The role of project-based learning in the training of future officers

The article aims to identify project technologies’ effectiveness in forming future officers’ professional competence. Testing and a formative experiment were used as the research methods. The study was conducted with cadets of military educational institutions. Each project consisted of organisational, motivational, research and final stages


Introduction
A critical factor in the effectiveness of defence structures is the training of qualified personnel, especially mid-level field commanders, who can make adequate decisions quickly.It became clear in Ukraine in 2014, but the problem of highly qualified management personnel has become more acute since February 24, 2022.The full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation has determined the need to restructure the training of future officers quickly.It became apparent that the quality education of military commanders should be based on modern, scientifically proven didactic principles.
Ukraine's military education system is still under the influence of outdated pedagogical dogmas.Still, it is gradually being transformed with the best practices of the world's higher military education institutions (Uvarkina, 2022).A significant trend in military education is the digitalisation of various aspects of professional training (Holth & Boe, 2019).This approach demonstrates the importance of considering modern society's requirements in the organisation of the educational process.The use of problem-based learning (Johansen et al., 2021), project-based learning (Bhinder & Protsenko, 2022) and the research method (Andreas, 2022)  The effectiveness of the project-based method in professional training is a proven fact (Chen & Yang, 2019).Such research usually focuses on the impact of the method on student performance, professional and personal development (Lotsman et al., 2022), and the effectiveness of project-based learning for the formation of students' motivational spheres and self-regulation (Shin, 2018;Sohmen, 2020).The projectbased method can increase learning productivity through the active exchange of knowledge between students (Almulla, 2020).
The problem of implementing the project-based method in higher education has been studied many times in scientific research.At the same time, the use of projects for training military specialists has been studied little.In particular, the issues of developing and testing specific didactic programmes of project-based learning, depending on the year of study of cadets of military educational institutions, need further clarification.This research focuses on solving current social, theoretical, and practical problems.
The study aims to identify the effectiveness of using project technologies for the formation of future officers' professional competence.

Research objectives:
1) to determine the specifics of the development of components of future officers' professional competence depending on the course of study; 2) develop and test a system of project-based learning as a means of training future officers; 3) to determine the impact of project-based learning on the formation of various components of cadets' professional competence.

Literature Review
The project method is aimed at creating a specific product by students based on clear guidelines, i.e. a specific task setting (Guo et al., 2020).The basis of this method is students' independent work The use of projects in learning involves the active position of students and their autonomy, research activities, precise goal setting, productive communication, and focus on internship (Kokotsaki et al., 2016).Other researchers share similar views (Krajcik & Shin, 2014), emphasising that an essential aspect of project-based learning is summarising and presenting the results.Evaluation of project results requires a clear system of criteria (Efendi, 2023).It is essential to focus the project method on the needs of students (Kiong et al., 2022).Depending on the specifics of the learning activity, different types of projects are distinguished: research, creative, role-playing, informational and practice-oriented (Tadeush, 2017).
One of the main advantages of the project method is its focus on developing teamwork skills (Viro et al., 2020).Project-based learning involves group differentiation by functional roles, such as critics and analysts (Ivanova et al., 2021).
The positive impact of projects on the development of a student's personality has been scientifically proven.
For example, the project method develops critical thinking and the ability to formulate questions (Sasson et al., 2018), determines the productive transfer of acquired practical skills to real life (Hasni et al., 2016), and develops students' leadership skills (Tyurina et al., 2022).
However, despite the positive aspects of using the project method, there are a few problems with its practical implementation.These difficulties relate to feedback, goal setting by students, adequate mastery of the theoretical content of the course, and the integrity of the educational process (Markula & Aksela, 2022).The use of so-called driving questions, i.e., questions that stimulate students' cognitive activity, is problematic as well, as about half of the teachers surveyed simply ignore this aspect of project design (Haatainen & Aksela, 2021).There are difficulties with the implementation of critical analysis of the project problem (Mentzer et al., 2017).It's difficult to assess the effectiveness of the project method due to a lack of clear criteria for distinguishing project-based learning from other educational tools, such as problembased learning (Condliffe et al., 2017).
The main components of future officers' training are the aim and purpose of the educational programme and its every course; scientifically based knowledge; practical knowledge; theoretical and practical use of the acquired knowledge with further reflection (Hedlund, 2019).An important condition for the training of future officers is to ensure the logic of the material presentation, consider the specifics of professional training, implement the principle of comprehensiveness, and strengthen interdisciplinary links (Kolisnyk et al., 2020).All these components are closely interrelated and determine the didactic effect.
The use of the project method helps to increase the cadets' active participation in the educational process (Geir & Rino Bandlitz, 2020) and is effective in teaching philological disciplines in military educational institutions (Dragomir et al., 2019).The implementation of the project method in future officers' training involves the division into argumentative, search, technological and final stages (Bhinder & Protsenko, 2022).
The analysis of theoretical sources proves that the problem of the project method in higher education is quite relevant.There are theoretical studies that examine the specifics of using projects in future officers' training.At the same time, further study of the problem requires organising, conducting, and analysing the data of formative experiments.

