Healthy lifestyle prioritizing advanced education service for teenage population

ˑ: 

A.N. Alenova1
Dr. Hab., PhD, Associate Professor V.G. Shubovich1
PhD, Associate Professor I.O. Petrishchev1
1Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University n.a. I.N. Ulyanov, Ulyanovsk

Keywords: health, healthy lifestyle, advanced education, motivational environment, healthy lifestyle motivations, physical self-perfection.

Background. Presently the national advanced educational system gives a special priority to the projects to encourage healthy lifestyle and world outlooks in youth communities for successful vocational careers and happy lives in adulthood [3, 5]. The primary advanced educational systems are generally driven by a reasonable versatility principle that implies the education models being customizable to the individual needs, progress challenges, vocational identifications etc.

The modern education theory and practices in this context have always emphasized the important role playable (in the above services on the whole and the healthy lifestyle cultivating services in particular) by different sports centers, groups, youth creativity encouragement projects, technology parks, dance clubs etc. [8, 9]. Modern children/ youth advanced education models imply an efficient cooperation with the relevant high education establishments, businesses, research centers, industries, shops etc. [2, 4].

Objective of the study was to test benefits of the new healthy lifestyle cultivation/ motivation advanced education model for teenagers.

Methods and design of the study. One of such advanced education services is being offered by the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University’s Small Children’s Academy which core mission is to facilitate the vocational identification and special training of children and youth. The Small Children’s Academy offers a wide range of physical education and sports, health, technology, humanities, social, economic and natural science education curricula customizable to the practical needs of every child. Moreover, the children are free to attend optional courses during an academic year, combine and change them on the run.

Increasingly popular are the special education and health services offered by the Small Children’s Academy Summer and Winter Schools with their health improvement, vocational training, leisure time and peer communication encouragement components supported by the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University policies, with a range of special advanced education programs having different missions. The Summer School offers a particularly wide range of such cultural and health services including active games, swimming practices in the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University pools, thematic quests, trainings, competitions etc.

A special theoretical analysis was made to identify the priority aspects of the healthy lifestyle cultivation models for teenagers including: healthy diets, physical education and sport practices, hygienic education, healthy daily regimen, tolerance to addictions and bad habits, positive thinking developing (including mental stress tolerance) etc. elements [1,6,7].

The study was run at the advanced education courses for teenagers at I.N. Ulyanov State Pedagogical University’ Small Children Academy in 2017-18, with the 12-15 year-old students (n=46) of the latter sampled for the study. Prior to the new education model testing experiment, the sample was tested to rate its healthy lifestyle motivations using the relevant test toolkit and a questionnaire survey form of our own design. The healthy lifestyle agendas were tested and rated by the S.S. Bubnov Actual Personality Values Profiling Test. Regretfully, the pre-experimental tests found the sample ranking health far below its top-ten values. The healthy lifestyle driving values and priorities were also tested by the L.G. Kachan ‘Your Lifestyle’ test. On the whole, the pre-experimental tests rated 29%, 49% and 22% of the sample with the high-, mean- and low-developed healthy lifestyle, respectively – that means that the teenage sample was initially found poorly competent in and devoted to healthy lifestyle.

The theoretical healthy lifestyle knowledge was tested by a Healthy Lifestyle Knowledge Test of our own design. The sample was found poorly competent in the healthy-lifestyle-related issues. Thus the pre-experimental tests found only 53% of the sample aware of benefits of a healthy daily regimen; only 35% could mention a few health risks; 46% was found to know the key hygienic rules; and only 25% could answer the questions on the health risks of bad habits.

Study findings and discussion. Based on the findings of the pre-experimental tests, we developed and tested the new healthy lifestyle cultivation/ and motivation advanced education model for teenagers. Objective of the model was to form positive attitudes to the physical education and sport service, prevent bad habits and cultivate healthy lifestyle in teenagers.

First module of the program was designed to develop the healthy lifestyle motivations and values in the sample, with a special priority given (knowing the natural age-specific trust to TV, advertisements and mass media contents) to the historical, documental and research films about the professional sport celebrities, competitions, great accomplishments of the human physical activity, win spirit, willpower and hard work behind the success stories.

