Transcendence and reflexion of career path of university teachers specializing in primary education

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Innovative development of higher pedagogical education involves rethinking, redefining vectors of professional development, ways of self-improvement of teachers in the field of preschool education; the enrichment of teaching with reflexive technologies of self-development on the basis of which a new quality of pedagogical activity and mastery is formed. It is the personality of a teacher specializing in preschool education with a significant potential for selfimprovement determines the fate of the Ukrainian education. The needs of the society, the contradictions between the teacher's desire for professional self-transcendence and the lack of effective means of developing pedagogical skills, pedagogical reflection, reluctance to implement new professional roles and functions, the introduction of educational innovations into the educational process actualize the issues of reflection and transcendence of university teacher's work because the fate of the country depends to a great extent on the development of these processes.

Humanistic and psychotherapeutic concepts that explain the development, self-improvement based on the innate tendency of the individual to realize the potential deserve special attention within the limits of the study of transcendence and reflection of a career path. Traditionally, personal growth is perceived in association with self-actualization and self-realization that describe similar phenomena: the desire of a person for a complete identification and development of one's abilities and skills (Ball, 2006). K. Rogers represents personal growth, or self-actualization, in an effort to be more competent and capable, as far as possible biologically. The scientist proved that the structure of the person can be significantly changed as a result of psychological therapy. In his opinion, such notions as fear of change, protective mechanisms, conformism interfere with personal growth.

A. Maslow's views are an essential breakthrough in the cognition of personal growth. It is well known that the personal growth is considered in his theory as a consistent satisfaction of “higher” needs based on the primary ones. Growth is the opposite of stop, the reluctance and the inability to remain in a state of potentiality. In his opinion, personal growth is not the only achievement, but a special relationship with the world and with oneself (Maslow, 1999). But the motivation for growth can essentially be ousted by dissatisfied physiological needs, the need for security, respect, and so on.

Another representative of humanistic psychology, the creator of its therapy and existential analysis V. Frankl (Frankl, 1990) examines human endeavors to find and implement the personal meaning of life as a basis, the innate motivational tendency of behavior and personality development. He introduced the “existential vacuum” expression that means the absence of meaning and creates a state of frustration in a person. Personal growth is the appropriation of the concrete meaning of life by a person at the moment. At the same time, the focus on a certain position “over” the meaning is considered to be the most important for a person. Senses are not created by a person; they must be found. The person transcends oneself, and “from a

bird's eye view” allows one to see the “better” sense for oneself (Frankl, 1990). According to Frankl, the main obstacle to personal success is lack of internal tension, personal initiative, irresponsibility and conformism.

Similar ideas were expressed in 1940 by the Ukrainian psychologist H. Kostiuk when considering the complex dialectics of the heredity, environment and education influence on the development of the individual, when the acquired qualities become new internal conditions for the development. He suggested an idea of self-development, consisting in the emergence of higher forms of self-development of a personality, and expressed in his/her conscious purpose, in the desire for self-improvement, to produce some personal qualities, guided by a certain ideal, etc. With such orientation, a person to a certain extent begins to manage his/her own mental development independently (H. Kostiuk).

At the same time, the scientific and pedagogical sources review shows the lack of fundamental research studies substantiating theoretical and methodological principles of transcendence and reflection of career path of university teachers in the field of primary education, namely, in the process of professional and personal growth and selfimprovement.

The paper aims to examine the effect of the designed technology of transcendence and reflection of the career path on the personality of university teachers specializing in preschool education.

The tasks of the research are as follows: 1) to reveal the essence of transcendence and reflection of career path of university teachers majoring in preschool education; 2) to distinguish professional characteristics of university teachers in the field of preschool education; 3) to assess the levels of transcendence and reflection maturity of university teachers specializing in preschool education; 4) to examine the influence of the transcendence and reflection technology of career path on university teachers majoring in preschool education.

