Assessment of the readiness of university and college professors to apply innovative technologies

The article contains the results of the research on the acute problem of the development of teachers' readiness for the application of innovative technologies as an important aspect of innovative readiness in the conditions of the socio-psychological climate of academic staff of higher educational institutions. The main goal of the study is to assess readiness of a professor to apply innovative technologies in the context of the socio-psychological climate of academic staff of higher educational institutions. In the process of research, a set of methods that enrich and supplement each other was used, including mathematical and statistical methods for processing data. The psychodiagnostic toolkit included 15 methods, including those developed by the author. The respondents were university and college professors of nine higher educational institutions of Russia. The conducted research made it possible to identify the existence of a favorable socio-psychological climate amidst the faculty members of higher educational institutions, which creates opportunity, in conditions of active interaction and the atmosphere of creative search, to develop readiness for the acquirement, introduction of innovations in the educational process of the university, as well as a different level of innovative readiness of the academic staff i.e. internal readiness to introduce innovative technologies (the need for self-expression, self-fulfillment, self-actualization, novelty, risk, overcoming routine, a sense of one's own willingness to participate in innovation processes), the presence of obstacles in the process of introducing and disseminating innovative technologies. The study of the internal readiness of pedagogical collectives for innovation, the degree of predominance of innovators, leaders in the departments of the university, psychological barriers in innovation, the influence of innovative technologies on the quality of educational activity made it possible to reveal high, normal, optimal levels of innovative readiness of the professors. In the situation of the elevated uncertainty in the system of higher professional education, the problem of the readiness of the teacher of higher education to apply innovative technologies in the context of optimizing the socio-psychological climate of the faculty members acquires special significance and urgency, since it is the main and necessary factor in the development of the innovative potential of the contemporary educational institutions. The results of the research presented in this article testify to the need for further research and scientific developments in the field of educational psychology.