Future teachers' physical education background formation issues

Фотографии: 

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Associate Professor, PhD V.A. Kuznetsov
Associate Professor, PhD A.B. Smirnov
N.I. Kulakova
O.V. Sesorova
L.V. Turkina
Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State University (Minin University), Nizhny Novgorod

 

Keywords: future teachers’ physical culture, physical education process, physical education competency.

Background. Physical education competency of a teacher comprises an objectively necessary condition for the personality development process being efficient for the reason that it expands the content of the developmental environment. Physical education competency in its social aspect provides additional teaching means for the trainee’s personality development control process [5]. To be successful in this domain, a teacher must acquire certain background, i.e. a set of basic competences and motivations for the physical education activity [6]. The physical education activities of school subject teachers (non-sports majors) play their own socially important role. A teacher of a general education establishment normally keeps in touch with the pupils in the class educational process and different off-class communication for 20-30 hours per week. In addition, the teacher keeps in contact with the pupils' families and these contacts contribute to the individual education and development process control. Views, grades and recommendations of a school subject teacher on a variety of key issues comprise one of the most influential and permanent factors of influence on the process of due values, social attitudes and needs being formed in the pupil's consciousness [1].

Objective of the study was to develop and theoretically substantiate a physical education algorithm applicable by the school subject teachers (majoring in non-sports disciplines) in the context of the priority tasks of the school educational process.

Methods and structure of the study. The study gave us the means to develop and implement a physical education algorithm applicable by subject teachers majoring in non-sports disciplines to ensure due competences of the future teachers. The physical education algorithm was designed as a sequence of the following eight steps.

Step One implies the situation analysis including an analysis of the individual attitudes to physical culture and available opportunities (for the teacher and trainees) to develop and secure positive attitudes to physical education in the trainees being fostered. Step Two implies the object(s) for the process being selected that may include knowledge, needs, motor activity etc. Step Three is the teaching project objectives and goals setting stage. Step Four is the policies formulation stage. The policies may be designed to form, protect and/ or develop the objects for the teaching process and/or their specific aspects. Step Five implies the teaching toolkit being selected. Step Six is the teaching project design stage. Step Seven is the project implementation stage. And Step Eight is the teaching project efficiency rating based on the relevant progress criteria.

Study results and discussion. The issues for the study are considered herein based on the school educational activity being viewed as a structure composed of the following key points or elements.

Nature of the physical education activity

As provided by the existing classification of activities [4], the physical education activity may be identified as the aggregate one. It is composed of two generic activity forms (physical education and teaching), both of them having certain social functions. Social functionality of the physical education activity is focused on the efforts to physically excel a person, the excellence being viewed as a basis for physical health. And the social functionality of the teaching activity is designed to educate (i.e. form knowledge), train (help master tools of activity) and develop (form key attitudes). The above functions are integrated in the physical education activity that is designed to give physical education knowledge; form motor activity tools (i.e. the motor skills and abilities); form the physical education needs and attitudes; facilitate the natural personality development process; and achieve due physical fitness.

The objective of the physical education activity performed by a school subject teacher (specialized in a non-physical-culture discipline) is to help improve the efficiency of the personal physical education development process by due activation of the process participants and potential contributors (trainees, their families, own family members and other teachers). Basically, the subject teacher helps the trainee (and his/her family) in his/her (their) own physical self-identification, self-organization, self-management and self-control, with the objective being attained within the frame of a certain system.

System of physical education activity

It is a matter of common knowledge that any system may be described by its composition (i.e. the components it includes), structure (i.e. the internal relationship of the system components) and its external relations with other systems [4]. Composition of the physical education activity may be identified based on the relevant provisions of the general theory of activity. According to the provisions, the system composition may be classified into the system subject, object, means, process, result, environment and conditions. Subject to the physical education activity may be an individual, group of people and a state represented by its different social institutions. Individual means herein the physical education teacher, subject teacher, class tutor and/or family member. Group of people means academic staff, family or sport team.

It should be noted that objects of the physical education activity need to be considered at a few levels varying in details. At the first level, it is knowledge, physical abilities, physical education needs or physical development that may be objects for education by a subject teacher. At the second level, the objects may imply specific characteristics of each of the above categories. For example, only some motor skills or exercise techniques may be an object to the physical education activity at this level since such skills comprise only one of the possible components of the individual motor abilities. If some specific form of motor skills (for example, a race technique) is nominated as an example, the lower-level objects may be identified.

We believe, means of the physical education activity should include special (provisionally physical) information, physical exercises, hygienic factors, health improvement effects of natural environment, and the methods and technologies applied by the subject. Distribution of the teaching means across the space (where), time (how long), interactions of the subject (teacher) and object (performance rates of the trainee, family and other teachers) may be described as the teaching process. The process results should be determined by the reasonable changes in the performance rates/ characteristics/ qualities of the object affected by the subject using the selected means within the certain domains of the teaching process.

Success of the process efforts to form positive attitudes to the physical education process in the trainees largely depends on the design of interactions in the physical development process and the impacts of the social environment. Any underestimation of the role of social environment in the physical culture of pupils may be detrimental for the education process efficiency. It is a systemic contribution of the subject teachers in the physical education process that may be one of the key factors in solving this problem.

