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Procedía - Social and Behavioral Sciences 214 (2015) 183 - 191
Worldwide trends in the development of education and academic research, 15 - 18 June 2015
Integration Strategies of Academic Research and Environmental
Education
Fedor Lisetskii, Edgar Terekhin, Olga Marinina*, Alla Zemlyakova
Belgorod State National Research University, 85 Pobedy Street, Belgorod, 308015, Russia
Abstract
Modern development trends of knowledge-intensive industries determine the necessary reduction of time of the market waiting for technological novelties, which is achievable due to promotion of knowledge and innovations in an educational environment of large centers of higher vocational education formed in a new way. An efficient mechanism of solution for this task must become innovation educational projects at universities integrated with academic research. The paper deals with the prospects of using GIS-technologies and remote sensing ones as the main directions of implementing the innovation project in the sphere of environmental education. The main directions of perfecting the system of environmental education are grounded. In order to ensure the development of innovative thinking in future professionals, it is suggested to implement an integrated system of teaching, knowledge generation, project and innovative work of bachelors and master's degree students, their participation at the market of knowledge-intensive enterprises. The innovative approach to management of scientific and academic activity of the university is considered based on cluster organization of its activity. The paper suggests new models and technologies in the system of teaching that rely on the obtained experience of implementation of environmental education tasks and integration of modern technologies into it.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by ElsevierLtd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-reviewunder responsibilityof:BulgarianComparative Education Society (BCES), Sofia, Bulgaria & International Research Center (IRC) 'Scientific Cooperation', Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Keywords: learning strategies; environmental education; system of education; GIS-technologies; technological corridors
* Corresponding author. Phone: +7-4722-301372; fax: +7-4722-301371. E-mail address: marinina@bsu.edu.ru
1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of: Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), Sofia, Bulgaria & International Research
Center (IRC) 'Scientific Cooperation', Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.616
1. Introduction
For a long time there was a clear separation between education and science both in normative and institutional aspects as well as in financial, organizational and managerial ones. The autonomy of these spheres became a significant obstacle on the way of higher education development. Transition to a new type of society -postindustrial one - is now visible in the most developed countries of the world. It is conditioned by the trends of increasing role and importance of knowledge, innovations, and scientific achievements in the development of human civilization. The situation in most Russian higher education institutions is yet substantially different from the practice of the world's leading countries which is characterized by concentration of the main potential of fundamental science in universities where all the demanded applied research and development are performed. Key issues that constrain innovative transformation in the post-Soviet countries include lack of maturity of structures that allow integrating the education and academic research with further access to the level of production. In connection with this, the promising achievements and developments in the field of high technologies often get no application in the economy. The development of intellectual capacity becomes a significant dominant in technological breakthrough which should be contributed to by innovative educational projects. In this case a student becomes the focus of educational strategies that suppose practice-oriented system of training of competitive professionals.
Under current conditions, when science becomes a productive force, training in scientific methods and organization of higher education institution research become essential elements of modern education. The synthesis of theory and practice is an important element of teaching and learning strategy (Edwards, Weinstein, Goetz & Alexander, 2014; Holley & Dansereau, 2014). In the XXI century, it is highly important for students to be involved directly into the education system and to play a key part in the process of teaching and learning (Beltran, 2003). Due to the fact that in a student's learning process, different lobes of the brain are involved (Jensen, 2004), the development and selection of a certain training strategy seems a particularly important phase. Among several classifications of learning strategies Beltran's (1996) proposal seems to be the most promising. He outlined the main types of strategies: 1) support strategy (motivation, attitude and action); 2) strategy of the process (that is selection, organization and processing); and 3) strategy of implementing the knowledge (that is creative and critical thinking, restoration and transfer of knowledge). The essence is as follows: students have to understand the information, adopt it and make it meaningful. This determines the special value of learning strategies and in the process of their implementation various cognitive styles, abilities and skills should be worked with (Muelas & Navarro, 2015). However, as it was pointed out by Tulbure (2012), compliance of learning strategy with the preferences of learning style remains a controversial subject of research, so the understanding of this issue will be of use both for students, young researchers and for the teachers whose efforts are aimed at re-evaluation of approaches to learning in order to improve student's achievements. These provisions are fully applicable to the system of environmental education. In particular, efficient teaching of professional environmental disciplines is impossible without the experience of the practical application of methods associated with environmental assessment and in-depth analysis of experimental research. Theoretical and practical experience related to acquisition of new knowledge about the environment can be a tool for improving both lecture and practice materials (Shilova, 2013; Kopnina, 2014).
