Formation of professional competencies in the field of security alarms: methodological approach

Baumtrog Viktor Etmontovich PhD in Physics and Mathematics Professor; Department of Computer Science and Special Technology; Barnaul Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation 49 Chkalova str., Barnaul, Altai Territory, 656052, Russia barnaul@list.ru Other publications by this author     Es'kov Aleksandr Vasil'evich Doctor of Technical Science Professor; Department of Mathematics (and Computer Science); Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after Hero of the Soviet Union A. K. Serov 350090, Russia, Krasnodar territory, Krasnodar, st. Dzerzhinsky, 135 alesc72@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Kamishov Yurii Nikolaevich PhD in Technical Science Associate Professor; Department of Computer Science and Special Technology; Barnaul Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation 49 Chkalova str., Barnaul, Altai Territory, 656038, Russia kamishovun@mail.ru

The introductory part

In the educational organizations of the system of internal affairs bodies (ATS) of Russia, the educational process is organized in accordance with the requirements of federal state educational standards. The content of education at various levels and forms (full-time, part-time) is reflected in the relevant educational programs. A mandatory component of these programs are competencies (universal, general professional, professional), which reflect the requirements for their development.

The most important feature of the competence approach is the idea of an open order for the content of education. The result is not the amount of information learned, but the ability of a person to act in various problematic situations.

In 2001, the transition to competence‑based education was established in Russia. The strategy and tactics of implementing the competence approach pose a number of challenges, issues, and tasks to the scientific community that require prompt solutions. Therefore, it is quite logical that a very wide range of researchers have been dealing with the problems of implementing a competence-based approach in the process of training specialists in educational institutions of higher education only in the last few years.

In this context, it is necessary to analyze the existing ideas about the competence approach.

I. D. Rudinsky defines it as a way of organizing the educational process aimed at the formation of an individual's competence in a specific field of professional activity ^{[1, p. 48]}.

For the competence-based approach, it is a priority not only for students to master a certain amount of knowledge, skills, and abilities, but also their subsequent transformation into the ability to develop effective ways to solve various problematic situations ^[3]. Thus, the focus of professional competencies on solving specific professional tasks is the end result of modern education.

The results of a modern study by S. N. Apenko, A.V. Lukasha, and A. I. Davydov ^[2] demonstrate a different understanding of the essence and characteristics of the competencies of key participants in the educational process: students, faculty, and employers. In this regard, for the purpose of our work, it is advisable to give a number of formulations of the concept of "competence" and the related concept of "competence".

In a long-published work, I. A. Zimnaya defines competencies as some internal, potential, hidden psychological neoplasms (knowledge, ideas, programs (algorithms) of actions, systems of values and relationships), which are then revealed in human competencies as actual, active manifestations ^[3]. In a later study by this author, the three-level structure of competence is considered ^[4].

Since then, there have been quite a few publications devoted to the analysis and study of the essence of the competence approach in general and the concepts of competence, competence in particular. However, the scientific community has repeatedly expressed the opinion that so far these concepts do not have a generally accepted formulation ^[5].

D. A. Ruban, V. E. Gladchenko, V. E. Loba, and I. A. Abdulayeva believe that "competence is a dynamic quality of a professional person that 'moves' from the initial level inherent in the system of higher professional education to mastery as the highest form of competence, since if competence is defined in the most generalized form as a property (quality), then competence can be considered as the possession of this property, manifested in professional activity" ^[6]. In addition, these authors define competence as "an integral quality of a person manifested in motivated activity based on a value attitude to it and to the conscious experience gained, which determines the success of the activity and responsibility for its results" ^[6].

V. A. Danilov, O. R. Kudakov, G. U. Matushansky believe that competence is a specific property of an individual, consisting of a set of qualification characteristics and determining his ability and willingness to carry out a certain type of activity in a particular field. Competence, the authors show, is the result of the formation of abilities and readiness for a particular activity in the learning process, and competence is the result of the increment of successful experience in applying the formed competencies in the course of work ^[7]. According to A.V. Khutorsky, competencies are the regulatory requirements for the educational training of a student necessary for his effective and productive activity in a certain field ^{[8, 9]}. Thus, competence always refers to the field of education, competence — always to the field of work.

B. I. Bortnik, N. Yu. Stozhko and N. P. Sudakova substantiate the need to use integral formulations of competencies in universities with a detailed specification of their structure ^[10].

In the work of I. D. Rudinsky, N. A. Davydova, S. V. Petrov, special attention is paid to the description and research of the structure and content of competence and competence, models for assessing their formation and possible directions for improving the effectiveness of the competence-based approach to the organization of the educational process ^[11].

