Psychological characteristics of professional adaptation of novice teachers

Relevance of the research. The relevance of scientific analysis of the problem of adaptation of teachers in modern educational institutions during the pandemic is high, timely and necessary in the issue of development and application to this category of employees of special programs and technologies of adaptation, which would take into account all modern requirements and positive experience in the domestic and foreign field. This necessitates a previous comprehensive study of the phenomenon and the phenomena that cause it.

Aim of the study: to determine the features of psychological adaptation of novice teachers, the factors of its formation, to develop recommendations for the prevention of disadaptation of a young teacher.

Methods: theoretical methods: analysis, synthesis, systematization of theoretical data; empirical methods: observation, interview, testing; methods of mathematical and statistical data processing. In order to determine the features of psychological adaptation of teachers the following methods were used: questionnaire to assess the level of socio-psychological adaptation of a secondary school teacher (M. Dmitriev); a technique to assess professional disadaptation (M. Dmitriev); the method "Integral satisfaction with work" (A. Batarshev); test " Neuro-mental adaptation" (I. Gurvich).

Sample of the study: 60 teachers of secondary education institutions the city of Kharkiv.

Results and conclusions. The idea of socio-psychological adaptation of novice teachers has been deepened by clarifying the characteristics of differently adapted teachers. The notion of socio-psychological adaptation of teachers to professional activity has been expanded by comparing the refined characteristics of teachers' adaptation with different work experience. It was determined that the majority of teachers are divided into those with a pronounced and low level of socio-psychological adaptation. The factors of disadaptation of novice teachers have been established: emotional excitement, feeling of fatigue, violation of the sleep-wake cycle and decreased motivation for activity. The general tendency that is connected with the fact that the worse the state of mental health of the novice teacher, the worse is his adaptation to professional activity. It was found that the majority of teachers are satisfied with the work (and dissatisfied with its conditions), but among novice teachers, compared with other groups of teachers by length of experience, the highest percentage of dissatisfied teachers was revealed. A significant relationship between psychophysiological professional disadaptation and socio-psychological adaptation has been proved to be inverse and strong. The influence of socio- psychological factors on the manifestation of neuro-psychological adaptation was proved. It is proved that the length of service affects the socio-psychological and professional adaptation of teachers. A number of methodological recommendations to ensure the success of adaptation of novice teachers has been proposed.

Keywords: adaptation, socio-psychological adaptation, professional adaptation, disadaptation , stress, beginning teachers, teachers with experience.

Психологічні особливості професійної адаптації педагогів-початківців

Note: 1 - the group of teachers with work experience up to 5 years, 2 - the group with work experience of 5-15 years, group 3 - 15-30 years, group 4 - with work experience over 30 years

The distribution of teachers by level of experience (Fig. 2) allowed to evaluate and analyze the level of socio-psychological adaptation in each group, and further to compare these indicators. Thus, it was found that the majority of teachers with work experience from 5 to 15 years showed a low level of adaptation to professional activity (40%), indicating that even after 5 years of teaching in their lives are factors that lead to disadaptation . 25% of teachers with 5 to 15 years of experience have a high level of adaptation and 30% of teachers have a significant level, this indicates that under favorable working conditions, the teacher will adapt quite successfully and stay in this field of work, continuing to accumulate skills and abilities. This indicates that after the first 5 years of experience, the teacher already has the necessary tools to successfully overcome the problems that can accompany professional development. But still the majority of this group (40%) have problems with adaptation even with this length of experience.

Among teachers working experience from 15 to 30 years, the largest part has a significant level of adaptation (68.75% of teachers). The percentage of teachers with a low level of adaptation falls sharply, in contrast to teachers with up to 5 years of working experience and teachers with 5 to 15 years of working experience, and is 18.75%.

Among the teachers with more than 30 years of experience the dominance of teachers with high and significant levels of adaptation to professional activity (their representation in this group is 33.3%, respectively) was determined. There is a strong tendency towards increased disadaptation among this group of teachers, which can probably be explained by the onset of professional burnout and "anticipation" of retirement accompanied by an emotional outburst. It can be said that with so much experience, a teacher, on the contrary, may encounter a whole range of factors, some of which may not be among their colleagues with less working experience. The teaching profession, like all other fields, is constantly undergoing change, and the way a teacher worked at the beginning of his or her career and what tasks the educational system set for him or her can be dramatically different from the working conditions and factors that are in place now.

