Strategic upgrade of the master’s programme "Mediation in Education" in digital transformation context

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Siberian Federal University

Strategic upgrade of the master's programme “Mediation in Education” in digital transformation context

Olga G. Smolyaninova", Evgeny S. Egle

and Nikita A. Ivanov

Abstract

The “conflict-generating capacity” of the modern world causes the need for trained mediators specializing in the productive negotiation technology and conflict management in both real and virtual domains of social relations. As a rule, currently existing mediator training programmes do not consider the intercultural contexts of the conflicts, despite their importance in the volatility and uncertainty of the digital medium. The proposed upgrade of the Master's programme for future mediators relies upon the polyparadigmatic methodology encompassing the system and constructive, culturological, and situation approaches.

Connected to the digital transformation of the society, the employment of the new model of mediators' training in the Master's programme of Siberian Federal University is based on the development of a networking partnership between the professional mediators' associations and the universities of Kazakhstan and Siberia. The article elaborates on the mechanisms of providing electronic support of the Master's programme intended to expand the teaching efficiency of e-learning in the Master's training at the Federal University. It also presents the organizational and pedagogical conditions together with the methods of training future mediators by means of the electronic media of the university, social media and open education platforms. It provides the empirical data confirming the efficiency of the Master's programme electronic support system developed and implemented by the authors. The article also presents the results of a psychological and pedagogical experiment in the assessment of personal qualities and professional competences of the future mediators and the results of the Master's programme review by practicing mediators and the academic community with regard to the Target Competence Model 2025. With the results of the tests and implementation of the new practice-oriented Master's programme of SibFU, it is now possible to develop a new culture of social interaction within a digital environment based on cooperation, mutual understanding and dialogue, constructive behaviour in a conflict.

Keywords: mediation, online mediation, Master's programme, digital transformation, intercultural conflict, networking partnership, professional identity, open educational platforms, professional mediators' community.

Стратегический апгрейд магистерской программы «Медиация в образовании» в условиях цифровой трансформации

О.Г. Смолянинова, Е.С. Эгле, Н.А. Иванов

Сибирский федеральный университет

Аннотация

mediator master's intercultural

Конфликтогенность современного мира актуализирует необходимость подготовки посредников, владеющих технологией проведения продуктивных переговоров и управления конфликтами не только в реальном, но и в виртуальном пространстве социальных взаимодействий. Существующие программы подготовки медиаторов, как правило, не учитывают межкультурные контексты конфликтов, значимые в цифровой среде в условиях волатильности и неопределенности. Предлагаемый апгрейд магистерской программы подготовки будущих медиаторов опирается на полипарадигмальную методологию, включающую системнодеятельностный, культурологический и ситуативный подходы.

Новая модель подготовки медиаторов в магистратуре Сибирского федерального университета связана с цифровой трансформацией общества и основана на развитии сетевого партнерства университетов Сибири и Казахстана с профессиональными сообществами медиаторов. В статье рассматриваются механизмы обеспечения электронного сопровождения магистерской программы, способствующие расширению дидактического потенциала электронного обучения в условиях магистерской подготовки в пространстве федерального университета. Представлены организационно-педагогические условия и описаны способы реализации подготовки будущих медиаторов средствами электронной среды университета, социальных медиа и открытых образовательных платформ. Приведены эмпирические данные, подтверждающие эффективность разработанного и внедренного авторами механизма системного электронного сопровождения образовательной деятельности магистрантов. В статье представлены результаты психолого-педагогического эксперимента по оцениванию личностных качеств и профессиональных компетенций магистрантов - будущих медиаторов и результаты экспертизы магистерской программы практикующими медиаторами и академическим сообществом, ориентированные на Целевую модель компетенций 2025. Результаты апробации и внедрения новой практико-ориентированной магистерской программы подготовки медиаторов для образования в СФУ позволили сформировать новую культуру социального взаимодействия в цифровом пространстве, основанную на сотрудничестве, взаимопонимании и диалоге, конструктивном поведении в конфликте.

Ключевые слова: медиация, онлайн-медиация, магистратура, цифровая трансформация, межкультурный конфликт, сетевое партнерство, профессиональное самоопределение, открытые образовательные платформы, электронное сопровождение, профессиональное сообщество медиаторов.

