Methodology for the Self-development of Professional
Personality in the Information Era
by Svätopluk Michalčák
Key words: Formative aims, interaction, binary thinking, inner
standard.
Abstract
Rapid changes (by a constant decline of
developing countries) are the symptoms of the information age. They
create more competitive, wider and changing professional
environment with new requirements on professional qualities.
Management of change – adaptation is required. Many steps have been
done already on our way from Land Surveying (LS) to Geo-spatial
Engineering (GSE): restructuring of courses, CPE and also the theory
of geoinformation – intellectual core for geoinformation
management.
With the overflow and aging of information (I),
interaction with nontraditional partners, qualities of youth increases
the role of conceptual, basic principles of education (e. g. formative
role of I) enabling the orientation and evaluation of various type of
I. Even in professional subjects are needed the impulses for "non-administrative"
factors: change of inertia (binary thinking), motivation, analytical
thinking, etc.
All this can be more done effective when the
individual knows the basic methodology of management of his abilities.
Therefore we developed a simple methodological system – frame
for individual self-development according to educational level
of L.S.
Methodological frame is based on start
conditions like: Formative aims of education, feedback, impact of
professional and medial information (selection, distorsion, clichés,
brain qualities and limits). Main principles includes:
– it requires an
appropriate analysis
Priorities – sequence of importancy
Selfrealisation by selfcognition –
improvements of prof. qualities, joy of cognition and analytical
thinking
Interactivity of cognition, thinking
and communication – most important, it facilitates
a pragmatic self-development and the way of thinking
For adaptation, improvement of a process we
have to find out the factors creating the existing standing –
information (not just to register it) the most decisive ones
– to analyse the process or to estimate
the value of the I. According to the structure of L.S. courses
we developed a simple cognitive analysis which serves as
a theoretical core for further applications .
Decisive role for the objective cognition of
the outside world played the measurement with it specific
concepts of comparison and standards. Most general and simplest
mathematical presentation of outside processes gives the Hagen
theorem. According to it the quality Q of a phenomenon or
process is created by the interaction of elementary (secondary)
factors.
For estimation, evaluation of processes we use the
analysis in steps which include the identification, interaction,
classification and changing of elementary factors. Such gradual
analysis is simple and time saving. Its application was
widened also for psychological processes of education. It
serves also as a first step for overcoming of binary thinking.
As a orientation measure for the estimation of differences in
professional environment or professional qualities we introduced s.c. inner
standard.
We adapted the theoretical core for various task in
education and profession also outside of LS, often for s.c. integrated
approach to optimation, adaptation of tertiary education. It is
a complicated development of abilities – brain quality
in a system : teacher – student – environment. Decisive are
here the interaction of psychological factors. Even their
simplest application can be helpful, effective and motivative.
Methodological frame is presented as an orientation
tool and support for management of long-periodical practical activity.
Therefore it was completed by a series of hints for practical
training. The selection of hints depends on the target group, the
length and type of application.
Applications. The frame enables
a simple identification and evaluation of factors creating the
standing of processes incl. personal qualities and ways for their
change. It has been applied for various fields of education + industry
firstly for tailoring of standard subjects and professional studies
and the analysis of standing of profession.
Widest modification enables the core of our
methodology – the cognitive analyses. It serves for the training of
pragmatic thinking, communication (also outside of L.S.), for the attraction
of freshmen and establishment of new courses (e.g. UNIDO
project in Sri Lanka), as a part of Professional English or
special seminar. Most encouraging have been the reaction by top
professors and young colleagues in Europe as well as in Commonwealth
countries. They appreciated the orientation of selfmanagement toward
practical activity, cognition and improvement of their abilities,
utilisation of qualities of young brain, the influence of free
time industry and binary thinking, effect of motivation and
biorhythm. Especially impressive were the reactions of colleagues in
developing countries.
Assoc. Prof. Svätopluk Michalčák, PhD.
Department of Geodesy and Cartography
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Slovak University of Technology
Radlinského 11
813 68 Bratislava
SLOVAKIA
E-mail : michalcak@pobox.sk
Methodology for the Self-development of Professional
Personality in the Information Era
Not even the future is what used to be any more
1. INTRODUCTION
Tailoring of education according to information
age started before 1990. New structure of our courses included not
only new technologies but also some subjects from social sciences,
economics. Symbolic has been the business management and the LIS
supported by publications, also outside of our profession.
Since about 10 years we can observe an enormous
growth of activities: special conferences on Land Surveying (LS)
education, special task forces, many reforms of
courses.
Hundreds of specialists from universities and
profession spend thousand of hours to develop LS courses according
to needs of information age and published hundreds of papers.
Important was the research [Frank 1996] on Theory of
Spaceinformation – the base (intellectual core of LIS) of
geoinformation management. Symbol of trends has been since 1991
biannual workshops Think Tank of future LS-Geomatics.
According to them the LS comes up to a complex space science -
Geo-spatial Engineering.
All that reflects the rapid changes,
globalisation (connected with a constant decline of developing
countries) as important symptoms of the information age. They create
more competitive, wider and changing professional environment with
new requirements on professional abilities-qualities (PQ).
