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Modern Education
Reference:

A Systematic Approach to the Study of Modern Students' Image

Andreeva Elena Vasilevna

PhD in Pedagogy

Associate professor, Department of Socio-Cultural Service and Tourism, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University

677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, ul. Belinsky, 58

klio_e@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0676.2023.4.69113.2

EDN:

KJJYDA

Received:

28-11-2023


Published:

02-05-2024


Abstract: The objective of this study is the image of a professional educational institution (university) student. The subject of the research is the use of a systematic approach in the study of the formation and development processes of students' images. The purpose of the study was to determine the place of the image in the vocational education system and its function and to identify the factors that ensure the formation and development of the student's image. The study was conducted based on the Department of Socio-Cultural Service and Tourism of the Institute of Languages and Culture of the Peoples of the North-East of the Russian Federation of the M. K. Ammosov NEFU. Based on the provisions of Talcott Parsons' theory of systems and structural and functional analysis, the results of the research of domestic and foreign scientists on the problems of the formation of the image of adolescents and young people, including in the learning process, the author considers vocational education as a social system in which the image of a student performs several functions. Both theoretical and empirical methods were used in the work, which allowed the development of a model of a student's image at a vocational educational institution to summarize the results of a study on the image of students of the North-eastern Federal University. The novelty of the study is that a model of the image of a student of a vocational educational institution was developed, based on which the structure of the image of students of a higher educational institution was studied, processes that occur within the image as a system, conditions, and factors that determine changes in the structure of the image. Based on the conducted research, conclusions are drawn that the image of students is a subsystem of the social system of vocational education, simultaneously acting as a mechanism for its preservation, as well as an independent system generating changes within itself, which ensures its safety, balance, and unity. The condition for preserving the image as a system is a change in the structure of the image that occurs in the university's educational environment due to the integration of various types of academic, scientific, project, and organizational activities.


Keywords:

image structure, student image, image, social system, subsystem, system, systems theory, systems approach, professional education, educational environment

Previously published in Russian in the journal Pedagogy and Education.

The subject of the study. Modern society requires an employee who, in addition to possessing highly professional qualities, has a high level of intelligence and culture, the ability to establish business contacts, take responsibility for the results of their work, and demonstrates confidence, competence, and stress resistance. An employee's positive image becomes an instrument of success and professional growth. In this regard, the appeal of Russian pedagogical science and research practice regarding the concept of image and the conditions and factors of its formation in training and vocational education is justified. Interest in image is actualized by the realities of today, when vocational education becomes part of society's economic system, and the effectiveness of an educational institution is assessed by the state and society not only by the number and quality of trained specialists but also by financial indicators. In the vocational education system, the positive image of the educational institution, teaching staff, and students play a vital role in attracting applicants, financing research, and grants.

The history of pedagogy shows that the image of a person or citizen is formed in the context of society's historical, political, and economic characteristics. Philosophical tradition forms an image necessary for society from the political and historical development point of view at this stage, and the pedagogical tradition embodies this image in a real person. At any stage in the development of society, a moral image is formed: an ideal, a standard, in some cases, and, in other cases, a way of thinking, a person's actions in society, and an image of the world. This process is historically, socially, and psychologically conditioned and occurs in parallel with society's socio-economic development. The concept of image is similar but not identical. Image results from purposeful and conscious activity, whereas the image is formed spontaneously. An image becomes an image when it is designed specifically [1]. In our study, we are interested in the image in the context of its formation and development among university students.

The formation of the image of students takes place during the learning process. Learning, in a broad sense, is a process of changing the state of a person as a system, including acquiring new ways of seeing, wanting, and evaluating reality [2]. The profession's training is carried out in a vocational education system characterized by complexity, versatility, and integrity. We consider it a social system as it is organized in society. A social system is a complexly organized, ordered whole, including individuals and social communities united by various connections and relationships.

In science, a systematic approach is a method that allows for the analysis of objects that have many interrelated elements, united by a commonality of functions and goals and a unity of management and functioning.

