Development of information hazard awareness in primary school learners through due structuring of pedagogical activities

Abstract

Problem and purpose. The interaction of schoolchildren through virtual communication, with simultaneous transformation of social experience into individual, conditioned the need to explore the phenomenon associated with the exchange and dissemination of information. The purpose of the research is to reveal the typology of information hazard, to study the level of awareness of schoolchildren’s information hazard, to structure the pedagogical activities in a way to minimise the learners’ behavioural risk relative to own safety. Methods. The research covered the schoolchildren of the 1st to 4th years of study – experimental (221 pupils) and control (202 pupils) streams. The experimental activity comprised research of the schoolchildren’s level of awareness of information hazard, with subsequent distribution of the learners into groups of high, average, below-average and low awareness levels, following the obtained data. The algorithm of the educational experiment provided for pedagogical measurement at its first stage, without targeted intervention of pedagogues in the educational process, and subsequently at the second stage, after the introduction of the modular course "Fundamentals of information security for children", in the educational process. The comparison of the data obtained at the first and second stages was made using the Student’s t-test – the method of statistical data processing, as well as the method of descriptive statistics designed to determine the average intensity of the attribute. Results. The experiment showed positive changes in the learners’ awareness of information hazard after the systematic work with them – teaching the information handling methods and techniques. Significant differences were revealed in the experimental and control streams according to the Student’s t-test, with the following t ≥ tcrit parameters: “communicative hazard” (t = 8.595), “personal hazard” (t = 8.375), “psychological hazard” (t = 7.064), “behavioural hazard” (t = 2.442), “spiritual and moral hazard” (t = 8.028), “resistance hazard” (t = 3.975). The increment in the average value of the schoolchildren’s awareness of informational hazard in the experimental streams was: communicative (0.72), personal (0.48), behavioural (0.37), psychological (0.48), spiritual and moral (0,45), psychophysical (0.39), resistance-specific (0.41). Conclusion. The authorial content in identifying the typology of informational hazard relative to children has a practical significance in educational activities. The schoolchildren’s awareness of the need to choose secure information, their independent decision-making on limited time spent at the computer or with the phone will help to eliminate the negative information impact, to create safe information environment for children. The evidentiality of the experiment can serve as an argument for solving the problem of information dependence of the young generation and the influence of various information resources in the social media.