Contextual Approach to Training in the Preparation of Police Officers to Perform Operational and Service Tasks

Levchenko Aleksandr Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0001-5434-4800 Senior Lecturer, Department of Tactical and Special Training, Barnaul Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 656038, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Zmeinogorsky Tract str., 82 alexanderlevchenko-22@mail.ru

 To date, the training of police officers to perform operational and service tasks in special conditions is a priority in the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

The level of training of police officers largely depends on the correctly chosen approach to training, as well as on the competence of the teaching staff of educational organizations ^{[1, p. 85]}.

Training of police officers to perform operational and service tasks in special conditions is implemented in the form of advanced training in educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in accordance with approved work programs ^[2]. At the same time, it should be noted that serving in special conditions implies the performance of operational and service tasks by police officers in the North Caucasus region, as well as in the newly annexed territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

In pedagogy, there are many approaches to the educational process, each of which is effective and takes place in the education system. The main influence on the choice of approach to learning is the discipline, its theoretical or practical content.

Taking into account the practical content of the disciplines provided for by the work programs for professional development of police officers, as well as taking into account the specifics of service in special conditions, in our opinion it is more effective to choose a contextual approach that allows you to link theoretical material with its practical application.

The peculiarity of the contextual approach in the educational process is that it allows the projection of pedagogical systems and the implementation of educational processes, as well as the content, forms, methods and means of training in the context of future professional activity, speaking in relation to the specifics under consideration, in the context of the performance of operational and service tasks by police officers in special conditions ^{[3, p. 68]}.

The chosen approach was developed by A. A. Verbitsky, and successfully implemented in the dissertation studies of E.V. Dimova, K.V. Shaposhnikov, L.A. Sergeeva, M.N. Gabova, I.A. Zhukova, A.D. Antonovsky and many others.

First of all, before considering the approach to training and its features, it is necessary to form an understanding about the performance of operational and service tasks by police officers in special conditions.

Special conditions, taking into account the specifics of the activities of law enforcement agencies, contain professional activities in the conditions of: natural and man-made emergencies (fires, floods, pandemics, accidents, catastrophes, etc.) ^[4]; emergency circumstances (terrorist attacks, mass riots, etc.); the introduction of a state of emergency or martial law; counter-terrorism operations, armed conflicts ^{[5, p. 78]}.

The contextual approach to the training of police officers has a peculiarity in that the vector of training is directed directly to the upcoming professional activity, which makes it possible to more effectively assimilate the training material, as well as to develop basic algorithms of actions in practice ^{[6, p. 154]}.

The purpose of training police officers is to form a competent ability to perform operational and service tasks in special conditions. Theoretical material should occupy a structural place in training up to a certain point, after which the information should be transformed into practical activity as a performance of professional duties.

         Speaking about the contextual approach, it is also worth noting that the method of training police officers manifests itself in various forms of organizing training sessions, and can vary from lectures to field practical classes. Based on the content of the topic, the level of training of police officers undergoing training, it is necessary to choose the most appropriate training methods by which police officers will engage in joint work with the teacher, which will make the most effective use of the lesson and get the desired result on the topic being studied and on disciplines in general.

A. A. Verbitsky identified three main basic forms of activity that can be effectively used in the organization of professional development of police officers, these are academic-type educational activities, quasi-professional and educational-professional activities. Consider the above forms in more detail:

– academic–type educational activity - as a rule, it acts as an introductory component of the educational process and consists of theoretical material. This form of activity provides for lectures, seminars or practical classes in the form of discussions. Mainly, in academic-type educational activities, there is a transfer and assimilation of information, while lectures can take place in various ways, based on the content of the material.

– quasi–professional activity is a projection of specific real situations of professional activity in the classroom, with a dynamic vector of development of events, changing conditions during the solution, as well as a time limit on practical tasks, which allows classes to be as close as possible to the real situation ^{[7, p. 293]}.

Quasi-professional activity is quite effectively implemented in conducting practical classes in active forms of learning, such methods allow students to show their cognitive activity, compare the results obtained, draw conclusions, systematize the information received, conduct activity analyses. Let's distinguish four main groups of active methods, these are:

a) discussion methods – containing free discussions, meetings, discussion of specific introductory situations;

b) game methods – consisting of classes conducted in game forms such as: business game, brain attack, organizational and activity game; imitation role-playing game; game design; intersectoral integrated design.

c) rating methods – including popularity rating, efficiency rating and any other forms characterized by a competitive effect.

d) training methods – implemented in the form of personality-oriented and behavioral trainings.

It is worth noting that using active forms of training when conducting classes with police officers, game methods are more applicable, allowing during classes to simulate real service situations, including when working with special tools, firearms and the use of physical force. At the same time, the frequent change of introductory tasks during the course of the lesson, as well as the time limit for completing the tasks set, allows to bring the training session closer to the real situation to a greater extent, to form psychological readiness ^[8].

– educational and professional activity - is a training during which the content of the training session projects professional activity as much as possible. Such activity is realized in conducting field practical classes, where theoretical material is worked out in the form of specific algorithms of actions in a particular service situation. This method plays an important role in training police officers to perform operational and service tasks in special conditions, as it allows them to link existing theoretical knowledge with their practical application ^{[9, p. 90]}.

         Field practical classes are held outside the educational organization, on the rough terrain most suitable for the topic being studied. During the lesson, work is carried out with special means, firearms, explosives and explosive devices, orientation on the terrain is practiced using topographic maps and without maps, as well as other introductory situations that allow to maximize the readiness of a police officer to perform professional activities.

The optimal combination of the main directions of the contextual approach creates a positive dynamic in the level of training of police officers, as evidenced by the results of tests conducted upon completion of training.

Separately, it is worth noting the problem of implementing the contextual approach, which consists in the absence of special polygons in many educational organizations that allow modeling the conditions of operational and service activities. The presence of special training grounds would allow to fully simulate real official activities during practical training, which would have a beneficial effect on the formation of competencies of police officers undergoing advanced training.

The teaching staff of the Department of Tactical and Special Training believes that in order to increase the effectiveness of the contextual approach to training during the professional development of police officers departing on business trips to serve in special conditions and perform operational and service tasks, it is necessary:

– to provide educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia conducting advanced training classes with police officers with training grounds equipped in accordance with the work programs of disciplines;

– to provide the educational process with appropriate simulators, special means, training weapons, automotive equipment, personal computers, software, special rooms and terrain areas that allow you to simulate the service and combat situation, to work out algorithms of actions in various situations ^{[10, p. 120]};

– to introduce interdisciplinary classes in the educational process with the involvement of practical staff, for the most approximate modeling of practical situations to the real situation.

Summing up, it can be concluded that the use of a contextual approach in the educational process of educational organizations makes it possible to most effectively implement the relationship between theory and practice and is optimal for training police officers to perform operational tasks in special conditions. In our opinion, the contextual approach is quite universal and can be fully applied in the preparation of other categories of students in educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.