The assessment of the maturity of transcendence and reflection of career path was carried out according to the methodology for determining the level of professional reflection of a university teacher (by O. Kravtsiv), with the help of which the indicator of the teacher's reflection level was calculated by means of finding the sum of scores for all points of the technique (30 points), where higher values reflect a higher professional reflection level of a teacher.

In order to examine such indicators of the success of career path of university teachers specializing in preschool education as the ability to go beyond the routine and consider themselves from the standpoint of improvement, we used the method of determining the spiritual potential “Personality Spiritual Potential” by E. Pomitkin (Pomitkin, 2005). The application of the mathematical apparatus allowed revealing the general transcendence and reflection levels of career path of the respondents.

The experiment involved 346 university teachers in the field of preschool education of the leading universities of Ukraine (experimental group = 200 people, control group = 146 people). The scope and quality of the sample corresponded to the goals and objectives of our study. We used a mixed selection that combined the use of some types of samples: nesting (not just teachers were selected but pedagogical teams of pre-school and primary education departments of higher educational institutions), quota (the selection of subjects was carried out on certain grounds (there should be not more than four characteristics, for example, teachers having pedagogical experience for at least two years were selected). In this case, the regularity was taken into account: the bigger the sample is, the more it reflects the properties of the population.

We also applied methods of mathematical statistics (tables, diagrams with the help of MS EXCEL, Pedagogical statistics, Statistica 6.0 for statistical automatic data processing).

According to A. Rean, self-transcendence is the going beyond one's “Self' as a better opportunity to show enthusiasm for meaningful work, professional development, etc. The psychologist believes that the idea of the development and self-actualization in the “pure form” without taking into account “self-transcendence” is not enough to build personal maturity psychology. The researcher represents self-development as a single process of self-actualization and self-transcendence, based on the effect of “superposition” (Rean, 2000).

The phenomenon of self-transcendence of human existence occupies an important place in humanistic psychology and existential-humanistic philosophy. Critically comprehending the ideas of humanistic psychology (focus on the disclosure of human potential, on the achievement of self-identity and self-perception), in which the potential risk of egocentrism is posed, A. Rean emphasizes that the idea of self-transcendence is forgotten. But it plays an ambiguous role in the works of many representatives of humanistic psychology. The opposition of self-transcendence to self-actualization is incorrect. The power of the humanistic approach and the prospects for its development occurs in a combination of these phenomena. The purpose of human existence, according to the scientist, is both personal self-improvement and the well-being of others. The search for “personal happiness” leads to egocentrism, the constant desire for “self-improvement of others” causes dissatisfaction (Rean, 2000).

According to Western researchers (Mossbridge, 2016), transcendence implies a deep sense of positivity, security, and a sense of excellence (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004).

Western contemporary representatives of psychological carrier counseling interpret transcendence as “the spirit at work”, “spirituality at work”. These terms are identified with a faith in one's professional purpose, a sense of collectivism. Transcendence as a “spirit at work” is a qualitative personality state characterized by cognitive, interpersonal, spiritual, and even mystical dimensions. The term “spirit at work” (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004) includes a conscious professional self-affirmation characterized by a deep sense of well-being, belief in social significance, the value of professional activity that has a high, socially meaningful purpose, a sense of personal dignity; a spiritual connection featured by belonging to something more significant and higher than a single personality and a sense of community. Researchers refer a mystical unique experience characterized by positive energy, life-giving power, a sense of joy and bliss to this category.

There are a very few empirical studies dealing with transcendence and reflection at work (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003; Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004).

According to a positive psychological model, there are six project factors that have a direct relationship with the sense of well-being: autonomy of the individual, positive emotions, competence, and participation in socially valuable activities, connection and sense of purpose (Calvo, & Peters, 2014).

Transcendence is a key factor supporting the physical and mental states of a professional (Calvo & Peters, 2014). An interesting fact is described by Western researchers (Kim, Hayward, & Reed, 2014). It has been found that, for example, professional self-mastery affects self-renewal of physical health and lowering the depression level in people who have been engaged in teaching for a long time.