The system researchers (R. Merton, T. Parsons, P. A. Sorokin, etc.) formulated the principles of the approach:

– integrity, which allows us to consider the system simultaneously as a whole and, at the same time, as a subsystem of other systems;

– the presence of many elements arranged based on hierarchical subordination;

– structuring, which allows analyzing the elements of the system and their interrelationships within a specific organizational structure;

– multiplicity, which allows using various cybernetic, economic, and mathematical models to describe individual elements and the system as a whole.

The systematic approach is widely used in the analysis of social systems.

One of the founders of the theory of systems and structural and functional analysis, Talcott Parsons, identified the primary units of the social system, which are:

– an act as part of the process of interaction between actors focused on actors as objects;

– status: a role that determines the placement of an actor in the system relative to other actors;

– an actor as a complex node of statuses and roles;

– a collective existing as an actor and as an object [2, pp. 97–98].

According to Parsons [3], the system's maintenance and development are due to the presence and satisfaction of the actor's needs implemented in its various subsystems.

The purpose of the study. The above actualized the purpose of the study—based on a systematic approach to determine the place and function of the student's image in the social system of vocational education, to study the process of formation and development of the image of a university student as an independent system, to identify factors affecting the development of the student's image as an element of the social system of vocational education.

Methods and materials of the study. The theoretical basis of our research is Parsons's works on the theory of social systems, structural and functional analysis, and the results of scientific research of domestic and foreign scientists studying the phenomenon of image in an educational institution, society, and the adolescent and youth environment. The empirical basis of the study was the development of a model of the image of a student of a professional educational institution, processing the results of a survey of students of the Northeastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov. The study was organized and conducted based on the Department of Socio-Cultural Service and Tourism of the Institute of Languages and Culture of the Peoples of the North-East of the Russian Federation in 2020–2023. The study was attended by students of the "Service" direction of the first and second courses of the 2020 and 2021 admission years.

The results of the study.

Researchers interpret the term "image" quite broadly and sometimes inconsistently. So, dictionaries (philosophical, explanatory, pedagogical) interpret the concept of image as:

– the image of a person, including appearance, manner of behavior, communication, contributing to the impact on others;

– an external image created by the subject to evoke a particular impression, opinion, or attitude from others;

– a set of properties attributed by advertising, propaganda, fashion, prejudice, or tradition to an object to cause certain reactions toward it;

– the purposefully formed image of a person, phenomenon, or object designed to have an emotional and psychological impact on someone for popularization, advertising, etc.;

– a system of roles the subject plays in their life and activities, supplemented by individual characteristics (intelligence, external data, clothing, etc.).

Summarizing these interpretations, we note that the concept of image is associated with both a visual image, external attractiveness, a complex of personality properties and qualities, and with the form of reflection of an individual, group, or organization in people’s minds (purposeful or spontaneous).

We find similar interpretations in one interpretation or another among domestic researchers and in determining the image of students. The image of a young person, a student, is spent as:

– an integral characteristic that includes a set of external and internal socio-psychological, perceptual components of the student's personality (visual, intellectual, status, social perception) [4];

– life and professional priorities and values of students, forms of leisure and lifestyle in general [5];

– a certain personality trait of young people, a mask, a logo, collectively giving a synergistic effect [6];

– an effective tool for the formation of psychological attraction and attractions [7];

– an effective means of increasing symbolic capital, identification, self-identification, and self-presentation, including in their future profession [8];

– a special set of signs, which is a motivational condition that forms an appropriate attitude and actualizes the need to commit (or not commit) certain actions or deeds [9];

– a social phenomenon that performs the function of positioning and motivation for desired responses and systematic image building [10].

Thus, we see that the authors distinguish three aspects of the image: personal (in the system theory, these are the qualities of an actor, status roles), social (interaction between actors), and, relatively speaking, resource (tools, technologies to achieve results), which gives reason to interpret the image as a subsystem of the social system of vocational education.