Introduction

The mediation technology of resolving and preventing conflicts by means of negotiations through a neutral intermediary is the major innovative technology of social interaction in the 21^st century's education environment. The need for mediators specializing in resolving school conflicts is urged by the social situation in education. The education-related conflicts are usually associated with the intercultural dissonance in the personal relations between the people representing different ethnicities, confessions, cultural values and behaviour standards. We hereby suggest a model of upgrading the Master's programme in mediation based on the activity and practice-oriented paradigms as well as partnership between the universities and professional associations of Siberia and Kazakhstan in the digital media (supported by V. Potanin Charity Foundation in 2020, No. GK200000445). The parties for strategic partnership were selected on the following basis. In the past, Siberia and Kazakhstan used to belong to the same macroregion that was artificially separated in the 1920-1930's. Different Turkic ethnicities are represented in the regions of Siberia, while in Kazakhstan, according to different sociologies, the Slavic population reaches four million (constituting around 20% of the total population of the country). Siberia and Kazakhstan have tight economic, cultural and social bonds between them. The migration streams may provoke both personal and interethnic conflicts that aggravate in the system of education, creating the demand for mediation specialists familiar with facilitative and recovering mediation and efficient communication theory, competent in conflict and negotiation management. This is the factor that determines the urge for such project in the education systems of the two countries. Besides a strong fundamental training at university, profession of a mediator requires a great professional experience, continuous practice, supervision, involvement of networking partners and potential employers in the development and shaping of the professional competence of a specialist in the digital era.

At the present moment, it is typical for the higher education system to intensively employ various long-distance learning technologies that provide free access to the education resources, and manifest the transition to continuous life-long education model as the most important problem in the information society context (Moshkina, 2014). In today's quarantine isolation that is not synchronized between the regions of Russia, the importance of digital technologies in education is significantly increasing. The pandemic raised the question of pedagogical efficiency and didactic capacity of the electronic media in distance learning. The improvement of e-learning and remote education technologies is an integral component of developing the information space of knowledge as required by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 203 “On the strategy of developing an information society in the Russian Federation for the years 2017-2030” (Tsibul'skii, Vainshtein, Esin, 2018). With e-learning development in mind, digital skills of the learners are gaining more importance in the future professional activity in social integration; besides elementary computer literacy, they include a wide range of skills of cooperation and communication within the digital medium (Kat'kalo et al., 2018).

Within the past several years, SibFU created the conditions required for deployment of a practice-oriented Master's programme in mediation in the sphere of education; a team of lecturers from the School of Education, Psychology and Sociology was created; some organizational and administrative changes were enacted; a number of scientific and research projects were put into practice; the 1^st International Conference “Mediation in Education: the Polycultural Context” was held, three international youth summer schools “Polycultural Mediation in Education” were organized.

It is worth noticing that Russian higher education institutions have started some mediator training programmes before. Of course, the leader and the pioneer was Moscow State University of Psychology and Education that started the “Mediation in the Social Sphere” programme in 2012. There were some other universities of Russia that opened mediation-related Master's programmes in the past two years, like “Primary Addiction Prevention Measures and Mediation in Education” programme of South Federal University, “Legal Mechanisms of the Enforcement and Protection of the Children's Rights. Mediation” of Moscow City University “Mediation in Education and Social Sphere” of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, “Psychological and Pedagogical Support and Mediation in Education” of Ural State Pedagogical University, “Mediation in Education and Social Sphere” of Astrakhan State University, “Organizational and Management Conflictology and Mediation” of RANEPA etc. There is a great number of foreign universities that offer Master's programmes in mediation. Let us mention the most relevant analogues of Russian ones: “The Issues of Peace, Mediation and Conflicts (University of East Finland, UEF), “Intercul- tural Conflict Management” (Applied Sciences University (ASH), Germany), “Comprehensive Conflict Management: Mediation and Security” (INISEG, Spain), “Conflict Resolution and Mediation for the Promotion of Peace” (National Technical University of Ukraine). Cooperation with the new university of Lisbon and Polytechnic University of Leiria (Portugal) and University of Bologna (Italy) was started.

The mediation programmes of SibFU remain relevant and sought for in Siberia due to the great diversity of ethnicities resident in the territory. The polycultural population of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Krai) is one of the factors of the emergence and probable escalation of the intercultural and international conflicts. In this regard, it is especially urgent to make a brand of the “Mediation in Education” Master's programme launched in 2018 at SibFU School of Education, Psychology and Sociology by means of Internet technologies (Fig. 1). This education programme is designed for the recruitment and training of the mediators capable of acting as intermediaries in conflict situations and facilitating the resolution of the arguments of various complexity degrees.

