Readiness for Professional and Pedagogical Self-Development: Results Dynamics Among Students of Master's Programs in Pedagogy

Abstract

Elena V. Asafova, Oksana V. Vashetina

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to determine the dynamics of readiness for professional self-development among students of pedagogical Master’s programs during their training. It is due to the fact that professional self-development is considered as one of the goals of preparing a pedagogical magistracy graduate for subsequent pedagogical activity.
Methodology: As an empirical method, the authors used the diagnosis of partial readiness for professional and pedagogical self-development. It represents a self-assessment map of readiness for self-education activities. This technique allows to conduct a self-assessment of self-development skills formation according to the following components: motivational, cognitive, moral-volitional, gnostic, organizational, communicative, and the ability to self-government. A special feature of this diagnostic technique is the inverse correlation between a number of respondent’s self-assessment points and his/her readiness for professional self-development. The data obtained were processed using methods of mathematical statistics. Significance of differences was evaluated by Student's t-test (P≥0.95).
Results: The study indicates that the readiness for professional self-development among students of pedagogical Master’s programs increases during training. These changes occur in the motivational, moral-volitional and intellectual spheres of the graduate students and depend on the presence of teaching experience and teacher education.
Applications of this study: The dynamics of students’ readiness for professional and pedagogical self-development can be taken into account when updating educational Master's programs in pedagogy. Programs improvement can be done on the basis of expanding the possibilities of learning process individualization and identifying optimal conditions for the educational environment which ensure the formation of students' attitudes toward constant self-development.
Novelty/Originality of this study: The scientific novelty of this research lies in establishing the correlation between professional self-development of students during their obtaining pedagogical Master’s programs and presence/absence of their teaching experience.