Deficits in Professional Competencies among Future General Education and Special Education Teachers (Exemplified by Work with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders)

Introduction. Under the conditions of extrapolating inclusive practices into mainstream schooling, a contradiction 
emerges between the requirements of the professional standard for educators and the actual level of competency 
formation among graduates of pedagogical programs. The aim of the study is to substantiate the necessity of modernizing 
the core professional educational curricula through the inclusion of an inclusive education module, based on an analysis 
of the readiness of future teachers in the natural sciences and humanities to implement correctional and developmental 
tasks, as exemplified by work with children with autism spectrum disorders (hereinafter – ASD).
Materials and Methods. The sample comprised 327 respondents (127 future special education teachers and 200 future 
general education teachers in the natural sciences and humanities cycles). The diagnostic instrumentation included an 
author-developed questionnaire by I.A. Nigmatullina. Statistical data processing was performed using Fisher’s φ*-criterion 
and Student’s t-criterion.
KEYWORDS
Results. A statistically significant disparity was identified between self-assessed readiness for interaction among special 
education students (61%) and future general education teachers (22%). Concurrently, a general deficit of knowledge 
regarding contemporary correctional technologies was documented – no more than 46% of respondents were informed 
about them. The novelty of the study lies in substantiating the hypothesis that theoretical preparation on ASD issues does 
not correlate with the presence of practical skills among students, which indicates the necessity of systemic modifications 
to the curricula through the introduction of a “universal” inclusive education module.
Conclusion. For the first time on a representative sample, a comparative analysis of competencies among students in 
cognate profiles has been conducted, confirming the disciplinary fragmentation in the instruction of inclusive aspects 
and substantiating the ineffectiveness of a discrete approach to the formation of readiness to work with children with 
disabilities, including those with ASD.
The expediency of introducing a unified inclusive education module into the invariant component of the curricula across all 
pedagogical programs is substantiated. The theoretical significance lies in the refinement of the structure of professional 
deficits among future educators.