One of the most specific traits of Master's training in Russia and abroad is the domination of self-education. This shifts the emphases in the Master's education, activates the subject of the education process responsible for the electronic support of the Master's students and expansion of the further digitalization of professional training and its teaching potential. The expansion of digitalization observed in different spheres of life in the past several years has led to the phenomenon of digital transformation that should be recognized as one of the most significant factors of the information society development.

As far as the domain of education is concerned, digital transformation may be described as a “systematic and synergetic update of the basic education process components, including the results and contents of education, organization of the education process and evaluation of the education outcomes” (Uvarov, 2018). The digital transformation is associated with the complication of the social environment and accelerated technological development that lead to the emergence of new forms of social relations. The changes that occur as a result of expanding digitalization make an impact on the society, highlighting the unevenness of the social environment, influencing, therefore, its social, environmental, and economic disbalance, the growth rate of uncertainty within the society (Kat'kalo et al., 2018).

Fig. 1. E-learning methods used in the “Mediation in Education” programme

In the context of digital transformation of education, the digitalization of the Master's training implies a search and approbation of the new approaches to organizing the education process by means of digital technologies. Being a domain of resolving conflicts and various communication tasks, the domain of mediation, in its turn, is in need for proper arrangement of the mediation procedure using online mediation tools. Online mediation, a separate branch of mediation practices involving internet technologies, is rapidly developing abroad. Different aspects of online mediation are studied in the works by A. Weiner, D. Rainey, F Abedi, L. Wing, P. Cortes, V. Terekhov etc. In our opinion, the digital platforms designed for webinars and video conferences are insufficient for the organization of mediation procedures in the digital space, unable to satisfy the needs of mediation subjects in e-learning context and to provide them with proper psychological comfort.

At the present moment, the question of the personal qualities a mediator needs for successful professional activity in the context of digitalization of social relations is hard to answer. In the conditions facilitating the development of a virtual identity and actualization of the web personality qualities, it may be stated that there is an image of a mediator acting as an intermediary in conflict resolution both in online and offline media, gradually transforming in the public consciousness. In its turn, this circumstance brings up the problem of professional identity for the Master's students training to become mediators, raised by the picture of the future professional activity that remains unclear in the minds of students as they being their training and in the process of further learning.

Theoretical framework

E-learning is understood as a technology, as a way of transferring some content to the user as a communication vector, as a paradigm of education (Moshkina, 2014). Due to the development of approaches to the digitalization of education, it becomes possible to integrate different education paradigms and approaches to learning by means of the latest content management technologies to raise the efficiency of virtual communication, therefore expanding the didactic potential of e-learning.

The e-learning format requires individual supervision and support of the students' self-education by structuring and implementing the interactive academic content in the electronic media of the university along with virtual communication. The problem of supervising and supporting the internet technology-based professional training at university was considered in the works by A.A. Akhaian and T.R. Berlina, M.I. Bocharov and S.A. Smirnov, E.Z. Vlasova, A.N. Kostikov, S.A. Markelova, T.N. Noskova, N.M. Plotnikova, V.P Solomin (Lomov, 2011), E.V. Moshkina, I.A. Bochkarev etc. Semantically, “supervision” and “support” terms are close to each other. In the pedagogical context, the “support” and “supervision” terms are different, but they supplement each other, describing the integrity of interaction between the teacher and the learner in the education process. The analysis of papers dedicated to the support and supervision in higher education involving internet technologies lets us suggest that in e-learning, support and supervision are based on the system approach. The latter implies alignment with the objective and contents of the education object, let it be pedagogical practice (Markelova, 2010), or advanced professional training within a corporate course (Rogovkin, 2018).

S.V. Rogovkin remarks that the tendency of replacing intramural education with electronic courses highlights multiple drawbacks of the method, the major of which being the absence of personal contact between the student and the teacher (Rogovkin, 2018). However, recent experience of nation-wide long-distance learning has generally proven the efficiency of self-education of the students. Thus, according to academician of Russian Academy of Education E.A. Iamburg, there is no reason to speak of loss of education quality in the global e-learn- ing Bezobraznye ekstsessy na EGE obsuzhdaiut v sotssetiakh [Horrific Unified State Exam Violations Discussed in Social Media]. Available at: https://www.mk.ru/social/2020/07/17/ bezobraznye-ekscessy-na-ege-obsuzhdayut-v-socsetyakh. html (accessed 7 August 2020).. This opinion is shared by the federal education authorities referring to the results of the final school exams that have partially improved compared to the previous year.