Turning to the theory of systems, we note that the factors that ensure the system's ability to achieve a goal are at the entrance. These are values, useful knowledge, patterns of behavior, appropriate reactions, motivational attitudes, and inclinations. The output is the possibility of socializing motivational inclinations and establishing a standard of competence, which results from qualified actions and an orderly reaction at the level of behavior, mediated by satisfaction from what has been done.

According to Parsons, there is a process between the input and output, which is divided into three phases:

– formation of internal resources; change of motivation, accumulation of knowledge, development of behavior patterns;

– placement of these resources, distribution of activities by ability levels, performance of roles in accordance with this level, training [3, p. 575];

– the use of hosted resources according to the principle: what should be done, by whom should be done, how should it be done [3, pp.625–639];

Violating the balance of inputs and outputs between two or more system units manifests a tendency to change, which Parsons calls voltage. One of the ways to reduce the voltage may be to change the system's structure [11].

In our opinion, the image of the vocational education system also acts as a mechanism that relieves tension in the system when students who have not decided on the choice of a future profession come to study and have low motivation to study. In this regard, the image of a student under the influence of external and internal conditions can change over time and, as an element of the social system, lead to changes in the system's structure, thereby reducing or increasing tension in it. In other words, a student who entered an educational institution with positive motivation under the influence of unfavorable conditions demonstrates disappointment in their choice, and students with a negative attitude to their future profession, with the correct organization of their training, broadcast a positive attitude to their future profession.

According to the theory of systems, its elements can also act as independent systems. Applying the provisions of structural and functional analysis and the theory of social systems, we considered the student's image an independent system (according to Parsons, the personality system). The entry factors determine which students have individual intellectual and moral traits and qualities that are formed under the influence of the social environment and society as a whole, the attitude towards a person and profession in a particular culture; at the exit, an image of a personality, models of civil and professional behavior are formed.

The relationship between input and output is determined by what happens inside the image system and its structure, which includes the following elements (according to O. F. Potemkina) [12]:

– the external component of the image (appearance, manners, gait, speech, gestures, voice, facial expressions, clothes, hairstyle, etc.);

– the internal component of the image (intelligence, way of thinking, professionalism, goals and means, erudition, ideas, interests);

– the procedural component of the image (temperament, forms of communication, energy, emotionality);

– the core of the image (legend, positions, installations).

In this structure of the image, the central place is occupied by personal positions and attitudes of a person, which are instilled by education and upbringing and include, according to V. M. Shepel [13], moral values, psychological health, and a set of communication technologies. Natural qualities such as sociability, empathy, reflexivity, and eloquence determine procedural, external, and internal elements. They can develop over time to high characteristics if a person puts some effort into it, or they can begin to degrade without some work on themselves and in the absence of external stimuli. Qualities determined by life and professional experience and developed throughout the professional activity define the core. These are the so-called professionally important qualities that affect the effectiveness of activities. They are both a prerequisite for professional activity and its new formation, as they are improved and transformed during work.

We find confirmation of what has been said by researchers studying the factors influencing the formation of self-esteem and personal and social image of adolescents and young people in different countries. So, Svetlana Kostromina and Natalia Grishina [14], in their study, indicate that the integrity of a person is determined by the unity and continuity of their reaction to certain events of external or internal life. Personality as an open self-developing system strives to preserve its integrity, which is in a state of unstable equilibrium (which can be called meta-stability). This process is closely related to the dominant relationships that young people, having come to a new professional education environment, are trying to form in order to preserve the integrity of their personalities. Not everyone can adequately tolerate this: an increase in dominance on the part of fellow students for someone becomes a factor in the development of depression and anxiety [15]. At the same time, as researchers of the processes of adaptation of young people point out [16, 17], educational practice existing in a particular society introduces young people to the dominant forms of knowledge, while social interaction, the exchange of their own and others' experiences offer new ways of seeing and interpreting events that are broadcast through individuals, and the "author's" position, including through the image.

Based on the theoretical research conducted, we have developed a model of the image of a student of a professional educational institution (Figure 1). This model, in our opinion, demonstrates the essence of the image as an element of the social system of vocational education, which allows the student, on the one hand, to include himself in this system and, on the other hand, to perceive system processes as a condition for changing themself.