In turn, in the research of foreign authors ^{[12, 13, 14, 15, 16]} The importance of the qualification elements (knowledge, skills, some highly specialized abilities) necessary for a specialist to be in demand in the labor market and able to ensure the proper functioning of the enterprise is analyzed.

It should be emphasized that an activity-based approach is important in the issue of competence formation. It allows the teacher to model situations in which knowledge and skills are acquired and manifested through the activity of the student, who assumes the role of an active subject of the educational process in these situations, rather than a passive listener ^[17].

Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that for the successful formation of professional competencies, the teaching methodology should implement an activity-based approach and include active teaching methods (for example, project activities). At the same time, the result of mastering the material should be not only reproductive, but also productive.

In the context of our research, competencies will be understood as a set of knowledge, skills and abilities that a student must master in order to be effective and productive in a particular field.

The described principles are especially relevant for disciplines related to technical safety measures, where not only knowledge of theory is required, but also the ability to apply it in real conditions. Burglar alarm detectors are key components of technical security and anti-terrorist protection systems, which in turn are included in the list of samples (complexes, systems) of special equipment accepted for supply to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (approved by departmental order). These tools are studied in the framework of academic disciplines: "Special equipment of the Department of Internal Affairs", "Special equipment", "Fundamentals of special equipment of the Department of Internal Affairs Of the Russian Federation".

The relevance of the research is due to the lack of published general and specific teaching methods for these disciplines. To date, only the method of conducting classes on the topic of "Radio exchange" is available ^[18]. The traditional approach to the study of safety technology is limited to familiarization with the appearance of devices and demonstration of their operation, which corresponds to the reproductive method of knowledge transfer.

The proposed methodology is focused on a productive teaching method ^[19] and meets the request outlined by N. M. Melnikov and A.V. Nikishkin: "The teaching staff faces a serious task, which is to propose new methods and approaches to studying the material of topics in the academic discipline "Special equipment of the Department of Internal Affairs" ^[20]. Its implementation will overcome the limitations of traditional methods and increase the practical readiness of students.

The main part

To solve the problem of forming professional competencies in the field of security detectors, the authors have developed a methodology. The methodology is based on previously defined concepts of competencies and competence. Materials of works in the field of methodology and methods of the educational process in higher education were also used. ^{[21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]}.

The methodology should:

– rely on active learning methods;

– have a practical orientation;

– rely on existing regulatory legal acts;

– to facilitate the understanding of such terms as: security alarm boundary, detector detection zone, detector detection principle, detectable factor (impact) from criminal penetration (or its attempts);

– ensure that students understand the principles of marking security detectors;

– develop skills in choosing the location of security detectors at a protected facility, taking into account the specifics of their detection principle (possible circumvention or "deception" of the detector by the intruder);

– contain cognitive problems that stimulate search activity;

– contain assessment criteria that take into account not only the degree to which students have mastered knowledge and skills, but also the ability to find a non-standard approach to solving a practical problem.;

– comply with the principle of minimizing the burden on the teacher during practical training, assuming that he performs mainly control functions.

Didactic material is being developed to provide practical training. Let us formulate its characteristic features: it corresponds to educational goals and planned learning outcomes; it has an activity orientation; it allows taking into account the level of basic training of students; it contains initial data for the work of students, which should ensure sufficient variability in the results of completed work.

The implementation of the activity-based approach by students is carried out through the solution of a creative task (project activity) to develop a scheme for equipping a room with security detectors. According to the condition of the task, it is required to form three alarm lines. It is indicated that the facility is equipped with security detectors for its centralized protection by the Rosgvardiya forces. Therefore, to solve the design problem, only those security detectors are used that are included in the List of Technical security equipment (hereinafter referred to as the TSB List) that meet the "Uniform Requirements for notification transmission systems, object technical security equipment and security alarm and anti—theft devices of vehicles intended for use in non-departmental security units of the National Guard of the Russian Federation". Students are informed that the electronic version of the TSB List is available on the website of the Federal State Educational Institution SIC Okhrana Rosgvardiya (https://nicohrana.ru ) in the Documents section/List of TCO.

The TSB List for 2025 contains over 70 burglar alarm detectors designed to equip premises. They differ in names, principles of operation, and control capabilities for building and structure elements, which ensures sufficient variability in the results of the task.

