Factors that affect pre-service English teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability

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FACTORS THAT AFFECT PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS' PSYCHOLOGICAL READINESS FOR TEACHING LEARNERS WITH DISABILITY

Shcherba N.S.

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor,

Associate Professor at the Department of Intercultural Communication and Applied Linguistics Educational and Scientific Institute of Foreign Philology of the Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University Zhytomyr, Ukraine

The aim of the research is to investigate into the factors that promote the formation of would-be English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability in Ukraine. According to the results of the literature analysis conducted, teachers' attitude to their work in general depends on such factors as: prompt salary, unbiased appraisals, positive behavior of students, presence of staff rooms, friendly environment, availability of learning resources, small class size, less distance from the school, selecting upper class as target market and teachers' autonomy in choosing methods and forms of work. As for teaching learners with disability, a number of educationalists report that teachers' attitude depends on the severity and type of disability, as well as previous customized psychological and pedagogical training.

The research conducted in 2018-2021 in Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University and engaging 96 Master's degree program students makes it possible to ascertain that would-be EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability in inclusive setting immediately depends on the prior customized training aimed at preparing students for problem solving in inclusive classroom. The difference in average preand post-experimental indices in groups 1 and 2 is 24,4% and 24% respectively, which proves the reliability of obtained results. In the same time this index in group 3 is 29,2% which can be explained by the fact of using the virtual Edmodo classroom interactively: the only variable that distinguished instruction in group 3 from groups 1 and 2 was the application of electronic session tests, case-studies as home assignments after sessions 9-16 and 4 WebQuests suggested to students as alternatives for the case studies. Thus, the systematic application of the mentioned web-technologies in the virtual classroom can be considered an additional factor that promotes the development of would-be EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability. This conclusion is especially important for distant teacher training practiced by higher educational institutions as new educational reality due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Key words: inclusive classroom, would-be EFL teacher training, motivation and orientation aspects, customized course, virtual classroom.

ФАКТОРИ, ЩО ВПЛИВАЮТЬ НА ПСИХОЛОГІЧНУ ГОТОВНІСТЬ МАЙБУТНІХ УЧИТЕЛІВ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ ДО НАВЧАННЯ УЧНІВ З ІНВАЛІДНІСТЮ

Щерба Н. С.

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент,

доцент кафедри міжкультурної комунікації та прикладної лінгвістики Навчально-науковий інститут іноземної філології Житомирського державного університету імені Івана Франка Житомир, Україна

Метою дослідження є виявлення факторів, які сприяють формуванню в майбутніх учителів англійської мови (як іноземної) психологічної готовності до навчання учнів з інвалідністю в Україні. Відповідно до результатів проведеного аналізу наукових джерел, ставлення вчителів до педагогічної діяльності загалом залежить від таких факторів, як вчасна заробітна платня, неупереджене ставлення, прийнятна поведінка учнів, наявність учительської (кабінетів для персоналу), комфортні умови роботи, доступність навчальних ресурсів, невеликий розмір класів, невелика відстань до школи, можливість працювати з дітьми з вищих верств населення, а також автономія вчителя в підборі методів і форм роботи. Що стосується навчання учнів з інвалідністю, то, як уважає низка дослідників, ставлення до них учителів залежить від важкості та типу інвалідності, а також від наявності спеціальної попередньої психологопедагогічної підготовки.

Дослідження, проведене у 2018-2021 рр. в Житомирському державному університеті імені Івана Франка, яке залучило 96 студентів-магістрантів, дозволяє підтвердити висновок, що психологічна готовність майбутніх учителів до інклюзивного навчання учнів з інвалідністю безпосередньо залежить від проходження ними спеціалізованого курсу, що передбачає підготовку до вирішення проблемних ситуацій в інклюзивному класі. Різниця середньозважених показників дота післяекспериментального зрізів у групах 1 і 2 становила 24,4% та 24% відповідно, що свідчить про надійність отриманих результатів. Водночас різниця відповідних показників у групі 3 становила 29,2%, що можна пояснити додатковим інтерактивним використанням у ній віртуального навчального середовища Edmodo. Останнє було єдиною змінною, що відрізняла навчання у групі 3 від навчання в групах 1 і 2. Студенти виконувати електронні тести до кожного заняття, розв'язували кейси (як завдання для самостійної роботи до занять 9-16), а також мали виконати 4 вебквести, запропоновані як альтернатива до розв'язання окремих кейсів. Таким чином, регулярне використання зазначених вебтехнологій у віртуальному класі можна вважати додатковим фактором, що позитивно впливає на розвиток у майбутніх учителів психологічної готовності до навчання учнів з інвалідністю. такий висновок є особливо значущим для організації підготовки студентів в умовах дистанційної вищої освіти в період пандемії COVID-19.

