Keyword: «professional difficulties»

In connection with elaboration of a teacher’s professional standard, National system of teacher development, new models of teacher’s certification for compliance with the requirements for the competence in performing professional activities and functions, the problem of content and forms in programs of additional professional education and advanced training as a part of it is becoming more important. The relevance of data presented in this article is also determined by the necessity of understanding not only a teacher’s deficits and difficulties in professional work, but also fixing predictors of self-effectiveness as ability to teach something to pupils controlling their education and development at the same time. The purpose of the research is to determine a correlation between professional knowledge and skills and work experience of a teacher: what knowledge and skills are characteristic for a qualification category and what appear as new knowledge due to experience of pedagogical activity. More than 1000 subject teachers of General education institutions of Krasnoyarsk region participated in the questionnaire survey. They examine the results of certain knowledge and skills self-evaluation considering as structural components of professional competence/professional activities of a teacher. Interpretation of the results depending on category and teaching experience of a teacher is made on the basis of teachers’ personal and professional development patterns and the requirements of the professional standard «Pedagogue» for professional competence of teachers in performing their work activities. The authors believe that presence or absence of a qualification category do not always indicate the real level of teacher’s professionalism, that should lead to modification of certification model in terms of the professional standard «Pedagogue» and National system of teacher development adoption. The information obtained as a result of the empirical data analysis will allow to design properly the process of pedagogues qualification improvement according to their professional demands and to prove unreasonableness of arranging qualification improvement courses for teachers of a certain qualification category; and it will be a guideline for development of teachers’ certification models (where teachers received a qualification category would not pass a regular recertification, since development is irreversible), that determines practical significance of the research undertaken.

The article presents the results of the analysis of scientific literature and empirical data on the problem of adaptation of young professionals in the social sphere and their difficulties in the process of entering the profession. The groups of competencies that need improvement in the framework of University training and self-education are identified.

The significant increase in the number of children with disabilities and the overall focus on inclusion on the one hand, and the reduction of specialized educational institutions on the other send new challenges not so much to the system, but for real acting teachers. Today, educators, teachers, instructors need to develop professional and personal qualities, master new methods, techniques for working with children with disabilities in addition to their basic competences. The specifics of working with this category of children, undoubtedly, not only affects the content of the teachers’ work, the nature of the professional difficulties that they face in the process of working with different subjects, but also generally changes their trajectory of professional development. The aim of this study is to determine the specifics of professional and personal qualities, the characteristics of the work of teachers at preschool educational institutions interacting with children who do not have/have psychophysical health conditions. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study consists of the works of domestic and foreign teachers, psychologists and sociologists, who reveal issues of the essence and content of pedagogical activity, the specifics of the work of teachers at the level of preschool educational institutions. General scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, classification) are used as theoretical research methods; in-depth interviews and questionnaires are used to collect empirical information. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the fact that it identifies the specifics of the professional and personal qualities necessary for preschool teachers to work with children who do not have/have psychophysical health conditions; the specific features of interaction have been updated and the nature of professional difficulties in the work of teachers at preschool institutions of a combined type with the main subjects of pedagogical activity (a normal typical child/a child with disabilities - parent - teacher-colleague - administrator) has been determined. The study also made it possible to determine the level of teachers’ readiness for professional development and their opinion about promising areas of personal professional growth. The authors come to the conclusion that kindergarten teachers working with children with disabilities feel the need for professional development. However, low awareness of training programs and advanced training courses implemented with the aim of mastering new methods of working with children with special educational needs limits their educational route. The solution to these problems will be facilitated by measures to increase teachers’ awareness of the options for their professional development, the practice of exchanging teaching experience with colleagues and receiving consultations of psychologists.