Aspects Of Formation Of Teachers Professional Stability

Abstract

Educational activities is often associated with emotional and intellectual tension, and various extreme situations, which, in turn, places special demands on the professional stability of teachers. This article reflects the approaches of domestic and foreign scientists to the term professional stability and development. In foreign studies the term professional stability associated with the concepts of «emotional resilience», «emotional intelligence», «self-efficacy of the teacher», which, in our opinion, can be considered as components of professional stability of teachers. Having analyzed domestic and foreign approaches to the term «professional resistance» we understand this term as an integrative quality of personality, providing the ability for a long time to carry out educational activities with a high level of productivity, remaining emotionally stable in tense and extreme situations. For an assessment of formation of professional stability of teachers we have identified the following its components: motivational value, emotional, personal and professional. To identify the level of formation of the emotional component we used "the questionnaire of the traits of emotional intelligence (TEIQue)", for assessing the personal component of the "Coping-test" R. Lazarus. Analyzing the received diagnostic data, we concluded that the emotional and personal components of professional stability are not formed to the full extent that may be necessary to affect their future professional activities. Therefore, we planned a work on the formation of professional stability is relevant and necessary.

Keywords: Professional stability of teachersemotional stability

Introduction

Pedagogical activity can be attributed to a number of professions the most emotionally and intellectually intense, in recent years it is increasingly connected with different extreme situations, which requires educators to the totality of their professionally important qualities, among which the leading role is assigned to professional sustainability. This article reflects the approaches of domestic and foreign scientists to the term professional stability and development and presents an empirical study of the formation of the individual aspects of professional stability of students of the South Ural state humanitarian-pedagogical University.

Problem Statement

Analyzing foreign studies in recent years, we came to the conclusion that the term professional sustainability of the teacher is considered synonymous with the terms “emotional resilience”, “emotional intelligence”, “professional stability”. Move on to the analysis of research data. Débora (2016) considers a key component of professional stability and emotional competence of the teacher and his emotional intelligence, which allows you to identify and Express emotions, generate positive emotions, the ability to manage your own emotions and the emotions of other participants in the educational process. Débora (2016) believes that high emotional competence leads to success and efficiency of activity of the teacher, and the positive emotional state of students.

Closest in meaning to the term professional sustainability of foreign studies is the concept of “teacher self-Efficacy (TSE)” is the degree of preparedness of the teacher to pedagogical activity, its ability to achieve the goals of this activity of training and education, the ability to resist risk factors and low level of situational and personal anxiety (Kang & Cavanagh, 2018; Velthuis, Fisser, & Pieters, 2017). A group of scientists (Kunter et al., 2013) considers professional sustainability as one of the components of the professional competence of the teacher, which includes sustainable motivation for the teaching profession, the ability to self-regulation and self-improvement.

Good and Lavigne (2014) have devoted their research to the professional stability of teachers, which refers to the ability for a long time to maintain the stability behavior, the stability of the results of students.

The professional stability of teachers associated with the ability to resist the emotional burnout and exhaustion, a group of scientists revealed the close relationship between the emotional state of teachers and students and their interdependence (Keller, Chang, Becker, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2014).

A large number of foreign researches is devoted to the emotional stability of teachers, which is considered synonymous with professional stability. According to Voss, Wagner, Klusmann, Trautwein, and Kunter (2017) the emotional stability is a personality trait of the teacher, allowing him to avoid emotional exhaustion, to successfully adapt to stressful emotional situations. Emotionally stable teacher is able to manage the emotional state of students, prevents conflicts, carefully spending your mental resources. Scientists Lee et al. (2016) in their study devoted to the study of the emotional sphere of a teacher, believe that emotional stability allows them to regulate their own emotional state emotionally stable teachers are enjoying positive emotions, negative emotions are experienced they are easier, these educators are not prone to anger, anxiety and frustration.

Pupazan (2017) found that emotional stability of the teacher is a key indicator of the performance of teachers from the point of view of students.

Emotional stability is considered as one of the ways of prevention of emotional burnout of the teacher (Iancu, Rusu, Maroiu, Pacurar, & Maricutoiu, 2018) as one of the predicates of the success of professional activity of teachers, the ability to cope with stressful situations (Wong, Ruble, Yu, & McGrew, 2017) as the ability to exercise emotional coaching students on the basis of emotional recognition, thereby shaping their psychological stability (Cheol, 2017).

Kim Jin Wook in the course of empirical studies found that emotional stability showed a positive correlation to positive relationships with colleagues, management and trainees, while emotionally unstable teachers are prone to conflicts in the team, and therefore are the reason of occurrence of extreme situations (as cited in Wong et al., 2017).

Summing up the results highlight common features in foreign studies professional stability:

1. With the term associated concepts such as «emotional resilience», «emotional intelligence», «professional stability», «self-efficacy of teachers».