Therefore, there is a tendency of both improvement of adaptation indicators and increase of maladapted teachers under the influence of work experience (Blahoy R., 2021).

Fig. 3 - Representation of factors that prove to be maladaptive at different periods of a teacher's professional development (n = 60;%)

In the course of further analysis of the formation of adaptation the factors that can cause disadaptation in different periods of professional development of a teacher were identified (the list is given on the basis of the questionnaire proposed by N. Dmitrieva). According to N. Dmitrieva these factors include: attitude towards the educational institution, relations between teachers, satisfaction with working conditions, satisfaction with one's position in the team, attitude towards work, attitude towards students, attitude towards management and the team in general. The expressiveness of these factors indicates the sources of disadaptation . Analyzing the factors that affect adaptation in different periods of professional development of a teacher it was decided to use the distribution into three groups according to the level of negative attitude to the factor that leads to disadaptation , each factor has three levels of influence, the lower the score, the more expressive is the negative influence. Thus, from 0 to 3 points - defined as a high level of influence, from 4 to 8 - medium, from 9 to 12 - low level of influence. In Fig. 3 only the groups with a high level of influence, which were distributed by their experience and were presented as a percentage of the total number of teachers in their category of experience, because it reflects the ratio of teachers with a high influence on the adaptation of each factor from the total number of teachers with a certain category of experience.

Note: 1 - group of teachers with up to 5 years of experience, 2 - group with 5-15 years of experience, 3 - 15-30 years, 4 - experience more than 30 years; I - scale "Attitude towards educational institution", II - scale "Relations between teachers", III - scale "Satisfaction with working conditions", IV - scale "Satisfaction with their position in the team", V - scale "Attitude towards work", VII - scale "Attitude towards students", VII - scale "Attitude towards the management", VIII - scale "Attitude towards the collective", ІХ - scale of insincerity.

Distribution of factors according to their degree of influence on the adaptation of teachers to professional activity allows us to see that in the group of up to 5 years of experience the influential factors of disadaptation are satisfaction with working conditions and attitude towards students. The attitude to the students can be conditioned by the attitude of students to the teacher and their behavior in general.

Reasons for dissatisfaction with working environment can be as salary, lack of necessary tools to conduct classes, disruption of vacation and sick leaves, and overall workload. These factors indicate that novice teacher, after entering the profession, encounters a large number of students and student groups and teams who have varying levels of academic achievement in school and interest in learning. Also of great importance is the status of the teacher that is formed with the students. Students who respect the teacher are more likely to be more interested in listening to the lesson, being cooperative, and completing the teacher's assignments. It is worth noting that the factors of attitude towards students and satisfaction with working conditions are highly influential in all experience groups, which indicates the absence or low level of relationship between teaching experience and the maladaptive influence of these factors on teachers. This can be explained by the fact that educators with different years of teaching experience must constantly adapt to the changes that occur throughout the years of student teaching and to the changes associated with the emergence of new students, a new generation that is different from the previous one. The low level of adaptability in all groups of experience, indicates factors related to the specific nature of the work of the teacher. The need to process a large amount of information throughout the school year, this includes checking workbooks, preparing for new lessons, filling out lesson journals and other documentation, the need to organize or conduct school events, prepare students for Olympiads and other events. Lowered attitude towards the team and the head at the beginning of a teaching career is partly due to lack of experience in this area, and the need to enter a new, often already formed team of teachers, although it should be noted that these factors have many nuances and can be a cause of disadaptation even for teachers with experience. But with time and experience these factors either partially or completely stop influencing the adaptation of the teacher.

Analysis of the results showed that the most favorable factors for adaptation in the studied sample can be called the relationship between teachers, satisfaction with their position in the team and attitude towards the work at all stages of professional development. A long working experience and constant improvement of the teacher's skills increases his or her importance as a professional and allows him or her to fully convey the necessary knowledge to the students. In addition, with years of work in the team of teachers, status and authority increase, relations between teachers become more open, and the support and help of colleagues strengthens professional relationships in the team.

The results of the group of teachers with 30 years of experience attract attention, namely, that one-third of this group showed that almost all of the studied factors become stressors and annoyances for them. These interesting results require further empirical research.