Content of the physical education activity

Content of the physical education activity means herein the relevantly structured actions (intellectual, institutional, operational etc.).

They are to be designed, first of all, to activate physical culture attitudes of every participant/ contributor to the educational process: oneself, trainees, their families and other teachers. The efforts are to be intended to indirectly help form constructive attitudes, values and positive motivations for the physical education process being appreciated as one of the key means to develop the necessary physical and mental health components in particular and a healthy lifestyle on the whole. Such activation is required in the situations when due attitudes to the values of physical culture are not yet developed (dominated by reluctance, for example); or just being formed (and, therefore, unstable and/or selective); or negative (due to the lack of necessary positive information or influence of biased information).

Second, a consulting service to the educational process participants needs to be provided. Such a service may include references to the relevant specialists on specific problems coming up in the process, or informational support in the self-organizing, self-management and self-control efforts in the physical education domain, the services being provided by the specialists within their terms of reference. The consulting service may be provided on an individual basis (to a specific trainee, or family member) or group basis (to a group of trainees/ family members, class, parents during the class meeting etc.).

Third, due conditions for the physical education process are to be put in place, including: physical training in the off-class hours; “small forms” of physical training (callisthenics, workouts in breaks, active time intervals); school competitions and other physical culture events; demonstration of personal achievements in physical training (including that for the self-assertion purposes); fostering healthy lifestyles and due health agenda in the trainees.

Fourth, the process is to include tracing/ monitoring of the potential changes in attitudes to the school physical education in the process participants, with an emphasis on their needs, motivations, interests and individual physical conditions. The required information may be obtained by different means and in different forms: by visual ratings, tests and measurements, examinations by the relevant specialists (physical education teacher, psychologist). Such work should not necessarily be done by the teacher him/herself as it may be beneficial to engage pupils and their families into the process. Well-designed physical activity monitoring (with an emphasis on the process motivations, system, promotion and due public awareness), as demonstrated by a vast practical experience, is normally of high interest for pupils and their families.

Fifth, the process is to include the efforts to change the public attitudes (of teachers, pupils and their families) through persistent elucidation work and good communication being developed in the physical education process.

The above process components, as confirmed by a few study reports on the subject [2, 3, 5] comprise necessary contents of the physical education by any school subject teacher; and it should be noted that they require no special knowledge and skills, i.e. series of a certified specialist in physical education. Only certain limitations for the content of physical education by a subject teacher can be of restrictive effect on the education process success.

Conclusion. School subject teacher should give due priority in the physical education to the general target fields for the activity that may include school, family or society on the whole. Professional education activity by a teacher is viewed as an integrated system that requires a systems approach to professional training in the subject field. The physical education competences formation method applied by the authors to the future school subject teachers (of non-physical-education disciplines) proved highly efficient as verified by the education process tests performed at Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State University.

References

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  2. Atyashev O.A. Formirovanie professionalnoy gotovnosti budushchego uchitelya k vospitatelnoy rabote sredstvami fizicheskoy kultury: avtoref. dis. dokt. ped. nauk [Formation of professional competency of future teachers to educational work via physical education: doct. diss. abstr. (Hab.)]. Moscow, 1991, 40 p.
  3. Bauer V.A. Formirovanie interesa i potrebnosti k zanyatiyam fizkul'turoy i sportom u budushchikh uchiteley: avtoref. dis. kand. ped. nauk [Formation of future teachers' interest and need for physical education and sport sessions. PhD diss. abstr.]. Moscow, 1987, 23 p.
  4. Sogotovskiy A.N. Deyatelnost: teoriya, metodika, problemy [Activity: theory, methodology, problems]. Moscow: Politizdat publ., 1990, 366 p.
  5. Rybanchuk N.A. Model podgotovki sovremennogo uchitelya v protsesse fizicheskogo vospitaniya v pedagogicheskom vuze nefizkul'turnogo profilya [Modern teacher training model within physical education process in pedagogical university not majoring in sports]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2002, no. 12, pp. 5-7.
  6. Chichikin V.T. Professionalnaya gotovnost pedagoga [Teacher's professional competency]. N. Novgorod: Kitezh publ., 1998, 102 p.

Corresponding author: vak1401@yandex.ru

 

Abstract

The article considers the issues of physical education background of teachers specializing in non-physical-education disciplines, with a special emphasis on the key performance criteria indicative of the teacher’s due competency in the physical education domain. The study presents an physical education process algorithm with an emphasis on the core mission of the physical education that is not only to develop due physical qualities and entertain, but also support the socializing and personality-development progress. In the context of this mission, the physical education activity is considered an important element of the professional physical education teacher’s training system.

The article further demonstrates that the physical education activity by a teacher comprises a socially important vector of the professional activity. As found by an analysis of the available literature on the subject, there are quite a few biased and multisided aspects in how the physical education process mission, functions and structure have been presented. Having summarized the available information, the authors come up with the following key fundamentals of the system: classification of the benefits, implementation system, content, concepts, functions, structure and accomplishments. The fundamentals enable the authors to give theoretical and practical definitions of the core mission concept, process control concept, and result evaluation concept for the non-physical-education teachers’ physical training system.

Based on the study data and analyses, the authors offer the ways and model to optimize the academic physical education process in the non-physical-education system. The key benefit of the newly offered model is its application versatility that allows different physical education tools being used in the process.