Figure 1.

Image model of a student of a professional educational institution (university)

As can be seen from this model, the interaction between the structure elements, due to entry and exit factors, is mobile. This occurs between all the structure elements, guaranteeing a structure change. In other words, the image will develop, adapting to the environment due to changes in its structure, the search for more effective means of forming the "right" image.

Based on this model, we offered students the opportunity to evaluate their images according to the methodology described by M. G. Podoprigora [18]. This technique involves students performing a self-assessment of their own image and a mutual assessment of the image by fellow students or friends. Students of the Department of Socio-Cultural Service and Tourism of the Northeastern Federal University, named after M. K. Ammosov, took part in the study. They were asked to evaluate their image by answering 60 questions and statements covering all structural elements of the image and using the proposed key to identify the dominant structural element. The first stage of the study was conducted when the students were first-year students; the second stage was performed when the same students completed their second year. The purpose of the study was to find out whether there are changes in students' images during the learning process, what this process depends on, and whether these processes affect their attitude toward their studies and future profession.

In the first stage of the study, the procedural element was identified as the leading structural element when performing self-assessment in most first-year students. Here, we agree with the already mentioned authors [14] that the procedural nature of a personality contributes to the preservation of its stability: young people who have recently graduated from school have a lot of energy and temperament, which begins to open up and compete in a field of competitive like-minded people.

When students were evaluated by their fellow students, most revealed an external component of the image. In our opinion, this is because for students, when perceiving their fellow students, a significant influence is exerted by what, on the one hand, distinguishes them from each other and, on the other hand, unites them—appearance, fashion, manner of behavior. We also found indirect confirmation of this in the study [19], which established a link between the formation of identity and appearance (physical characteristics, positive or negative attitude to one's body, acceptance of oneself as one is in reality). Socio-psychological features, character traits, behavior models, and characteristics of the procedural component, as noted in the self-assessment of students' image, are valuable only for themselves, so it is not enough yet.

A comparison of the results of self-assessment and mutual assessment at the first stage of the study showed that only two out of forty-four students had the same results. This fact can be assumed to demonstrate both the integrity of the image and the integrity of the personality of these two students. Indirectly, this assumption is confirmed by the status that these students occupied in the group: one turned out to be the head of the group, and the other was a student who successfully combined study and work.

In the second stage, conducted when the same students were finishing their second year, the leading structural components in the self-assessment revealed procedural and internal components, and there were even several cores, which indicates a change in the structure of the image of almost half of the students. During the mutual evaluation, the leading element also revealed an internal component, which confirms the fact of a change in the structure of the image. In the second stage, the discrepancy between self-assessment and mutual assessment results decreased by almost half.

We also correlated with the academic success of the students who took part in the study and found that none of them were expelled by the end of the second year, many received an increased scholarship for social and scientific activities, there were no students who left voluntarily or because of disappointment in their future profession. Starting from the first year, students are involved in research activities, studying in scientific circles in the department "Socio-historical aspects of the development of service activities in Yakutia," "Design in creative industries," "Psychological aspects in the organization of service activities"; summarize the results of their research at the traditional Institute scientific and practical conference "BILIM," then at conferences of the University "Ammosov."

By the second year, many had successfully performed at international and All-Russian scientific events and had been published. The specifics of the educational direction "Service" dictates constant participation in the organization and holding of events at the city and republican level: food festivals, master classes, tourslets, fashion shows, modeling, interaction with the National Association of Restaurateurs, Hoteliers and Tourism "Hospitality Association" of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Trade and Tourism of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), representatives of the business and professional communities. The integration of academic disciplines and project activities is facilitated by the participation of students in the project intensive "From idea to prototype" within the framework of the federal platform "University 2035." A good organizational school is provided by the participation of students in a trade union student organization. The construction of the educational process in the direction of combining theory, practice, scientific, project, and organizational activities allowed each of the students to realize the motive that was leading when entering the university and to form the image that was determined by these motives initially, without entering into gross contradictions with their "I," while allowing them to experience the pleasure of satisfying their needs. The university's educational environment contributed to the changes that took place in the structure of the student image, and this, in general, contributed to the preservation of the integrity of both the image and the personality of students.