Research Stages
The experiment took place between November 2022 and April 2023 and involved the implementation of an experimental programme based on a theoretically grounded project method to develop future officers' professional competence.In the samples, 3-4 projects were implemented in accordance with the topics of the silabus and the curricula of a particular speciality.The topics of the projects were chosen in accordance with the content of the curricula.Each project included an organisational stage -choosing a topic, informing students about the specifics of the activity; motivational -stimulating cognitive activity, setting up problem situations; research -a thorough study of the topic, practical implementation of project tasks, communication with the teacher; presentation of results; summing up the results with mandatory reflection.These stages overlapped in the educational process.The experiment plan included primary diagnostics (November 2022) and secondary diagnostics (April-May 2023) in the experimental and control groups.Quantitative analysis, data interpretation and summarisation were carried out in May-June 2023.
The experimental impact was aimed at future officers' professional competence.The theoretical analysis allowed us to identify the following structural components of cadets' professional competence: motivational, cognitive, communicative, managerial, emotional, and volitional (Biliavets, 2017).It should be noted that we have proposed the allocation of the emotional and volitional components of professional competence as an important psychological component for the successful implementation of professional activities.

Research Tools
Based on the literature review, through testing, we have identified a set of methods aimed at diagnosing the indicators of future officers' professional competence (Kokun et al., 2012).The methodology for assessing communicative and organisational aptitudes by V. V. Sinyavskyi and B.A. Fedorishyn (Kokun et al., 2011)   At the beginning of the study, first-and second-year students had average and above-average indicators of communicative skills.A high level was recorded in about a fifth of the respondents.The low level is represented minimally.No significant changes were recorded in the control sample after implementing the project-based learning programme.Repeated diagnostics in the experimental group of future officers showed that the number of people with average scores decreased by 20.65%.The percentage of people with high indicators of communicative skills increased by 28.26%.
The cadets' managerial component is somewhat less developed than the communication component.At the same time, there is again a predominance of average and above-average levels.In the control group, the indicators remained statistically stable after implementing the project technology.In the experimental group, the proportion of cadets with a high level of organisational skills increased by 19.58%, while the number of students with average decreased by 11.96%, and those with the above-average level decreased by 7.62%.The results indicate the project method's effectiveness in forming the communicative and managerial component of cadets' professional competence.
High and low levels of the motivational component are minimal.About half of the studied cadets showed the average level, and 40 % -the above-average level.Changes in the control and experimental samples after the experiment are insignificant (2-3 %).The results obtained prove the lack of effectiveness of the developed programme regarding the formation of the motivational component.The first-and second-year cadets have medium levels of the cognitive component, i.e., basic knowledge of the speciality, as this knowledge only forms at the beginning of studies.Positive changes were recorded in both groups.In the control group, the low level decreased by 10.22%, the average level by 15.91%, and the above-average level increased by 23.87%.In the experimental group of future officers, low values decreased in 18.48% of students, average values decreased in 50.06%, above average values increased in 13.04%, and high values increased in 40.22%.Consequently, the experimental group performed better.It can be concluded that project-based learning has a practical impact on acquiring ideas about professional activities by future officers.
The results of the emotional and volitional components are similar to the results of the diagnostics of the previous parameters, namely, average and above-average indicators dominate.After implementing the formative impact, no significant changes were recorded in both study groups.
The results of the formative experiment on the sample of future officers in their final year of study are presented in Table 2.The cadets mainly showed higher-than-average indicators of communicative skills.
Low and average indicators are approximately equal.After the experiment, the indicators of the control sample remained practically unchanged.In the experimental sample, after implementing the project-based learning programme, low values decreased in 14.12% of cadets and medium values in 10.59% of the students.A high level was observed in one-fifth of the respondents after the programme implementation, proving the project method's effectiveness.
