrrfrssssaaceeeaeaaeaechnhndoonpowwm tiitlrfscaeaenonbdoonhnoogym n k n e a
Preparatory Motivational Operational
Forms: lectures, seminars, independent work of students, individual and group forms.
Methods: persuasion, interactive conversation and online case management.
Tools: dynamic pedagogical site, computer, set of cases.
Pedagogical conditions: intensification of students’ classroom education in the direction of forming SIC; creating an educational social information environment on the basis of the dynamic pedagogical site.
Expected result: SIC of future journalists an issue of implementing competency-based approach. Next the focus of the study was on social information competence of future journalists, which is one of the key issues according to European requirements. The technology of forming this competence for future journalists based on the use of modern information technologies through the implementation of preparatory, motivational, inductive, activity and diagnostic, correctional stages has been substantiated and developed, and its model has been developed. 3. The main means of implementing this technology has become a dynamic pedagogical site, the technical basis of which is Site Builder. The contents of the website pages create all the necessary conditions for organizing qualitative selfeducation in order to form social information competence of future journalists. 4. Further trends will be aimed at improving the dynamic pedagogical site of the developed technology.