The usage of the law of requisite variety in management of educational process

Introduction. University education is distant perspective oriented, aimed at training of future specialists for their professional career. The aim is the students' training for dealing with a problem that does not match the one being solved at the moment, the formation of their professional thinking, the development of students through the process of studying.

According to the systematic educational approach, education is a complete system consisting of interrelated elements that form a particular set thanks to the internal relations between them, such as: a) content of education, including an academic subject in which materials are systemized for students' mastering; b) teaching, which means all the activities of a teacher to form the students' motivation system for studying, explanation of the subject, students' work organization, administration and management of their individual work aimed at the study and usage of the acquired knowledge, testing and evaluation of students' skills and knowledge; c) studying process, which includes different activities of the students which take part in the acquiring and using their knowledge, especially their mental and physical activities; d) material means of studying (text books, course books, technical equipment, etc.).

In this scientific research we are interested in two active elements of the abovementioned system - the teacher and the student - the elements which fulfill its functioning, are the subjects of educational process and pedagogical interaction, the elements which either direct or are under the managerial influence. The results of the latest researches and publications on the effectiveness of the educational management show that this issue is a complex one and depends on the structure of the educational systems, its elements and their correlations, their development and the timeliness of their changes. These issues are analyzed in the works of M. Burda, I. Zaziun, V. Kremen, V.Luhovyi, V. Lutai, S. Nikolaienko, V.Olijnyk, O. Savchenko, M. Yarmachenko and others.

Purpose.The aim of the article lies in the reasoning of the Law of Requisite Variety relevance in the educational management and in the identifying of the ways of increasing its effectiveness.

Results. Any outside influence on the system aiming to support or change its algorithm of functioning is called management. In the context of studying, as well as in any other managed processes, the system of purposeful influences is implemented, the result of which is the transformation of students' activities, acquiring a certain system of skills and knowledge by them. This transformation must be most effective.

So, basing on the systematic approach to the educational process and the main goal of education, from the point of view of the effective process management, let's try to define the Law of Requisite Variety (Ashby's Law): management efficiency is reached when the variety of influences of a managing subsystem exceeds the variety of displays of the managed (guided) subsystem [1]. In other words, the managing system must have the opportunity to change its state in reply to the possible transformations of the object of management; the variety of changes of the object of management requires the corresponding variety of the possible states of the managing system. If such an adequacy is absent in the system, it is the consequence of an insufficient variety of the elements in the organizational structure of the mentioned parts. That means, such a managing system will be ineffective, being not able to match the tasks of management which are to be solved. The state of the accordance of the mentioned subsystems is not permanent, that is why the process of their harmonizing is realized permanently. The law of necessary variety has a fundamental value for the development of an optimal structure of the managing system. It is carried out and has a fundamental value not only for some technical systems, but for other complex systems, such as biological, economic, social and others as well. Although the quantitative estimation of necessary variety is difficult to apply for such systems , it is still desirable to take this law into account at a qualitative level.

The system which is managed by a higher system (a student, his/her knowledge, skills, studying experience) is in one state until its normal functioning needs a special (new) managing influence. If such an influence is needed, it means that the object has transformed into a new state (the student has acquired new knowledge, learnt something, developed his level of experience). Every time when there is a contradiction between the managing structures and the increased level of variety of the managed system, there is an inevitable loss of management efficiency. Thus, management can be effective only if a subsystem that manages (teachers, forms and methods of pedagogical activities, teachers' experience) exceeds the subsystem which is managed by it (students' knowledge, skills, studying experience).

Several ways to improve management organization that give an opportunity to bring both the managed and the managing systems to balance have been developed. It is highly probable, that they can be applied for the sphere of the educational management as well. The increase of the power of management mechanisms due to the increase of quantity of the managerial staff, mechanization and automation of management in the educational process have been used for a long time and are implemented in the sphere of computer technologies as well as by means of involvement extra human recourses. However, the mechanism of management as a system is artificial, not capable of generating the new higher level proof forms. Therefore, to work out the problem of matching the varieties of the managing and the managed subsystems by the permanent increase of the level of variety of managing structures is impossible [2]. At some moment the structure's optimization becomes the real result of its functioning. As a result the level of noncoincidence of the aims of the system's components with the aims of the higher level system (emergency) starts to increase. The so called process of the system degeneration then takes place.

Moreover, there is a fundamental limit of the increase of the level of the managing systems variety - the so called «fragility of the good» principle which states that the more complicated organization of the artificial system is, the more likely it is to lose its integrity [2].

There is a variant of management which creates a simple and comfortable mechanism for the limitation of the managed system variability. It could be acceptable, if the managed system did not change, or its changes took place only in the pre-arranged limits. We must mark though that the aim of the students studying at higher education establishments is their development, formation of their professional thinking, it is all about their internal changes. This very feature does not give invariance to the managed subsystem. According to the law of «necessary variety», such a variant will not only fail to provide effective management of educational process, but also entail an opposite effect - it will destabilize the whole system. Education loses its sense in that case.

