Maritime education and training: IAMU and IMO­Formal research of main concepts and trends

Vladimir Loginovsky Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy Saint PetersЬшg, Russia

Abstract

This гeseai·c\i is devoted to а foпnal joint intгatext ana1ysis of tl1e рарегs submitted to IAMU 81

h Annual Geneгa1 AssemЫy (AGA 8) und.eг the title "Woгld Mai·itime Excel\ence," and materials suЪmitted to IMO STW 38/39 sub­committee sessioпs, the basic theme of which was "Compreheпsive review of tl1e STCW Convention and tl1e STCW Code" . The main 1inks and gaps ot'basic concepts extracted from two sets of papers wеге defiлed.

1 Introduction

Tile main objective of t\1is paper was to analyze the actual and most vital subjects discussed Ьу universities d.uring tl1e AGA8 AssemЫy and соmраге them witl1 the main items which were considered Ьу IMO' s STW 38/39 subcommittee sessions. In principle, а degгee of confom1ity was obtained. Tllis infoпnation can Ье used fог understanding whether institutions feel and follow the requests of industгy апd vice veгsa - how indListry inflLieлces the МЕТ institutions ' core activities. То eva\uate links and coJlaboration we used tlюse puЫicatioпs and working materials availaЫe in electronic foпnat. The tota] amount of researc\1ed material was 432 AGA 8 pages (Odessa 2007) and more than 1,500 STW 38/39 pages (IMO 2007-2008).

То геасh the stated objective ot' our гesearch , we used tl1e Leximancer softwaгe. Leximancer is а data-miлing tool that сап Ье used to analyze the coпtent of coJiectioпs of textua\ docшnents, алd visual1y to display the extracted iпtoпnation . А large anюunt of textual iпtormatioп canпot Ье read and analyzed withoLit specialized softwaгe, whic\1 is why we used Leximancer.

"Coпcepts" iп Leximanceг аге collections of words that "travel togetl1er" throughout the text. So, in this рарег, "concepts" аге sets of associated woгds that are extгacted automatically Ьу the system. Reseaгchers сап also inteгact

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with this process, creating concepts that are of interest to them (LeximancerManual 2002).

2 IAMUAGA8 andIMO STW38/39

It is clear that the closest relations of IAMU MET logically should be withthe STW subcommittee of the IMO. This closeness of subject areas can bemeasured by textual materials presented by the organizations from itsconferences.

Let us assume that the level of importance of any concept which can bemined from the text is equal to the frequency of its recurrence in the text. Theimportance of components (attributes) included into a concept can also bedefined by their conditional frequencies (probabilities) using the Leximancersoftware. So, the more frequently the concept occurs in the text, the moreimportant it is considered to be.

Leximancer software extracted the main concepts considered duringIAMU AGA 8 (AGA 8 2007) and also from materials of STW 38 (2007) andSTW 39 ( 2008). Fig.1 shows these main concepts discussed by the twoorganizations.

S tu d e n ts T ra in in g C o m p e te n ceE d u c a t io n S af e ty D u tiesR e sea r ch S ec u rity P r ofi c ien c yE n v iro n m en t K n o w led g e U n d e rsta n d in %T ea c h in g R eq u ire m en ts P r o ce d ur esQ u a lity S eaf a re rs M a n n in gH u m a n S im u la to r T ra in e es

IAMU AGA 8 30% IMO STW 38/39

Fig.1. Main concepts as per IAMU AGA 8 Proceedingsand IMO STW 38/39 materials

We observe that 30% of concepts were considered as commonones. In otherwords, both sides paid great attention to training, but for example, manning wasnot interesting to the IAMU, and education was not a hot topic for STW 38/39.

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Fig.2 (a, b) shows the uniting of concepts into themes. For AGA 8, twomain themes were training and safety. For STW 38/39 the main themes weremanning and safety. It can also be seen that intersection areas are rather small.This indicates that, in principle, the themes were discussed in both organizationsalmost independently; this can hardly be considered a correct procedure.

Fig. 3 shows the conditional probabilities (relative importance) ofcomponents used in the deliberation of three main concepts: safety, security andknowledge. In other words, we can see the importance of main conceptsdetermined by participants of two conferences. The intratext information minedfrom set of texts is as follows:Safety: As per STW documents, the most important components in the conceptsafety were training and requirements, but teaching and research were notmentioned in principle. AGA8 papers recognize that the most importantcomponents of the concept safety are understanding and security. Training is notused in this context at all.

ra u mMRtna

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itu Sin W

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Fig.2: Concepts related to themes: (a) training and safety (IAMU), (b) trainingand manning (IMO)

Security; The STW version of the concept points out that training, dutiesand requirements were the most important components but education andresearch were beyond their consideration. AGA 8 papers show that there was apoor link with safety and training. It is rather strange but there was no logicalconnection of the concept security with duties, competence or manning at all.

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Security Safety Know ledge

ilteaching teaching teaching

students students research

research research quality

quality quality human

human environmentenvironm ent ! environm ent educationeducation education

understanding trainingindentandin? understanding

training traineesi; trainees , trainees a

simulator

s ecurity

seafarers

s afety

simulator simulator

seafarers security

safety seafarers

requirements requirements

nroficieiKV proficiency requirements

1 procedures procedure* proficiency

i manning m i manning sm i j procedures

hiovta ke knowledge manning

duties duties duties

competence com petence competence

0,5 0 0,2 0.4 06 0 0.5 1 '

P( <ittr|sec ) -A GA 8

!P<attf|3ｫ )-ST W 3S 39

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W M ｫ Y)-AGA8 | p(attr|kn)-̂

I Plattrlsafety)-STW 38/39 ! P(attr|kn)-STW 38/39

Fig.3 : Components of the concepts safety, security, and knowledgeand their relative importance

Knowledge: In the STW version of this concept, the terms understanding,training, proficiency and competence are the most important components. In theIMO, this discussion went within the framework of the STCW Code, which iswhy these terms are not correlated with research, teaching and education.

As per AGA 8 the version, the concept of knowledge is significantly linkedwith education and training. This is quite natural. But the absence of anyconnections with understanding ^proficiency and competence can be consideredas a negative.

3 Conclusion

The preliminary formal analysis of texts facilitates analytics to find implicit,intratext, and logical connections between main concepts to improve theirdeliberation during conferences and to develop research tasks. For example, by

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the materials processed (fig.3), the following research projects might beconsidered as logically vital and important for industry:

(a) Training techniques for improving safety at sea (How to train better?)(b) A comprehensive review of conflicts between the concepts safety and

security in the ISM /ISPS codes.(c) Research into, and development of, an optimum knowledge/training

ratio for seafarers.

References

[1 ] Leximancer Manual, Version 2.2, 2005.

[2] World Maritime Excellence. Proceedings of the 8th Annual GeneralAssembly and Conference of IAMU, ONMA, Odessa, Ukraine, 17-19September 2007

[3] STW 38 working materials , IMO , London, 2007.

[4] STW 39 working materials , IMO , London, 2008.

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