Conclusions. The results of the study allowed us to formulate the following conclusions:

Using a systematic approach in studying the student's image allowed us to assert that the students' image is a subsystem of the social system of vocational education and, at the same time, is itself a system.

At the same time, the image acts as a mechanism for preserving the integrity of the student's personality as an actor of the vocational education system and the vocational education system as a whole.

The internal unity of the student's image as a system is due to changes in the structure of the image generated by interaction with the environment of a professional educational institution.

References
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2. Podoprigora M. G., Borisova Ya. O. Razrabotka metoda issledovaniya i formirovaniya imidzha organizatsii // Tavricheskii nauchnyi obozrevatel'. 2015. ¹ 4. S. 74-79.
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8. Potemkina O. F. Imidzh politicheskogo lidera. M.: Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi institut kul'tury i iskusstv, 2006.
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12. Simonova I. F. Pedagogika imidzha: monografiya. Spb.: Ul'tra, 2012.
13. Spicheva D. I., Kuzheleva-Sagan I. P. Imidzh kak instrument upravleniya soznaniem i povedeniem «Pokoleniya Y» // Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2012. ¹ 363. S. 64-67. URL: http://journals.tsu.ru/uploads/import/876/files/363-064.pdf (data obrashcheniya: 21.04.2023)
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First Peer Review