Ключові слова: інклюзивний клас, підготовка майбутніх викладачів EFL, мотиваційні та орієнтаційні аспекти, індивідуальний курс, віртуальний клас.

teachers psychological readiness teaching learners disability

Introduction. As it is reasonably stated by J. Nyam & T. O. William-West [1], no school system can have higher achievement than the level of teachers' motivation. The latter definitely cannot be viewed as the only factor that affects learners' outcomes but its importance has been acknowledged both by psychologists and educationalists (A. Bishay, 1996; D. Alexander et al., 1994; E. S. Atkinson, 2000 etc.) [2; 3; 4]. Particularly crucial is it in the context of teaching learners with disability, as general educators are exposed to additional challenges connected to: individual limitations in children's academic performance and the resulted need for channeling their efforts to adjusting teaching approaches, strategies, methods, means and learning environment to learners' special educational needs (SEN); the need for overcoming the reluctance of other teachers, learners or their parents to accept educational inclusion as a normal school reality; psychological barriers that can be found in learners with disability etc.

As a literature analysis showed, there is a number of researches aimed at highlighting the factors that can motivate teachers for higher professional performance. These works are mentioned further in this article. Besides, a number of educationalists dedicated their studies to researching into the factors that promote teachers' acceptance of inclusive education. But in the same time no scientific works that would name and classify the factors developing would-be EFL teachers' psychological readiness for inclusion have been found. Thus, the topicality of singling out such factors is obvious as it can shed light on the peculiarities of correspondent pre-service teacher training.

The aim of this research was formulated as: to investigate into the factors that influence pre-service EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability in Ukraine.

According to N. Nyam and T. O. William-West [1], there is a number of psychological factors that can motivate teachers for staying in the profession and higher performance. The authors consider timely and regular salaries the key motivational factor. In the same time, according to N. Nawaz and H. Yasin [5], not only prompt salary (that is also viewed as a key factor) but unbiased appraisals, positive behavior of students, presence of staff rooms, friendly environment, availability of learning resources, small class size, less distance from the school, selecting upper class as target market and autonomy given to school teachers - all these factors play motivational role. Reversely, negative impact on their motivation is created by: low wages, low status in the society, lack of career advancement opportunities, high teacher-pupil ratio, poor work environment, inadequate fringe benefits, and irregular payment of salaries [6].

As for the reasons that make teachers resistant to accepting inclusive education, E.A. Kirillova & A.T. Faizrakhmanova [7] believe that these are connected to "the lack of systematic, complex psychology and pedagogical knowledge and technologies, special monitoring researches directly concerning the experience of inclusive education". According to the research by A. de Boer and A. Minnaert [8] only “training and experience with inclusive education and pupils' type of disability” can improve teachers' attitude. Thus, the integral factor that has a negative effect on teachers is their insufficient vocational training [7, c. 648]. Th.V. Sabella in the abstract to his PhD dissertation thesis keeps to the same point stating that teachers in El Salvador and Slovenia view training on disability and inclusion as the factor that determines their agreement to accept the latter [9]. A lack of resources, and materials become a barrier to inclusion.

