Model of Professional Activity of a Modern Teacher, Working with Children with Special Educational Needs

Abstract

The relevance of this article is due to the fact that the use of modern technologies (hardware correction methods) in the teaching and psychological practice require specialists not only with a high level of psychological and pedagogical education, but also with other professional competencies for effective work with children with special educational needs. The purpose of the article is to develop a structural-functional model of preparation of specialists of psychological-pedagogical profile to implement multi-level activities in the modern education environment with children with special educational needs. The leading method is a modeling method that allows the consideration of the problem as a purposeful and organized process for improving professional, cultural, educational and special competencies of teachers necessary for the effective implementation of psycho-pedagogical activities. The developed model of training specialists of psychological-pedagogical profile, to be implemented in educational activities in the conditions of modern education includes specific, methodological, substantive, organizational, procedural and effective components. The model aims to integrate professional and psychopedagogical training of teachers, which will improve their professional and inter-professional competencies with children with special educational needs.

Keywords: Children with special educational needs, transformative teacher, multidisciplinary approach in specialist training

Introduction

1.1.Problem statement

The analysis of publications of domestic and foreign authors (Wheeler, 2000; Nazarov, 2001;

Nigmatov, 2004) showed that in most studies the problem of working with children with special

educational needs were studied only from the point of view of orientation towards the children

themselves. The question of training specialists with diverse qualifications remains unattended to. The

need of improvement is due to: firstly, the negative trend of increasing numbers of children with

different levels of readiness for the educational process from preschool to school level, in need of an

organized (quality) education; secondly, the lack of awareness among professionals about the

psychological development of children with disabilities; thirdly, the insufficient training of specialists –

there is no direction in the higher education system, including different levels of the multidisciplinary

training of the teacher (as in the system of tutors and a public education component); fourthly, the

contradiction between communication uncertainty and the sequence of realization of potential elements

of education at the moment and the need for rapid transformation in the context of changing conditions

of the educational environment.

Our available system of teachers' training would prevent these contradictions changing educational

system. The success of modern education is largely determined by the development of modern training

programs, determining the source of theoretical and practical provisions, principles, methods and

techniques that contribute to training effectiveness. In connection with this, we can say that one of the

most important tasks facing the novel system of teachers' training, is qualitative structural changes in

the training programs of specialists. Part of the aim is to increase meaningful, semantic competence of

the teacher (morph depending on the conditions of the educational environment) in the field of working

with children with special educational needs, intensification of the subjective position of specialists, as

direct participants in the integration, which owns multidisciplinary technology.

This study will allow us to determine the content of the didactic process of training a competent

specialist in different educational environments, namely, "the transformative teacher".

Materials and Methods

In the course of the research the following research methods were used: analysis of normative documents

and products of the method of mental experiment, prediction, systematization and generalization of facts and

concepts, modeling, design, method of expert estimations, analysis of the results of the activities of the

trainees, a survey of the state speech and cognitive, emotional sphere of children with special educational

needs (test "Simple instructions"), studying and generalization of experience of training specialists of

psychological-pedagogical profile to the implementation of educational activities, diagnostic methods,

pedagogical experiment.

The experimental work was carried out on the basis of initial classes of secondary and special schools of

Naberezhnye Chelny Republic of Tatarstan. In experiment10.575 students took part, 743 of them – children

with special educational needs (children with disabilities).

The study was conducted in three stages:

- the first stage – the preparatory phase, where we analyzed the modern condition of the studied

problem in the pedagogical theory and practice; developed the methodology program of the study;

- the second stage – here, at the main stage, structural-functional model of preparation of specialists of

psychological-pedagogical profile was devised and implemented for the realization of educational

activity in conditions of modern courses for improvement of qualification and retraining of specialists;

- the third stage – the final stage – the systematization, interpretation and generalization of research

results were carried out; theoretical insights were refined; the results of the study were processed and

entered. In the future we plan to carry out training (retraining) of specialists taking the modern

requirements into consideration.

Results

This study will allow us to determine the content of the didactic process of training a competent

specialist in different educational environments, namely, "the transformative teacher".

Part of the aim is to increase meaningful, semantic competence of the teacher (morph depending on

the conditions of the educational environment) in the field of working with children with special

educational needs, the intensification of the subjective position of specialists, as direct participants in

the integration, which owns multidisciplinary technology.

