Inclusive Professional Competences: Assessment Paradigm of Pedagogical Community

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the issue of assessing the range of inclusive teacher competencies by the pedagogical community and their comparative significance for achieving the required learning results by students with disabilities. The paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at identifying the general and specific in assessing the importance of inclusive competencies of a teacher by various subjects of staffing the inclusive educational process at school. The study involved 983 pedagogical workers employed in mass and correctional schools, as well as in pedagogical universities. They were asked to assess the significance of a set of indicators of the competence of an inclusive teacher, obtained on the basis of an analysis of the texts of 59 approximate basic educational programs for the training of future specialists in the field of inclusion. The results of the study demonstrated that a holistic assessment paradigm has not been formed in the pedagogical community in relation to the inclusive competencies of a teacher, which is expressed in the divergence of the corresponding assessment positions of university teachers who train teachers, teachers of mass and special schools. This confirms the need for further development of the model of inclusive competence of a teacher, its empirical verification and subsequent implementation in educational programs of continuous teacher education in accordance with the rapidly changing conditions of professional activity of teachers in an inclusive school.