Developing Teachers’ Ability To Support Students With Troubled Behavior And Health Limitations

Abstract

The paper deals with the urgent problem of secondary school teachers’ ability to provide psychological-pedagogical support for students with troubled behavior and health limitations within the system of inclusive education. The paper covers empirical data to determine factors that impede the relevant support of school students with health limitations and troubled behavior in an inclusive educational environment. The paper provides research results and experience of theoretical, psychological and methodological competencies formation in teachers as components of their professional competence in organizing inclusive educational space for the above-mentioned category of school students. The program of advanced training is proposed to form teachers’ specific theoretical, psychological and methodological knowledge and emotional-personality qualities required for effective professional work with teenagers having limited health opportunities and troubled behavior within the system of inclusive education. The content of the program is focused on refreshing secondary school teachers’ psychological and pedagogical knowledge, on obtaining knowledge in the field of psychological-pedagogical support for students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities in inclusive education, on the formation of necessary skills and psychological readiness to implement professional activities. The main method is pedagogical experiment (stating, forming and control) applied to reflect qualitative characteristics and dynamics of theoretical, psychological and methodological components of teachers’ professional competence and their readiness to work in an inclusive educational environment.

Keywords: Inclusive educational environmentprofessional competencypsychological competencyspecial educational needsstudents with limited health opportunitiestroubled behaviour

Introduction

Changes occurring in the social-economic, political and spiritual spheres of public life put forward a number of problems, one of which is teenagers’ troubled behavior. Its relevance is getting increasingly urgent as juvenile delinquency and drug addiction are escalating every year, and the number of teenagers with disabilities supplementing criminal environment is growing.

Maladaptation of teenagers with disabilities (formation of inadequate mechanisms of adaptation to school in the form of learning and behavioral disorders, conflict relations, psychogenic diseases and reactions, increased level of anxiety, distortions in personal development) is a serious problem in the context of inclusive education. The education system is not sufficiently prepared to provide conditions adequate to their educational needs for personal development and integration into modern society.

Psychological-pedagogical support for teenagers with troubled behavior in conditions of inclusive education requires teachers to be ready for effective targeted work. The analysis of basic educational programs of higher teachers’ training education as well as programs for advanced training and retraining of teachers evidenced that the content and technologies of necessary theoretical, psychological, pedagogical and methodological knowledge required for psychological and pedagogical support for teenagers with troubled behavior, including those with disabilities, are not fully specified. Therefore, teachers do not master basic competencies in the field of troubled behavior etiology in children and adolescents with disabilities and do not apply diagnostics and methods of designing an educational environment for this category of students, technologies to prevent negative manifestations among students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities as this knowledge is not included in university programs (Bubeeva, 2010).

Institutions of additional pedagogical education are supposed to assist teachers to overcome difficulties arising in their practical activities. In case of refresher training, it is possible to solve issues of teachers’ professional skills development in the sphere of planning and implementation of psychological-pedagogical support for students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities in conditions of inclusion.

Problem Statement

The issue of training competent teachers capable and ready to work successfully with children and adolescents with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities draws attention of a number of researchers. Abdulina (2009), Alekhina (2016), Alova (2013), Barkaeva (2009), Bederhanova (2007), Bondarevskaya (2000), Davydova (2013), Zimnaya, (2006), Romanovskaya & Hafizullina (2014), Sirotyuk (2012), Smirnova (2007), Sosnina (2007), Fomina (2003) are among them.

Many different researchers (Alekhina, 2016; Kutepov, 2013; Semago, Semago, Semenovich, Dmitriyeva, & Averina, 2011; Chetverikova, 2014; Yakovleva, 2013) consider training of competent teachers able and ready to perform their duties efficiently working with children with health limitations (HL) as a significant condition for introduction and development of inclusive education.

Semago et al. (2011) propose a systematic approach to design training of experts implementing inclusive practices. The scientists distinguish three aspects of training: value, organizational and content; the training program is built on modules. This enables to form teachers’ values orientations needed in inclusive education and to facilitate the ability to organize appropriate joint education of children with normative and disordered development, to elaborate and implement adapted basic educational programs.

Patseka (2012) conducted a special research to identify that teachers are not sufficiently trained to prevent troubled behavior in primary schoolchildren at early stages. The researcher specifies reasons for this: firstly, the lack of systematic training of teachers in colleges and higher educational institutions to prevent troubled behavior; secondly, compartmentalization and ineffectiveness of training; thirdly, insufficient theoretical and technological elaboration of the problem. The author believes that the system of teachers' advanced training can contribute to this issue.

Foreign practice of psychological-pedagogical support for students with troubled behavior in education has obtained great experience. The system of inclusive education is theoretically grounded and has been successfully operating over the past decades in western countries.

Research of teachers’, learners’ and public settings in regard to disabled people is presented in the majority of publications. Scientists are trying to determine factors producing positive or negative impact on attitudes to people of this category.