The main objectives of the study:

1. To determine the most effective ways of transformative teacher preparation, increasing the level

of physical, intellectual, and mental development of children with special educational needs, their

integration in the society, namely to improve the level of competence and flexibility of teachers.

2. To insure the future integration directions.

3. To create educational conditions for a comfortable interaction of all subjects of pedagogical

process in education of individuals with disabilities.

4. The main purpose of this area of novel teacher training is development of an educational process

on the basis of higher education through additional courses and methodological workshops. With it, the

training may be transformative in nature, where one platform of educational process, depending on the

needs of the institutions (both educational and corrective), will promote not only self-development of

experts, but also allow self-development. This process can be carried out not only through courses, but

also through most of the intercollegiate continuation of training based on the region, or the national

component. Functions of the model: educational, communicative, organizational, managerial,

educational and motivating functions. The whole structure of the educational process can be

represented by blocks of levels, built in the form of hierarchical levels.

3.2. The stages of implementation of the model.

The implementation of this model involves the following stages of the experimental work:

- implementation of diagnostics of levels of formation of corporate, communication, research,

psycho-pedagogical competencies of specialists, a survey of cognitive and emotional-volitional sphere

of children of primary school age.

- development of the areas of evaluation of teachers (qualification, training, personal competencies).

The model of professional activity are presented in the form of a pyramid. On each vertex and level,

two components were taken into account: 1, an incoming channel and an outgoing channel of the

relationship, and 2, the interaction of the structural components of the model. After the development of

emotional-volitional and speech activity the teacher moves to a new level. To evaluate the

effectiveness of psycho-pedagogical interventions, it is necessary to assess the effectiveness of a

nearby structural component, and then trace the operation of additional, adjacent structural components

of the model. Studying from the 2008 experience speech development of younger students of

Naberezhnye Chelny Republic Tatarstan, it should be stated that there was a significant increase of

developmental disorders characterized by an increase in the number of combined violations. 1310

Junior schoolchildren were surveyed from ten schools, including children with special educational

needs – 238 (18.2 per cent), and 13 with combined disorders. Already by 2015, number of younger

students with disabilities 647 people (45,6%) and the number of students with combined have

increased - 4

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It should be noted that learning was at an appropriate level, and the level of professional training of

teachers was not questioned. However, development of new approaches in the organization of training

is required because there is a need to establish such integrative interactions in the general pedagogical

activities that would allow the creation of conditions for effective and qualitative education process.

The success of modern younger pupils in the conditions of competition is largely determined by the

quality of the elimination and prevention of the difficulties which don't give the individuals at a certain

stage to overcome a problem. One of the problems encountered by younger students is the education of

persons with special needs. As a result, the problem of understanding the significance of the structural

components of the model determined the content of the theoretical part of our study.

At the educational stage of the experiment the major structural components of the model were

designed. The study is currently valid, at least from two points of view: the necessity of development

and improvement of the educational process in accordance with the needs of society, but also from the

perspective of the search for new directions in educational work with children with disabilities.

Summarizing the above mentioned, we can conclude that the model is scientifically based, relatively

autonomous and evolving inside the structure. All psychological and pedagogical work are aimed at

successfully addressing violations developing and maintaining resources of younger students with

special educational needs (including children with creative abilities). A more detailed examination and

different types of feedback in the structure of the model of the teacher of a new type, its advanced

indicators and general parameters are deservedly studied in this problem in details.

The entire structure of the three-dimensional model consists of block – levels, built in the form of

hierarchical levels.

The first technological-didactic block is defined by the following components: a diagnostic survey,

a program of psycho-pedagogical assistance to overcome the disabilities and "didactic aspects" of

action. The entire model is based on data from these components. If we consider diagnostic testing as a

stand-alone option, not as a controlling element, it will act as the pinnacle of psychological and

pedagogical work.

