L.M. Kulikova, professor, Dr.Hab.
L.M. Kulikov, professor, Dr.Hab.
Ural state university of physical culture, Chelyabinsk

Key words: project, professional competency, professional competence, physical education specialist, practical training, competency building approach.

Introduction. The modern period of development of education in Russia is characterized by the activation of the processes of modernization in the field of physical culture and sport. The transition to market economy, rethinking of the role and functions of physical culture and sport set new requirements for expert training in the area. Today we're talking about not just the development of professionally important qualities of a future specialist, but also about his capacity for independent innovation work.  The main purpose of professional education stated in the "Concept of Russian education modernization until 2010" is to train a highly skilled worker of an appropriate level and specialization, competitive in the labor market, competent, responsible, who has knowledge in his and adjacent professions, ready for continuous professional growth, able to meet the needs of individuals in obtaining appropriate education [1]. Consequently, a specialist in physical culture and sport must be competent in using physical culture for educational purposes, educating people, health improvement, science, healthy way of life formation, training athletes to achieve high results. The success of a physical education teacher or a sport trainer depends on the level of their professionalism and competency [3, p. 56].

Practical training provides the opportunity to develop in students the constant need for new theoretical knowledge and practical experience, introduce them to the problems of modern pedagogical science and practice, train them to use all the theoretical knowledge obtained in the university and at the same time learn the advanced experience of the best teachers and coaches, master their professional competencies.

The effective solution of the aforementioned task depends on the organization of the university educational process and practical training as the effective integration of the theoretical and educational training and training process occurs mostly during this period.

Our research materials show that the formation of professional competency of a future specialist during practical training is a purposeful implementation of the system educational projects [2-4].

The projects provide: the creation of high-tech environment based on the integration of personal, professional educational, logistical and educational resources of a region in the university complex; the implementation of innovative training of competent specialists in that particular environment; the adaptation of scientific developments to the specificity of practical and innovative educational processes during practical training of the university complex. In our case, the university complex represents an association of institutions of higher education, other educational institutions and sports organizations.

The practical training department has developed the innovative project "Formation of professional competency of specialist in the field of physical culture and sport within practical training". The project contributes to solving the problem of ensuring the modern quality of education that meets the requirements of the labor market to the needs of the developing personality of a future physical education specialist.

The purpose of the project was to justify the concept of formation of professional competency of a future specialist in the field of physical culture and sport during practical training.

The objectives of the project:

- to analyze the professional educational activity of a physical education specialist;

- to develop a theoretical model of a graduate's competency within the course "Physical Education" including general cultural and professional competencies formed during practical training;

- to develop the content of practical professional educational training of students of university of physical culture ensuring mastering of necessary competencies;

- to develop and justify educational technologies contributing to the formation of the competence building experience of a future specialist in physical education through the increasing complexity of educational tasks, which provide the required level of competency;

- to develop technologies for monitoring and supporting the formation of professional competency of a specialist in physical education via adequate diagnostic tools.

Expected results of the project implementation:

- training of competitive specialists with a high level of professional competency capable of creative self-development and self-actualization in their professional activities;

- mature university educational environment based on proven modern educational technologies;

- an open system of monitoring and examination of the quality of professional training;

- flexible system of social partnership providing the creation of conditions for the maximum development of creativity and quality of professional training of specialists in physical education, which meets the needs of a developing personality and the labor market;

- improvement of business reputation of the university in professional training of specialists in the sphere of physical culture and sport in the domestic and international educational spaces.

The novelty of the project consists in:

- the identification of the conceptual field, revealing the essence of the professional competency formation of a future specialist;

- the development of the concept of professional competency formation of a future specialist in the field of physical culture and sport during practical training;

- the justification of the technology of professional competency formation as a mechanism of educationally expedient influence on personal and professional development of a future specialist;

- the development of evaluative criterial tools of educational monitoring which represents a set of diagnostic materials and proved indicators of the efficiency of an organized process;

This innovative Project is a complex of system educational subprojects A, B, C, D, E and each of them aims at developing a certain type of support for multifunctional nature of practical training. We have identified the subprojects developing the innovative educational, professional pedagogical, research, information-technological and socio-cultural components of practical training [4, p.139].