Western scholars believe that transcendence meets one of the basic human needs: to feel part of a very important entity: a professional community in which the ideals, aspirations, efforts, and needs of the individual are harmoniously combined. It is transcendence that gives a person the opportunity to self-actualize, to enjoy work, to enrich oneself with spiritual values, to become part of a large professional community.

Thus, the analysis of approaches to transcendence, reflection and self-development shows that this phenomenon is ambiguous and multifaceted. It can be explained by the existence of various forms of self-development: selfpresentation, self-expression, self-affirmation, self-improvement, self-actualization, self-realization, etc. “The first part of these words “Self' indicates that the subject, the initiator of activity is a person, and the second one characterizes the specificity, originality of activity: to express oneself, to affirm, to improve” (Maralov, 2004). Therefore, the analysis of goals, motives, means and results of self-development becomes possible in the aspect of a certain self-development form, in our case, self-improvement.

We believe that the most important forms of self-development are self-affirmation, self-improvement, and self-actualization. They give an opportunity to express oneself and realize to varying degrees. They are closely interconnected: “In order to improve and fully actualize oneself, one needs to validate one's own self-image. On the other hand, a person who is self-improving and self-actualizing is objectively a self-affiliated person, not depending on the need for self-affirmation” (Maralov, 2004).

Theoretical analysis of the issue gives the grounds to make a conclusion that the adequate form of self-development is self-improvement, self-transcendence and reflection. A person tries to become better, to achieve a certain ideal, appropriating personal features and qualities that he/she does not have yet, tries to master the kinds of activities that he/she does not possess yet, enriching one's career path with new ways of self-knowledge and self-correction. Thus, it can be argued that self-improvement is a process of conscious guidance for the development, the direction of career path vectors. An ideal, ultimate goal of self-improvement, is immense as the horizon line, but the main thing in this process is the presence of a development trend. The latter fills life with a sense, a new quality, makes it full and conscious.

If one associates self-development of a person with a self-awareness level, then, according to N. Bitianova (Bitianova, 1998), the following facts must be taken into account:

- meaning of consciousness is experienced, felt by the subject in the form of some primary sensations and complexes (states) and significantly distorted by the verbalization and conceptualization.

- there is always the personal prediction of reality beyond a certain content of consciousness. It enables (on the basis of the personal experience of understanding the world) a person to confirm his/her identity;

- mental activity is produced by various psychological means (Rozin, 1994);

- effects of self-development are reflected as a comprehension of the activity and interaction with it.

Thus, the psycho-pedagogical literature review shows that one of the most important signs of personal growth is the change in the individual consciousness structure. The works by O. Bondarenko, G. Raynai, V. Stolin indicate that certain psychological practice achieves optimal effects by referring to the self-consciousness structures. Summing up the analysis of the presented direction, we note that personal growth is not only the qualitative changes in personal development, but also a conscious focus on the “future”, a peculiar, continuous professional path to self-improvement.

In modern psychological studies, it is emphasized that professional skills are developed due to the accumulation of the self-development experience as a result of work, taking into account the value of psycho-technologies for addressing professional issues. It does not mean the automatic growth of knowledge, skills and abilities. For an expert, in this case, the attitude towards his/her work is characteristic of both the psychological means and the semantic space of self-realization of one's possibilities (Tsvietkova, 2013).

Consequently, the basis of conscious self-improvement is the reflection without which it is impossible to build a strategy for personal growth. Professionalization affects the personality, can stimulate him/her or, conversely, destroy, deform, that is, be the main factor of personal selfimprovement.

Transcendence and reflection of career path of a university teacher specializing in preschool education are an indicator of the career path success which includes an effective interaction with students majoring in preschool education, going beyond the limits of his/her own “Self' on the basis of reflexive perception of professional reality, as well as going beyond the routine, consideration of work from the standpoint of the improvement, faith in the professional mission, conscious choice of professional path vectors, readiness for professional self-improvement.