Štemberger (2013) undertook a study aimed to establish the way teachers assess their knowledge and skills of psychological-pedagogical support for students with disabilities in an inclusive educational environment. The author concludes that teachers in Slovenia, teachers of natural sciences, in particular, consider themselves insufficiently competent for this type of pedagogical activity. However, teachers are generally positive about students with disabilities and are willing to change their teaching methods in order to realize tasks relevant to an inclusive educational process.

Quenstedt (1988) presented research results of 28 school students studying in 7-9 grades; the research was conducted in a specialized school for children with developmental disorders in Bremen. The results show that students who exhibit troubled troubled but often suffer from minimal brain dysfunction and, sometimes, organic brain damage, increasingly "neglect themselves" in terms of medical sense: uncontrolled drug use and disregard of their general physical development. Therefore, the researcher believes that close collaboration between teachers of special schools and doctors should be sought and, possibly, outpatient services should be introduced in school.

A group of scientists (Bao, Li, Zhang, & Wang, 2015) proved that school climate is largely associated with juvenile delinquent behavior. Researchers found that a positive school climate can reduce criminal behavior and contribute to the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Rakap, Cig, and Parlak‐Rakap (2017) examined the impact of special education courses on the following indicators: teachers’ general attitude to children with disabilities; willingness of teachers to work with children with significant intellectual, physical and behavioral disorders in inclusive classes; the level of comfort in case of interacting with disabled children. The authors conclude that successful implementation of inclusive practice mainly depends on teachers’ attitude towards children with special needs as well as their willingness to work with disabled children.

The problem of teachers’ professional competence formation was studied by many philosophers, teachers and psychologists. These issues are considered in the works of Zimnaya (2006), Zeer (2014), Choshanov (1996). Ideas of purposeful training of an innovative type of a teacher and their professional competence are presented in works of Baydenko (2005), Guzeev (1993), Dorofeyev (2005) and other researchers. Serious attention is paid to the implementation of such principle as continuity and differentiation of teachers’ advanced training; to the development of professional interests, research and creative skills, teacher's professional and pedagogical culture (Karakovsky, 2001; Shmelkova, 2002). The study of teachers’ professional development in the process of advanced training and creating favorable conditions for expert’s formation is quite important (Vvedensky, 2004; Panin, 1999). However, pedagogical conditions aimed to form professional competence in psychological-pedagogical support for students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities have not been studied sufficiently;

Research Questions

The research is aimed to develop a set of pedagogical conditions to form secondary school teachers’ special professional competence and their training for work with children with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities in the context of an inclusive educational process.

Purpose of the Study

• To study the current state of teachers’ training for work in inclusive forms of education on the basis of scientific literature analyses; to identify problems of forming teachers 'theoretical, psychological and methodical readiness for work with children with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities relevant for the system of teachers' advanced training.

• To develop a diagnostic complex aimed to identify theoretical, psychological, pedagogical and methodological components of teacher's professional competence in issues of inclusive education of disabled school students with troubled behavior.

• To study the state of theoretical, psychological and methodological components of teachers' professional competence and their readiness to work in an inclusive educational environment.

• To develop and verify a set of pedagogical conditions including methodological, methodical and organizational aspects of secondary school teachers’ training, retraining and advanced training in compliance with new requirements for education of disabled children with troubled behavior in the system of refresher training courses

Research Methods

The following methods were applied in the research: methods for reviewing and analyzing psychological, pedagogical and methodological literature on the problem of psychological-pedagogical support for disabled students with troubled behavior in the general education system, pedagogical experiment (stating, forming and control).

Findings

Conclusion

The effectiveness of the program in the forming stage of the study was verified and allowed us to draw the following conclusions: the process of teacher’s professional competence formation and training in psychological-pedagogical support of students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities in conditions of inclusion can be effectively implemented in the system of teaching staff advanced training. Teachers’ retraining in compliance with the proposed program can help achieve a higher level of special professional competence formation in the following aspects: necessary theoretical, psychological, methodological knowledge, emotional and personal qualities, the ability to apply methods and techniques for diagnosing and designing a psychologically comfortable educational environment, communication technologies to prevent negative manifestations among students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities. Gradual formation of necessary professional qualities in teacher's personality assumes systematic work in the intercourse and coursework periods of advanced training. The developed and tested program can be considered as one of the options for teachers’ professional training in the system of teaching staff advanced training and retraining. The scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the research are substantiated by the fact that empirical data obtained and analyzed allow us to determine qualitative characteristics of secondary school teachers’ special professional competence and their readiness for pedagogical activity in inclusive educational conditions. Pedagogical conditions of training teachers in correctional and pedagogical work with students with troubled behavior and limited health opportunities through the system of advanced training and mastering supplementary education program are determined.

Acknowledgments

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University. Authors of the article would like to acknowledge the Dean Gafurov I.R. and the Head of Department of the Institute of psychology and education Kalimullin A.M. for helping to conduct the research in the Kazan (Volga region) Federal University.

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