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PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES
OF A YOUNG TEACHER
AT THE INITIAL STAGE
OF HIS/HER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
O. N. Kazharskaya
The article reviews psychological difficulties of a young teacher at the initial stage of his/her professional activities in the context of professional and personal components.
Key words: young teacher, psychological difficulties, psychological training, upgrading.
We define a young teacher as a specialist who works right after graduating from a tertiary school and is, as a matter of fact, “yesterday's student”. The principal personal needs of a young specialist are directly linked to selfdetermination: searching for conditions of self-realization.
The main causes producing psychological difficulties at the initial stage of a young teacher's professional activities can be divided into several groups: (1) a new socio-psychological situation in personal life: the start of a professional career, adaptation to new labor conditions, discrepancies between internal and external expectations and the actual reality, and age-related and professional crises; (2) insufficient level of a young teacher's preparedness for efficient performance of his/her pedagogical tasks; (3) lack of psychological training continuity between a higher educational institution and a postgraduate center.
V.A. Semichenko draws our attention to the problems connected with psychological preparedness for new conditions of professional activities. Let us describe them briefly.
(1) Involvement in a new system of activities characterized by a number of radical differences as compared to the previous period of life: (a) the need arises for mastering new action algorithms that have a fundamentally different orientation;
(b) the work load increases; (c) the range of actions to be performed expands considerably; (d) the system of activity control changes, and self-control becomes the main driving component in determining the efficiency of one's own activity.
(2) Inclusion into a new system of social relations and roles. At secondary and tertiary schools, the present teacher was rather a "child" for whom everyone cared and whom everyone controlled. He or she was lectured and advised, he or she was not permitted to deviate from his/her main business: studying. Now the young teacher is in the position of a person who must answer not only for him/herself, but for others as well, and must make decisions, coordinate, mentor, instruct, and offer advice.
The characteristic features of the new position are as follows: change of the referent group, interaction in different "planes" in each of which the teacher has to play different roles: a responsible person (with children), a conversation partner, an advisor (with their parents) [7].
I.V. Konovalova, who studies young teachers' principal difficulties, states that the problem of interaction with "unchecked" pupils comes first (it was selected by 68% of pollees), the need to find one's bearings quickly in a changing situation
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comes second (38%), relations with parents come third (12%), and relations with the school administration come fourth (10%) [7]. N.B. Moskvina writes that the overwhelming majority of young teachers experience a "practice shock" when they start their career. She says that an ideal teacher should be a cultured, spiritually rich, creative, free, humane, civically-minded and competitive person.
At the same time, contemporary research studies contain data according to which in the process of professional pedagogical activities, young teachers form such qualities as dogmatic adherence to generally accepted rules and instruction, rigidity of mindsets, lack of empathy, low communicability, tendency for demonstrative manifestations, a high level of aggression and a low one of kindness, apprehension, frustration, tension, irritability, dryness, internal uncertainty, reduction of creative abilities and self-critical facility, inability to lead a healthy life, conservatism, proneness to conflict, flatness, rigidity of one’s role mask, dogmatism, etc. [4].
B.I. Sarsenbayeva stresses that starting a career is a continuous and protracted process of deep understanding of psychological conditions and meaning of teaching activities, and forming psychological preparedness for this career is a very specific type of activity requiring a special attitude and special knowledge. She is correct in saying that it is psychological knowledge (both theoretical and practical) that student teachers lack most [5]. As E.F. Zeer and E.E. Symanyuk describe the results of a poll of young teachers concerning the choice of strategies for overcoming the crises, they tell that the majority of the pollees' recorded statements are about active strategy. Postgraduate studies are the most frequently mentioned method of overcoming this crisis (24.1%), seeking help of colleagues and managers comes next (18.5%), followed by retraining within the framework of the same profession (14.8%) and gradual accommodation with one’s job functions (13.1%) [1]. Postgraduate studies as a method of overcoming the crisis remain statistically significant for a young specialist.
As we sum up theoretical studies of psychological difficulties experienced by young teachers starting their careers, we must mention that they are all directly linked to the level of the teacher's professional and personal preparedness.
The professional component of psychological preparation must be oriented to shaping a high level of cognitive and operational preparedness: systems of practical knowledge about developmental and pedagogical psychology and a set of contemporary expertise and skills (diagnosis and forecast, organizational, control and correcting).
The personal component of psychological training must be focused on shaping a high level of motivational, communicative, intellectual, emotional and will and regulatory preparedness. Supplementary psychological training of young teachers in the postgraduate studies system is done on the basis of a practice-oriented paradigm and a competence-based approach.
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Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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