2. Objective, methodology and research design
Being aware of the necessity of further theoretical generalizations in the system of high school scientific and educational activity on the basis of a focused systematic approach, the authors have set the following goal: to provide grounds for the most promising strategies of academic research integration with the help of such organization form as polystructural university clusters capable of ensuring the stable connection in the triad "science - education - production".
Achieving this goal has involves meeting the following objectives:
1. To reveal optimum structure and the potential of university clusters as integrated academic and research
structures.
2. To provide grounds for the most promising components of environmental education.
3. To identify opportunities for application of GIS-technology in upgrading the environmental education.
4. To outline ways of improving the environmental education in the system of National research universities.
In order to reveal the potential of innovative education which in fact is system-forming and integrates the
educational process and scientific research, the logical combination of multiple levels of methodological knowledge
- interdisciplinary, specific scientific (Earth sciences) and methodological and technical (high technology in the geosciences) ones was used. The common interdisciplinary research methods were used, such as a systematic approach, structural analysis, as well as environmental and informational ones.
3. Discussion of the research outcomes
3.1. University clusters as integrated educational and scientific structures
The innovation way of universities development urges to significantly enhance the role of integration processes, and creation of powerful educational and scientific innovative clusters (ESIC) can be relevant for the objective. Polystructural university clusters should occupy a leading position in the sphere of high technologies and as experience has shown [4], they should combine the acquisition of new knowledge, ideas and technologies, basic research, creation of competitive innovative products on their basis and their subsequent commercialization in the best way possible (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of polystructural university cluster using interdisciplinary approaches Source: Davydenko, Lisetsky & Peressypkin, 2010, supplemented.
The cluster organization of university scientific and educational activity allows stimulating the integration processes at different levels. These include intra-university level, relations between the university and small innovative enterprises created on its basis, and the level between the university and its external partners. With regard to this, the difference between types of clusters is in the mechanism of interaction during performance of their tasks. The high level of integration of the ESIC educational system into economic, social and intellectual space of a particular administrative-territorial unit allows quite flexibly supplying this or that quantity of professional staff having the required level and qualification, based on the needs of regional labor market, with mobility taken into account in certain directions of training, mostly the new and unique ones (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Integration of ESIC into economic, social and intellectual space of the region Source: Davydenko, Lisetsky & Peressypkin, 2010, supplemented.
An important element in the higher education reform as a result of Russia's accession to the Bologna Process was the transition to the two-stage system of education since 2013. Today the change in the system of education in Russia (transition to standards of the new generation) provides for qualifications of "academic" and "applied" bachelor, with these study programs giving the main role to practice-oriented segment. Thus, on average, the amount of practical studies is 16-18 credit units higher for the "applied bachelor".
The basis for the dynamic development of the university throughout ESIC formation is to be the implementation of modern developments in modern sought-after areas, such as nanotechnology, medicine, pharmaceutical science, space technologies, geographic information and telecommunication technologies. The development of environmental education which in the recent years has won a special place in the educational process became cross-cutting and covering all areas of training. One of the key strategies for the development of scientific and educational centers can be that of "technological corridors" - methodical and organizational constructs designed to ensure reliable communication in the triad "science - education - production". Within the innovative educational program developed in Belgorod State Research University, the winner of the competitive selection for Priority national project "Education", the model of "technological corridors" has been introduced into educational university system as innovative system of the "new knowledge in the field of geoinformatics and its adjacent areas -labor market, goods and services".
Based on creating a multi-profile cluster system of continuous professional training of world-class staff, market promotion of new knowledge and high technologies, ensuring the strategic partnership between higher education institutions, business and federal and regional government, there should be formed a Center of innovation development of education, science and culture at the University, as well as Centers of shared use of high-tech equipment as well as business incubators should be created. One of the most important activities of the shared use center and an important way of intra-university integration of science and education is considered to be creating a Center of technology transfer that would combine a business incubator, student design offices and centers of scientific and technological creativity.
