PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Raizikh¹
Associate Professor S.S. Maksimova¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.E. Alabuzhev^1
1Udmurt State University, Izhevsk

 

Keywords: School Physical Education Olympiad; institutional management model for Olympic qualifications; theoretical and practical tests.

 

Background. The Russian School Physical Education Olympiad is ranked among the most popular events for the 5-11-grade gifted children in our country, and is rather special among the other intellectual competitions of school teams [1, 4]. The event organizers have reported growths in the numbers of schoolchildren, teachers and researchers engaged in the Olympiad year to year. In terms of its national popularity, scale and content, the Olympiad is unparalleled the world over and may be considered a national heritage.

It is rather traditional to start preparations for the Olympiad at the end of every school year when the motivated students may decide to use the summer vacation time to get fit for the event. Such precompetitive process design has proved beneficial in many aspects. The prior school-level qualifications (combined test and selection process) for the Olympiad are traditionally run at the beginning of each school year, with every gifted 5-11-grader encouraged to participate. It is not uncommon that the leading school qualifiers for the municipal Olympic qualification event are well known in advance albeit the school teams are always reinforced by new prospects found by the school Olympic qualifications, and these gifted children are given since then special attention and training [3].

Qualification events for the School Physical Education Olympiad are run as required by the valid Russian School Physical Education Olympiad Statute that spells out the qualification requirements and procedures, institutional, management and practical provisions for the event and rules of nomination of winners for every qualification stage/ event. The qualification tests for the Olympiad are categorized for the following age groups: Group 1 for 5-6-graders; Group 2 for 7-8-graders; and Group 3 for 9-11-graders of the both sexes.

However popular and traditional is the national School Physical Education Olympiad, there is still a room for progress in the institutional and management provisions for some of its events [2], with the progress secured by active contributions from the event shareholders including the physical education service personnel, researchers, analysts, methodologists, managers of the relevant education establishments and teachers. We have tried to support these efforts by an attempt to develop a new institutional management model for the republican qualifications for the national School Physical Education Olympiad and test the model in the Udmurt Republic.

Objective of the study was to rate benefits of a new institutional management model for the republican qualification events of the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad.

Methods and structure of the study. The studies to develop the new institutional management model for the republican qualification events of the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad and the model tests in the Udmurt Republic were run in cooperation with the Republican School Subjects Methodology Commission at Udmurt State University in Izhevsk.

Study findings and discussion. The republican qualifications and trainings for the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad in the Udmurt Republic were staged and designed as required by the new institutional management model of our design: see Figure 1 hereunder.

School Olympic qualifications for the Olympiad are organized by the relevant local education system management agency. Tests for the school Olympic qualifications are offered by the municipal School Subjects Methodology Commission in compliance with the valid basic general and secondary school Physical Education programs for grades 5 to 11, with every 5-11 grader encouraged to compete on a voluntary basis. Competitors in the school Olympic qualification event are encouraged to take higher-difficulty tests of the senior groups (other than their own age group). In case of success in the tests, such qualifiers will go to the next qualification stage with the school age group of their choice.

Figure 1. New institutional management model for the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad

UR universities	Udmurt Republic Ministry of Education and Science	IRO MBU Resource Center
New Research Generation event
Republican event organizing committee	Republican School Subjects Methodology commission	Republican juries
Municipal event organizing committee	Municipal School Subjects commissions	Municipal juries
School event organizing committee	School Subjects commissions	School juries

           Municipal Olympic qualification event is managed by the relevant municipal education system management agency, with the tests for the competitors offered by the Republican School Subjects Methodology Commission in compliance with the valid basic general and secondary school Physical Education programs for grades 7 to 11. Registered for competitions in the municipal qualifications for the Olympiad are the seasonal school event qualifiers who scored necessary qualification points; winners and medalists of the prior (last year) municipal qualifications still trained at the relevant establishment; with the winners and medalists of the prior municipal event entitled to take more difficult tests for the senior grades.

