METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCIES OF STUDENTS IN THE FIELD OF “SPECIAL EDUCATION”

Abstract

For a young specialist in the field of special education, the level of communicative competencies plays a significant role in the context of socialization, as it is crucial for successful adaptation in the professional sphere and active engagement in the social environment. Professional communication for an educator working with children with special educational needs requires proficiency in scientific terminology from pedagogy and medicine for interaction with colleagues, practical conversational skills for everyday communication with patients and their parents or guardians, and business language for maintaining documentation, among other tasks. A separateare a of communication involves interaction and corrective activities with children with special educational needs, including the ability to use both linguistic and extralinguistic means of communication. These tasks are addressed through the “Professional Ukrainian Language” course, which is taught to students in the “Special Education” field (code 016) with a workload of 3 ECTS credits (90 hours). Purposeful development of communicative competencies allows students to achieve high-quality learning outcomes, enhances their independence, and fosters personal qualities such as goal orientation, responsibility, and a commitment to improvement and professionalism. To develop the communicative competencies of students, universal strategies are used (such as stimulating cognitive activity, promoting communication, strategies for communication in the scientific field, and strategies for reflection) along with active methods: group discussion, game-based methods (educational, business, and roleplaying games), organizing discussions and debates to develop the ability to argue one’s position, applying the case method to analyze communicative situations, and project-based learning, which helps build teamwork skills and encourages tolerance towards social and cultural differences. Traditional and interactive methods are also employed, including work with dictionaries, scientific texts, drafting business documentation, and more.