In our opinion, it makes sense to expand the didactic potential of e-learning in the context of information pedagogy. The didactic potential of e-learning can be expanded by means of:

* development of the currently established formats of contact between the learner, the education content and other users;

* development of new options of digital support to the education activity;

* further intensification of using cloud technologies and online services in e-learning.

The essence of the information medium that may be considered both as a means and a form of information pedagogy has been expressed in the definitions suggested by Iu.A. Shreider, P Mozolin, E.A. Rakitina, M. Bashmakov, S. Pozdniakov, N. Reznik. According to Iu.A. Shreider, the information medium includes three components: the material, information, and communicative support. The first is concerned about the presence of information resources; the second means the access to the information carriers and the arrangement of the information culture elements. Communicative support is understood as an opportunity to communicate, directly or indirectly (using technical means of communication) (Smoliani- nova, Savel'eva, Dostovalova, 2008).

In the present study, electronic support of the Master's degree education programme is understood as a provision of comprehensive digital technology matching the training profile. Electronic support of the Master's degree education programme implies a regular use of the university's electronic media (electronic courses, e-library, information about the programme, disciplines and lecturers) by the students by means of:

* development of an information medium for the professional mediators' training;

* employment of mobile information and education media, or m-learning elements.

The information medium of professional mediators' training can be developed through the integration of the resources of SibFU electronic environment, social media, Wix-based Internet resource and the platform of Siberian Regional Centre of Online Learning Competence (Fig. 2). The structure of the electronic media of professional mediators' training includes four interconnected components: the Internet resources consisting of images, audio, video content, posts, and browser-viewed presentations. The arrangement of the support system, the connection of the information media components through the related online communities, YouTube channel, online courses and Wix-based Internet portal are made possible with the hypermedia and synchronization of the “Mediation in Education” programme accounts to ensure the mutual supplement of the components due to the variety of their content and multimedia formats.

Fig. 2. Social media components of the professional mediators' training at SibFU

The component integrating the structure of the information media of the professional mediators' training is the corporate style of the programme designed on the basis of the official and actual style of the university. The Master's programme brandbook Digital banner with the “Mediation in Education” Master 's programme logo. Available at: http://ipps.sfu-kras.ru/sites/ ipps.institute.sfu-kras.ru/files/slides/imgonline-com-ua-Com- pressed-NHstfY532qJ.jpg (accessed 07 August 2020). manifests the basic qualities of the developing brand of the “Mediation in Education” programme, such as information transparency and innovation, conceptuality, promotion of the systematic digitalization ideology employed in the Master's training.

The comprehensive nature of electronic support provided to the Master's programme is manifested through the implementation of the mobile information media elements of the education programme. For instance, there are Internet sources that offer special design options. The media elements were developed with the popular Wix website construction service. The advantage of Wix online service is the visual presentation using multimedia and animated transfers from one page of the website to another. The Wix-based portal ensures personal involvement of the students into the e-learning process through the interactivity, supported and enhanced with the multimedia tools used in the Master's training programme. One of such tools is the trailer of the disciplines taught within the programme, made with a dynamic audio and video content prevailing over the verbal information.

The trailers of the disciplines incorporated into “Mediation in Education” Master's programme were made with Movavi software and open-source multimedia provided by ru.de- positphotos.com website. As far as the video is concerned, the discipline trailer illustrates the objectives of the discipline, its main chapters, expected results of learning, assessment forms and information about the lecturer. The video content supporting the “Mediation in Education” programme is structured to fit the YouTube format YouTube channel of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/chan- nel/UCW5rjWKjgRHv18GCtQo1EZQ (accessed 07 August

2020) ..

The elements of the mobile information and education medium are implemented and the “Mediation in Education” Master's Programme is promoted in the Internet through the communities created in the popular media like vk.com, Instagram etc, in order to cover the entire audience potentially interested in the problem of constructive conflict resolution using mediation technologies. The professional orientation component of the electronic support is represented by the video about mediator profession and “Mediation in Education” programme. The voice-over of the video was created with 5btc.ru/voice online service. It is free for users. At the same time, the functions of the service make it possible to record with text with different voices, and adjust the speaker's tone (depending on the content and purpose of the text), regulate the volume and intonational expression using punctuation signs, download the file with the selected voice-over parameters. As for the content, the video is not only focused on professional orientation; it is intended to provide general information about the mediators' profession, describes the specificity of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the aspect of potential conflicts that may arise in the society. The final titles of the video are made in the form of a QR code with a link to the admission exams page QR code link to the promo video of the “Mediation in Edu-cation” Master's programme. Available at: https://admission. sfu-kras.ru/magisters (accessed 07 August 2020)..

