PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF PREPARING FUTURE SPECIAL EDUCATORS TO WORK WITH CHILDREN WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

Abstract

Special preschool and special school organizations, psychological, medical, and pedagogical consultations, psychological and pedagogical correction offices, rehabilitation centers, and autism support centers are actively opening in the country. Consequently, we can observe an increase in state grants for training special educators at universities (bachelor's, master's, doctorate). The research purpose is to determine the attitude of future special educators to working with children with severe disabilities. The research tasks include analyzing foreign experience related to training future special educators and identifying their attitudes and readiness to work with children with severe disabilities. In the theoretical section of the research article, the concepts of “training” and “professional training” were analyzed based on foreign and domestic scholarly works, resulting in the development of a comparative table. An analysis of the development of special education institutions was carried out, and quantitative indicators were presented. Additionally, the indicators of state grants for training special educators in universities over the past three years were examined and statistically analyzed. The analysis shows that currently the training of special educators is among the most in-demand fields. In the empirical section of the study, a dedicated survey was conducted to identify the theoretical knowledge and practical experience of future special education teachers in working with children with complex developmental disabilities. The survey was based on the Likert scale methodology. Each item was formulated as a statement, and respondents rated their level of agreement using a scale. The results indicate that future special educators possess theoretical knowledge about children with complex developmental disabilities; however, they highlight the need to improve their pedagogical competence in order to carry out corrective and developmental work effectively.