CC BY
2PSYCOLOGICAL PREPAREDNESS OF A TEACHER TO WORK WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD
Abstract
This paper is dedicated to psychological readiness problem of future teachers' in general schools for implementation of inclusive education. The paper describes the professional difficulties of mass school teacher connected with psychological barrier presence, incapability to communicate with special need child, and also of their emotional acceptance. The issue of professional education system change and necessity to develop the program complex to form psychological readiness of future teachers for working with special needs children are raised in the paper.
Keywords
inclusion, inclusion education, children with health limited capabilities, special needs children, teacher readiness, and psychological readiness
AUTHOR Olga Nekrasova
PhD in Education, Associate Professor Assistant Professor of Teaching and Special Education Department Surgut State Pedagogical University Surgut, Russia olya-nekrasova@mail. ru
At the modern stage of modernization the Russian Federation education, under influence of liberal-democratic reforms, the society reconceived their views on health limited capabilities children. The society to give up from children division to complete majority and incomplete minority, it becomes more and more clear that psychophysical deflections of a child do not deny the motivation and possibility of his education, capability to feel, to be concerned, to obtain social experience. In connection with that the new form of education is getting wide-spread occurrence: inclusion. In the course of such educational process the children with health limited capabilities can achieve more effective progress in social and psychological development (Nazarova, 2010).
Introduction of inclusive education favorably influence not only on personality development of a child with health deviation, but also on their normally developed classmates. The formation of acceptance position, empathy to special needs children, striving to lend them support, which are generated at interrelationships of a child with special development and their normally developed age mates within the single educational space decrease the risk of aggression intolerance occurrence in behavior of the latter ones.
Thus, inclusive (included) education can be understood as the process of mutual bringing up and education of individuals with health limited capabilities and normally developed age mates. The main target of inclusive education is the creation of barrierless educational environment, the development distant education providing the availability of high quality education for individuals with health limited capabilities which is defined in the Concept of Russian Federation Educational System Development till 2020 (Koncepcii razvitija...).
The inclusive education is intensively entered the practice of modern educational organization, put many complex issues and new targets in front of it. The foreign practice of inclusion in education has enriched experience and legislative consolidation, while
Russian experience is at its beginning of shaping and developing. In accordance with ideal canons, inclusive (included) education is the process of preschool and general education, which considers education availability for any child providing the access to education of special needs children (Cherkasova, 2012).
The inclusive education system development - the long term strategy requiring great patience, consistency, continuity, gradualism and combined approach for its implementation. But our society is not ready for this, as both regulatory and informative aspects of special education of children are not completely worked; their rights in respect of getting the census education are not defined. These problems are reflected in the studies of I.V. Vachkov, I.Y. Komarkova, N.N. Malafeev, G.N. Penin, N.D. Shmatko and others (Cherkasova, 2012).
In connection with it the implementation of inclusive education at present moment faces the great amount of difficulties and troubles. One of the main problems of inclusive education is the lack of teachers of new formation who are ready and have sufficient knowledge and skills to work with children with disabilities, willing to change themselves together with the child and for the sake of the child, and not only for "special" but for very ordinary, making the emphasis on possibilities rather than on children incapability.
At present day many teachers treat positively to inclusive education implementation but however are not ready for working with children with disabilities, they have a main barrier - a fear of unknown. This is also confirmed by analyses of questionnaire results held among teachers. 56 teachers of Surgut educational institution took participation.
As the result of questionnaire it was revealed that the most of respondents that is 47 % of teachers haven't communicated with children of special educational needs. It was determined that practically all the teachers treat positively to special needs children, 75% of them are interested in questions of education and bringing up of children with health limited capabilities. 70 % of teachers of educational institutions answered positively on the question regarding the relation to inclusion education, they pointed the necessity of education HLC children in one and the same class room with normally developing age mates. But 30% of respondents are against the inclusive education. They consider that the presence of special needs children is the evidently negative factor which can influence on the study achievements of ordinary students. Analyzing opinions of teachers about the influence of mutual education of special needs children with age mates on child interrelationships, it was revealed that most of teachers consider that the improvement of relationships is possible. Getting the knowledge in the same class with special child the age mate would change treatment towards special children, he would obtain the experience to give a hand to them, and they would learn how to take care of special children, to understand and to respect them. However 89% of teachers are not ready to work with special needs children. They note that they are not prepared psychologically for such work, afraid of incapability to cope with such responsibility; they do not know how to behave themselves with such children.
