The application of the theory of fractals for studying the regularities of forming the infosphere of training applicants for nursing specialities

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The application of the theory of fractals for studying the regularities of forming the infosphere of training applicants for nursing specialities

О.V. Voznyuk, E.F. Malinovsky, V.V. Svyrydiuk

The research stems from challenges which are characteristic of contemporary post-industrial, information and technological stage of development of human civilization. With respect to the initiation of training Masters of nursing in Ukraine a great importance is attributed to the research component of the professional competence of nurses with higher education, i.e. Masters of nursing. Taking into account the insufficient theoretical and methodical status of the problem, the researchers aim their study at developing a new approach to forming the infosphere of nursing as a research speciality on the basis of the theory of fractals. To achieve the goal the authors have used the content analysis of Master's theses of 150 Masters in accordance with 112 indices, Hurst index calculation included. The calculated Hurst index values testify to a high level of structural organization of Master's theses, as well as to certain regularities in using information sources in contrast with chaos and the absence of prevailing tendencies. The use of information sources which were referred to by the students of Master's course for conducting research and writing Master's theses, as well as the application of the techniques of content-analysis and scientific prognostication have made it possible to determine a number of tendencies in forming the infosphere of nursing as a research speciality. One can observe a pronounced tendency to decreasing the use of paper media as information sources, as well as the tendency to increasing the part of electronic media and the part of information sources in foreign languages. Among the information sources in foreign languages, in comparison with Russian English sources, prevail considerably. The study does not cover all aspects of the mentioned pedagogical problem since the further prospects for studying relates to the analysis of the quantity and quality of intellectual property objects created by the

Key words: information sources, electronic media, nursing, Master of nursing, scientometrics technologies, Hurst indext, infosphere, fractality (self-similarity).

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ТЕОРІЇ ФРАКТАЛІВ ДЛЯ ВИВЧЕННЯ ЗАКОНОМІРНОСТЕЙ ФОРМУВАННЯ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНОГО ПРОСТОРУ ПІДГОТОВКИ ЗДОБУВАЧІВ МЕДСЕСТРИНСЬКИХ СПЕЦІАЛЬНОСТЕЙ

О.В. Вознюк, Е.Ф. Маліновський, В.В. Свиридюк

Дослідження випливає із викликів, характерних для сучасного постіндустріального, інформаційно-технологічного етапу розвитку людської цивілізації. Щодо започаткування підготовки магістрів сестринської справи в Україні велике значення надається дослідницькій складовій професійної компетентності медичних сестер з вищою освітою, тобто магістрів сестринської справи. Враховуючи недостатній теоретико-методичний статус проблеми, дослідження спрямоване на розробку нового підходу до формування інфосфери медсестринства як наукової спеціальності на основі теорії фракталів. Для досягнення поставленої мети автори використали контент-аналіз магістерських дисертацій 150 магістрів за 112 індексами, включаючи розрахунок індексу Херста. Розраховані значення індексу Херста свідчать про високий рівень структурної організації магістерських дисертацій, а також про певні закономірності використання джерел інформації на відміну від хаосу та відсутності переважаючих тенденцій. Використання інформаційних джерел, на які посилалися студенти магістратури для проведення досліджень та написання магістерських дисертацій, а також застосування прийомів змістовного аналізу та наукового прогнозування дозволили визначити низку тенденцій формування інфосфери медсестринства як наукової спеціальності. Спостерігається яскраво виражена тенденція до зменшення використання паперових носіїв інформації як джерела інформації, а також тенденція до збільшення частки електронних ЗМІ та частини джерел інформації іноземними мовами. Серед інформаційних джерел іноземними мовами в порівнянні з російською значно переважають англійські джерела. Дослідження не охоплює всіх аспектів зазначеної педагогічної проблеми, оскільки подальші перспективи вивчення пов'язані з аналізом кількості та якості створених магістрами об'єктів інтелектуальної власності, що дає змогу сформулювати наукометричні критерії оцінки значущості наукових досліджень наукової галузі студентів магістратури, виявляючи тим самим свою здатність створювати об'єкти інтелектуальної власності.

Ключові слова: джерела інформації, електронні засоби масової інформації, сестринська справа, магістр медсестринства, наукометричні технології, індекс Херста, інфосфера, фрактальність (самоподібність).