With the overflow and aging of information (I), interaction
with nontraditional partners, qualities of youth increases
the role of conceptual, basic principles of education (e. g.
formative role of I) enabling the orientation and evaluation of
various type of I. Even in professional subjects are needed the
impulses for "nonadministrative" factors : change of
inertia (binary thinking), motivation, analytical thinking,
creativity, feedback student and teacher etc. Longer international
experiences also showed that it would by important for the future of
our profession to attract the best brains and to foster their
selfrealisation.
All this can be realised more effectively when
the individual knows the basic methodology of management of his
abilities. Therefore we developed a simple methodological
system – frame for individual selfdevelopment according to
educational level of L.S. and cognate disciplines.
2. CONCEPTS AND FEATURES OF METHODOLOGICAL FRAME
They are based on start conditions reflecting the
general factors common for professional environment in various
countries and for a wide scale of L.S. and cognate fields.
Inspite of activities and growth mentioned above
there have been still same problems, gaps arising also from
different acceleration and impacts of changes in
different part of the world incl. communication and impact of
technology. Great differences exist not only between 3 main
socio-economic groups – developed transforming and developing
countries – but also within the groups. It is clear in the
features, concepts of professional environment incl. education. It
reflects the fact that our profession, as compare to engineering
depends more on socio-administrative conditions,
tradition in the country (L.S. – „Ordnungsfaktor" of
society)
Therefore there have been very different concepts
of profession and education (professional and civil environment)
even in the EU incl. neighbouring countries. Even the image of
profession among citizens and decision makers is regionally
different, inspite the GIS accents are increasing.
Generally the professional and civil
environment is more complicated, competitive, wider – with
cooperation and interaction with nontraditional institutions and
industries. In developed and some transforming countries exists an
overflow of information about various form of management, new
technology, legislative regulations concerning our activity.
The experience showed that in such environment is
important not only the management of company but also the
selfmanagement of an individual, connected with a pedagogical
tool which is not so much influenced by out dating – the
methodology.
The professional training (and CPE) can be more
effective when the individual knows the basic methodology of
management of his abilities. It has to support, to overcome a.o. the
3 great changes : choice and entrance in particular course, first
employment and first managerial post (establishment of his firm).
We selected 7 main entrance conditions and 4 main
principles.
Entrance conditions :
- Time limits
- Brain – qualities, development capacity
- Overflow of prof. and medial information – selection, distorse,
clichés
- Practical handling esp. in psychological matters
- Role of personal challenge
- Features of modern education – featback, formative aims
- Tailoring of frame according to educational level and behaviour
of target groups
Main principles :
- Longperiodical aims
- Priorities – sequence of importancy
- Selfrealisation by selfcognition
- Interactivity of cognition, thinking and communication
Princip No. 1 includes the will and joy of
cognition and improvement of PQ. It requires an appropriate
analyses. No. 4 – the most important – facilitate
a pragmatic selfdevelopment – incl. the ability to educate
myself - and also the way of thinking.
For adaptation, improvement we have to find out
the factors creating the existing standing – information (not just
to register it), the most decisive ones, to analyse the process or
to estimate the cognitive and formative value of information. Thus
we need a simple, general theory of cognition for the basic
orientation + estimation of complicated processes.
2.1 Simple cognitive analysis
Development of science is connected with the need
to know, to understand, explain the outside and inside world.
Decisive role for the objective cognition of the outside world
played the measurement with it specific concepts of comparison
and standards. The evaluation and analysis of measurement
enabled later the Theory of errors. All that is familiar to Land
Surveyors and partly also to cognate sciences and professions.
Most general and simplest mathematical
presentation of outside processes gives the Hagen Theorem. According
to it the quality Q of a phenomenon or process is created by
the interaction of elementary (secondary) factors Di.
Q = [Di]
and again particular Di is created by
tertiary factors dj. For estimation, evaluation of
processes is advantageous to present the analyses in steps, stages:
- Identification of Di
- Study of interactions between particular Di
- Classification of Di according their importancy,
impact on the Q
- Possibilities of changing, reduction of the Di
- Deeper analyses of particular Di, by determination
of dj
Gradual analysis is simple and time saving. Its
application was widened also for psychological processes of
education. It serves also as a first step for overcoming of
binary thinking. For cognition and estimation of interaction and
differences in professional and civil environment we introduced s.c.
Inner standard. In interaction generally they are involved the
material as well as psychological factors.
3. Adaptation
of frame to different task
Such general concept can be adapted for various
tasks in education and profession. We present it of ten for s.c.
integrated approach to optimation of university education.
It is a complicated development of abilities – brain quality
in a system teacher-student-environment. Personal quality of
a graduate QA is determined by an interaction of
factors D presented in 4 groups:
QA = [DE, DP, DO,
DM], where
DE – Entrance conditions – quality
of freshmen and teacher.
DP – Psychological factors (motivation, social climate,
biorythm, interaction student-teacher).
DD – Organisation, administartive factors (course
structure, syllabi, methods of examination, timetable, etc.).
DM – Material factors (labs, equipment, literature,
boarding, etc.).
