The Relationship Between Pedagogical Thinking and Personal Characteristics of Teachers

The article generalizes the findings of a long-term research that identifies the relationship of pedagogical thinking and personal characteristics of teachers. The study is based on a theoretical generalization of empirical data gathered via the use of psychodiagnostic procedures, including ones that were devised by the author and passed psychometric testing. For the first time, the article provides an overview of 16 PhD research works targeted at identifying the features of pedagogical thinking at all levels of education, including preschool, school, higher, postgraduate, and continuing education. The research focuses on the issues of psychological mechanisms and patterns that interlink a teacher’s personal characteristics and the features of pedagogical thinking. It is demonstrated that the move from the situational to the supersituational level of problem solving is the primary psychological mechanism for the professionali  zation of pedagogical thinking. This benefits not just the teacher’s performance but also their development. The emergence of new personal formations leads to the alignment of the teacher’s professional and personal growth and raises their degree of thinking resourcefulness. The research enables the development of this concept as a system of generalized empirical results presented as a collection of theoretical ideas about the professionalization of teachers’ thinking, which is necessary to enhance the educational process.