In the sample of graduates, high and above-average indicators of the managerial component of future officers' professional competence prevail.In the control and experimental samples, the indicators of organisational skills did not change significantly after the project-based learning programme.
The average and above-average levels prevail in the studied samples of graduate cadets.After the formative experiment, the results in the control sample did not change.In the experimental group, the share of the average level decreased by 23.53%.High levels of motivation to succeed increased in 17.65% of students.The results indicate the effectiveness of the project method for developing the motivational component of the graduate student's professional competence.
The most pronounced are the above-average indicators of the cognitive component in the study sample of military graduates.High indicators in the control sample increased by 21.51 % after the experiment.In the experimental sample, the results did not change significantly.In other words, the project method did not stimulate the improvement of the academic training of graduate students.At the same time, traditional educational forms have demonstrated effectiveness.
Average and high indicators of professional competence's emotional and volitional components prevail.
After implementing the experimental programme of project-based learning, the results did not change significantly.
To clarify the results obtained, the Student's t-test was used.Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion justifies the expediency of calculating this particular statistical procedure.The results of the calculation are presented in Table 3.As seen, statistically significant differences were recorded in the experimental group of 1-2-year cadets regarding communicative and organisational skills and the cognitive component.
In both control groups, statistically significant changes were found only in the cognitive component.In the experimental group of final-year students, statistical changes were found in terms of communicative skills and motivation to succeed.Hence, the developed project-based learning programme demonstrated partial effectiveness in influencing the professional competence of future officers.

Discussion
The results obtained allow us to confirm the improvement of the main components of professional competence.As we can see while studying at military education institutions, the managerial component is strengthened, but the indicators of communication skills are somewhat reduced.This situation can be explained by the directive nature of the military speciality and the focus on rigid ways of behaving with subordinates.The motivation to succeed maintains stability while studying at military educational institutions.Indicators of the cognitive component of professional competence improve during studying at the educational institution.Future officers' emotional and volitional indicators improve in graduate cadets compared to the beginning of their studies.It can be said that traditional forms of education positively impact the preparation of future processes, but this process is significantly extended.
Testing the effectiveness of the project-based method in training future officers has yielded mixed results.
In the first years of study, project-based learning effectively forms communicative, managerial, and cognitive components.At the same time, the sample of final-year students shows a positive impact of projects on the indicators of the communicative and motivational components of cadets' professional competence.The experimental programme did not demonstrate effectiveness in developing the emotional and volitional component, which is consistent with the results of other researchers (Tyurina et al., 2022).Let's analyse the results obtained in the context of the findings of other researchers.The problem of forming theoretical knowledge in project-based learning has already been studied by researchers (Markula & Aksela, 2022).However, the effectiveness of the project method in forming motivation cannot be unequivocally stated (Sohmen, 2020).The positive impact of the method on increasing cadets' active participation in learning has not been proved either (Geir & Rino Bandlitz, 2020).The effectiveness of using the project method to develop self-regulation has not been confirmed (Shin, 2018).The specifics of professional training in military educational institutions can explain the contradictory results.
It is advisable to determine the specifics of the implementation of the project method in accordance with theoretical sources.We found the importance of clear evaluation criteria manifested in summing up the results (Efendi, 2023).In addition, we tried to consider students' needs through introductory conversations (Kiong et al., 2022).We agree with the statement about presenting results in project-based learning (Krajcik & Shin, 2014) and the importance of reflection in military training (Hedlund, 2019).The division of working group participants according to functional roles was productive (Ivanova et al., 2021).Our study used the typical stages of the project method in military education (Bhinder & Protsenko, 2022).
The results generally confirm the feasibility of using the project method in training future officers.At the same time, analysing theoretical sources will improve the developed didactic programmes.