One of the competitive advantages of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme is the fact that it is put into practice in the consortium of academic universities and professional mediators' associations of Siberia and Kazakhstan (Smolianinova, Korshunova, Adamova, 2019). This brings up the task of providing comfort and unhindered access to the information resources for foreign students. For this reason, the programme employs the platform of Siberian Regional Centre of Online Learning Competence developed within the priority education programme “Modern Digital Education Medium of the Russian Federation”. This platform is one of the ten regional online learning segments, a relevant platform for networking partnership in the domain of education due to expansion of the territorial coverage of e-learning, providing integration of the university education parties and representatives of the professional community of pedagogues and psychologists.

Following E.A. Klimov, we define identity as a process that includes the development of the world outlook, professional mindsets and values, the correlation of the personal and the professional, selection and further construction of one's professional lifeline (Klimov, 2004). This process takes place throughout the entire life, and the role and the influence of the person (personal interests, specificity, values and needs, activities) on the identity processes is important. The primary role of the personality in the identity process as a subject of building the professional lifeline is remarked by many authors (Schedrovitskii, 1992; Klimov, 2004; Priazhnikov, 2008; Panina, 2016). In the works of S.L. Rubinshtein and B.G. Anan'ev, the identity problem was studied with connection to the studies of the life line of the person (Rubinshtein, 2000). Different types of identity are presented in the works of L.I. Bozhovich, N.N. Zakharova, N.S. Priazhnikov, N.V. Samoukina, L.D. Stoliarenko, S.N. Chistiakova etc.

N.G. Bagdasarian, I.A. Vintin, Iu.A. Zubok, L.G. Ionin, O.I. Karpukhin, B.A. Ruchkin, V.A. Popov, V.I. Chuprov consider professional identity as a process of socialization of a person in the professional environment, which is an individual case of identity in life, development of the personality in the given social conditions (Dement'eva, 2006).

The period in the life of the future mediator associated with the Master's training brings out the problem of identification and description of the organizational and pedagogical conditions that facilitate professional identity in the digital transformation. The problem of the influence the personal qualities make on professional identity is just as relevant. The mediator's competence development model emphasizes the importance of learning through the practical experience and the development of critical self-assessment. Continuous reflection over the personal deficits and advantages predetermines the need for the continuous personal and professional training (Lieberman, Foux-Levy, Segala, 2005). The digital transformation of education requires the conditions that facilitate the shaping and development of the professional subjectivity of future mediators both in the real and virtual space of professional training, actualization and increment of the personal resources that make an implicit influence on the successful Master's training and further professional development of a mediator.

D. Holland believes that the underlying condition of success in professional development is the selection of a professional domain matching the individual qualities of the person (Holland, 1968). Identity implies the expansion of one's initial capacities, or “self-transcendence” as one's ability to get beyond his or her limits, and, most importantly, to find new meanings in the given business and in life in general (Frankl, 1990). The main condition of professional identity is the awareness of the professional requirements and one's own abilities, motives, and inclinations (Beliakova, 2018). The university environment based on the “education pipe” type with a comparatively stable curriculum and a set of disciplines loses to the model of individual education plans. The question of the influence made by the personal qualities of the mediators on the success of mediation procedures have been previously studied by many authors (Allakhverdova, 2012; Zdrok, 2018; Smolianinova, Posokhova, Izotova, 2020).

However, in the situation of digital transformation and the expansion of the Russian mediator's training practice, this problem gains new contexts directly associated with the professional success of those selecting mediation as their profession. E.G. Skibitskii and N.V. Fadeikina formulated the psychological and pedagogical foundation for mediators' training based on the presence of clear didactic objectives, pedagogical tasks and the ways of fulfilling them, consistency and cyclicity in putting different stages of the process into practice; the development of speaking and thinking activity of the future specialists in the education process; purposeful and stage-wise implementation of the didactic support and interactive teaching methods; consideration of the individual and typological specificity of the listeners, their interests and abilities; continuous pedagogical monitoring of the future mediators' training process (Skibitskii, Fadeikina, 2019).

The theoretical analysis and the Master's programme implementation experience revealed the organizational and pedagogical conditions that stimulate professional identity in the situation of digital transformation:

1. Establishment of an event-organizing space at SibFU and comprehensive electronic support of the “Mediation in Education” programmes for the Master's students to discover the philosophic and conceptual, social and economic, psychological and pedagogical meanings of their future profession.