Thus the results of the survey results confirm that teachers have a positive attitude to the introduction of inclusive education, but at the same time suffer considerable difficulties in the organization and implementation, they are not psychologically prepared to work with children with disabilities. Therefore, the propaedeutic theoretical and practical training of the teacher is necessary, oriented to inclusive education matters.
In this regard, the demand to change the system of teachers' professional training for the inclusive education implementation in University is raised. The readiness for professional activities is formed just during the process of future teacher's preparation in high school. This is confirmed by many scientific workers (O.S. Anisimov, A.A.Derkach, E.A. Klimov, N.V. Kuzmina, A.K. Markov, L.M. Mitin, V.A. Slastenin and others). They point out that it is exactly the formation of future teachers' readiness during the learning process in high schools which is the step in professional development and is of great
importance of how quickly and successfully the person reaches his "acme" (top) in a professional activity, and how high this vertex would be.
The leading component of future teacher readiness for professional work with special educational needs children should be the psychological readiness.
Psychological readiness is the result of professional training, the individual quality and it also acts as a success regulator in professional work. It is the level of teacher's knowledge and professionalism that enables taking optimal decisions in specific pedagogical situations and ensures the "fear" absence in future teacher to conduct free dialogue with children with disabilities, the willingness to take the position of senior fellow, to hold open communication with a child.
The psychological readiness of teachers represents a complex synthesis of closely related structural components, which include:
- Emotional acceptance of children with different types of disturbances in development (acceptance-rejection);
- Motivational readiness to include children with various types of disturbances in activities of class (inclusion - insulation);
- Personal satisfaction in teaching activities .
One of the basic components influencing the efficiency of teacher work is an emotional acceptation of a special child. Emotional acceptance has a professional "barrier" that is the teacher psychologically does not accept the child in whose training success he is not sure. He does not know how to evaluate his individual achievements, which way to check his knowledge.
To make the process of emotional acceptance of special needs children by a teacher successful, the empathy for the special student should be raised in future teacher.
Empathy is expressed in the ability to rise above themselves and above the situation, to look at ourselves from side, to evaluate own activities and behavior when working with children with disabilities. The ability to empathize improves not only the adequate perception of "other", but also leads to the establishment of effective and positive relationships with students. The development of empathy is an emotional response from the student, and positive relationships are set between him and a teacher.
In order to be psychologically ready at its maximum to implement the inclusive education the future teacher shall master the skills of empathic listening, the aim of which is to create the feeling inside of student that his emotions and experiences are received, understood and interesting to the teacher. It is the pedagogical influence from which the child emotional saturation depends on, how interesting and exciting his life would be in school for him (Kljueva, 2000).
Also a basic component of psychological readiness for inclusive education implementation is teacher's motivational sphere which stipulates a focused conscious nature of her or his actions and determines potential possibilities of the individual.
The motivational component is so called "core guiding formation" because out of motive and meaning not a single activity is possible, even learned at the utmost knowledge and ultimately formed skills are not realizable (Rean, Baranov, 1997). It is in the motivational sphere where the most significant characteristics of psychological readiness for inclusive practice are reflected and demonstrated, which are characterized by student-teacher orientation, and are revealed in the understanding and acceptance of oneself and others as a unique entity, as well as in motivational and evaluative attitude towards the learning process, in which the subject-subject relations are being implemented (Nekrasova, Tolmacheva, 2015).
Based on the approaches to psychological readiness of teachers for implementation of inclusive education by M.A. Alekseeva, S.V.Alekhine, E.L. Agafonova, O.M. Kuleba, G.A. Yastrebova and others we can also identify the following components of psychological readiness for the introduction of inclusive education:
- Cognitive component - the teachers' knowledge of psychological-pedagogical features of children with disabilities, knowledge of methods, techniques, technologies, means of training and education of children with special educational needs;
- Emotional component includes acceptation and positive attitude of teachers towards children with disabilities, expression of empathy feelings, pedagogical optimism;
- Behavioral and activity component consists in the possession and ability to apply the means, methods, techniques, technology of training, education, development of children with disabilities.
Therefore, the preparation of future teachers, retraining and advanced training on inclusive education should take into account these components and involve not only cognitive, but also emotional and activity components for creating psychological readiness of teachers to introduction of inclusive education (Nekrasova, 2015).
Besides, the psychological readiness for professional activity of the future teachers can be understood as a dynamic phenomenon of personal readiness to self-realization through the self-awareness process.
Forming during the learning process in the university, the readiness to professional activity of future teacher undergoes positive qualitative and quantitative changes, it can be increased and is reflected in the progressive dynamics of the transition from one level to another, is determined by internal balance between its components and provides a productive solution of educational and professional tasks of different complexity and content (from the reproductive to the heuristic). The transition from one level of readiness to professional work of future teachers to the other is associated with the stages of training in high school.