According to the studies mentioned above, the key prerequisite for developing would-be teachers' psychological readiness to teaching learners with disability is customized training. To verify this statement and also to find out other factors that motivate students for accepting learners with disability in inclusive setting, an experiment was conducted in Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University, Foreign Philology Department, in 2018-2021. It embraced 96 would-be EFL teachers: 46 Master's degree day department students in March-May 2018-2019 (group 1), 12 Master's degree extramural department students in October-November 2019-2020 (group 2) and 38 Master's degree day department students in September-October 2020-2021 (group 3). All of them were assigned to experimental condition and supposed to study the course entitled “Foreign Language Education of Learners with Special Educational Needs”. It embraced 16 interactive workshops at the day department and 8 - at the extramural one. Students of the latter were supposed to study the rest of the material independently. The mode of learning was blended in all groups: all workshops were conducted by means of face-to-face interaction. Besides, all the session materials and a module test were provided in a virtual Edmodo classroom. Group 2 (extramural department students) were also supplied with course books (Щерба, 2019) if they preferred paper format to electronic one. Group 3 (day department students) were also supposed to do electronic session tests, solve cases and do WebQuests in their virtual Edmodo classroom as independent work.

All the workshops were aimed at developing students' psychological, theoretical and practical readiness for inclusive teaching learners with disability. The content of the course was selected on the premises of its effect on developing would-be teachers' readiness for inclusive instruction and also of its practical usability. Such methods as simulation, role-play, case-study, peer-mentoring etc. were used. The forms of work were mainly interactive: pair and small group activities were prioritized. All 3 groups were exposed to the same questionnaire prior to and after the course to define their initial and resulted levels of readiness. Table 1 above represents the first 3 questions of the questionnaire aimed to reveal motivation and orientation aspects of psychological readiness (columns 1-2) and the pre-experimental questionnaire application results in all groups (columns 3-5). Students were supposed to agree or disagree with statements using 5-point Likert Scale, whereby “1” meant “I disagree” and “5” - “I agree”. Average indices are provided above.

Table 2 demonstrates the effect that the teacher training course mentioned above had on the average indices of students' psychological readiness.

Comparing average psychological readiness indices from tables 1 and 2, a conclusion can be made that customized teacher training positively affects would-be teachers' psychological readiness for inclusive teaching of EFL learners with disability.

Conclusions. As figure 1 reveals, the difference in average preand post-experimental indices in groups 1 and 2 is 24,4% and 24% respectively which proves the reliability of obtained results. It has no significant difference which proves that studying a customized course aimed at developing would-be EFL teachers' ability to problem-solve in an inclusive classroom is a crucial factor in raising their correspondent psychological readiness. In the same time the same index in group 3 is 29,2% which is higher than in groups 1 and 2. It can be explained by the fact of using the virtual Edmodo classroom interactively: the only variable that distinguished instruction in group 3 from groups 1 and 2 was the application of electronic session tests, case-studies as home assignments after sessions 9-16 and 4 WebQuests suggested to students as alternatives for the case studies.

Thus, the regular use of case-studies, WebQuests and electronic tests in the virtual classroom is an additional factor that promotes the development of would-be EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability. This conclusion is especially important for distant learning mode of higher education that is a new educational reality due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Table 1

Pre-experimental investigation of pre-service EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability (a self-assessment questionnaire extract)

Table 2

Post-experimental research into pre-service EFL teachers' psychological readiness for teaching learners with disability (a self-assessment questionnaire extract)

Figure 1. The difference in preand post-experimental indices of would-be teachers' psychological readiness for inclusion

Bibliography

1. Nyam J., William-West, T.O. Teachers motivation: A Study of the Psychological and Social Factors. International Journal of Education and Research. 2014. № 2(2), Р. 1-8.

2. Bishay A. Teacher motivation and Job Satisfaction. Psychology Journal of Undergraduate Science. 1996. № 3. Р. 147-154.

3. Alexander D., Chant D., Cox B. What motivates people to become teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. 1994. № 19 (2). Р. 40-49.

4. Atkinson E. S. An investigation into the relationship between teacher motivation and pupil motivation. Educational Psychology. 2000. № 20. Р. 45-57.

5. Nawaz N. & Yasin H. Determinants of Motivation in Teachers: A Study of Private Secondary Schools Chain Networks in Bahawalpur. Journal of Education and Practice. 2015. № 6 (4). Р. 55-60.

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9. Sabella Th.V. Teachers' attitudes toward inclusion of children with disabilities in rural El Salvador : PhD Dissertation. Maryland, 2015. 261 p.

10. Щерба Н.С. Іншомовна освіта дітей з особливими потребами: 15 інтерактивних майстерень : навчальний посібник. Житомир : Бук Друк. 2019. 283 c.

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