Reflection as a condition of forming future teachers’ psychological competence

The article deals with the problem of examining psychological competence and reflection among students studying at teacher training universities. The authors define psychological competence as a complex of psychological knowledge, psychological skills, and social and psychological personal characteristics. According to the authors, studying psychological disciplines at universities enables the development of students’ reflection. Reflection is regarded as a human activity directed at understanding people’s actions, inner conditions, feelings, emotions, analysing them and drawing related conclusions. This paper presents the reflexive practice of students during their Psychology classes at Vologda state university. We examined and analysed the responses of third-year students getting “Pedagogical education” at different faculties. The conducted research allows us to conclude that reflexive activity is one of the most important conditions of forming students’ psychological competence. Reflexive skills are a systematic factor in professional training of future teachers in the field of psychology.