So, it was determined that the most disharmonious at the beginning of professional formation are the factors of satisfaction with working conditions and attitude towards students, the first of which does not lose its influence throughout the entire professional path.

At stage IV of empirical research the level of psychophysiological professional disadaptation of teachers was analyzed. During the formation of a specialist there are certain dynamic changes that have both positive (for example: adaptation) and negative features (such as disadaptation ). A number of factors can trigger these dynamic changes, such as a change of workplace, a transfer to another position, a change in training technology, a change in needs, and the like. These influences may differ in duration, intensity and strength. Disadaptation manifestations should include: decreased productivity, interest, violation of discipline (these are psychological manifestations), as well as deterioration of health, mood, decreased activity, increased anxiety and fatigue (these are physiological manifestations). In the context of studying the chosen topic, it is appropriate to pay attention to the level of psychophysiological professional disadaptation (PPD) already at the first stages of the novice teacher and determine the features of its manifestations (for example, given in the methodology of N. Dmitrieva). The results of this diagnostics are presented in Fig. 4-5.

Fig. 4 - Representation of the levels of psychophysiological professional disadaptation of teachers depending on the length of working experience in an educational institution (n = 60;%) Note: 1 - group of teachers with up to 5 years of experience, 2 - group with 5-15 years of experience, 3 - 15-30 years, 4 - more than 30 years of experience

The data obtained suggest a significant predominance of low (38.89%) and moderate (33.3%) levels of PPD among novice teachers.

Teachers with 5 to 30 years of experience were more likely to have a moderate level of PPD.

And teachers with 30+ years of experience evenly covered as many as three levels, from low- to pronounced PPD.

We also note that the number of persons with a high level of psychophysiological professional disadaptation with the acquisition of experience, and, accordingly, a certain experience, decreases; but with pronounced disadaptation, on the contrary, increases over time.

Fig. 5 - Representation of manifestations of psychophysiological professional disadaptation of teachers in different periods of professional development of a teacher (n = 60;%)

Note: 1 - group of teachers with up to 5 years of experience, 2 - group with 5-15 years of experience, 3 - 15-30 years, 4 - experience more than 30 years; I - "Emotional Disturbance" scale, II - "Deterioration of Individual Mental Processes" scale, III - "Reduction in General Activity" scale, IV - "Feeling of Fatigue" scale, V - "Somato-vegetative Disorders" scale, VI - " Sleep-Wake Cycle Disorder" scale, VII - "Social Interaction Features" scale, VIII - "Decreased Motivation to Activity" scale

During the analysis of the representation of manifestations of psychophysiological professional disadaptation of teachers in different periods of professional development of a teacher, it was decided to use the distribution into three groups according to the level of disadaptation impact, each factor has three levels of impact, the lower the score, the more expressive is the negative impact. Thus, from 0 to 3 points - was considered as a high level of influence, from 4 to 8 - medium, from 9 to 12 - low. Fig. 5 shows only the results of respondents with a high level of individual demonstrations of psychophysiological professional disadaptation of teachers.

So, novice teachers are dominated by such negative manifestations as emotional excitement, feeling of fatigue, violation of the sleep-wake cycle, reduced motivation for activity, which indicates a large workload of novice teachers, and their state of adaptation in the first years of work.

Over time, as the results of the group with 5-15 years of experience show, the state on the factors of emotional excitement, feeling of fatigue, sleep-wake cycle and decrease in motivation to activity improves and leads to successful adaptation after 5 years of teacher work on these factors, although sleep-wake cycle violation still takes place in professional adaptation of the teacher. It should also be noted that compared to novice teachers, teachers with 5 to 15 years of experience have a higher index in the factor of decrease in total activity.

The group with 15 to 30 years of experience shows a decrease in the negative manifestation of sleep-wake cycle disorder, features of social interaction and a decrease in overall activity compared with the previous two groups. Which indicates a further improvement in adaptation to these factors in teachers after 15 years of work in education. But the indicators of the feeling of fatigue and emotional excitement increases compared to the previous groups.

In the group with 30 years or more of experience, we can see low, compared to other groups, indicators of emotional excitement, the sleep-wake cycle, features of social interaction and reduced motivation for activity. High levels have indicators of deterioration of individual mental processes, decreased general activity and somato-vegetative disorders. Compared to other groups, these factors indicate better professional adaptation than in other groups, but unfavorable course of other processes in the mental state of the teacher with 30 years of experience.