The university teacher specializing in pre-school education is:

- an integral, harmonious personality with positive “self-concept”, mature emotional intelligence, high level of general culture and morality;

- an expert a teacher and psychologist with an active professional position, with mature perceptive-reflexive, organizational skills, pedagogical commitment and readiness for teaching activities, professional possession of various methods of teaching and educating pre-school children, students;

- a facilitator who is capable of optimistic prediction of the development, training and education of preschool children and students with dominant positive emotions and mood; who possesses a psychotherapeutic effect in communicating with children, colleagues and parents;

- an innovator with a vividly innovative spirit who is always the first to perceive, actively introduce and distribute something new in the field of preschool education. education transcendence teacher

The ability for transcendence and reflection of a university teacher specializing in preschool education affects the career path success, reflects the level of reflexive and transcendental readiness of a teacher for professional selfimprovement. Personal and professional self-improvement is impossible without the development of reflection. According to S. Rubinstein, realizing oneself, a person creates his/her life, realizes in his/her activity, in being, which most fully reflects its essence (Rubinstein, 2002). The developing person is constantly in a state of self-cognition, reflection, that helps him/her to go beyond the limits of life situations, to shift the focus from the situational to substantive things, to move from the development of individual psychic properties to the generalization and development of the holistic “Self' (Burlachuk, 1996).

I. Bekh notes that the development of reflection (thinking aimed at motivating the act) and will reveals progressive changes in the moral and spiritual acts of an individual, as a result of which he/she acts freely and morally responsible (Bekh, 2006). Transcendence provides focus on finding the meaning of life, promoting the development of other people, spiritual, creative self-actualization, and so on.

The success of the career path is determined primarily by the ability to self-reflect, namely, the ability to analyze one's own personality and activity from an objective position, from the standpoint of new knowledge; to correct selfimprovement methods, to analyze the changes during this process. The presented criterion reflects the ability for selfknowledge and self-evaluation of work and one's own personality; for reflexive analysis of the creative self-realization process; for self-control of the effectiveness of personal actions; for self-identification of oneself as a teacher who is constantly self-improving. The transcendence of the career path reflects the ability level on the basis of reflection, to go beyond the routine, to consider oneself from the standpoint of the improvement, awareness of the experience of realizing the ideals of Truth, Beauty, Goodness; the ability to gain spiritual knowledge and wisdom. The performance indicators of the career path of the university teachers specializing in preschool education are presented in Table. 1.1.

Table 1.1

The success of the career path of the respondents was evaluated by means of assessing the maturity of such indicators as the ability for professional-pedagogical reflection, self-cognition, self-control, self-identification, the ability to go beyond the routine, consider oneself from the standpoint of improving, identifying and eliminating barriers to self-development. Such indicators as the ability to go beyond the routine and to consider oneself from the point of view of improvement were assessed with the help of a modified method of identifying the spiritual potential of the individual (Pomytkin, 2005). The results are presented in Table. 1.2.

Table 1.2. Transcendence and Reflection of Career Path of University Teachers Specializing in Preschool Education According to the Parameters of Ye. Pomitkin's Test

The indicators according to such scales as “Identification”, “Reflection” and “Decentering” were developed at the average level in the respondents. Thus, the desire to gain wisdom and contribute to the mankind experience, looking up to the great spiritual ascetics (“Identification”), as well as awareness of the ultimate goal and purpose of life, the desire to know one's own inner world (“Reflection”), overcoming self-centeredness, ability for internal dialogue (“Decentering”) were characteristic for all the respondents (see Table 1.2.).

The lowest indices were found in the responses of the teachers according to the “Transcendence” and “Awareness of Existential Unit” scales (M-6.42). The teachers with experience and those who were still in search for their own pedagogical approaches to the process of teaching and professional self-improvement, were poorly aware of the immortal nature of their spiritual “Self”, they did not show a tendency to consider issues in “a bird's eye view” (“Transcendence”), skeptically accepted the idea of communicating with Nature, the Universe, and God; noted the lack of experience in the “dissolution” in the ocean of spiritual experiences, love and unity (“Awareness of Existential Unity”).