Another structural component of the platform is determined by the interaction between areas of

influence and on the development of individually-typological characteristics of a person with

disabilities. This integration allows the didactic model to solve the problem of development of younger

pupils at all stages without damage in the process of learning the general education curriculum. The

content of these areas is provided by the programs of secondary schools and special psycho-

pedagogical work. Based on the analysis of didactic literature, the experience of teachers and speech

therapists of of Naberezhnye Chelny, the following features in the development of Junior pupils with

special educational needs (including gifted children) were allocated:

- the choice of the optimal rate and the nature of learning for each student;

- the organization of individual selection of material;

- direct work on development of speech, emotional-volitional sphere, as a regional component and

the conditions of the educational environment;

- timely and complex impact on the learner would prevent other somatic and constitutional

violations;

- permanent fixation of the results obtained during the impact;

- the inclusion of additional teaching techniques according to the degree of complexity of program

requirements and their adaptation to the general status of students with disabilities;

- the inclusion of new technologies and the reorganization of a program project to improve its

quality as required;

- tracking the dynamics of the development of a didactic system for an autonomous development.

The second block is the implementation of the technology, characterized by a primary "selection" of

participants for interaction. This selection is done randomly. Tactics development is determined by the

shape and extent of the breach suffered from a junior high school student, as well as competence of the

interaction between members of the educational process. The model involves the purposeful

organization of independent work of younger pupils in accordance with special needs. The central idea

of the organization model is the core, which sends the whole point. When building the second block,

we used generally accepted principles:

1. The principle of consistency: a review of the development process in a holistic view of the

diverse types of relationships with it.

2. The principle of continuity: the solution to the contradiction between the need to ensure the

continuity and integrity of the training and its intermittent nature. The continuity should be reflected in

the content of the training material in the system individually differentiated tasks, forms, methods and

means of learning.

3. The principle problem-solving: the availability of problematic situations and related problems in

training and outside of training, deliberately created with a purpose.

4. The principle of academic-research activities: the acquiring of new knowledge, ways of action,

new techniques and methods application of knowledge to practice by the learner.

5. The principle of motivation: orientation of the teacher on a new type of purposeful formation of

motivation among primary school children with disabilities.

6. The principle of individualization of educational activity: identify individual characteristics of

students, manifested in the process of overcoming disabilities and special needs.

7. The principle of diagnostic and prognostic orientation of psychological-pedagogical influence.

The stages determined the efficiency effects we identified: planning of the validation parameters in

accordance with the criteria; receipt of evidence; the practical experience and contact with other professionals,

parents; documenting the progress of the audit; the generalization of conclusions, formation and expression of

opinion about the status of speech of each primary school pupil. The degree of efficiency in turn is

determined by the results of the inspection. Therefore, the selection of contents of the third block as a separate

element of the model structure allows us to achieve greater consistency in practice. Control parameters were

used in the process, in efforts to overcome the violations that are private compared to general didactic criteria

of control.

If necessary, the teacher can make corrections to every structural component, which is subjected to

analysis at all sub-levels. These components are in interaction. It is valuable that this model can be converted

or redesigned, depending on the conditions of education. A necessary condition for this transformation is the

existence of threshold conditions (as a result of the control), going beyond which will change the organization

of the education system. The proposed model represents a theoretical basis for the analysis of a number of

phenomena and the relationships within the currently observed structure of the model of professional activity

of the modern teacher when working with children with special educational needs.

3. Experimental verification of the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Along with the theoretical quest of creating the didactic model of development of speech of younger

students, experimental work on its implementation was carried out in the school № 46 from 2008 to 2015.

Studies identified opportunities for the functioning model of speech development, its strengths and

weaknesses, and also identified ways to improve the impact of the built hierarchical structure of the model. In

the process of the experiment, all the results obtained by us were analyzed in several aspects.

Discussions

Each concept of creating models of education for persons with disabilities is indicative of the

autonomy. This is especially not so true for the survey and identification of the breach, as the lack of

opportunities to overcome and prevent this violation. In many cases teachers do not have a clear

understanding of the nature, the general orientation and methods of psycho-pedagogical study of the

child with clinical trends for the appearance of violations. At the same time, the doctor overlooked the

possibility of correction of speech disorders without treatment and ignored the psychological and

pedagogical characteristics of children (Akhutina, 2000; Malofeev 1996).

The current stage of development of developmental psychology and the system of correctional-

developmental education is characterized by increased attention to the peculiarities of the mental and

physical development of children. There are growing numbers of children with partial and combined

disabilities, unformed individual cognitive functions and emotional-volitional processes (Akhutina, 2000).