Understanding the term "security alarm boundary" is a prerequisite for the successful completion of a practical task. As the monitoring of completed work shows, even if this term was understood in a lecture (if there is one in the thematic plan for this category of students), an explanation of this term is required in a practical lesson in relation to the standard scheme of the protected object used (Fig. 1), which saves time on completing the creative part of the task. Therefore, in the note to the practical assignment, it is necessary to define the term "security alarm boundary". The security alarm boundary is a set of detection zones and means of engineering and technical fortification, conditionally forming a boundary, overcoming which should lead to the formation of an alarm notification (according to GOST R 52551-2016 Security and safety systems. Terms and definitions). Centralized security of most ATS facilities is carried out in 2 or 3 alarm lines. The first barrier blocks the places of the most likely entry into the facility: entrance doors; loading and unloading hatches; gates; glazed structures; walls, ceilings and partitions that have insufficient protection from burglary or behind which other owners' premises are located, allowing for hidden work to destroy the wall; grilles, blinds. In fact, this is the outer shell of the room. The second frontier protects approaches to values (internal volumes of premises) with the help of detectors of various principles of operation, having a volumetric detection zone. The third boundary in the premises is blocking individual objects, safes, metal cabinets in which valuables are concentrated (Sizonenko A. B., Zarubin V. S., Zhalkiev V. T., etc. Special equipment of the internal affairs bodies: textbook: at 2 p.m. I. — M., 2014. p. 114).

For the convenience of implementation in the educational process, the assignment is placed in the LMS Moodle system. Its contents are:

1. Select the burglar alarm detectors necessary for the implementation of centralized security of the premises in the three boundaries of the burglar alarm system.

2. The detectors should be used exclusively from the TSB List (the address of its location on the Internet is indicated, the current TSB List is attached to the assignment as a pdf file).

3. Transfer the table form shown in the appendix (Table.1) in the workbook, fill in the data for the detectors you selected from the TSB List.

4. Transfer the object diagram to the workbook (Fig.1) and reflect the detectors on it by indicating their conditional numbering in circles on the diagram taken from the first column of the table (1.1, 1.2, etc.). Note: In this numbering, the number before the dot indicates the alarm boundary for which the security detector is selected, the second his ordinal number for this milestone.

5. Provide for locking the entrance door with two detectors with different principles of operation (point and volume detection zones).

6. Ensure that the interior door is locked with a volume detection zone detector.

7. Ensure that the safes simultaneously enter the detection area of 2 detectors of different operating principles.

8. For a detector with a volumetric detection zone, indicate its approximate contours in the diagram. To do this, assume that the size of the room is 10 by 20 m.

9. Present the work to the teacher for review. Be prepared to explain the principle of selecting detectors to ensure reliable locking of entrance doors and safes.

Monitoring the performance of the work results led us to the conclusion that the table should provide an example of filling in one of its lines, as well as an example of placing the detector code on the room diagram (Fig. 1, item 2.1).

Table 1. Table template for the description of detectors (example of filling)

Fig. 1 – Diagram of the protected object

The methodology of work verification. The total time for the lesson is 90 minutes, 60 of them are allocated for completing the task. The teacher checks the completed work, followed by a discussion in the final part of the lesson of the identified errors and the reasons for their formation.

During the verification of the work performed, the values of the digits contained in the standardized encoding of the security detector (column 1) are compared in the table with their values indicated in columns 2 and 3 of the table.

Let's explain in more detail. The standardized description of the automatic burglar alarm system, which is relevant for our task, has the form IOH ₁ X ₂ (column 1). IO means a security detector. Position X ₁ (single digit number) According to clause 1.4 of GOST R 52435-2015, there is a digital designation of the detector's characteristics based on the type of detection zone or protection zone it forms (1 — point, 2 — linear, 3 — surface, 4 — volumetric). Therefore, in column 2 of the template table, the student must specify one of the 4 values listed above.

The X2 position is a _two—digit number that indicates the detection principle code. The limits of change are from 01 to 29 inclusive. The student extracts the detection principle from the description of this security detector in the TSB List and writes it in column 3, and the teacher checks its name based on the contents of paragraph A.1.5 of the appendix. And the above-mentioned GOST. This appendix contains the digital values of the physical detection principles underlying the operation of the detectors and their corresponding names: 01 — electrical contact; 02 — magnetic contact; 03 — shock contact, etc.

The correctness of choosing security detectors for premises from the TSB List, and not other security equipment listed in it, is checked by the number in column 6. If the value is in the range from 15 to 91 inclusive, the choice is correct. If the value is outside this range, the choice is incorrect. The numbers 15-91 are the serial numbers of the security detectors for the premises in the TSB List as of 2025. This figure also makes it possible to quickly assess the variety of types of selected detectors. If it is repeated for different lines, the selected detectors are monotonous.