2. Professional stability is considered as one of the key components of professional competence.

3. Emotional stability allows you to perform professional activities at a high level of productivity, to confront the emotional burnout and exhaustion, to counteract the negative factors of the professional environment.

4. Emotional stability allows you to regulate your own emotional state and to manage the emotional state of other participants in the educational process.

Let us turn to the analysis of approaches to the term professional sustainability of domestic scientists. According to Svezhentseva (2013) professional stability is the stability of professional orientation of the teacher, the ability to effectiveness and intensity.

Professional sustainability of the teacher is an indicator of his professional-pedagogical training, a high level of development of emotional and volitional qualities of personality, positive motivation for educational activities, the ability long time to remain functional and of high interest to the profession (Lazarev, Stukalov, & Temirov, 2018).

Duhnovskij, Rahmanskij, and Rechkalova (2015) believe that professional stability implies stability, steadiness, resistance, ability to withstand life's challenges, preserving the health, a positive mood and emotional state. Perevalova (2014), believes that professional resistance allows you to actively and steadily, without emotional breakdowns, to carry out professional activities for a long period of time. A group of scientists Jakovleva, Romanova, Kiseleva, and Matveeva (2017) studying the professional reliability of the teacher, I believe that it is manifested in self-governance, the ability to control their personal development in professional activity.

Summarizing the above author's definitions, we can identify several key trends:

1.most of the authors consider professional stability as an integrative quality of personality that can be formed during the period of study at the University;

2.many authors consider professional stability as a key component of professional culture of the teacher without which mastering productive professional activity is impossible;

3.among the structural components of professional stability there are motivational, value, cognitive and emotional components;

4.some researchers believe that professional stability is synonymous with the term «emotional stability» and implies the stability of emotional reactions, the ability to regulate the emotional state, manage the emotional state of other subjects of the educational process;

5.professional stability means the ability to perform professional activities in any, including stressful conditions for a long time, consistently and at a high level of productivity;

6.in many author's definitions, it is specified on self-development, self-improvement as key components of professional stability of teachers;

7.several studies link professional sustainability as a factor of successful professional activity in extreme situations that are increasingly occurring in the activities of teachers.

Having analyzed the domestic and foreign approaches to the term «professional stability», we understand this term as an integrative quality of personality, providing the ability of the teacher to carry out professional activities for a long time with a high level of emotional stability, productivity and efficiency, in dynamically developing and extreme situations.

Research Questions

Let's move on to the formation of professional stability of teachers. After analyzing the research on this issue, we have identified several areas of its formation:

- introduction of special courses on the problem of professional stability in the educational process of the University;

- formation of organizational and communicative components of pedagogical activity, as well as professional and pedagogical orientation in the course of training at the University (Lazarev et al., 2018);

- formation of the valuable attitude to pedagogical activity, during training, educational work and passing by students of practice;

- implementation in the educational process of practice-oriented content of education (personality-oriented creative tasks, problem solving, case-technology);

- modeling of extreme situations in the educational process of pedagogical high school through the use of various pedagogical technologies for the formation of professional resistance to them (creating conditions for time constraints in the performance of educational tasks by students; the use of conditions of information uncertainty; modeling of typical extreme situations arising in the educational process; the introduction of diverse and contradictory information,);

- introduction into the educational process of training sessions on the development of emotional stability, sensitivity, ability to self-regulation.

To assess the formation of professional stability of teachers, we have identified the following components:

- is motivational value, a strong motivation for pedagogical activities, the predominance of academic and pedagogically significant reasons, valuable attitude to pedagogical profession;

- emotional, no fear of the public, developed emotional intelligence and emotional stability, stress resistance, emotional stability;

- personal, speed of reaction to dynamically changing environment, reflexivity, self-regulation, constructive coping strategies;

- professional, successful development of General pedagogical and subject knowledge, the ability to make the right decisions in emotionally tense and stressful situations, the ability to overcome negative emotional situations

Purpose of the Study

Our empirical research will be aimed at identifying the emotional and personal component of professional stability of students of pedagogical high school. In our opinion, the formation of these components is possible to assess during the training at the University, and they are the Foundation for building professional sustainability.

Research Methods

The base of the study was the Professional pedagogical Institute of the South Ural humanitarian pedagogical University. The study involved 182 student for bachelor courses: vocational training (on branches “Decorative arts and design”; “Economics and management”; “Transportation”; “Manufacture of food products”; “Law and enforcement”), including 120 girls and 62 boys. Such significant gender differences in the sample can be explained by the popularity of the pedagogical direction among girls and the decrease in interest from boys. To identify the level of formation of the emotional component, we used the “Emotional intelligence traits Questionnaire (TEIQue)”, to assess the personal component of the “Coping test”.

