Preschool teacher training in psychological and pedagogical support for children’s visual arts activities

Abstract

This article examines the training of preschool teachers in providing psychological and pedagogical support for children’s joint activities in visual arts. The relevance of the topic is grounded in the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education, which prioritizes social and communicative development. The achievement of educational outcomes is possible only through well-organized interaction among children, which requires teachers to possess competences in facilitation, assessment, and mediation. Visual arts activity traditionally holds a significant place in preschool pedagogy, serving not only as a means of aesthetic and creative development but also as an effective form of children's socialization. The article aims to theoretically justify the structure of teachers’ professional readiness for psychological-pedagogical support of children's joint visual arts activity and to analyze contemporary approaches to its development. The study is based on systemic, competence-based and activity-based approaches, which allow professional readiness to be considered chological and pedagogical support of joint activities’ and its role in fostering preschoolers’ communicative competence are explored. Three components of teachers’ professional readiness are highlighted: cognitive, operational–activity, and personal. The teacher's professional readiness for support is defined as an integrative formation that includes cognitive, operational-activity, and personal components, which together ensure the possibility of effectively organizing joint creativity. The essence of the concept of psychological-pedagogical support for children's joint visual activity is clarified as a purposeful process of creating an educational environment in which children have the opportunity to demonstrate initiative, learn to negotiate, make joint decisions, and cope with emerging conflicts. The main deficits in teacher training are identified, including the persistence of the itarian interaction style, insufficient practical training in facilitation and mediation, and a low level of pedagogical self-reflection. The article substantiates ways to improve teacher training, such as introduction of training modules and practice-oriented seminars, case analysis, facilitation methods, supervision, and the integration of international experience.