In general, we note that such factors as emotional anxiety, sleep- wake cycle disorder, peculiarities of social interaction and decrease of motivation to activity show a tendency to decrease their influence on teachers' adaptation, and such factors as deterioration of certain mental processes, decrease of general activity, feeling of fatigue and somato-vegetative disorders, on the contrary, with the experience only gain their influence. The explanation for the first tendency is the acquisition of professional competences, and for the second one - deterioration of the general physical state of health (somato- vegetative disorders) and reduction of endurance.

V stage - organization and carrying out the study of the state of neuro-mental health of teachers. Identification of the level of neuromental adaptation of teachers to professional activity was carried out by establishing the level of mental health through the presence and expressiveness of some psychiatric symptoms in the representatives of the studied sample. The results of the researched can be arranged on a multidimensional adaptation scale, the extreme categories of which are absolute (ideal) neuro-mental health and probable morbid neuro-mental state. An in-depth analysis of responses can help elucidate the nature of deviations (socially or personally determined factors). The results of the study of the neuro-mental adaptation of teachers are presented in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 - Distribution of teachers by state of mental health (n = 60;%)

Note: 1 - group of teachers with up to 5 years of experience, 2 - group with 5-15 years of experience, 3 - 15-30 years, 4 - experience over 30 years; I - healthy, II * - almost healthy with favorableprognostic signs; III * * * - almost healthy with unfavorable prognostic signs, IV - mild form of deviation, V - obvious pathology.

The state of mental health of teachers and the absence or presence of problems with it, is a characteristic that allows us to talk about their socio-psychological adaptation from the side of their own psychological personalities. For example, among the teachers with up to 5 years of experience one teacher (5.55%) has obvious pathology, which can be a weighty factor to understand the presence of problems with psychophysiological level and the presence of a high level of social and psychological disadaptation for this teacher. It is worth noting that a significant impact which takes effect on the mental health of teachers is social, political, economic and, very relevant at this period of time, the epidemiological situation in Ukraine. The need for many institutions to switch to distance learning has led to a number of new working conditions and the emergence of a large number of changes in the very process of teaching students. The lack of contact of teachers as it is in the educational institution and the same lack of contact as in the classroom with students leads to a partial isolation of the teacher from the usual and understandable process of learning in the educational institution. Most often, among all suggested questions in the group of examinees with up to 5 years of experience, the following characteristics of conditions were chosen: 1) Insomnia, sleep disturbance; 2) Rapid fatigue, feeling of tiredness; 3) Fears about the possible development of serious illness; 4) Decreased, bad or depressed mood; 5) Indifference to everything around. The fact that these questions were most often chosen indicates unfavorable factors for successful adaptation of sleep and fatigue, one of the root causes of which could be quarantine conditions and the presence of the epidemic in general. This is also very clearly indicated by educators' fears about the development of a severe illness, which COVID-19 disease might be and the further development and complication of the disease. Indifference to everything around and a lowered or depressed mood indicates that while being in a constant state of stress a teacher spends a lot of energy to maintain her/his condition, and falls into a state of apathy to the constant news that comes about the epidemiological situation and other unfavorable news of the social sphere of life of a teacher, which have an impact directly on him/her and his/her surroundings. Teachers with up to 5 years of experience and with a state of mental health in the category "healthy" was 16.67%, among this category the following statements about their mental health were most often selected: 1) Fears about the possible development of serious illness; 2) Insomnia, sleep disorders; 3) Mood changes without apparent reason.

The presence of the same statements in the groups with low and high levels of mental health further draws attention to the epidemiological factor that is added to the range of factors that teachers encounter in the early stage of professional adaptation. In each group with different teaching experience, similar statements were selected among those who had the "healthy" and "nearly healthy with favorable prognostic signs" categories. These were: 1) Insomnia, sleep disorder; 2) Mood changes for no apparent reason; 3) Rapid fatigue, feeling of tiredness; 4) Fear of developing severe illness.