3.2. Promising components of environmental education
Analytical review of various viewpoints on the phenomenon of culture (Kasymov, 2014) which can be represented as a method of development and self-development of human being as a conscious, creative and active creature allows concluding that it permeates all spheres of public life. When the "culture" is represented as a system (Kroeber, Kluckhohn, Unterreiner & Meyer, 1963), it is usually divided into three subsystems: the natural-ecological, socio-economic and socio-regulatory ones. This is why the specific character of its relationships can
serve as one of the grounds for classifying it, which leads us to distinguishing of environmental culture among others. Understanding the interconnections and patterns of environmental culture evolution can contribute to the optimization of material, energetic and intellectual costs for performing the environmental education. Hence the importance of wording the goals, objectives, determining the action ways, setting priorities and sequences should be clear, i.e. that of elaborating the concept of continuous regional environmental education as a mechanism for reproduction of ecological culture (Prisnyy, 1999). Environmental education is, on the one hand, a process and effective activity of subjects who are the actual carriers of ecological culture (teachers) aimed at transferring the ecocultural information to objects, i.e. potential carriers of ecological culture (students). On the other hand, environmental education is the basic mechanism of reproduction and integral part of the ecological culture. The following aspects of environmental education are singled out: psychological (motivational); legal and regulatory; educational (forming); activity (substantial); axiological (basic, translational) (Prisnyy, 1999). At the core of the innovational improvement of educational process in the environmental direction, a wide use of GIS-technology and its applications in the essential aspect is promising, especially concerning environmental protection objectives.
The important features of the environmental education system should be the following:
• development of bachelor and master degree students' innovative thinking on the basis of the construction of individual educational paths and opening prospects for high-tech business in the course of scientific and educational projects on ecology and geoinformatics.
• formation of scientific and research, trial and experimental base for creating and implementing the "technology corridor" model as an innovative system of "new knowledge - labor potential - labor, goods and services market" ensuring the training of specialists in the field of ecology and natural resources use with the professional level application of GIS technology and remote sensing technologies.
This will allow bringing to life an integrated system of training, knowledge generation, design and innovation work for bachelor and master degree students and participation in the market of high-tech business, which will ensure the development of innovative thinking of the future professionals.
When dealing with objectives in planned scientific and research works (such as grants, contracts with employer organizations etc.) such promising organizational forms should be used as temporary creative teams of scientists formed from the teaching staff; staff members of the department (engineers); problem groups of younger students performing training type works, bachelor and master degree students, postgraduate students as well as expeditionary units organized during the field operations.
Environmental issues in practice-oriented part of bachelor and master degree educational programs are revealed by means of modern pedagogical technologies such as "business role-playing game" that allow evaluating the students' ability to analyze and solve typical professional problems. With this technology, a real problem situation can be simulated. Case study problems contribute to understanding the actual vocationally oriented situation essential for solving the environmental problems. During the field practice, a combination of educational and scientific problems will be efficient: organizing field research at the same time as the students have study practice. For example, the main goal of biomonitoring practice is to familiarize students with problems and techniques of environmental control both of individual components of the environment and of geosystems in general at the local and regional levels.
3.3. Ways of improving the environmental education using GIS technology
Academic research is a source of information which in many cases can be a tool for improving the efficiency of educational process. Some basic principles of the geoinformatics, geostatistics, geomathematics (mathematical modelling, simulation, data analysis, mathematical and numerical methods), hydrosphere, hydrology is an important part of geosciences in research and teaching.
One of the main directions in implementing the innovative projects in the field of environmental education is the development of GIS technology and remote sensing of the Earth that are modern means of monitoring conditions of the monitoring objects and serve as an efficient mechanism for combining the multifactor information on environmental objects. The necessity to expand educational activities and the deployment of large-scale research programs in this area is due to the overall integration of these technologies in the use of natural resources, agricultural and industrial production, and sphere of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship. Of all the tasks to be
solved by specialists in the field of GIS, the most important is the comprehensive support of rational resource management at the municipal and regional scale of managerial decisions forming. This, in its turn, contributes to accumulation of practical experience which can be used to improve the system of teaching the environmental sciences. With regard to this, it makes sense to review current approaches to the use of GIS and RES for improving the teaching methods in the system of environmental education.
New scientific results obtained during the experiments are based, as a rule, on the development of new technologies or techniques that can underlie practical work. Analyzing the experience of higher school (ESRI Education Team, 2012; Gariba & Twumasi, 2003; Geoinformatsionnoe obrazovanie v Rossii, 1991; Papulovskaya, Badrina & Bad'in, 2012; Solntsev, 2012), we have determined the following main directions of environmental education improvement using GIS technology.
• Development of practical work proceeding from application of GIS technology in experimental studies of scientific and practical nature. The studies on land, forest and water resources monitoring usually result in a series of electronic maps showing the territorial distribution patterns of the studied factor or phenomenon.