The results of formation of professional competences in terms of practical training determined the obtained level of professional competency and the stage of specialist’s personal professional development.

The practical training department accomplished the following while developing and implementing the innovative project:

1. The analysis of modern trends of formation of professional competencies of specialists of university of physical culture.

2. The development of the Concept of formation of professional competencies of a future specialist in physical education.

3. The development of a structural model of formation of professional competencies of a future specialist in physical education.

4. The development and implementation of the system of educational projects (A, B, C, D, E) aimed at developing professional competencies within student activities during practical training. 

5. The analysis of the regional labor market requirements for the quality of expert training and the quality of activities of the practical training department and training departments of Ural State University of Physical Culture.

6. The development of the criteria and indicators for assessing the effectiveness of experimental work.

7. The design of practical training programs for 3rd and 4th year students and masters of the 1st and 2nd years in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards of the third generation.

8. The publication of the compilations of two regional theoretical-practical conferences – the university conference and the regional scientific and educational seminar conference related to the competency format.

9. An experiment to determine the level of professional competency formation of the 3rd and the 4th year students and postgraduates during practical training.

Let us discuss this in more detail.

Results and discussion. We conducted the experiment during the academic year 2012-2013 during practical training within the developed Project. 3rd year students were involved in the experiment during practical training in a comprehensive school. The total of 143 students specialized in "Sports training in chosen sport" were subject to the experiment. The main criteria in our study are professional competencies because we consider professional and educational training of future specialists as a goal of the entire system of professional training, as a process and as a result of creative adoption of knowledge and acquiring of professional competencies during teaching practice [2, p.193].

The level of student’s professional competency formation was estimated in accordance with the following competencies:

• the ability to develop lecture materials for specific training sessions (PC-4);
• the ability to independently conduct classes with children studying in educational institutions (PC-5);
• the ability to plan, organize and carry out educational work with comprehensive schoolchildren; the ability to develop pupils' social and personal qualities (PC-3).

In order to diagnose the level of students’ professional competencies formation we designed the chart "Student’s professional competencies diagnostics" on the basis of above mentioned competencies, which included 27 indicators. They were expressed in points: perfectly mastered - 3, mastered - 2, poor level - 1, not formed - 0 (Table 1). This indicator was then compared to the criteria of the level of competency formation: 100-75% - optimal; 74-55% - acceptable; 54-25% - critical; 24% and below - unacceptable level.

Table 1. Assessment of the level of professional competencies formation of the 3rd year students during practical training

Analyzing the data in Table 1 we compared them with the criteria of the level of competency formation.

Critical level of professional competency was shown by 18,6% of the students, acceptable - 40,1%, optimal - 41,3%.

1274th year students of the specialization "Sports training in chosen sport" students were involved in the experiment during professional practice. The key criteria in this study are the following professional competencies:

• the ability to implement the system of selection and sports orientation in chosen sport (PC-10);
• the ability to develop operating plans and programs for specific training sessions in the field of youth sport (PC-11);
• the ability to independently carry out educational and training sessions in chosen sport in the field of youth sport (PC-12);
• the ability to organize and carry out mass sports activities and sports competitions (PC-20);
• the ability to conduct researches to determine the effectiveness of various aspects of activities in the field of physical culture and sport, generalize and conclude (PC-26);
• promoting skills regarding involvement of children in sports activities (PP-29);
• the ability to prepare financial and accounting documents in the sphere of physical culture and sport (PC-23).

The following data were obtained as a result of the experiment (Table 2).

Table 2. Assessment of the level of professional competencies formation of the 4^th year students during professional practice

Analyzing the data in Table 2 we compare them with the criteria of the level of competency formation.

Critical level of professional competency was shown by 2,3% of the students, acceptable - 30,2%, optimal - 67,5%.

Masters were examined during scientific and educational practice. 60 students were involved in the experiment.

