Preparing Future Teachers to Work with Children with Special Educational Needs in Inclusive Education

Abstract

The article analyses the training of future teachers to work in inclusive education. The purpose of the article is to analyse and substantiate the theoretical and methodological foundations of the formation of future teachers’ professionalism to work in inclusive education, to identify pedagogical conditions aimed at forming teachers’ readiness to work in inclusive education. In the course of the study, the following methods were used: a review of the relevant thematic scientific literature, analysis of regulatory documents, and comparison of educational approaches. In addition, the method of analysis was used to identify the qualitative characteristics of a teacher in inclusive education, as well as the method of data systematisation to identify the key aspects of the study. The article presents the qualitative characteristics of a teacher in inclusive education proposed by foreign scholars and the competencies of teachers that have the greatest impact on the success of inclusive education, studied by Ukrainian scholars. The main results indicate a significant impact of the components of inclusive competence in education: motivational, cognitive, and activity. The theoretical and methodological basis for preparing future teachers to work in an inclusive environment has been determined. In particular, special psychological and pedagogical, anatomical and physiological knowledge, skills, personal qualities, strategies and tactics of behaviour, stereotypes and attitudes that allow the introduction and use of effective pedagogical technologies for teaching different categories of children with special needs. The structure of inclusive competence is characterised as a corrective orientation in the correctional activity of a teacher through a specific subject, pedagogical concepts, positions, principles, technologies, etc. of modern special education, which contribute to the ability to select and use the most effective forms and methods of interaction between a teacher and a child with special educational needs, taking into account modern approaches to pedagogical activity. The conclusions of the study emphasise that the combination of motivational and value, cognitive, psychological and regulatory, and activity components is a kind of dynamic integrated formation that helps to carry out high-level pedagogical activities in the field of inclusive education and to be aware of oneself in the profession and in one’s own personality system.