Second module of the new program was designed to support the healthy lifestyle cultivation agenda with due knowledge and cognitive culture. This module gives a basic knowledge of the modern hygienic rules and standards (by lectures of health specialists entitled “Keeping cleanness and right body care for beauty, health and confidence”); healthy diets (“Healthy diet key for health” materials); healthy daily regimen (with a set of exercises “For Healthy Vision”); physical training 1min breaks to mitigate the intellectual stresses in studies; healthy daily regimen design master classes; bad habits/ addictions prevention course (dialogues “On Prevention of Bad Habits”; videos on the health risks of alcohol, tobacco and drugs; discussion of the issue “Are bad habits still in fashion or not?” etc.).

The post-experimental tests showed benefits of the new healthy lifestyle cultivation and motivation advanced education model for teenagers as verified by the sample progress in tests of the healthy-lifestyle-related competences.

Conclusion. The advanced education system versus the general one offers a variety of benefits, particularly in the values-and-motivations building domain and the education toolkits customizable to the age-, mentality- and physicality-specific needs of the teenagers – to efficiently and effectively encourage and maintain their interest in modern healthy lifestyle.

References

  1. Barinova A.N. Pedagogicheskie aspekty profilaktiki vrednykh privychek u yunoshey [Educational aspects of prevention of bad habits in young men]. PhD diss.. Vladimir, 2006, 258 p.
  2. Grineva E.A. Sovremennye tekhnologii zdorovyesberezheniya v sotsialnoy rabote [Modern health promotion technologies in social work]. Study guide. Ulyanovsk: UlSPU publ., 2016, 32 p.
  3. Yermolaeva P.O., Noskova E.P. Osnovnye tendentsii zdorovogo obraza zhizni rossiyan [Key healthy lifestyle trends for Russians]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, 2015, no. 4, pp. 120-129.
  4. Merenkov A.V., Sushchenko A.D. Potrebnosti studentov vuzov v dopolnitelnom obrazovanii: osobennosti formirovaniya i realizatsii [Needs of university students in additional education: features of formation and implementation]. Voprosy obrazovaniya, 2016, no. 3, pp. 204-223.
  5. Puzanova Zh.V., Tertyshnikova A.G. Osobennosti obraza zhizni i otnosheniya k zdorovyu rossiyskih studentov (na primere MGU i RUDN) [Features of lifestyle and attitudes to health in Russian students (case study of MSU and RUPF)]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, 2017, no.  8, pp. 88-94.
  6. Sivokhin I.P., Fedorov A.I., Yarushin S.A. Fizicheskaya aktivnost i zdorove studentov v kontekste sotsiologicheskogo analiza [Physical activity and health of students in context of sociological analysis]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2018, no. 3, pp. 24-26.
  7. Smirnov V.V. Pedagogicheskaya sistema profilaktiki i borby s vrednymi privychkami v Rossii: istoriya i sovremennost [Educational bad habit prevention and control system for Russia: history and modernity]. Moscow: Sputnik publ., 2012, 354 p.
  8. Titarenko L.G. Ekologicheskiy aspekt obraza zhizni: osnovnye tsennosti i tipy povedeniya [Environmental aspect of lifestyle: core values ​​and types of behavior]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, 2015, no. 2, pp. 107-113.
  9. Shatilovich L.N., Nazmutdinova V.I., Rechapov D.S. Analiz pokazateley zdorovya studencheskoy i rabotayushchey molodezhi [Analysis of health situations in students and working young people]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no. 12, pp. 28-30.

Corresponding author: waterfall-_-@mail.ru

Abstract

The study analyzes benefits of a healthy lifestyle cultivation advanced educational service model for the initiatives to secure healthy and all-round progress of the national teenage population, with a special attention to benefits of the modern advanced educational service and healthy lifestyle cultivating elements. The study was run at the advanced education courses for teenagers at I.N. Ulyanov State Pedagogical University. Objective of the study was to test benefits of the new healthy lifestyle cultivation and motivation advanced education model for teenagers. The healthy lifestyle agendas were tested and rated by the L.G. Kachan ‘Your Lifestyle’ test; with the healthy lifestyle driving values and priorities tested by the S.S. Bubnov Actual Personality Values Profiling Test toolkit; and the theoretical healthy lifestyle knowledge tested by a Healthy Lifestyle Knowledge Test of our own design. The study found benefits of the new healthy lifestyle prioritizing advanced education model as verified by the pre- versus post-experimental test rates obtained by the healthy lifestyle values and motivations tests. The age-, physicality- and mentality-specific healthy lifestyle cultivation advanced education model may be recommended for practical application in the youth health education and healthy lifestyle promotion projects.