The main criteria were the following professional competencies:

• the ability to give lectures using the latest advances (the latest theories, interpretations, methods and technologies) - PC-1;
• the ability to develop a program and methodical complex on an academic discipline - PC-3;
• the ability to use advanced technologies to ensure the quality of educational process - PC-7;
• the ability to improve personal professional competency in the field of ongoing researches (the latest theories, interpretations, methods and technologies) - PC-31;
• the ability to identify and formulate relevant scientific problems in the field of physical culture and sport - PC-32;
• the ability to develop plans and programs for scientific researches - PC-33;
• the ability to use the techniques of related fields of knowledge while conducting researches in the field of physical culture and sport - PC-34;
• the ability to interpret results of scientific researches and identify their practical relevance - PK-35;
• the ability to generalize results of scientific researches and present them in the form of articles, reports, essays;
• -the ability to publicly report the results of scientific researches with presentations.

The following data were obtained as a result of the experiment (Table 3).

Table 3. Assessment of the level of masters’ professional competencies formation during scientific and educational practice

Analyzing the data in Table 3 we compared them with the criteria of the level of competency formation.

Critical level of professional competency was shown by 13,3% of masters, acceptable - 26,7%, optimal - 60%.

Therefore, optimal and acceptable levels of professional competency formation shown by 81,4% of 3rd year students, 97,7% of the 4th year students and 86,7% of masters indicated the effectiveness of the implementation of the project "Formation of professional competency of a specialist in the field of physical culture and sport within practical training" and the quality of training of a future specialist.

Further activities of the practical training department are based on the obtained results:

• the monitoring of the efficiency of professional competency formation of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students and postgraduates of the 1st and 2nd years;
• the selection and structuring of the main competences characterizing the professional and motivational semantic development of a competent specialist in physical education;
• the establishment of complex interdisciplinary and intrasubject links between taught courses of the general theoretical and sports and educational departments;
•  the development of a technology for implementing the educational models in the dyads "teacher-student" and "methodologist-student";
• the use of different types of business games and trainings in conditions of organization of practical training of physical culture university students;
• the development and implementation of the following optional courses: "Professional activity design", "Laboratory of instructional design", "Educational workshop of "Orlenok";
• the improvement of the professional competency of methodologists within the "Methodologist school";
• the development of teaching aids for students and methodological recommendations for supervisors;
• the implementation of the project "From game to sport" aimed at health-improvement and sports activities with comprehensive schoolchildren within the third lesson;
• the communication with potential employers via the assessment of professional competency of a trainee in real working conditions.

Conclusion. Training of specialists who meet the modern needs of employers entails the search for innovative methods of professional training of students. The project "Formation of professional competency of a specialist in the field of physical culture and sport within practical training" is being implemented based on the objective need to transfer to the competency-centered university education.  This innovative approach is considered as a mechanism that creates the real goals for upgrading the professional training of university students within the competency-based paradigm. The project results confirm the relatively high level of professional competency formation of future specialists in physical education.

References

1. The concept of modernization of Russian education for the period up to 2010: Approved by the Decree of the RF Government dated 29.12.2001 № 1756-р // Vneshkol’nik. – 2002. – № 6. – 39 P. (In Russian)
2. Kulikova, L.M. Vocational training of students of a university of physical culture: monograph / L.M. Kulikov. - Chelyabinsk: UralSUPhC, 2012. – 269 P. (In Russian)
3. Kulikova, L.M. Development of professional competency of students during the teaching practice / L.M. Kulikova // Formation of professional competency of future specialists in physical culture and sport within the modernization of education in Russia: Proceedings of the regional scient.-educat. seminar, April, 6 2012. – Chelyabinsk: UralSUPhC, 2012. – P. 55-59. (In Russian)
4. Kulikova, L.M. The technique of forming professional competency of future expert in physical culture and sport during practical training / L.M. Kulikova, L.M. Kulikov // Sibirskiy pedagogicheskiy zhurnal. – 2012. – № 2. – P. 136-140. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: natali74l@mail.ru