Examining the Formation of Integrative Readiness of Pre-Service Teachers to work in Inclusive Classrooms in Ukraine

Olena M Yashchuk,Serhii A Kotlovyi,Serhii M Yashchuk,Iryna O Biletska,Halyna I Kobernyk

doi:10.5430/ijhe.v9n5p208

Abstract

The article addresses potential issues surrounding the development of the integrative readiness of pre-service teachers to work in inclusive classrooms in Ukraine. Integrative readiness is an open, dynamic, synergistic system functioning of cognitive, motivational, affective, and selective processes which is developed through the purposeful training of future teachers for work in inclusive, which is included in the educational social environment as a tool for acquiring productive knowledge, forming integrative skills. The structure of integrative readiness includes personality orientation; ability to perform their duties, professional competences; productive knowledge that the student receives from environmental information based on personal prior knowledge, skills, personal and professional qualities, and integrative skills that demonstrate the ability of an individual to make independent decisions and appropriate actions in unpredictable new situations. The levels of integrative readiness were investigated, covering the following interrelated stages: theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison; modelling and technological design; generalization; observational; pedagogical experiment. A study was conducted. The research involved 285 pre-service teachers from the Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, enrolled in the Speciality 016: Special Education unit. A structural model of the formation of integrative readiness of future teachers for professional activity was developedwhich consisting of the following blocks: target, content and procedural, and resultant. The research finding reported that the effectiveness of corrective, developmental, and educational work in the educational inclusive space largely depended upon the quality of training of the pre-service teacher, and the use of active and interactive training.

Highlights

The profound socio-economic and political transformations that took place in the 20th-21st centuries for children with special needs and the realization of their right to education, drove significant reforms of the Ukraine national education system
Analysis of scientific and practical training of pre-service teachers enrolled in the Specialty 016: Special Education at the Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University showed that work with students in the course of curricular and extracurricular work contribute to the strengthening of the psychological aspect in their professional training: teaching Neuropathology, Fundamentals of Genetics, Correction Preschool Pedagogy, Correction Psychology courses, which requires special combination and justification of teacher‟s activity with psychodiagnostic, psycho-correction, organization of psychological pieces of training, psychological service, psychological counselling, school of psychologist, group of psychological rehabilitation
In the context of the elaboration of the problems of formation of integrative readiness of future teachers to work in the inclusive classroom, the analysis of the content of the disciplinary-cyclical structure of the curriculum and programmes of the subjects for Specialty 016: Special Education was analysed, covering the teaching of such subjects as Special Psychology; Neurological Bases of Speech Therapy; Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology of Children with the Basics of Valeology; Foreign Language for Professional Purposes; Special Methods of Teaching Calligraphy for Mentally Disabled Children; Inclusive Education, Speech Therapy, Introduction to the Speciality, reflecting training for work with different categories of children, etc

Summary

Introduction

The profound socio-economic and political transformations that took place in the 20th-21st centuries for children with special needs and the realization of their right to education, drove significant reforms of the Ukraine national education system. ISSN 1927-6044 E-ISSN 1927-6052 http://ijhe.sciedupress.com special education. From this perspective, improving the training of qualified teachers for the inclusive classroom is urgent. The importance of inclusive education teachers of great importance as they influence the process of social adaptation of children with special needs, the formation of their life goals, the ability to self-development, and promote self-realization in all spheres of activity (Demchenko, 2016) In Ukraine, introducing inclusive reforms into general educational institutions is complex, as this requires recognising the barriers to general education, namely: high numbers and insufficient levels of competent academics in higher educational institutions to teach inclusive education; a lack of a united understanding of the issues of implementing of inclusive education in different educational structures; and the absence of an individual-focused priority and value in modern general education (Demchenko, 2015).

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