Abstract:

Problem Statement:
The term "happiness" is defined by many scientific disciplines, we can find it in philosophical, theological, sociological, psychological and pedagogical dictionaries and this is definitely the term of borderline science. In each of these disciplines happiness is defined a little differently, but a happy man is always in the center. In the teaching profession, satisfaction is a prerequisite for the success of educational and therapeutic activities. The "happy" teacher is more effective and achieves greater successes than the "unhappy" teacher [1]. The sense of happiness is treated as extra (non)-professional personal competence which a certain person studying education can already have or can discover and develop them by volunteering [2; 3]. The sense of happiness seems to be an important resource for special educators, therefore it is worthy to examine its level in students of special education specialization.

Purpose of Study:
The aim of the research is to determine the level of the subjective sense of happiness of students with voluntary experience and without voluntary experience in the last year of undergraduate and graduate studies of special education specialization.
The main research question is: Is there any relationship between the subjective sense of happiness and the voluntary activity of students completing undergaduate and graduate studies in the field of special education?
The following hypothesis is formulated: It is assumed that students undertaking volunteering are characterized by a higher level of subjective sense of happiness than students without experience of volunteering.

Methods:
Two surveys were used in the study:
- The Scale of Subjective Happiness (SHS) by S. Lyubomirsky (translated by A. Gop) [4].,
- "Volunteering" survey by B. Kosewska.
A total of 373 students were enrolled in the study.

Results of the Study:
It turns out that a group of undergraduate and graduate volunteers students declared a higher level of subjective sense of happiness than a group of undergraduate and graduate students without experience of volunteering. The obtained material shows that long-term volunteering students were characterized by a higher level of subjective happiness compared to short-term volunteering students. Empirical evidence confirms that volunteering allows students to describe themselves as happy person.

Conclusion:
The experience of volunteering can be one of the way to develop a subjective sense of happiness of future teachers.

References:
[1] A. Porczyńska - Ciszewska, Personality traits and experiencing happiness and sense of life. Katowice: Publisher of the University of Silesia, 2013.
[2] A. Kanios, Social competences of students to work in volunteering. Lublin: Publisher of the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, 2010.
[3] K. Krzyczkowski, Stowarzyszenie Centrum Wolontariatu. Volunteering. Step to career, 2011. Accessed 02 January, 2019. Retrieved from http://wsm.warszawa.pl/dokumenty_do_pobrania/26_11_11/prezentacja_karol_krzyczkowski.pdf
[4] A. Gop, "Silhouette of a special pedagogue - correlation studies of special pedagogy students," Special School, no. 2, pp. 96-105, 2013.

Keywords:

Student, teacher, special education, extra-professional competences, subjective sense of happiness, volunteerism.