Thus, it takes several seconds to verify the knowledge of the competence component. Then the student verbally clarifies why these detectors were chosen in the scheme he drew up, and why their choice contributes to ensuring the reliability of security. The correctness of the graphical execution of the work is evaluated.

Evaluation criteria. An excellent grade is given if the student has selected at least three different types of detectors for the first line of burglar alarms. For the second and third, there are at least two types for each milestone. I did not make any mistakes in the description of the detector parameters. I have displayed the contours of the detection zone of volumetric detectors on a scale.

A good grade is given if the student has selected at least two different types of detectors for the first and second line of the alarm system and has not made any mistakes in the description of the devices.

A satisfactory rating is given if there is no diversity in the selected detectors and no more than two errors from items 1-3 of the list below are made.:

1. The code of the detection zone does not match its name.;

2. The code of the physical principle of operation does not correspond to its name.;

3. There is no diversity in the principles of operation of detectors for different points of the same alarm boundary;

4. The number in column 6 is outside the values 15-91. The choice is incorrect, because it does not correspond to the serial numbers of the detectors for the premises in the TSB List (2025).

An unsatisfactory rating is given if there is no diversity in the selected detectors, more than two errors from the above list are made, or there is an error specified in paragraph 4 of the error list.

A higher level of formation of the above competencies presupposes students' knowledge of the limitations of detectors of various principles of operation, i.e. the possibilities of their circumvention by the violator and, accordingly, an understanding of how to prevent such situations. The understanding of this aspect is clarified during listening to the explanation to the student (interviewing), in which he justifies the choice of specific detectors for his scheme and is evaluated with an additional point.

The developed evaluation criteria make it possible to effectively evaluate the results of the work of up to 20 students, which is quite enough, since classes are conducted by teachers in subgroups. At the same time, the risks (inherent in assessing competencies, mainly through testing) associated with ensuring substantive validity are minimal ^[28].

Conclusion

The presented methodology has been developed and tested for 4 years. In the 2024-2025 academic year alone, 489 people participated in the testing. Of these, 73 people are full—time students of the Faculty of police and investigator training, 178 people are students of the Faculty of professional training (employees of the Rosgvardiya and the security and convoy service), 238 people are students of the faculty of correspondence studies of various specialties, training areas and basic education levels.

In the process of testing this technique, the authors monitored the learning process. The monitoring results made it possible to further individualize training for different categories of students.

The analysis of pedagogical practice leads to the conclusion that when studying with students who have experience of serving at police department facilities, for example, such as a temporary detention facility or a special detention facility for persons subjected to administrative arrest, it is advisable instead of a typical scheme in a practical task to suggest that the student draw and equip with detectors a scheme of the facility where he is serving, this increases the connection between the work performed and practice. At the same time, during the verification of the results of the work, the emphasis is on explaining to the students the real scheme of the object and discussing the types of detectors that they have chosen to ensure the reliability of blocking the object. In this case, the requirement to provide a variety of detectors for each alarm milestone is not mandatory, which is announced in advance. The remaining requirements for the quality of work are maintained.

Students of the Faculty of Vocational Training, as well as students of the Faculty of distance learning (with the exception of groups formed from students with higher education) are given the task in a simplified version. They do not need to fill in column No. 5 and draw the contours of the detection zones on the diagram.

We concretize the advantages of the methodology outlined by the authors:

Performing a creative task within the framework of project activities involves the use by students of such concepts as the security alarm boundary, the security detector, the shape of the detection zone, the principle of operation of the detector, which contributes to an in-depth understanding of previously mastered theoretical information.

Graphical and tabular representation of the results of the work together with the developed evaluation criteria allow you to check the results of the work almost instantly.

The use of a sufficiently large array of data on security detectors from the TSB List provides a potential opportunity to obtain a variety of work results.

The developed methodology makes it possible to conduct a practical lesson with minimal labor costs on the part of the teacher with a sufficiently large number of students and to ensure the employment of each of them throughout the lesson.

The presented method is very economical in using both material and time resources. It allows to activate the educational process by involving students in solving creative tasks, and ultimately improve the quality of specialist training.

The main approaches in this methodology are universal and can also be used in the educational process of mastering fire and security detectors, provided that appropriate regulatory documents are used.

The article is published in its final version as approved following the last positive peer review recommending acceptance for publication. It incorporates revisions made by the author in response to prior negative peer review reports that did not recommend publication. All peer review reports, including initial negative reviews, are published in open access alongside the article. All versions of the author’s revisions are archived in the publisher’s repository and may be made available upon reasonable request in accordance with Elsevier’s editorial policies and applicable data availability requirements.
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