RESEARCH ACTIVITY AS A MEANS OF FORMING SOCIAL SKILLS OF FUTURE SPECIALISTS SPECIAL EDUCATION

DOI : https://doi.org/10.51706/2707-3076-2025-12-8

Abstract

The modern labor market requires higher education specialists to possess not only professional but also social skills, as they are a prerequisite for full mastery of the specialty and integration into the professional environment. This is also relevant for special education specialists, who in their activities must form life competencies in students with special educational needs. The implementation of such tasks directly depends on the formation of social skills among SEN teachers that underlie the management of their own resources, positive communication, control of emotional and volitional state, behavior, etc. The development of social skills among higher education students is ensured by various ways and means, one of which is research activity. It contributes to the formation of such important life skills in future SEN teachers as: planning activities; independence; self-development; meeting deadlines; defending one's own interests and judgment; teamwork; partnership; communication; quick search for information; responsibility, etc. A study of higher education students' understanding of the significance of social skills for their profession and the place of research activity in it showed that respondents understand its role for their own development and professional growth. However, respondents still separate research from educational activities, do not fully understand their relationship and the integration of the research component into the educational process. The conditions for implementing the possibilities of research activities in the formation of social skills of future SEN teachers have been determined, in particular: the orientation of research activities on Soft skills, which are necessary for a special education specialist for his own development and the formation of life competencies of children with special educational needs, in particular; the correspondence of its content to the research and creative activities of special education specialists; the integration of the research component into the educational process; the formation of positive motivation of higher education students for cross-disciplinary research activities; taking into account the scientific and pedagogical interests of higher education students and the level of development of their social skills in order to form an individual educational and scientific trajectory; modernization of the forms of organization of research activities of higher education students with an emphasis on activity, independence and practice-orientation.