• Preparation of lecture materials for environmental disciplines using the regional environmental research experience. An example of this can be establishing the regularities in environmental conditions changing on the supervised territory. For example, GIS identification of patterns in the distribution of moisture throughout the locus of the plant communities.
• Development of practical exploration works, where GIS is a key tool for detecting spatial patterns. This makes sense as the final component of the entire practical course. The introduction of at least one such work into the practical course will allow consolidating the students' knowledge on an essentially new level. On the other hand, development of such works requires higher qualification of teachers in their mastery of GIS products.
• Integration of remote sensing data including satellite imagery into lab practical classes. Higher availability of multi-zone satellite imagery has already been used in practical ecological courses related to environmental monitoring (ESRI Education Team, 2012). Given that current trends in availability of satellite data depend on access to pictures of both medium, high and ultra-high spatial resolution, the implementation of remote sensing data in environmental education will be carried out at different territorial levels of analysis of both natural and man-made environment.
• Development of educational programs for environmental disciplines with the help of current capabilities of geoinformation implementation of environmental knowledge. We should mention that the achievement of this component is much easier now given continuous upgrade of free GIS applications that allow us to perform both trivial procedures and complex multilevel methods of GIS analysis (Geography education, 2011). All the above ways of environmental education system improvement are naturally related to the trends of development of experimental, exploratory and research capabilities of GIS technology. They should be linked to their evolution in order to ensure competitiveness of the university graduates.
3.4. Improving of environmental education in the system of National research universities
Nowadays due to merger of technical, technological, information and educational resources of higher education institutions, a university network of space monitoring centers has been established that includes 22 leading Russian universities, two universities of Spain and two universities in Kazakhstan. One of the centers is located in Belgorod State National Research University. Creating the network of university centers of space monitoring has allowed significantly improving the quality of staff training, the organization of scientific research, and commercialization of intellectual activity results in the field of GIS and Internet technologies.
At BelSU scientific and research university, there is a training, research and innovation cluster called "Geoinformatics and remote sensing technology in ecology and rational environmental management" which includes Federal and regional center of aerospace and land monitoring of objects and natural resources - (the Center of shared use), a cross-industry lab of environmental monitoring and GIS technologies laboratory, educational and scientific-industrial test site for environmental management. This cluster is designed to promote new knowledge to the market of GIS technology.
Centers of shared use of high-tech equipment (CSU) become the basis for organizing the fruitful cooperation of the business incubator, student design offices and centers of scientific and technical creativity of the University bachelor and master degree students in the field of knowledge-intensive industries according the
respective directions of training.
Based on the experience of implementing the tasks of environmental education and integration into it the state-of-the-art technology, we offer new models and technologies in the education system:
a) technology of building a student's individual educational path during the design and innovation activity in geoinformatics;
b) "technological corridors" model;
c) a new type of design and innovation work for bachelor and master degree students using GIS and satellite navigation systems: work on one and the same project by geographically dispersed academic and research groups (field - analytical laboratory - mobile diagnostic complexes - department of thematic information processing at CSU - headquarters of the project).
Training of students according to individual educational paths is one of the directions for individual learning promoting the students' innovative thinking. Its specific character is conditioned by the opportunity for opening the prospects of high-tech business during performing of research project work in the field of ecology and natural resources management as a supplement to professional knowledge for every bachelor and master degree student.
In addition, new methodological and technological approaches to the organization of educational process are proposed. They allow achieving a higher quality of environmental education with the use of high-tech equipment:
a) formation of a coherent system of students' basic training in geoinformatics for their qualified participation in the design and innovative work;
b) technologies of teamwork simulation in order to form the professional competencies of graduates;
c) technologies of students' design and innovation activity that are focused on the development of scientific and technical creativity of students according to GIS technologies and remote sensing and take place in the Center of shared use.
There can be the following indicators of efficiency of the proposed models and technologies:
a) maturity of a self-governing, self-adjusting, self-financing system (training center - department or laboratory);
b) a larger quantity of bachelor and master degree students who are trained using GIS technology;
c) creation of new student engineering design offices;
d) creation of educational and scientific GIS and remote sensing laboratories; a larger quantity of external partners involved in the activities of the Center of shared use;
e) a larger quantity of technologies and inventions database, relevant for the industry and regional needs;
f) a larger quantity of patents obtained by students, etc.
