PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION IN PEDAGOGICAL COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

The article addresses the important task of forming professional orientation in future preschool teachers during their professional training in pedagogical colleges. The analysis of scientific and psychological sources has shown that professional and pedagogical orientation is a complex mental formation that includes motivational and value-based, cognitive, social-communicative, and emotional components and determines the effectiveness of future pedagogical activity.
It has been determined that the psychological factors in the formation of professional orientation in future preschool teachers include motivation for achievement and self-realization, a system of value orientations, the development of professional self-awareness, reflexivity, emotional maturity, and empathy. The research hypothesis assumes that the development of motives for choosing and mastering the teaching profession, organizational and communicative skills, and empathy in students of pedagogical colleges contributes to the formation of their professional orientation.
To test the hypothesis, an empirical study of the professional orientation of future preschool teachers was conducted at Bakhmut Professional Pedagogical College. The following methods were used: J. Holland’s Vocational Personality Types Questionnaire; the “Questionnaire of Communicative and Organizational Tendencies” (KOS-2) by V. Sinyavskyi and V. Fedorishyn; T. Ilyina’s method “Learning Motivation in Higher Education Institutions”; and the “Emotional Empathy Questionnaire” by A. Mehrabian and N. Epstein (adapted by Yu. M. Orlov and Yu. M. Yemelianov). The obtained data indicate a significant potential for the development of the studied psychological phenomena. Correlation analysis revealed the strongest direct relationships between communicative and organizational tendencies, communicative abilities and empathy, as well as between empathy and orientation toward mastering the profession.
The results of the study confirmed the hypothesis that the development of motives for choosing and mastering the teaching profession, communicative and organizational skills, and empathy is a necessary condition for the formation of an integral professional orientation. Based on the obtained data, it is planned to develop a psychocorrective program for fostering professional orientation in students of pedagogical colleges.