2. Support the process of setting the didactic goals, realization of pedagogical tasks and the way they may be fulfilled in the minds of the Master's students; differentiation of education technologies for creating the space for choice the students make based on their individual and personal character; the use of electronic support aids in the polyparadigmatic logic.

3. Axiologization of education, the employment of the humanitarian and digital capacities of SibFU and open educational platforms; modelling pedagogical situations to transform student behaviour from reproduction to production, also in the format of webinars and video conferences; individualization of education, the development of a subject position of a master's student as a full-scale member of the professional community.

4. Development of the acmeological attitude of the students to the place they occupy in the professional domain of mediation through getting them involved in the annual online and offline events, meetings with professional mediators (from Kuzbass, Baikal, Krasnoyarsk associations of mediators).

5. Practice-oriented model of the online learning of the future mediators employed through involvement of the best Russian mediation trainers in teaching courses in the Master's mediation programme.

6. Create the model of electronic support of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme as a mechanism for the development of e-learning and professional identity in the Master's training context.

Statement of the problem

The conceptual ideas of electronic support, organizational and pedagogic conditions for the development of the professional identity of the Master's students of the mediation programme listed above are presented in the model of electronic support of the “Mediation in Education” programme (Fig. 3). The model includes the following components: target, methodology (integrating the main idea and principles), organization, resource (including the hardware for the digitalization of the professional master's training), results and methods (including recommendations on the implementation of the electronic support, expanding the didactic capacity of e-learning within the “Mediation in Education” programme.

The present model is designed to integrate the professional training of the Master's students, future mediators, into the electronic medium of SibFU and to make up a brand of the “Mediation in Education” Master's programme. The major idea that underlies the model is the consolidation of the education programme content, such as electronic courses, e-library resources, information about the programme, its disciplines and lecturers into one information medium. The electronic support of the “Mediation in Education” Master's Programme has been supported by the electronic training courses within the SibFU e-learning system, SibFU e-library, and implies regular work with the resources of Sib- FU electronic medium, creation and publishing of interactive and multimedia content in the Internet.

The electronic support is involved in the logic of the information, system, and medium-based approaches in pedagogy, as well as implementation of m-learning elements, elements of the mobile information and education medium. The electronic support of the “Mediation in Education” Master's programme promotes the mission and concept of the programme, its competitive advantages, and the ideology of the systematic digitalization of the Master's training at the university.

Methods

The target survey groups were the firstand second-year students of the Master's programme “Mediation in Education of the School and Psychology and Pedagogy of SibFU; supervisors of school mediation services of the Republic of Kazakhstan; a group of mediation experts from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to the survey idea, two tasks were formulated:

1. Determine the degree of the influence made by the personal characteristics of the Master's students of mediation on their professional identity, development of the personal concepts, axiological and professional orientation, career planning.

2. Evaluate the efficiency of the given electronic learning model for “Mediation in Education” Master's programme for the development of e-learning and professional identity of the future mediators in the electronic medium of the university.

Fig. 3. Model of the electronic support of “Mediation in Education” Master's training programme

The first task was fulfilled with the following methods:

* “Seven Personality Traits” method by R.B. Cattell modified by Gretsov (Gretsov, 2012).

* “Empathy Level Diagnostics” method (Boiko et al., 2011).

* Self-Evaluation Scale by Ch.D. Spiel- berger - lu.L. Khanin for the self-esteem measurement (Spielberger, 2002).

* Special questionnaire for practicing mediators “Influence of the Professional and Personal Qualities of the Mediator on the Professional Identity Process” used to evaluate the degree and nature of the influence the personal and professional qualities make on the efficiency of the mediation procedure. It was used to study the connection between the personal qualities, the professional identity process and the influence of the professional activity experience on the personal qualities. The questionnaire includes three groups of questions: closed, open, and ranking by the degree of relevance of these or those personal qualities of the mediator.

The results were collected and processed with the digital technologies, particularly with GoogleForms tables.

The second task of the study was solved and the efficiency of the electronic support of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme was evaluated with two questionnaires: the expert review questionnaire for the lecturers and the satisfaction questionnaire for the Master's students training to become mediators in the future.

The pedagogical experiment on the implementation and evaluation of the model of comprehensive electronic support of the education programme gathered 17 first year Master's students majoring in “Mediation in Education” and 6 lecturers of the SibFU School of Education, Psychology and Sociology.

