PROFESSIONAL PREPAREDNESS OF FUTURE TEACHERS TO WORK WITH DISABLED STUDENTS IN CONDITIONS OF INCLUSIVE PRACTICE

Abstract

Introduction: In the article we consider the structure of psychological preparedness of future teachers of the primary education level to work with students in the conditions of inclusive education. The following components are pointed out: motivation and values – the component which presupposes the formation of a new value – transformation of the direct relationship with a child into an indirect sociocultural relationship; activity component, which presupposes that a teacher has an ability not only to analyze their professional activity but also to create new situations of inclusive practice, to be more precise, a teacher should be able to plan the individual trajectory of each student’s development and create new ways of academic communication and new forms of academic interaction at the lesson; reflective-evaluative component, which presupposes that a future teacher has an ability to assess the achievements of each student while mastering an educational program, putting a special emphasis on the student’s individual success and progress in the process of his training, education and development. For this reason, at the stage of training future teachers of the primary education level at university they are to attend lectures aimed at educating them in the field of psychology and pedagogics concerning the peculiarities of the age psychic development and general psychic development of disabled children in primary school taking into consideration the specificity of student integration, the zones of actual and perspective development of a child, specific features of interdisciplinary and collective interaction of the specialists working with these children. Future teachers are also to be engaged in practical work of both types – on the campus and off-campus. Results: The article is devoted to the problem of specific features of professional preparedness of future teachers of the primary education level to work with students in the situation of inclusive education and to the problem of the teacher’s professional standard requirements. Modern psychological and pedagogical research and the requirements for the disabled students’ academic achievements in mastering the basic educational program of the primary education make it important for the future teacher to be competent and creative when realizing their activity in the conditions of inclusive education. In practice a teacher might have difficulties because of lack of knowledge of defectology, social situation of development or educational faculties of disabled students, because of lack of experience in organizing students’ learning activities in the conditions of inclusive education or lack of work experience in interdisciplinary teams of experts. We made an attempt to work out the structure and determine the levels of psychological preparedness of future teachers of primary education to work with disabled students in the conditions of inclusive education. Discussion and conclusions: We suggest the structure and levels of development of professional preparedness of future primary education teachers to work with disabled students in primary school. It is shown that training future teachers of the primary education level to prepare them for work with disabled students will be more productive and effective if in the process of their academic learning at university they are provided with specially created conditions enabling them to form their professional preparedness to work in the situation of inclusive education, to design social systems of distributed activities, to acquire the knowledge of defectology and to analyze and manage their own behavior and activities. All this becomes possible due to introducing special integrated courses of the psychodidactic focus in the curriculum and earlier dates of practical work to enter upon a professional activity.