A chatbot has been created at the faculty of PPiSO to prevent burnout among young teachers
The teaching profession has a number of specific characteristics, one of them is constant interaction with children. Representatives of this specialty, built according to the "man–to-man" scheme, are much more stressed. According to the results of a survey presented in the TASS article, teachers topped the top of the most "stressful professions", overtaking call center operators, taxi drivers and doctors.
Being subjected to constant stress, teachers run the risk of experiencing emotional burnout, and it entails negative consequences for both physical and mental health. To prevent such phenomena, 4th year students of the Faculty of Psychological, Pedagogical and Special Education Valeria Reprintseva, Alena Galkina and Alina Mirzoyan created a chatbot for the psychological prevention of professional burnout among young teachers. They are developing their project under the guidance of three specialists at once – the head of the Department of Social Psychology of Education and Development Rail Shamionov, professor of the same department Tatyana Belykh and associate professor of the Department of Educational Psychology and Psychodiagnostics Ivan Malyshev. In addition, the students are helped by novice IT specialists, students of the Faculty of KNIIT of Saratov University.
The project "Creating a chatbot for the psychological prevention of professional burnout of young teachers" is being developed within the framework of the federal program "Startup as a diploma".
The idea of the project, according to Valeria Reprintseva, is inspired by modern trends that occur in educational institutions. The fact is that young teachers, after working at school for 3-5 years, leave the profession. And this is due to the physical and emotional exhaustion that occurs against the background of prolonged work with people. In most cases, the teacher's working time goes beyond the lessons at school. Due to the development of technology, the teacher has literally lost his personal space, because parents can contact him in messengers and on social networks at any time.
"We decided to create a chatbot that will work in the Telegram messenger. Its main goal is to prevent professional burnout among young teachers. The chatbot first diagnoses the user's condition, and then, depending on the result, gives recommendations that will help him change his well-being," Valeria shared.
A chatbot is an automatic system for communicating with users that works based on algorithms. If you imagine this system, then it is an activator in the form of the "/start" command and programmed messages. To start communicating with a "virtual psychologist", you need to say hello, tell your name and tell about your well-being. To conduct an express diagnosis, the bot will offer to take a small test, and based on its results, it will make specific recommendations.
We can say that the chatbot has every chance to become a "first aid" for teachers faced with burnout. Following the recommendations generated by the "virtual psychologist" will help alleviate the condition or even cope with emotional stress.
The concept of a chatbot project for young teachers has already proven itself at the All-Russian Acceleration Program. The students won the nomination "Medicine and Healthcare" and were awarded a diploma from the R&D Accelerator organized by the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Recall that Saratov University participates in the federal program "Startup as a diploma". This year, as part of this program, students, together with their academic supervisors, will present 8 startup projects as graduation papers.
Aelita Ponomaryova, the photos from the interviewees’ archives
Translated by Lyudmila Yefremova