The expert review of the electronic support of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme was based on six parameters: sys- tematicity and integrated nature of the support; implementation of the mobile information and education medium elements; m-learning; enhancement of SibFU electronic medium components involved; the capacity of scaling and projecting the acquired experience. The experts were requested to study the criteria and indicators presented in the questionnaire and assess the satisfaction of the criteria using the scale from 1 to 5, where 1 stood for minimum satisfaction and 5 meant the maximum. The students' questionnaire was based on the statements formulated by L.V. Mischenko in the questionnaire “Satisfaction with Learning Activities”. In particular, the formulation of the statements used for the students to evaluate their attitude to the education process, their future profession, to assess the opportunities the university provides for their professional and personal self-development, to evaluate their motivation to learning and self-education were selected and specified with regard to the focus of the study. 9 of 10 formulated statements corresponded to the learning process satisfaction subscale from the method of L.V. Mischenko; one of the statements belonged to the subscale of satisfaction with the future profession. The electronic support satisfaction survey results were processed in accordance with the interpretation rules attached to the method of L.V. Mischenko. For each answer of the student, from 1 to 4 points were accrued, and the results were interpreted with regard to the subscale each statement of the questionnaire belonged to.

Discussion

Results of the study of the influence made by the professional and personal qualities of the mediator on the professional identity process

The analysis of 20 personal and 13 professional qualities of a mediator, the following 9 qualities were found to match: Neutrality, Impartiality, Flexibility, Articulateness, Empathy, Communicability, Even Temper, Persistence. In the process of study of the personal and professional qualities, no contradictions were revealed.

At the same time, the qualities relevant for profession are formed in the professional activity where the personal development gets especially intensive, as the major share of one's activities are concentrated within the professional domain.

R.B. Catell's “Seven Qualities of Personality” method modified by A.G. Gretsov revealed the following:

The “Trust - Suspiciousness” scale did not reveal any high-level trust. The high-level suspiciousness was demonstrated by 89% of Master's students and 80% respondents from Kazakhstan, which may be understand as responsibility and alertness in communication.

In our opinion, some indicators may vary between different groups of the respondents due to the different experience they have had in the mediation practice, as well as professional training level and some sociocultural differences.

The empathic ability was studied with the method proposed by V.V. Boiko.

The method showed that 10% of the Master's students and 7% of the supervisors of the school mediation services of the Republic of Kazakhstan have a high-level empathic ability, and the empathic ability of 52% and 25% respectively may be assessed as medium. This may prove the highly developed empathic ability of the major part of the future Masters and less than a half of experienced mediators. However, 33% of the Master's students and 57% of the practicing mediators demonstrated medium-low empathic ability, while 5% and 11% respectively had low (Fig. 4).

The main results of the self-evaluation survey of a group of respondents including SibFU Master's students and supervisors of the school mediation services of the Republic of Kazakhstan (based on Ch.D. Spielberger - lu.L. Khanin method) are the following.

In the anxiety level, the medium level prevails; 67% of students and 60% of Kazakhstan school mediation service supervisors showed medium level of reactive anxiety; 71% of students and 50% respondents from Kazakhstan showed medium level of personal anxiety, which witnesses a well-balanced self-esteem and self-vision in the majority of the respondents. High level of reactive anxiety was found in 9% of students and 30% of practicing mediators, which characterizes their inclination to perceiving many situations as threatening and react to them with anxiety; it may be also related to the specificity of the professional activity.

Reactive anxiety is characterized with tension, unrest, nervousness. According to the survey, 5% of the Master's students and 20% of practicing mediators experience high personal anxiety. The high personal anxiety is directly correlated with the neurotic conflict that may be both typical for the person or evoked by the professional deformation.

Significant deviation from the medium anxiety level requires special attention; high anxiety implies inclination to anxiety in the situation of competence assessment. In this situation, the subjective significance of the situation and tasks should be reduced by shifting the focus to the activity review and the development of confidence in success.

Low reactive anxiety levels were shown by 24% of students and 10% of experienced moderators of Kazakhstan; 24% respondents from the student community and 30% of the school mediation service supervisors from Kazakhstan have a low level of personal anxiety.

Low anxiety, on the opposite, calls for attention to the activity motives and to raising the sense of responsibility. But sometimes, low anxiety in the test results is caused by the respondent's wish to “look better” by oppressing anxiety (Fig. 5).

The results of the survey on the significance of personal characteristics and professional qualities in mediation practice, carried out with a special questionnaire, are presented below.

The purpose of the questionnaier was to find out the degree of influence the personal and professional qualities of the mediator may make on the professional identity process as a whole and some of its stages in particular.

