Training Future Physical Education Teachers for Professional Activities under the Conditions of Inclusive Education

Abstract

According to the concept of developing inclusive education, the process of introducing inclusion in schools has been intensified. This is due to the training of physical education teachers to work with children with special educational needs during specially organized courses, whose fragmentation has not greatly increased the level of teachers’ qualifications. The research aims to scientifically justify theoretical and methodological foundations, develop and experimentally verify the methodology of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education, taking into account the specifics of their psychological, theoretical and practical readiness for it. Pedagogical conditions for training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education are defined as follows: prioritizing the content of programmes and teaching methodology; improving the content, forms, methods and means required to master normative, psychological, pedagogical and correctional theoretical and practical and scientific foundations of inclusive education, as well as didactic and correctional and developmental technologies during the classes dedicated to professional teaching methodologies; consolidating professional knowledge and practical skills of students based on the simulation modelling and reflection on pedagogical experience of future physical education teachers under the conditions of inclusive education with the relevant update of the content of teaching placements. The experimental work involved 444 students majoring in physical education and sport (222 students in the experimental and the control groups). Given the summarized data of final tests, it becomes clear that the students in the EG tend to have a high level of such readiness (at the ascertaining stage – 28.6%, at the formative stage – 47.0%, the difference being 18.4%). The results of the experiment prove the effectiveness of introducing the developed methodology of training future physical education teachers for professional activities under the conditions of inclusive education.