Organizational and meaningful simplification of the subsystems or decreasing of the level of requirements to the management will not solve the above mentioned problem either. Reduction of the number of the constantly regulated features of the managed system (the level of students' skills and knowledge, the quality of teaching, the simplification of forms and methods of education) is not always desirable taking into account the quality of the result [3]. The reason is still the same - the subsystem changes permanently. There is a possibility to diversify and improve the managing system through the increase of forms, methods, and technologies in educational process. It is the most common method to attain balance of the mentioned subsystems. However, there is a certain kind of the limitation of these systems. It might happen the way that at some point the system variety fails to possess the variants which have not been applied yet, or they lose their relevance and efficiency.

To check efficiency of the management influence one needs a feed-back. Without the very feed-back between the connected and interacted elements, parts or systems the organization of the effective management on the scientific principles is impossible [4]. All organized systems are open, and the state of their being closed is provided only through the direct influence and the feed-back. A necessary condition of their effective functioning is the feed-back that signals about the attained result. Any of the above mentioned methods of harmonizing the variety of management influencing the managed subsystem leads to a corresponding reaction. On the basis of this information the influence of the managing subsystems is usually corrected. The examination of this reaction gives possibility either to accept this influence as effective, or change it to a more effective one. That means, the feed-back itself makes the system flexible and capable of stable functioning in certain terms. If the changes of conditions influence the structure of the system, the function of its separate elements, then feed-back will even all forces that operate in the system, restoring it to a state of relative dynamic harmony according to the changeable conditions or even resulting in the creation of a new balanced system. The role of a feed-back is very important, it lies in the restoration of the system's normal functioning, damaged by external and internal factors, in the capacity of the systems for self-regulation and self-organization (adaptation).

So, how can the desirable or optimal variety of managing subsystem be reached? The one which will be relevant at the present level of educational system development. Modern educational theories are grouped according to its two main qualities. Firstly, education is viewed as a process of studying management. Secondly, it is understood as a process of revealing of students' cognitive skills, formation of their skills to acquire knowledge individually [5]. The way of a personality's self-realization in the educational process, their professional development, that is expressed in the student's ability to adapt themselves to a constantly changing educational and sociocultural situation, their necessity to reveal their ambitions, independently organize cooperation with a teacher, their realization of the responsibility for creating conditions for of their own progress become of a special importance.

That means, that the acceptable and reliable method of matching the managing subsystem with the managed one is the self-organization of the management objects by limiting the controlled features and creating self-regulated subsystems or elements. Education organized that way is directly oriented on a student's personality development as a subject of creation of their own professional competence, spheres of their psychical and spiritual development. They really create themselves and the educational space that grows a meaningful part of their life, form their own life principles, positions, priorities. Moreover, the realization of self-organization in the educational process helps a student to determine their educational needs and fulfill them.

Educational management must express itself in the creation of conditions for the development of needs, motives and aims of a student's activity. Management inflexibility must gradually diminish and cause the students to self-govern on the basis of their personality progress. Management should be implemented in terms of actualization of mental abilities of students.

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned facts, one may make the following conclusion: to provide an effective educational management on the basis of matching the managing subsystem (where the subject is a teacher) with the variety of the managed subsystem (where the subject is a student) it is necessary to make a transmission of part of administrative (management) functions from a teacher to a student.

However, it's not only the managing subsystem variety which increases as a result of this process, but it's also about the managed subsystem variety to develop, causing in course of time the necessity of transmission of certain administrative functions. In the hierarchically greatest system there is a disintegration of it's strictly organized centralized management structure. Weakening or complete shutting down of an ineffective management results in the Ashby's Law of necessary variety take place. The active self-organization of new subsystems grows within the system, because the basic system goal of any structure is to support its functioning. Due to the subsystems' primitive multiplicity, relative autonomy, its comparatively big amount of freedom levels and the existence of competition, these systems survival depends mainly on the achievement of the maximal efficiency of their functioning. There is an increase of both the managing subsystem variety and the managed one, which in course of time predetermines the necessity of transmission of certain administrative functions once again [6].

This process is absolutely objective, unavoidable causing development of models, where educational management is transferred from a teacher to a student. From our point of view, such a conclusion goes with the higher education management, the result of which is the increase of universities' self- management.

Michio Kaku [7], the professor of theoretical physics, the teacher known in the world for anticipating the results of the scientific progress and expressing his opinion on education, marks that it is not needed to overload the students with unnecessary knowledge, the basic percent of which, as practice shows, is not used afterwards. Mental reserve revealed from unnecessary information makes reorientation on the development of the ability to think, analyses, argue and make right decisions. To reach a real success, it is needed to develop those skills, which robots have no access to, those are creativity, imagination, being ambitious and leader-minded. Management of educational process gives massive basis for these skills development.

Originality. Thus, the Ashby's Law can be applied in the educational system for determination of an optimal correlation of variety of both the managing and managed subsystems, that helps to see the reasons of disadvantages of the system's functioning and the ways of elimination those disadvantages, and is the necessary condition of the system's efficiency.

Conclusion. Further research will be the empiric determination of efficiency of each mentioned means of harmonizing both the managed and the managing subsystems in the context of educational process management.