Limitations
Potentially, more accurate results can be obtained by using an expanded set of diagnostic methods to study the components of professional competence.The experimental use of projects may differ from the results of their implementation in some educational conditions.

Conclusions
The For final-year students, the project positively affects cadets' professional competence's communicative and motivational components.The project method is the least effective for forming cadets' professional competence's emotional and volitional components.The results obtained create a basis for optimising in military education are especially effective in the training of future military personnel.Mykhaylo Kozyar, Petro Dziuba, Valentyna Tyurina, Valentina Miroshnichenko, Liudmyla Romanyshyna The role of project-based learning in the training of future officers.-Eduweb, 2023, octubre-diciembre, v.17, n.4./213-224 is aimed at studying the communicative and managerial components.T.Ehlers' methodology   (Stud.com.ua,2023)  for diagnosing personality motivation for success allowed us to find out the indicators Mykhaylo Kozyar, Petro Dziuba, Valentyna Tyurina, Valentina Miroshnichenko, Liudmyla Romanyshyna The role of project-based learning in the training of future officers.-Eduweb, 2023, octubre-diciembre, v.17, n.4./213-224 of the motivational component of professional competence.The use of a questionnaire for studying volitional self-control was aimed at testing the emotional and volitional component of cadets' professional competence.The tests for checking the cognitive component were created based on the content of particular courses and the specifics of the cadets' training in general.The validity and reliability of the selected methods were verified by their repeated use, as well as by expert evaluation (test for determining the cognitive component).

Mykhaylo Kozyar ,
Petro Dziuba, Valentyna Tyurina, Valentina Miroshnichenko, Liudmyla Romanyshyna The role of project-based learning in the training of future officers.-Eduweb, 2023, octubre-diciembre, v.17, n.4./213-224 relevance of the problem of using the project method in the training of future officers is determined by the social significance of effective military training, insufficient theoretical development, and practical orientation of the study.Theoretical generalisations are made based on a formative experiment and two empirical sections.During training, the managerial component of professional competence improves, but the communication component worsens.The cognitive and emotional-volitional components of future officers' professional competence develop during professional training.The motivational component remains stable.For first-year students of military educational institutions, the project-based learning method contributes to the formation of communication skills, organisational skills, and academic knowledge.

Table 1 .
The sample was formed based on students of the following higher education institutions of Ukraine: Lviv State University of Life Safety (Lviv), Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (Khmelnytskyi), Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs (Kharkiv).The different specialisations of the educational institutions allow us to increase the representativeness of the research conducted.The following samples were created to test the hypothesis and achieve the research goal: a control group of first-and second-year students (88 people); an experimental group of first-and secondyear students (92 people); a control group of graduate students (79 people); an experimental group of graduate students (85 people).The total number of participants in the formative experiment was 344 cadets.The authors of the article were the experimenters.Data collection and implementation of the experimental strategy were carried out through direct communication.The students from the research samples took the experimental tasks quite responsibly.Occasional conflict situations within the samples were recorded.No confrontations with the experimenters were observed.Changes in the formation of components of future officers' professional competence under the influence of the experimental programme (1-2 years of study) Data were analysed by calculating the percentages and Student's t-test using SPSS.22 software.The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the correctness of the significance criteria.To unify the data obtained, the levels of the studied characteristics were reduced to a scale: high, above average, average, and low.

Table 2 .
Changes in the formation of components of future officers' professional competence under the influence of the experimental programme (final year of study)

Table 3 .
Student's t-test value of future officers' professional competence (based on the results of the formative experiment)