Svetlana А. Filippova

Socially oriented situations associated with disruptions in interaction systems, negative informational and psychological influence from individuals with destructive behavior often arise in the educational environment and can be characterized as stressful. These situations require teachers to mobilize all their efforts to adequately analyze the situation and competently manage their own behavior. This largely depends on the level of critical thinking, which should be developed in preservice teachers while they are still students. The goal of this study was to identify the influence of critical thinking on the choice of behavioral strategies by preservice teachers in stressful socially oriented situations. Based on the data obtained, we developed an additional educational program to enhance critical thinking development and substantiate the pedagogical conditions for its successful implementation. Sample: ordinary groups of Russian and Belarusian students from pedagogical universities (n = 320). Methodological approaches: systems-based and student-centered. Methods: Coping with stress questionnaire (COPE-30A) by C. Carver, M. Scheier, J. Weintraub, critical thinking test by L. Starkey. Results: It was found that critical thinking was better developed in Belarusian students. In the Russian sample, active coping strategies, planning and inhibition of coping predominate, while in the Belarusian sample, active coping, planning and positive reformulation predominate. Strong negative correlations in the Belarusian sample were found between the level of critical thinking and the strategies of «mental avoidance of the problem», «humor», and «behavioral avoidance of the problem». In the Russian sample, a negative correlation was recorded between the level of critical thinking and the use of active coping; positive correlations – with the strategies of «concentration on emotions» and «behavioral avoidance of the problem». The obtained empirical data were taken into account when designing a critical thinking development program. The theoretical significance lies in substantiating and identifying the developmental characteristics and relationships between critical thinking and behavioral strategies in stressful social situations among preservice teachers from Russia and Belarus. The practical significance lies in developing a program ready for implementation and describing the pedagogical conditions for its successful implementation.

The relevance of the stated topic stems from the fact that teachers working with children with disabilities are often susceptible to significant emotional burnout, which negatively affects their personal and professional characteristics and determines high staff turnover in special organizations. However, this problem has not received due attention to date, and it requires study both in theoretical and practical terms. The goal is to identify the specifics of emotional burnout manifestations on the personal and professional level in teachers working with children with disabilities compared with teachers working in a comprehensive school. The methodological approach is person-oriented. Two natural groups participated in the study – teaching staff of a special institution and that of a comprehensive school. To study the features of emotional burnout and personal and professional characteristics of teachers working with children with disabilities, a number of standardized methods were used to identify signs of professional burnout, phases of emotional burnout, and personal and professional characteristics of teachers. According to the results of the study, many respondents showed a significant level of psycho-emotional exhaustion, which is manifested in constant fatigue and lack of energy; personal alienation, which is reflected in the fading of interest in work and detachment from children; reduced professional motivation, leading them to think about changing jobs and even profession. The results obtained formed the basis for developing a program for the psychoprophylaxis of emotional burnout, which included areas of work at four levels: emotional-personal, stress-dynamic, professional activity-oriented, personal-motivational. The theoretical significance lies in identifying the characteristics of emotional burnout in teachers working with children with disabilities on the personal and professional level. The practical significance lies in the fact that taking into account the identified personal and professional characteristics, when drawing up and implementing a program for the psychoprophylaxis of emotional burnout in practice, shows the effectiveness of the measures taken, so the program can be recommended for further use in institutions for working with educators teaching and raising children with disabilities.