The “Decentering” scale is represented by higher indicators. The respondents manifested a greater focus on people, the readiness to sacrifice their own interests in their favor, the ability to realize spiritual unity with them. The results of the study are quite logical and natural, given that decentering is a mechanism for overcoming personality self-centeredness, which is typical for the teachers working in the field of preschool education. Decentering is manifested in changing the position of the subject as a result of the collision, alignment and integration with the positions that differ from personal ones. This notion is central in the concept of genetic epistemology by J. Piaget. Decentering clearly reflects the processes of socialization, cognitive and moral development of the individual, in particular, the process of professional self-improvement. The source of decentering is the direct or internalized communication with other people (internal dialogue), during which there is a collision of opposing thoughts that induces a person to transform and rethink his/her ideas. That is, a higher rate of decentering among the respondents is associated with the formation of skills based on the ability to accept the role of another person, and determine the effectiveness of communicative interaction. The data presented in Table 1.2 confirm the thesis that the subject's ability to decentralize can be changed significantly with the age (namely decrease with aging) and significantly affect the quality of the processes of professional self-perfection and self-reflection. The obtained data imply that decentering is quite successfully implemented in the process of professional pedagogical interaction. At the same time, a significant reduction in the ability to decentralize is an alarming symptom, since it may be indicative of neuroticism, serve as a sign of professional deformation that significantly reduces the possibilities for personal and professional self-realization and serves as a barrier to professional self-improvement.

The ability to go beyond the routine and, at the same time, see oneself from the positions of improvement were assessed by us according to the levels as well. The high level, which is reflected in the pursuit of pedagogical ideals, was typical for 8.4% of the teachers. This group of the respondents manifests the high indicators on key issues, a high level of ability to create new aims in terms of life goal strategy and a steady desire to identify and remove barriers to self-improvement. They are characterized by a high number of points for such statements as, for example, “I admire images of great spiritual ascetics”, “Every day I work on improving my temper”, “Spiritual needs are more important for me than the material ones”, “I love talking about the mission of a man in the universe”, etc.

45.5% of the respondents have the average level of this quality that is manifested in an optimistic, objective idea of their path to self-improvement, a steady interest in the laws of human development, and so on.

A low level is typical for 46.1% of the teachers. They are characterized by fragmentary representations of pedagogical ideals, a pragmatic attitude to their personal and professional development, manifested in the absence of experience in representing the ideal existence of their vocational and educational mission. Such teachers are characterized by underevaluation of such statements as “I feel internal discomfort when I have to aggrieve the interlocutor”, “I want to unite people through awareness of the common goal”, “I have an unusual experience of `dissolution' in the ocean of spiritual experiences of love and unity”.

The desire to achieve pedagogical ideals, the effectiveness of actions for personal improvement, the creation of new goals in the perspective of one's own life goal strategy, a deep awareness of the importance of all the professional and pedagogical qualities, adequate self-esteem, the ability to objectively project one's own self-improvement; confident positive-constructive life position, ability to find effective methods and techniques of personal self-development, free achievement of the top of professional “acme” are the characteristic features of the representatives of this group of the respondents.

Consequently, the significant differences in the state of transcendence and reflection of the career path of the university teachers working in the field of preschool education were associated with the intuitive-situational development level: the “effect” of the expressiveness of reflection and transcendence was fixed by us at the intuitive-situational level (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3. Distribution of the Respondents according to Reflection and Transcendence of Career Path

Comparative analysis of the results of transcendence and reflection of the career path manifestation of university teachers working in the field of preschool education has shown that the initial and intuitive-situational levels are peculiar for most of them. In our opinion, this situation is due to the insufficient attention to the creation of creative-developing educational space, the atmosphere of creativity, the independent creative search in pedagogical communication with students that subsequently affects the quality of self-improvement. The teachers of higher educational institutions are not always able to solve individually personal problems that arise on their career path.