Relying upon the hypothesis that professional and personal qualities make an impact on the identity and professional development processes, 90% off the experts concluded that their personal qualities influence the efficiency of the mediation procedure; 10% suppose that such influence is possible.

Describing the way and extent of the influence the professional qualities may make on the mediation procedure, 60% of the expert notice the positive influence of the profssional qualities; 20% consider such correlation possible, and 20% noticed a negative impact (Fig. 6).

Answering the question on the influence of the personal qualities on professional identity for mediators, only 20% of experts remarked that they considered the criterion, while 80% allow for the emergence of other reasons for selecting mediation as a professional domain.

A significant influence of the professional experience as a mediator on the personal quality is admitted by 40% of experts; 60% consider it possible.

According to the experts, the most important professional qualities of a mediator are Attentiveness, Activeness, Impartiality, Self-Organization. In the irrelevant category, Skepticism and Credibility were mentioned.

It is especially worthwhile pointing at a paradoxically low relevance of empathic abilities claimed by the surveyed experts. The previous foreign and Russian studies by Smo- lianinova O.G., Posokhova S.T., Popova Iu.V. etc. remarked high relevance of this quality for a mediator. We may explain this with the fact that since the experts have a well-developed empathic ability themselves, it does not seem to be a relevant issue for them anymore.

Fig. 5. Self-evaluation of the respondents by anxiety levels

Fig. 6. Expert opinion on the influence of the professional qualities on the mediation procedure

Results of the assessment of the electronic support of “Mediation in Education”programme by lecturers and students

The experts from the Department of Information Technology of Learning and Continuous Education of SibFU gave a high score to the actualization of the specificity of the new educational programme, its ideology, and the conceptual component of the electronic support (4.8 points). According to the lecturers, the criterion the electronic support satisfies the least is the universality and scalability (4 points), which may be partially explained with the satisfaction of the uniqueness criterion remarked by the experts. As for the criteria associated with the implementation of m-learning elements and the mobile information and educational medium, the prospects of further promotion of the content in the Internet, enhancement of SibFU electronic medium, the electronic support was given a high score by the experts (over 4 points for every criterion). All in all, the difference in score for every criterion was not significant: less than one point. According to the expert evaluation of the electronic support, the average score constituted 4.45 out of 5.

The aggregate average rate of the future mediators' satisfaction with the electronic support according to the learning process satisfaction subscale reached 3.1 out of 4. According to the selected profession satisfaction subscale, the average rate in the target group was higher: 3.4 points. A more profound analysis of the Master's students of the mediation programme brought us to the following conclusions. The students are mostly concordant with the fact that the information medium resources demonstrate the high relevance of mediation as a profession: 70.6% of the total number of the target group marked the “agree” answer. The prevailing 64.7% of the surveyed Master's students tend to think that the information medium developed for mediators' training is aligned with their professional training process and improves their professionalism. Over a half of the responding mediation students (58.8%) suppose that the professional training medium developed by the University will facilitate the development of their creative and intellectual potential. According to the students, the criteria the electronic support satisfies the least are the criteria of interest, and orientation to self-education (Table 1). The mean value of the future mediators' satisfaction with the electronic support (according to both subscales) constituted 3.25 out of 4.

Some of the students expressed their recommendations for the future, including the practice of online mediation and comprehensive implementation of the resources provided by SibFU electronic medium. For instance, the students said they would appreciate role-playing of cases in the long-distance format, trying the mediation techniques based on internet technologies, using “My SibFU” corporate service within the electronic support of “Mediation in Education” Master's programme.

Table 1. Satisfaction of the Master's students' satisfaction with the electronic support of the Master's programme according to the learning process satisfaction subscale

Conclusion/Results

The massive digitalization transforms the spheres of social interaction and accelerate the changes that occur in the social environment.

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the social relations cause the expansion and complication of the conflicts that occur in the education environment that deploy both in the real and virtual spaces. The digital transformation of the society and the education domain in particular sets specific requirements to the social and behaviour skills of the digital citizen, that are directly associated with the mediation competence. Thus, in the communication sphere, the skills of special importance are the skills of interpersonal negotiations, including empathy, stress management, adequate attitude to criticism; in the intercultural sphere, cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural skills are of the greatest relevance.

The practical experience of introducing e-learning into the higher education system showed that the digitalization of the Master's training still lacks systematicity. This is manifested in the improvement of certain digital tools and expansion of the e-learning tool functions with no connection to their content, specificity of the education activity caused by the theme of each given education programme and the likely formats of implementation.