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The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study is the formation and development of the image of modern students. Research methodology: a systematic approach, a survey of students. Relevance. "Interest in the image is actualized by the realities of today, when vocational education becomes part of the economic system of society, and the effectiveness of an educational institution is assessed by the state and society not only by the number and quality of trained specialists, but also by financial indicators." It is not clear what the financial indicators have to do with it? The relevance has not been formulated. There is no scientific novelty. Style, structure, content. The style is scientific. The work is poorly structured: ideas about image do not fit well with the theory of systems and structural and functional analysis. The content of the work is confusing, not clear. The title of the article states the study of the image of students. Image is a set of ideas that have developed in public opinion about how a person should behave in accordance with his status (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B6 ). Accordingly, the image of a student is an idea of how a student should behave. However, the article considers the image extremely broadly, while losing the meaning of the concept: "based on a systematic approach, to determine the place and function of the student's image in the social system of vocational education, to study the process of formation and development of the image of a university student as an independent system, to identify factors influencing the process of developing the student's image as an element of the social system of vocational education." "The empirical basis of the study was the development of a model of the image of a student of a professional educational institution." The model cannot be an empirical basis. The section "Research results" is a review of image research, fragments of Parsons theory, a study by S. Kostromina and N. Grishina on the procedural nature of personality, an author's model of the image of a student of a professional educational institution, an empirical study of image. "The image in the vocational education system acts ... as a mechanism that relieves tension in the system when students who have not decided on a future profession and have low motivation to study come to study." This statement is not substantiated and is not proven. Based on the theory of systems, "entry" and "exit", the author argues that "entry factors determine which students have individual intellectual, moral traits and qualities that are formed under the influence of the social environment and society as a whole, the attitude towards a person and profession in a particular society; an image of a personality is formed at the exit, models of civic and professional behavior". Based on this judgment, the author builds a scheme-model of the student's image, which includes, in particular, includes: the social environment, the impact of society, the professional environment, the political and economic situation in the country; personal position, professional behavior, civic position. These factors are not discussed in the article. "We invited students to evaluate their image according to the methodology described by M. G. Podoprigora." According to this method, the image of an online store is studied (file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/razrabotka-metoda-issledovaniya-i-formirovaniya-imidzha-organizatsii.pdf). Can this technique be applied to people? Bibliography. Various, diverse aspects of the image are considered – student, leader, political leader, as well as organization, pedagogy (1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,18). Parsons' works (2,3,11). Topics unrelated to image: ethics, psychology, education, identity (13,14,15,16,17,19). There is no appeal to opponents. Conclusions: "The use of a systematic approach in the study of the student's image allowed us to assert that the image of students is a subsystem of the social system of vocational education, and at the same time is itself a system." This thesis has not been proven. "At the same time, the image acts as a mechanism for preserving the integrity of the student's personality as an actor in the vocational education system and the vocational education system as a whole." This thesis has also not been proven. "The internal unity of the student's image as a system is due to changes in the structure of the image generated by interaction with the environment of a professional educational institution." This statement is low-content, reasonable. There is no interest from the readership.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The paper "A systematic approach to the study of the image of modern students" is presented for review. The subject of the study. The work is aimed at determining the place and function of the student's image in the social system of vocational education based on a systematic approach, studying the process of formation and development of the image of a university student as an independent system; identifying factors influencing the process of developing the student's image as an element of the social system of vocational education. In general, the author coped with the tasks set; the selected subject was studied. The research methodology is based on a systematic approach, which was considered in R. Merton, T. Parsons, P. A. Sorokin and others. The author organized and conducted a study. The relevance of the research is due to the need for a systematic approach to the study of the image of modern students. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the definition of a systematic approach to the study of the image of modern students. The author obtained the following results: 1. Based on the theoretical analysis carried out, a model of the image of a student of a professional educational institution was developed. 2. A study was conducted that allowed students to evaluate their image using the described methodology (the procedural component was determined, the external component of the image was considered, the procedural and internal components, etc.). 3. A systematic approach to studying the image of modern students is presented. Style, structure, content. The style of presentation corresponds to publications of this level. The language of the work is scientific. The structure of the work is clearly traced, the author highlights the main semantic parts. In the introduction, the author identified the relevance of the problem raised. The author notes that the interest in image is determined by modern realities, when vocational education is a part of the economic system of society. At the same time, the effectiveness of an educational institution is assessed by the state and society not only by the number and quality of trained specialists, but also by financial indicators. In the professional education system, the positive image of an educational institution, teaching staff, and students plays a decisive role in attracting applicants, financing research, obtaining grants, etc. The subject of the study is indicated in the introduction. The author notes that the formation of the image of students takes place in the learning process. The analysis made it possible to identify the basic principles of the systemic approach and the units of the social system. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of the purpose, methods and materials of the study. The main section includes a description of the results obtained. Special attention is paid to the definition of the following positions: - the interpretation of the phenomenon of "image" is given; - the content of the phenomenon of "student image" is clarified and its main components (personal, social, resource) are highlighted, - the main content of the phases is determined, the violation of the ratio of which leads to tension, - the conditions for image change are highlighted, - the elements of internal image systems (external, internal and procedural components, as well as the core of the image), - a description of the main stages of empirical research is proposed; - the results of correlation analysis are presented; - the results of the study are summarized. According to the author, the image acts as a mechanism for preserving the integrity of the student's personality as an actor in the vocational education system and the vocational education system as a whole. The article ends with a brief description of the research results and the formulation of general conclusions. Bibliography. The bibliography of the article includes 19 domestic and foreign sources, a small part of which have been published in the last three years. The list contains mainly articles and abstracts. In addition, the list includes monographs, online sources, educational and teaching aids. The sources are designed, in general, correctly, but in some positions they are heterogeneous. Sources 6, 7, 14, etc. require correction. Appeal to opponents. Recommendations: - to conduct a more complete analysis of the literature, including modern ones; - to describe in detail the features of the organization and conduct of the study, to clarify and characterize the sample, to present in detail the results obtained in quantitative and qualitative variants; - to highlight the scientific novelty, the author's contribution to solving the highlighted problem, to determine the prospects and directions of further research. Conclusions. The problems of the article are characterized by undoubted relevance, theoretical and practical value; it will be of interest to specialists who deal with the problems of studying the image of modern students. The article can be recommended for publication taking into account the highlighted recommendations.