The next stage of our experiment provided the introduction of innovations in the teaching and methodological provision of the educational process, the use of transcendence technology and reflection of the career path of the respondents, the purpose of which was to stimulate the professional self-improvement of the teachers, envisaged the solution of the problem the creation of individual space, the acquisition of individual self-improvement experience, disclosure of the internal potential of the teachers' personalities; initiation of self-reflection.

The main accents of the transcendence and reflection technology are as follows:

- stimulation of professional self-improvement, spiritual enrichment of the teachers (which provide high quality training of future specialists in the field of preschool education) as a process of conscious work on oneself, rising to eminence in profession on a conscious axiological basis, reflecting the constant growth of teacher's competencies (use of the theory the nature of success, mastery of facilitation methods (K. Rogers), techniques for achieving success (personal growth training) in professional activities; self-examination, successes and shortcomings review (analytical and reflective exercises, simulation games, reflexive and analytical conversation);

- motivation of a university teacher to develop teaching skills, who is able to master and create social, cultural, historical, personal values and provide training and education of the higher qualification specialists; a teacher who is a representative and the bearer of Ukrainian elitism ensuring the creation of optimal conditions for the comprehensive harmonious development of students and the implementation of certain social roles (conducting open lectures, seminars, creating methodical recommendations, presentation of individual style of teacher's work, portfolio creation, university competition of pedagogical skills);

- a comprehensive process of education in which the subjects of educational influence are axiologically enriched, whose life philosophy is activated, value world perception under conditions of axiologically filled activity is formed, the axiological worldview is developed in students;

- organization of systematic quality management of the training of future educators based on effective pedagogical humanism (sharing the emotional states of students, empathy and assistance in overcoming negative emotions and subjective difficulties); the development of social and emotional intelligence (the ability that determines the productivity of interaction with students, as well as regulates cognitive processes associated with the reflection of psychosocial relations); limit-exceeding teaching (need for innovations, creative initiative, excess of normative professional functions and official duties); psychosocial tolerance (tolerance to the youthful way of life and behavior, ethnic characteristics, emotional stability and self-control); pedagogical reflection; organization; social responsibility;

- development of innovative potential through the formation of creative educational university space, the main features of which are as follows: constant improvement of the professional competence (integration of training with the fulfillment of professional tasks, self-development, transformation of new knowledge in the necessary abilities and skills to solve specific professional tasks); an increase in each subject's satisfaction with the activity (the satisfaction of an individual by his/her activity largely depends on the ability to choose the occupation that is fully in line with his/her needs, interests, aspirations, and physical possibilities that are revealed in the professional sphere); providing a subject with maximum opportunities to improve his/her status (career development); the reconstruction of the professional training process in the direction of expanding duties of students, rethinking the role of a university teacher working in preschool education; development of the team spirit of the students through the transition from individual responsibility to the team one, by considering fellow students as a source for mutual development, involving them in the management of the training process;

- creative pedagogy of higher education, based on the techniques of facilitative communication, including verbal methods of indirect partnership management (respect and positive attitude towards a student as a personality capable of self-change and self-development; manifestation of a pedagogical manner that is based on trust without indulgence, simplicity of communication, actions without restraint of autonomy, humor without mocking; creation of success situations, optimistic views of students' possibilities, etc.);

- focus on the needs, motives (achievement and cognition) of the student in the university educational process;

- filling the disciplines content of the “Preschool education” specialty with the concepts of professional selfimprovement; rethinking the structure of traditional lectures and seminars, focusing on mutual enrichment, mutual development, giving impetus to self-development and selfdesigning of a future professional; actualization of human potential of a future teacher and forecasting of the ideal image of an educator; creation of conditions for forming a sense of mutual respect and trust in the team in the process of self-disclosure of one's own potential; staged training of future specialists in pre-school education in terms of Bachelor's Master's Doctor's degrees, making it possible to predict, plan, project self-determination and self-enrichment throughout career, helps to find ways for personal life and professional activity improvement, to strive for higher levels of professionalism in the field of preschool education;

