Professor, Ph.D. V.A. Vishnevskiy
Postgraduate student N.R. Usaeva
Surgut State Pedagogical University of KhMAR-Yugra, Surgut

Keywords: efficiency, physical and mental activities, pupil's progress.

Introduction. Adaptive performance of complex systems can be of varying quality, gained at different cost, take different amount of time, etc. In this regard, such systems should have certain dynamic characteristics. The most important one is efficiency as a degree of adaptation of the system to fulfillment of its tasks. Efficiency or economic feasibility of the system is characterized by the ratio of the value of effectiveness of the result and the costs of achieving it.   

The paper concerns the issue of the relationship of efficiency of muscular and mental activities and progress in studies.

Materials and methods. Pupils of schools № 26 and 39 of Surgut were involved in the study. The pulse value of 1 watt of work on a cycle ergometer performed in a closed power cycle as well as the area of the pulse wave served as quantitative indicators of the effectiveness of muscular activity in our studies [2]. When assessing mental activity the speed and accuracy of performance served as such indices in the Toulouse-Pieron Attention Test [3]. Adaptive reactions of the body at the autonomic level were assessed based on heart rate variability using the "ORTO Expert" diagnostic complex and the "Science" software [1].

Results and discussion. Three periods are clearly distinguished in the dynamics of the pulse value of physical load of both boys and girls: a sharp decline in the pulse value at the age of 7-11; a gradual reduction at the age of 11-14; relative stabilization of the parameter at the age of 14-17 (Table 1).  

Table 1. Dynamics of the total pulse value of standard physical load performed in a closed cycle (beats/W/kg) and the HR wave area (beats/W/kg) of pupils

Note. Here and in Table 2: *** – significant differences compared to the previous age group with p < 0.001; ** – with p < 0.01; * – with p < 0.05.

At the same time the pulse value of the performance of girls is generally higher than that of boys. While absolute values tend to decrease and the pulse difference between the minimum and the maximum capacity of standard load tends to narrow in boys as they grow older, in case of girls this difference increases as they grow older mainly due to an increase in heart rate at the peak of physical activity.

Efficiency improvement with regard to information processing that comes with age takes place mainly due to the speed of work (Table 2). The speed change dynamics can be divided into four stages: a sharp increase in speed at the age of 7-8 years old, some slowing down by the age of 9; a gradual speed increase during the period of 9-13 years old when boys outperform girls; a period of relative stabilization of the speed between 13 and 15 years old; a stage of a another speed increase during the period of 15-17 years old when girls outperform boys. A significant increase of the accuracy of performance is observed only during the periods of 7-8 and 12-13 years old. This index is basically stable and complies with the age norm.  

Table 2. Dynamics of speed and accuracy of information processing in a proof test (characters/min) of pupils  

    The rank correlation of the indicators of effectiveness of muscular and mental activities with an average score of progress at different stages of school ontogenesis reveals some gender differences (Table 3). In the case of primary schoolboys among efficiency indicators the pulse value of physical load significantly correlates with academic progress, while good information processing correlates with it only to a small extent. As for adolescents and young men, the relationship with academic progress was traced only in the indicators of mental activity. As for girls, the indices of speed and accuracy of information processing dominate at all phases of training. Thus, starting from the age of 11-12, gender differences are leveled and the effectiveness of information processing comes to the fore.

The detected gender differences of the indicators of effectiveness of muscular and mental activities that correlate with academic performance to a certain extent can be explained by specific characteristics of adaptive reactions of the body at the autonomic level. In the case of boys at the age of 7-10 the number of persons with satisfactory adaptation increases, and the number of ones with stressed adaptation mechanisms and poor adaptation decreases (Figure 1).

 Fig. 1. Adaptive capabilities of boys and young males of schools № 39 and 26 of Surgut

Table 3. Rank correlation of the indicators of effectiveness of muscular and mental activities with an average score of progress at different stages of school ontogenesis

In the case of primary schoolgirls, on the contrary, the number of persons with stress and poor adaptation increases (Figure 2).  

Fig. 2. Adaptive capabilities of girls and young females of schools № 39 and 26 of Surgut

Conclusion. Nowadays a great number of children with certain health deviations go to school, which is meant for a healthy child. In this regard, the issue of quality of education is closely related with the problem of protection and strengthening of pupils' health. However, the relationship of educational and recreational activities is unlikely to be simple. Moreover, children with poor health often get on better than healthy ones. Thus, further study of this problem is required. As seen from the findings of this study, it is necessary to take into account gender differences in the relationship between the academic, physical and mental activities.

References

1. Baevskiy, R.M. K probleme standartizatsii zaklyucheniy pri analize variabel'nosti serdechnogo ritma (On standardization of medical reports in heart rate variability analysis) / R.M. Baevskiy, G.G. Ivanov // Variabelnost' serdechnogo ritma: Teoreticheskie aspekty i prakticheskoe primenenie: Tez. dokl. Mezhdunar. simp. (Heart rate variability: theoretical aspects and practical application: Book of abstr. of Intern. Symp.) - Izhevsk: Publishing House of Udmurt University, 2003. – P. 169–171.
2. Vishnevskiy, V.A. Sistemny analiz sostoyaniya organizma detey na etapakh shkol'nogo ontogeneza (System analysis of state of children at school ontogenesis phases) / V.A. Vishnevskiy, V.V. Apokin, D.V. Serdyukov et al. – Moscow: Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kul'tury i Sporta, 2010. – 367 P.
3. Yasyukova, L.Ya. Optimizatsiya obucheniya i razvitiya detey s MMD. Diagnostika i kompensatsiya minimal'nykh mozgovykh disfunktsiy: Metod. rukovodstvo (Optimization of education and development of children with MBD. Diagnosis and compensation of minimal brain dysfunctions: Study Guide) / L.Ya. Yasyukova. – St. Petersburg: IMATON. 2000. – 95 P.

Corresponding author: apokin_vv@mail.ru