Introduction of the issue

At the beginning of the 21st century, Ukraine found itself in the period of trial. A rapid advance in science and engineering, the introduction of newest computer technologies into production, education and everyday life, as well as urbanization, economic cataclysms, international terrorism, geopolitical instability, manifestations of regional separatism, a high level of population migration - this is just a brief list of challenges which are characteristic of contemporary post-industrial, information and technological stage of development of human civilization. The above challenges are very hard to cope with in a separate country. Hence, as an answer to these global challenges, the progressive part of the Ukrainian society proclaimed the mainstreaming policy towards the European integration. Hence the researchers' attention is to be focused on fundamental universal human values which are based on competence, intellectual property, research potentials of the country and training of a competitive personality [10].

Current state of the issue

Beginning from 2008, and as far as the training of masters of nursing in Ukraine is concerned, a great importance is attached to substantiating the process of forming the information environment of Nursing as a scientific speciality. The entire process is based on the information and communicative competence of Masters which is closely connected with the information and computer technologies and scientometrics that deal with studying the communicativeness of researchers and the quantitative evaluation of validity of research results according to citation indices. theory fractals nursing specialities

At large, the scientific research while dealing with various aspects of communication in science and technology, deals also with the quantitative measurement of scientific results thus developing new approaches to quantitative assessment of the value of a scientific component, specifically in higher professional education. In this respect, Derek John de Solla Price believes, that evaluating scientific productivity, one cannot measure what one would like, but only that which is probable and possible [5; 6].

So, one of the main problems of the Masters' professional training in the higher educational establishments is connected with forming the scientific communicative competence in the Masters due to the quality of their scientific research. And this can be achieved by means of innovative scientometrics technologies [1; 2; 9; 5-7], particularly in the sphere of quantitative measurement [6] made on the basis of the theory of fractals [2].

Outline of unresolved issues brought up in the article. Taking into account the insufficient theoretical and methodical status of the problem, we can state that some questions concerning the quantitative measurement by means of scientometrics of the results of the conducted research presented in the Master's theses still remain unsolved. Specifically, we aim our study at developing a new approach to forming the infosphere of nursing as a research speciality on the basis of the theory of fractals being the newest perspective of scientific research.

Aim of the research

The analysis of the research and practical activities of higher educational establishments where Masters of nursing are trained testifies to the insufficient investigation into training Masters in this speciality. Hence, the research under study is aimed at elaborating new approaches to studying the regularities of shaping Nursing as a research speciality.

Results and discussion

In order to succeed, we use the method of contentanalysis of Master's theses of 150 Zhytomyr medical institute graduates that were written and defended within 10 years beginning with 2010. With this in view, 150 theses were formalized (digitalized) according to 112 indices.

The formalized indices were put into the table of Excel for Windows Professional table which made them available for the correlation and contentanalysis using the Excel and statisticl programs of statistical data processing.

At present, the majority of researchers consider the information infosphere to be a stochastic one possessing all characteristic features of fractality [3; 4; 8].

The fractality (self-similarity) of the infosphere lies in the fact that under the avalanche-like increase in the information amount, the distribution of its media according to such characteristics as sources, authors, subjects do not practically change its form. The application of the theory of fractals for analyzing the infosphere of research publications makes it possible to reveal some regularities.

At present, the issue-related information volumes are actually considered as self-similar formations capable of self-development. They are typical stochastic fractals, since their self-similarity, for instance the distribution of information clusters by their dimensions, coincides with the mathematically calculated expectations and is used for revealing the regularities from among the multiplicity of empirical data. Chaos postulation as an integral creative dynamic moment of the reality which can be self-organized (order and disorder are inseparable from each other) can be manifested at the present stage of the theory of fractals for analyzing chaos with the aim of looking for regularities, and Hurst index is used for calculating the probability of various trends which describe and prognosticate the dynamics of processes in time [9].

We suggest using the research strategy of the content-analysis of fractality of the dynamics rows through equalizing them according to the least square method with the aim of assessing the extrapolation indices for the next 2 or 3 years.

Table 1 suggests the list and specific weight of the information sources used by Masters of Nursing of Zhytomyr Medical institute for writing their Master's theses.

Table1

The structure of information sources which were used by Masters of Nursing when writing their Master's theses