Among the categories "Almost healthy with unfavorable prognostic signs", " Light form of deviations", "Obvious pathology", the following statements were chosen most often: 1) Insomnia, sleep disturbance; 2) Mood changes for no apparent reason; 3) Rapid fatigability, feeling of tiredness; 4) Fear of being alone in a room or on the street; 5) Lowered, bad or depressed mood; 6) Indifference to everything around; 7) Fear of developing a serious illness.

Thus, during the study of neuro-mental adaptation of teachers to professional activity by assessing the level of their mental health, the following was found:

- there is a distribution of the sample according to the law of normal distribution among all groups in terms of length of service;

- in all groups in terms of length of working experience the vast majority have almost healthy teachers with unfavorable prognostic signs;

- the state of the teacher's mental health, and through it the neuro-mental adaptation to professional activity is influenced by social factors, in particular in Ukraine continues for a long time anti - terrorist operation, worsening epidemiological situation, increased morbidity and mortality, imposed preventive measures on vaccination.

Fig. 7 - Representation of the levels of teachers' work satisfaction depending on the length of experience in the educational institution (n = 60;%)

Note: 1 - group of teachers with up to 5 years of experience, 2 - group with 5-15 years of experience, 3 - 15-30 years, 4 - more than 30 years of experience

Among the teachers with up to 5 years of experience with a low level is represented by 38.89% of teachers. Compared to the groups of 5-15 years of experience (20%); 15-30 years of experience (37.5%); 30+ years of experience (16.67%), beginning teachers show the lowest level of job satisfaction. Work dissatisfaction is manifested in disinterest in the processes taking place in the school, unsatisfactory working conditions, team, leadership and students. Then with a small difference follow teachers with 15 to 30 years of experience, indicating the presence of factors that affect not only novice teachers. Among teachers with a high level of work satisfaction, we can identify teachers with 30 years of experience (83.33%), which is an indicator of improvement in the situation with work satisfaction. A high level of satisfaction may be a manifestation of an even and coherent work process for teachers with a long experience, with their professionalism and extensive experience in the work team of pedagogical institutions.

At the 4th stage of the empirical research the profiles of differently adapted novice teachers were compared. At this stage of the analysis and interpretation of the empirical data obtained, first of all, the specifics of the relationship between the level of socio- psychological adaptability and the factors that affect the adaptation of novice teachers were identified. Conducting an analysis of the factors that affect teacher adaptation it was decided to use the distribution into three groups according to the level of influence of the factor that leads to disadaptation, each factor has only three levels of influence, the lower the score, the more expressive is the influence. Thus, from 0 to 3 points - high level of influence, from 4 to 8 - medium, from 9 to 12 - low. Fig. 8 shows only the results of respondents with a strongly pronounced influence, which were distributed according to a certain level of socio-psychological adaptation and were presented as a percentage of the total number of novice teachers. Already by the logic of the diagnostic methodology it is clear that the studied factors cause the formation of a low level of adaptation and disadaptation. The most influential were such factors as attitude to the educational institution, satisfaction with working conditions, and attitude towards students. A low indicator of attitude toward students reflects the presence of problems among novice teachers with finding contact with students, perhaps with the ability to gain authority and the ability to manage the class and students.

Fig. 8 - Representation of factors influencing the adaptation of novice teachers (n = 18;%)

Note: H (high) - high level of adaptation, A (average) - average, L (low) - low, D (disadaptation) - disadapted; I - scale "Attitude towards educational institution", II - scale "Relationship between teachers", III - scale "Satisfaction with working conditions", IV - scale "Satisfaction with own position in the team", V - scale "Attitude towards work", VII - scale "Attitude towards students", VII - scale "Attitude towards the management", VIII - scale "Attitude towards the collective", ІХ - scale of insincerity.

The presence of these problems may be a consequence of lack of experience or a low level of necessary knowledge in psychology and educational theory. The presence of a low level of satisfaction with working conditions suggests that a novice teacher getting into a new place of work and having a certain idea about the conditions of this work may, in the absence of previous experience in this area, be disadapted.

Also, these teachers were found to have insufficient sincerity when answering questions, which may be due to high anxiety, low self-esteem, which in turn influenced other results.

It was found that only one disadaptive factor manifested itself in the group of novice teachers with an average level of disadaptation is - dissatisfaction with working conditions.

Table 1Characteristics of manifestation of psychophysiological professional disadaptation ( PFPD) among novice teachers with