Decisive are the interactions of psychologic
factors. They belong to a special scientific field with
an overflow of publications. But even same simplest facts of
educational psychology when selected and applied in an appropriate
manner can have a fast and formative effect –
to win, motivate the colleagues for the selfcognition, the first
step to selfmanagement. An example is the performance, quality of
brain DEM :
| DEM = [ intelligence, emotion, will
– moral, motoric ] |
|
d1 |
d2 |
d3 |
d4
|
But the d1 is not identic with the IQ.
d1 = [ memory, thinking-cognition, evaluation,-invention,
realisation ]
For our aim is important that this factor change
with the psycho-physical condition and it is possible to improve
them by a appropriate training, conditions.
Great interest of target groups awaked inner
standard, regional mentality : factors of brain performance,
multiplicative effect of immaterial motivation, biorhythm,
departmental "climate".
Methodological frame is presented as an orientation
tool and support for management of longperiodical practical
activity. Therefore it was completed by a serie of hints for
practical improvement of PQ. The selection of hints depends on the
target group, the length and type of presentation.
4.
conclusion
The frame enables a simple identification
and evaluation of factors creating the standing of processes
incl. personal qualities and ways for their improvement. It has been
applied for various fields of education and industry firstly for
tailoring of standard subjects and of Professional studies and the
analysis of standing of profession.
Widest modification enables the core of our
methodology – the cognitive analyses. It serves for
the training of pragmatic thinking, communication (also outside of
L.S.), for the attraction of freshmen and establishment of new
courses (e.g. UNIDO project in Sri Lanka), as a part of
Professional English or special seminar. Most encouraging have been
the reaction by top professors and young colleagues in Europe as
well as in Commonwealth countries. They appreciated
the orientation of selfmanagement toward practical activity,
cognition and improvement of their abilities, utilisation of
qualities of young brain, the influence of free time industry
and binary thinking, multiplicative effect of
motivation and biorhythm. Especially impressive were the reactions
of colleagues in developing countries where the orientation in
a changing world is very important for many departments and
even for the representatives of the university.
Our age is characterised by overflow of
information, their fast outdating and changes of professional
environment. A simple tool can support the understanding and
evaluation of such processes.
References
Cagnon, P., 1992: A renewed profession based on
complementary disciplines: Geomatics. Proc. of the Think Tank II.
University of Maine, p. 9-12.
Dale, V., 1989: The Land Surveyors Divisional President’s View
of 1989/90. Land and Mineral Surveyor, London. Vol. 7, p. 345-347.
Deutsche Geodätische Kommision, 1998: Geodäsie 2000++. Ein
Strategie papier. Algemeine Vermessungs nach richten (AVN).
Heidelberg 1998 No. 5, p. 170-172.
Frank, A., 1994: Surveying Education for the Future. Proceedings
of the 3rd Advanced Workshop in Surveying. Think Thank
III., TU Vienna: p. 67-79.
Kavouras, M.,1994: Geoinformation management in Greece.
Proceedings of the 3rd Advanced Workshop in Surveying.
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Michalčák, S., 1984: Application of psychology in
the education of engineering subjects. Proceedings of
international conference on New trends in engineering education (NTEE).
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Michalčák, S., 1988: Concepts and Philosophy of Modern
Education in Surveying. Proceedings of the FIG Symposium on
University education for Surveyors. Madrid, p. 10-17.
Michalčák, S., 1989: The role of Land-related information
in governmental administration. Proc. of the seminar LIS-GIS
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Michalčák, S., 1990: Concepts for the Improvement of
standing of our profession by education and communication. Proc.
of the 19th FIG Congress. Helsinki. Com. 1, p. 53-58.
Michalčák, S., 1992: Experiences of changes in education
caused by technology and local conditions. Proc. of the FIG PC 92
Symposia. Madrid, p. 155-172.
Michalčák, S., 1998: New methodologies for Education and
professional selfdevelopment at the Department of Surveying and
Cartography (In Slovak). Proceedings of the International
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Assoc. Prof. PhD. Svätopluk Michalčák
PhD. and PhD. habil, both at STU Bratislava.
Started as lecturer in Geodetic Astronomy, later assoc. professor in
L. Surveying at the Dept. of Geodesy and Cartography STU. 6 years
assoc. professor at Universities in Ghana (Heat of Dept.), Uganda,
Zimbabwe. In 1988 UN Consultant for the establishment of B. Sc.
Surveying course in Sri Lanka. In 1994/95 at the Research Institute
for Geodesy in Prague.
Research fields : Instrument testing, atmospheric
influences, Large scale metrology, methodology of tertiary education
: For 15 years national delegate for the FIG Com. 2 Invited lectures
at many universities in Europe (eg. Dresden, Bonn, Karlsruhe,
Berlin) and overseas (eg. London, Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam). Invited
papers at many international seminars incl. 6 papers at FIG
Congresses. Over 90 papers incl. 29 abroad, 5 textbooks.
Assoc. Prof. Svätopluk Michalčák, PhD.
Department of Geodesy and Cartography
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Slovak University of Technology
E-mail : michalcak@pobox.sk
27 March 2000
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