Formation of stable connections and structures for interaction with employers and business is a necessary condition for dynamic development of the established academic and scientific, research and innovative clusters. An experience unique for Russia, a new type of environmentally oriented land use planning for the whole region based on watershed natural resources use concept (Lisetskii, Pavlyuk, Kirilenko & Pichura, 2014), allows ensuring rational land and water use (Lisetsii, Zemlyakova, Terekhin et al., 2014), which will contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development of rural areas and fulfillment of citizens' rights for a healthy environment ant for creation of a comfortable living space. For five years, research and production students groups have been participating in project activities on the environmental development of 65 river basins under contracts funded by the regional and municipal administration (Buryak, Grigoreva & Pavlyuk, 2014). Implementation of a complex of information and communication activities on efficient water resources use and protection (Vodnaya strategiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii na period do 2020 goda, 2009) implies developing and bringing into life special educational programs and information projects in order improve the priority of information, education and awareness.
The main goal of ongoing further training programs is to provide vocational training that would enhance social mobility and being in demand in the labor market, a successful career path, cooperation in teams of regional structures in areas associated with the use of GIS, as well as promoting the formation of GIS using skills. With the obtained basic knowledge, any ecology and natural resources management expert can proceed with his self-education. Although the umbrella thesis i.e. lifelong education, is certainly fair, specific goals have to be set for the process and the necessary conditions have to be ensured for each individual to solve this problem efficiently.
4. Conclusion
Innovative change against formation of a new economic structure is hindered by underdeveloped structures capable of ensuring the integration of education and academic research with further access to the level of production. Because of this, promising scientific achievements and developments in the field of high technologies rarely find their application in the economy. Innovative educational projects which are efficient if implemented in the major centers of higher vocational education should lead to fostering the human capital, advancing the knowledge to the market and accelerating the introduction of innovative production patterns, first of all, for development of high-tech industries.
A formed network of National Research Universities gives us hope for their targeted transformation into educational, scientific and innovation clusters in order to fulfill the complete innovation cycle: idea - development -marketing - production - innovation - the consumer (market). Creation of information and research infrastructure for technology transfer center uniting specialized university departments working with students until graduation, a business incubator, student engineering design offices and centers of scientific and technical creativity of students; organization of remote access to lecture halls from the Centers of shared use; regular use of multimedia and video conferencing means for educational objectives of the project - all this allows improving the quality and efficiency of the educational process, ensuring the access of graduates to the segments of the labor market in demand, and expanding educational opportunities during intra-university, regional, national and international academic and scientific events. Academic research is a source of information, which if integrated into educational technology can significantly improve the efficiency of the educational process, especially in its practice oriented aspect.
Academic research is a source of information that if integrated into educational technologies is capable of considerably enhancing efficiency of the educational process, especially in the practice-oriented aspect of the latter. The obtained experience of creating and implementing (with the authors participating) a polystructural university cluster at one of the Russian universities during the process of environmental education implementation has clearly demonstrated that all the integration processes became activated at intra-university, inter-university levels, as well as in the innovation circle of smaller innovative university enterprises, with business partners.
The environmental education as a basic mechanism for reproduction and an integral part of the ecological culture should be provided with a harmonious combination of several aspects: axiological, educational, substantial and motivational. The structure of educational process due to its necessary innovation improvement has to be rationalized by wider use of high technologies, such as were shown on the example of the environmental direction -GIS technology and remote sensing of the Earth.
The basis of university environmental education model is proposed to be an integrated system of training, knowledge generation, design and innovative work of students and their participation in the market of high-tech business for developing the innovative thinking of the future professionals. Successfully tested individual educational paths can become components of this system that during scientific and educational projects have to open up prospects for high-tech business, as well as models of "technological corridors" as an innovative system "new knowledge - labor potential - the labor, goods and services market", which can provide training of staff in the subject area with skills of professional high-tech solutions.
In order to achieve a higher quality of environmental education using high-tech equipment, new methodological and technological approaches to the organization of the educational process suitable for replication are recommended. They are the formation of a coherent system of students' basic training in geoinformatics for their participation in the design of innovative work, technologies of team work in order to form the professional competencies of graduates; technologies of students' design and innovation activity in Centers of shared use of hightech equipment.
Thus, the integration of education, academic research and production is a structure-forming component for the new model of higher school - one ensuring the interconnection of fundamental educational values and opportunities of flexible meeting the needs of regional and national economies in the professional staff in promising scientific areas and high technologies, including ones of environmental safety and environmental protection.
Acknowledgements
Results were obtained in the framework of the state assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation No 5.78.2014/K.
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