Findings

Let us proceed to the characteristics of the results. Let's start with the evaluation of emotional intelligence of students, the indicators of its development depends on the ability of future teachers to understand the emotional state of other participants in the educational process, cause students a positive emotional state, the ability to manage their emotions and feelings. The teacher with developed emotional intelligence is able to avoid conflict situations, feel confident in stressful and extreme situations (Table 1 ).

Interpreting the data of Table 1 , we can state that such an important figure for productive professional activity in extreme situations as “emotional control” is much better formed young men (of 51.61% of the identified high level) than the girls (only of 21.67% revealed a high level). Girls are much easier to bring out the emotional balance, they tend to lose control over their emotional States in extreme situations, thereby provoking their instigators to be more active and aggressive actions. At the same time, in terms of “impulse control” in boys tends to have a low level (58,06%), i.e. they are prone to violent reactions to stimuli, to hasty, rash decisions and can be a factor in the emergence of emotionally-intense situations. In terms of “resistance to stress” the results of boys was higher than expected (43,55% of respondents with a high level), this fact means that they cope better with external pressures and stress. Girls being under pressure of external factors, tend to decrease the performance of professional activities. In the framework of the measure “emotions management” which is responsible for the ability to control emotional States of others results are also higher in boys, they are better able to calm and motivate learners in an emotionally-tense situation, instill desired emotions to the other actors of the educational process.

In terms of “assertiveness”, indicators of boys expected higher, although only slightly, as more inclined to defend and argue their point of view, which in turn may be one of the causes for the tensions in the student team. The results in terms of “awareness of the social situation” is higher in girls, they are more inclined to establish social relations, is focused on working with people, enjoy interpersonal communication, and this fact explains the great popularity they have in the teaching profession. The index of “adaptability” higher in boys (58,07% of respondents with a high level) the faster they adapt to life circumstances, including extreme situations in their professional activities. The indicator "expression of emotions" is much better formed among girls than boys (44,17% of 19.35% of respondents with a high level, respectively), they are better able to Express their emotions, to find the right words and actions, posts clearly convey your feelings.

The results of psychodiagnostics, conducted with the use of coping test, showed that students are dominated by low-constructive strategies to overcome conflict situations “confrontation”, “distance”, “positive assessment”, which can be attributed to resource-destructive strategies (Table 02 ).

Note that for young men is more characteristic of aggressive coping strategy, which leads to conflicts on the part of colleagues and students. Girls are more prone to stress and excessive neuro-mental stress, they tend to distance themselves from conflicts 61,67%, search for social support – 62,5%, flight-avoidance – 37,5%. Reliance of the majority of respondents on the coping strategy “positive assessment” can be considered as a mechanism of pseudo-rational evaluation of protection from stress factors, which is fraught with avoiding problems, their resolution, latent experience of stress and conflict. Positive coping strategy “Planning to solve the problem” is characteristic of only a third of respondents.

Conclusion

The theoretical analysis of domestic and foreign literature on the problem of research allowed to draw the following conclusions: 1) pedagogical activity every year is more and more emotionally intense and is characterized by the presence of a large number of stress factors, so the development of professional stability of teachers is the most important task for educational organizations; 2) in foreign literature, the concept of “professional stability” practically does not occur, instead it uses terms similar in meaning “emotional stability”, “emotional intelligence”, “self-efficacy of the teacher”, which in our opinion can be considered as components of professional stability of teachers; 3) in domestic science, the “professional stability” is most often understood as the ability to perform pedagogical activity for a long time and without failures, developed emotional stability, the ability to act in an extreme situation, while in our opinion, this problem of formation of professional stability is not sufficiently developed.

The empirical study led to the following conclusions: 1) most of the indicators of emotional intelligence, “emotional control”, “stress resistance”, “assertiveness”, “emotional regulation” is higher in boys, at the same time ”awareness of the social situation” is higher in girls, they are more inclined to establish social relations, is focused on working with people, this fact explains the great popularity they have in the teaching profession, in General, the level of development of emotional intelligence can be regarded as inadequate; 2) students are dominated by low-constructive strategies to overcome conflict situations “confrontation”, “distance”, “positive assessment”, which can be attributed to resource-destroying strategies. Girls are more prone to stress and excessive neuro-mental stress, they tend to “distance themselves from conflicts”, seek social support, avoid/run away from conflicts.

Analyzing the obtained diagnostic data, we came to the conclusion that the emotional and personal components of professional stability are not fully formed, which may need to affect their future professional activities. Therefore, we plan to work on the formation of professional sustainability is relevant and necessary.

Acknowledgments

The article is written in the framework of the project “Creative and prognostic management of educational organization of professional education in a multicultural environment”, which is part of the comprehensive program “Pedagogical education in the southern Urals: scientific basis of development and innovation”. Under the project: “Formation of professional stability of teachers in the conditions of extreme pedagogy”.

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