PROFESSIONAL ADAPTATION OF A PRESCHOOL TEACHER

Abstract

The article addresses the current challenges facing preschool education in today’s context, focusing on the professional adaptation process of young specialists, particularly educators, to the realities of pedagogical work within preschool education institutions (PEIs). The author explores the concept of «professional adaptation» through the lens of modern psychological and pedagogical literature, where it is presented as a holistic process of integrating a professional into the work environment. This process involves the acquisition of essential knowledge, skills, norms, and values required for effective professional performance. The paper emphasizes the multidimensional nature of professional adaptation, which encompasses both technical and social-psychological aspects. The structural components of adaptation are outlined, including organizational, social-psychological, functional-professional, normative-legal, personal, psychological, professional-competency-based, and value-semantic levels. The author also describes the stages of professional-pedagogical adaptation: from pre-professional preparation to inclusion in the process of continuous professional development and creativity. The article identifies the internal and external levels of an educator’s adaptation, covering integration into the professional environment as well as profound personal transformations associated with professional identity formation. Particular attention is given to individual psychological factors that influence the adaptation process, such as the motivational core of the personality, typological characteristics of the nervous system, and socio-demographic traits. The author highlights the complexity and multifactorial nature of the adaptation process, its dynamism, duration, and necessity for the successful professional formation of a preschool educator. Thus, the professional adaptation of a young educator is considered a crucial prerequisite for effective functioning within the preschool education system, as well as a process that determines further professional development, stability, and the quality of pedagogical activity amid the transformations of contemporary society.