Regional Olympic qualification event is managed by the Republican Organizing Committee that summons a Republican Jury for the event. Tests for the regional event are developed and offered by the Central School Subjects Methodology Commission in compliance with the valid basic general and secondary school Physical Education programs for grades 9 to 11. Registered for competitions in the republican Olympic qualification event are the seasonal municipal event qualifiers who scored necessary points for qualification; and the winners and medalists of the prior (last year) republican qualifications.

It is the Ministry of Education and Science of the Udmurt Republic in cooperation with the Udmurt Republic University faculties that supervises and manages the qualification process with a contribution from the Udmurt Republic Education System Development Institute and its Metropolitan Education Office; and runs an annual New Research Generation event for the qualifiers to the finals of the national School Physical Education Olympiad. The newly (2017) established Resource Center that organically complements our new institutional management model for the national School Physical Education Olympiad – provides extra resources for the high-quality trainings of the qualifiers for the finals of the national School Physical Education Olympiad. The core mission of the Resource Center is to provide necessary theoretical and practical support to the PR teachers in trainings of gifted children for different Olympic qualification events; and run research projects to improve the Olympiad design and management process.

Analysis of the Udmurt Republic team’s multiannual (2000 till now) performance in the finals of the national School Physical Education Olympiad shows progress of the Republic as verified, among other things, by the growing numbers of winners and medalists, with the republican team’s competitive success rate estimated at decent 70%: see Table hereunder.

 

Table 1. Statistics of the Udmurt Republic team’s performance in the finals of the national School Physical Education Olympiad

 

Conclusion. Recent progress and practical experience of the Udmurt Republic in the school/ municipal/ Republican Olympic qualification events has showed benefits of the new institutional management model for the Olympiad in many aspects including the powerful incentives for the school population for habitual self-reliant physical trainings and healthy lifestyles.

 

References

1. Krasnikov A.A., Chesnokov N.N. Testirovanie teoretiko-metodicheskih znaniy v oblasti fizicheskoy kultury i sporta [Testing of knowledge of theory and methods of physical education and sports]. Moscow: Fizicheskaya kultura publ., 2010, 166 p.

2. Rayzikh A.A., Maksimova S.S., Alabuzhev A.E., Severukhin G.B. Olimpiada shkolnikov po predmetu ‘Fizicheskaya kultura’ [School Physical Education Olympiad]. Teaching aid. Izhevsk: UdSU publ. 2011, 44 p.

3. Chesnokov N.N., Kuzin V.V., Krasnikov A.A. Olimpiada po predmetu «Fizicheskaya kultura» [Physical Education Olympiad]. Teaching aid. Moscow: Fizicheskaya kultura publ., 2005, 112 p.

4. Chesnokov N.N., Volodkin D.A. Prakticheskie ispyitaniya na Vserossiyskoy olimpiade shkolnikov po predmetu Fizicheskaya kultura [Practical tests at All-Russian School Physical Education Olympiad]. Study guide. Moscow: Fizicheskaya kultura publ., 2016, 90 p.

 

Corresponding author: raisport@rambler.ru

 

Abstract

The study analyzes benefits of a new institutional management model for the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad tested by the Udmurt Republic. Popular traditional formats of the Olympic qualification events are being persistently upgraded in many aspects including new regulations for the event hosting and refereeing, improvements to the competitive process models and routines, the relevant scoring, appealing, data analyzing systems etc. Analyses of the practical Olympic qualifications design and management experiences show that there is still an untapped resource for improvements that may be mobilized by many initiatives like the ones pursued by the newly established (2017) Physical Education Discipline Resource Center.

Objective of the study was to rate benefits of the new institutional management model for the republican qualification events of the Russian School Physical Education Olympiad. The new concepts and approaches were found beneficial as verified by progress of the Udmurt Republican team in the Olympiad finals, with the success attributable to the revisions in the Republican school pre-Olympic training system with a great contribution from the system components harmonizing, design and management model. The Udmurt Republic takes pride in its profound Olympic qualification process design and management experience accumulated in the school/ municipal/ Republican Olympic qualification events – based on the new institutional management concepts supported by the sound theoretical and practical tests that require a deep knowledge of the general and secondary education curricula and particularly profound knowledge and skills in the school Physical Education discipline.