In this regard, it is necessary to organize the inclusion of future teachers in real activity of practicing structures within educational process. Psychological readiness helps future teachers to reach professional activity consciously, to understand and to choose the most preferred areas of work, contributes to effective activity in chosen directions and in further successful professional and personal self-realization.
Summarizing the above stated we can say that the training of future teacher in the conditions of higher education for inclusive education implementation is a complex process coming from qualitatively new view of educational situation. This process is characterized by the tendency of transition from the educational and disciplinary to personal paradigm of pedagogical activity focused on the development of personal functions of students themselves being subjects of the educational process and their self-determination regarding the meaning, values of educational content and activities.
Thus, the process of future teachers preparing to implementation of inclusive education is based on the formation of teacher's psychological readiness to work with children with disabilities and can be built on the basis of programs inclusion in the curriculum plan, contributing the increase of teachers interest for inclusive practice, formation of skills of independent knowledge acquisition and application of them in work organization with children with disabilities, as well as formation of positive attitude, empathy towards children with disabilities, relief the psychological stress and formation of positive motivation to work with children with special educational needs.
REFERENCES
1. Alehina, S.V., Alekseeva, M.A., Agafonova, E.L. (2011). Gotovnost Pedagogov kak osnovnoj faktor uspeshnosti inkljuzivnogo processa v obrazovanii:The readiness of teachers as the main factor of inclusive process success in education. Psihologicheskaja nauka i obrazovanie, 2011, No.1, 83-92pp. (In Russian).
2. Cherkasova, S.A. (2012). Formirovanie psihologo-pedagogicheskoj gotovnosti budushhih pedagogov-psihologov k rabote v sisteme inkljuzivnogo obrazovanija: The formation of psychological and pedagogic readiness of future teachers-psychologists to work in inclusive
education system. Avtoreferat diss. kand.ped.nauk. [Extended abstracts from dissertation. Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences]. Moscow, 2012, 22 p. (In Russian).
3. Koncepcii razvitija sistemy obrazovanija Rossijskoj Federacii do 2020 goda [Concept of Russian Federation Educational System Development till 2020]. (In Russian).
4. Kljueva, N.V. (2000).Tehnologija raboty psihologa s uchitelem. The working technology of psychologist and teacher. Moscow, Sphere, 2000, 120p. (In Russian).
5. Nazarova, N. (2010). Integrirovannoe (inkljuzivnoe) obrazovanie: genezis i problemy vnedrenija: [Integrated (inclusive) education: genesis and problems of implementation. Social'naja pedagogika, 2010, No.1. (In Russian).
6. Nekrasova, O.A., Tolmacheva, V.V. (2015). Nekotorye aspekty formirovanija pedagogicheskoj gotovnosti k professionalnoj dejatel'nosti u budushhih pedagogov: Some aspects of future teacher pedagogic readiness formation to professional activity. European Social Science Journal. 2015, No.11.
7. Nekrasova, O.A. (2015). Podgotovka budushhih pedagogov k rabote s obuchajushhimisja v uslovijah realizacii inkljuzivnogo obrazovanija [Tekst] [Preparation of future teachers to work with students in inclusive education realization conditions] V sbornike: Sovremennye problemy gumanitarnyh i estestvennyh nauk materialy XXII mezhdunarodnoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferencii. Nauchno-informacionnyj izdatelskij centr "Institut strategicheskih issledovanij" [In collected volume. The modern problems of human and natural sciences. Abstract of XXII International Research and Practice Conference. Scientific and informational publishing center " Institute for Strategic Studies"] 2015, 283-286pp. (In Russian).
8. Rean, A.A., Baranov, A.A. (1997). Faktory steressoustojchivosti uchitelej [Tekst] [Stress resistance factors of teachers]. Voprosy psihologii, 1997, No.1, 45-55pp.
9. Shherbakova, A.A. (2013). Professionalnaja dejatelnost pedagoga v inkljuzivnom obrazovanii : Professional activity of teacher in inclusion education]. Inkljuzivnoe obrazovanie: problemy upravlenija i tehnologii realizacii: sb. sbornik materialov II pedagogicheskih chtenij im. pervogo ministra obshhego i professional'nogo obrazovanija Sverdlovskoj oblasti Valerija Veniaminovicha Nesterova [Inclusion education: managing problems and realization technologies: sourcebook of II pedagogic readings after the first minister of general and professional education of Sverdlovsk Region V.V. Nesterov]. Ekaterinburg, SOPK, 2013, part 3, 89p. (In Russian).
