Psychological readiness for distance learning in a pandemic of pedagogical university students

Abstract

The article presents data from an empirical study of the psychological readiness of first-third-year students of the Moscow State Pedagogical University for distance learning in a pandemic. The authors considered such indicators of the mental state of future teachers as emotional tone and mental stress, and also determined the index of their life satisfaction in new learning conditions. This article presents a comparative analysis of the emotional state of students, studied at two stages: in April 2020, when students first completely switched to the distance learning format, and in October 2020, when they returned to this format amid the growing new wave of the pandemic. The results of the first stage of the study revealed that abrupt changes in the conditions of the educational process, namely, its transfer to distance learning, as well as technical difficulties with equipment and the speed of the Internet, had a negative impact on the emotional state of many students. The data of the second stage of the study showed that most of the future teachers have adapted to distance learning and do not experience high psycho-emotional stress in the educational process. This is in particular evidenced by such facts as an increase in the number of students participating in classes with the camera turned on, in contrast to the first stage of distance learning, when almost all students in lectures and practical classes experienced problems associated with the "camera effect". In general, student teachers have become much more active in learning activities than in the first months of transition to online learning.