Keyword: «conscious choice»

The professional self-determination of student teachers in modern educational system requires the creation of educational conditions that ensure a conscious choice of a professional trajectory and the possibility of its adjustment at various stages of education. Thus, the process of professional self-determination becomes particularly important, as it allows students to make meaningful choices and combine educational profiles, determine their own professional priorities, and build an individual educational trajectory at the university. Professional self-determination is a key element in the development of future teachers, as it determines their position in the professional community. In the context of individual educational trajectories, the process of professional self-determination is a recursive process in which all of student's choices, from the combination of subject profiles to the choice of disciplines-constructors, take on meaning based on their interpretation in relation to their abilities, the demands of the educational market, and their future professional goals. Thus, professional self-determination is a purposeful process of developing a student's subject position, moving from perceiving a profession as a stereotypical image to understanding it as a unique professional path. This process is of utmost importance for student teachers. The current model of teacher training at VyatSU is based on the choice of two educational trajectories (the first trajectory is the first teaching profession, and the second trajectory is the second teaching profession) and disciplines-constructors, which requires students to be able to make conscious choices and combine professional areas. However, traditional models of teacher training often focus on developing competences within a single training profile, neglecting the importance of developing the ability to make conscious professional choices and combine professional areas. This leads to a gap between educational opportunities and students' professional needs, which can reduce their internal motivation, sense of professional identity, and resilience in the face of future professional challenges. The aim of this article is to provide a rationale for the system of building individual educational trajectories at the university as a mechanism for the professional self-determination of student teachers. The research methods included the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature on the problems of professional self-determination and the construction of individual educational trajectories; the analysis of data from the 2023–2025 campaigns for the selection of 634 individual educational trajectories at VyatSU; the modeling of educational conditions that promote the development of professional self-determination; and a pedagogical experiment to identify the relationship between the level of awareness of the choice of educational trajectories and the indicators of professional orientation among pedagogical students. As a result of the study, the data on the dynamics of the choice of educational trajectories was analyzed: 31% of students adjusted their choice of subject profile; the share of students enrolled in the desired subject profiles increased by 21%, reaching 98% (from an initial share of 79%), and there was an increase in the number of combinations chosen by students to 80 different combinations of subject profiles. The findings may be of scientific and practical interest for the developers of educational programs, methodologists, and teachers at pedagogical universities focused on the development of students' subject positions. The research results can serve as a basis for improving the training models for preservice teachers, including the implementation of individual educational trajectories that have been tested in practice at VyatSU.