- gaining experience of innovative pedagogical activity through interactive training, engaging students in creative interaction with preschool children, the formation of an individual pedagogical style of influence on the surrounding reality (professional skills training, competition “Professional skills of the future educator”, writing and defending diploma projects, participation in scientific and practical conferences);

- initiation of self-realization of a future educator through the creation of a new interaction form between the institution of higher education and the institution of preschool education scientific educational organizations, making it possible conducting practical classes, independent work on the basis of kindergartens, as well as observing and participating in the realization of this continuity between preschool and school levels, integration and differentiation in educational work with preschoolers and junior pupils; getting acquainted with innovations in a preschool institution, and active assistance, successful internship completion, performing research works (course, bachelor, master's studies).

We believe the results of a pilot experiment on the analysis of the use of transcendence technology and the reflection of the career path of university teachers working in pre-school education are worth consideration. It should be noted that in most participants we observed significant changes. At all levels of transcendence and reflection expressiveness we could observe high results. The low level was decreased from 23.29% to 11.0%, and the optimal and reference levels increased (Fig. 1.1.). The differences corresponded to a statistically significant level (respectively, p<0.001 and p<0.01). Consequently, this is due to the content changes and the acquisition of experience in innovative pedagogical activity through the interactive training within the designed situations, designing changes in the teacher's professional activity and in oneself (open lessons, workshops on self-development, special courses, the technology of professional self-improvement in general, that stimulates self-development processes).

The increase of the level of transcendence and reflection of career path of university teachers working in the field of preschool education was determined by a change in the level of self-control reflection, self-regulation; selfidentification as a successful teacher, the experience of going beyond the routine and an ability to remove barriers to professional self-improvement.

Pic. 1.1. Indicators of Transcendence and Reflection of the Career Path of the Teachers in Pre-School Education Before and After the Experiment

Consequently, as a result of psychological and pedagogical literature review, we have come to the conclusion that transcendence and reflection of career path of university teacher working in the field of preschool education involves going beyond the limits of one's “Self' on the basis of reflexive perception of professional reality, the ability to go beyond the routine, to consider one's work in terms of improvement, faith in the professional mission, conscious choice of professional path vectors, readiness for professional self-improvement.

A university teacher specializing in pre-school education is a holistic, harmonic personality with a positive selfconcept, developed emotional intelligence, a high level of general culture and morality; who is a professional educator and psychologist with an active position, mature perceptive-reflexive, organizational skills, pedagogical commitment and readiness for pedagogical activity, professional possession of various methods of teaching and upbringing of preschool children, students; critical thinking; a facilitator capable of optimistic predicting of the development, training and upbringing of preschoolers and students, with dominant positive emotions and mood; a person who possesses psychotherapeutic effect on communication with children, colleagues and parents; an innovator with a vividly innovative spirit being always the first to perceive, actively introduce and distribute something new in the field of preschool education. We have distinguished the following indicators of transcendence and reflection of career path of university teachers working in the field of preschool education: the level of professional and pedagogical reflection, the ability for self-cognition, self-control, self-identification, the ability to go beyond the routine and the ability to identify and remove barriers to self-improvement.

A significant number of the teachers before the experiment had the intuitive-situational maturity level of reflection and transcendence of career path.

Thanks to the introduction of career path transcendence and reflection technology, a creative-developing educational space has been formed in which the professional development of a teacher is carried out, the individual space is expanded and the individual experience of selfimprovement is acquired, the initiation of rethinking, selfovercoming, self-determination, self-realization and rethinking the role of a university teacher in pre-school education takes place.

The reassessment results have shown the increase of the level of transcendence and reflection. The number of the respondents with a low level has decreased from 23.29% to 11.0%, and the number of the teachers with the optimal and reference levels increased. The identified differences corresponded to the statistically significant level. Therefore, this proves the efficiency of the suggested technique.

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