If ten years ago the main task of empirical concept were diagnosis and direction of the student in a

special institution, at this stage, the goals determine the content and methods of correctional influence and

the creation of individualization of the treatment process. It has become obvious that it is necessary to

show concern not only in overcoming of the violations, but in preventing them (Semago, 2000). The

whole procedure of further development of the integrative psycho-pedagogical concept, we believe,

should follow certain principles. One of the important principles – the complexity of impact. Certain

aspects of each conceptual framework are not isolated from each other, and they need to emerge

holistically. In accordance with this provision, the possibility of using one or another diagnostic study that

is required at that stage of overcoming the violations when necessary, is determined. Individual

examination, at the same time, does not mean the autonomy of each specialist in the qualification status of

the child, and provides the most adequate and quality determination of the level of actual development

and forecast training opportunities for child with disabilities, the ability to give adequate advice on the

organization of the appropriate educational route and additional extracurricular work of professionals

(Komarova, 2007).

The allocation of primary and secondary irregularities in the development of younger pupils with

special educational needs allows you to organize the work and enhance its effectiveness. Certain aspects

of verbal, psychological and organizational directions are predetermined by then, in our opinion, the

principle of integrity. The problem of overcoming difficulties in learning at the present stage are due to

the complex interaction of all the conceptual sides. In accordance with this principle, opportunities are

given to be used in a particular direction of maximum informative opportunities for the speedy

surmounting of developmental disorders in children with special educational needs.

Thus, the preparation of children with disabilities is given quite a lot of work, while the problems of

work devoted to the training of specialists are extremely small and debatable.

Conclusions

It is determined that the professional activity of a modern teacher, working with children with

special educational needs, in terms of education allows to organize the process of training specialists in

the education system, aiming at continuous and systematic improvement of their professional, cultural

and educational and special competencies and psycho-pedagogical and organizational-methodical

problems of education of children with disabilities.

Thus, the research urgency was warranted by the aggravation of contradictions between the

objective necessity of the research orientation of training modern teachers, working with children with

special educational needs and the insufficient development of the theory of the problem in its intrinsic,

systemic and conceptual aspect. This contradiction is caused by the discrepancy between:

• requirements of the society applicable to education in general and the lack of research in the field

of development of children with disabilities (including children with different learning abilities and

creative abilities);

• underdeveloped didactic structure of the model for modern teachers (as a set of interrelated

elements of internal operations) and the functional purpose of such a model in the structural content of

a comprehensive training program for children with disabilities;

• need for an algorithmic construction of the process of development from the standpoint of

correction of disturbances in primary school children and the existing development of theoretical and

technological bases of the organization of this process.

The modern concept of creating a model of a new type of teacher when working with children with

special educational needs, in our opinion, ideally, should contribute to the creation of such system of

measures that would promote the potential of each child and give impetus to self-correction of

violations, as well as the creative potential of specialists. This integration of internal and external

influences stimulates the disclosure of potential opportunities. At the same time, the complementary

nature and interdependence of each does not talk about their merger, these systems may exist

separately. The main purpose of this continuity is the provision and maintenance of educational process

with the purpose of rational support for its strategy in overcoming the developmental disorders in

younger children. With this, we believe, that the problems facing the modern concept are:

1. The need to clarify the methods and techniques in all types of surveys, the relationship of

each component of the survey.

2. Create a comprehensive and unified system of overcoming developmental disabilities.

3. The creation of the benefits of innovative technologies to improve the effectiveness of

restorative effects.

4. Identification of preventive effects ways.

5. The development of clear criteria to define adequate forms of modern teacher training.

6. Development directions in the continuity of work on the development of students with

disabilities

7. The creation of a database on contemporary new literature, training courses available for

teachers.

The result of this research points towards the development of model training programs for

transformative teacher, the testing and improvement of training-methodical base of educational process

implementing programs for the integration of children with special educational needs. The

development of criteria for the integration on a theoretical and practical level: the selection of optimal

methods of training of specialists taking into account individual capabilities, the expansion of forms of

self-development and self-education, organization and evaluation of potential opportunities in

transformative teacher preparation, introduction to practice and promotion of the new experience.

References

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