PhD, Associate Professor O.S. Schneider¹
M.A. Sotnikova¹
Dr.Hab., Professor I.M. Vorotilkina^2
1Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture, Khabarovsk
²Amur State University named after Sholom Aleichem, Birobidzhan

Keywords: Olympic education, family physical education, preschooler, children with medical conditions, sport culture levels, family involvement formats.

Background. One of the key objectives of the children’s sporting education process is to introduce them to the Olympic ideals and help them develop a sporting culture giving a due priority to social, spiritual and ethical values. However, as demonstrated by practical experience, the national education establishments are not always prepared to provide high-quality Olympic education for the simple reason that the valid obligatory curricula give no time for the relevant subjects. The existing preschool Olympic education courses and methods are designed for the relevant education establishments [4 et al.] albeit the education specialists note [1, 3] that a family education component can also be very efficient conditional on the family being fully committed to the education process. This family component may be particularly important for children with medical conditions (MC) formally exempted from physical education classes due to health conditions.

Objective of the study was to contribute to preschool Olympic education by means of the family education component.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the questionnaire survey under the study were 30 physical education teachers and 47 children (6-8 years-old) from the Preschool Education Establishment (PEE) #25 in Khabarovsk and PEE #45 in Birobidjan, plus PEE-non-attending children with medical conditions and their families. The educational experiment was performed in March through September 2016 on the sample split up into the following four groups: Reference Group 1 of 14 PEE-attending 6-7 year-olds; Reference Group 2 of 14 PEE-non-attending 6-8 year-olds with medical conditions; Study Group 1 of 14 PEE-attending 6-7 year-olds; and Study  Group 2 of 14 PEE-non-attending 6-8 year-olds with medical conditions. The children’s Olympic education in the Reference Groups was provided by families on their own using the educational materials offered by the authors; and that in the Study Groups was designed as required by the experimental family education model. The experimental model efficiency was tested by the Olympic knowledge, skills and social adaptation rating Rene' Gille test to assess the children’s sporting culture building progress [2].

Study results and discussion. Having analysed the survey data, we found the children’s degree of involvement in sports averaging 18% despite the fact that 62% of the families reported positive attitudes to the children’s sports. The children’s knowledge of the Olympic tenets was found very low since only 4% of their responses were right in fact. The PEE physical education teachers questionnaire survey showed that the children’s sporting education is dominated by a few specific practices albeit the Olympic education as one of its parts is rather fragmentary. 

Furthermore, it was found that only 3.2% of the family members reportedly have some practical experience in the Olympic knowledge building domain. Thus the new family Olympic education technology needs to include due family members’ training tools and methods. When the family members are little prepared for the education, the new model offers them an electronic instruction course giving basics of Olympic education, knowledge tests for children and sets of age- and gender- specific thematic tasks and education progress rating tests. When the family members are tested to have some basic knowledge of the Olympic tenets, the new model offers them a cycled Olympic education course assisted by a volunteer from research team. And when the family members reportedly have a self-reliant children’s education experience, the new model offers them the relevant education materials for an independent family education course.

The family education course included the following six sections: (1) sport disciplines and their health effects; (2) values and symbols of the Olympic and Paralympic tenets; (3) ancient history of the Olympic Games; (4) modern history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and forecasts for the Olympic and Paralympic games in Rio de Janeiro; (5) analysis of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro; and (6) modern situation of vocational sports in Russia and the Far Eastern Federal Area. The family education included the following children’s education tools:

• Olympic sessions in families (2x30 minutes per week) designed to cover the theoretical issues and give a physical training;
• Thematic monthly contests in forms of quiz games, sports competitions etc.;
• Junior Olympian’s passport; and
• Children’s Olympic Games based on the Spartan system i.e. twice a year.

The theoretical material was learnt by the children in a family-assisted format with contribution from  a fictitious character called Brawny – who does his best to get trained for and compete in the Olympic Games; introduces children to the Olympic and Paralympic Games competitors; enthusiastically demonstrates interesting physical practices; plays with them and offers them different practical tasks. In addition, the new model offers a problem-searching and project design methods for the family-assisted education course. The physical training component of the Olympic family education model includes joint active games and sets of practical exercises with an Olympic flavour classified by the education topics and geared to develop the key physical qualities in the most harmonic manner.

Prior to the new family education model piloting experiment, we found the key physical and theoretical knowledge rates in RG-1 versus SG-1 and RG-2 versus SG-2 being virtually the same. The post-experimental progress test data showed significant (Р<0.05) intergroup differences in favour of both of Study Groups. The theoretical progress rates showed positive changes in every group, albeit SG-1 was the leader in this component (plus 87.1 rating points) followed by SG-2 (plus 67.4 rating points); ranked third was RG-1 with plus 48.6 rating points; and the last was RG-2 with plus 34.3 points. Generally the children showed the highest progress in the Olympic Games history related matters and their preferred sports.

The knowledge quality tests of RG versus SG showed even greater gaps since the knowledge quality rate in both of SG was tested to grow 3.5 times on average versus the 2-times growth in both of RG.

The social adaptation rating tests also showed a higher progress in both of SG. Thus the children’s responses to frustration, isolation and conflicts were tested to halve both in SG-1 and SG-2 versus the insignificant and minor progress in both RG (Р>0.05).

In addition to the above progress rates, we tested the children’s engagement in sports and found notable progress in both of SG. The post-experimental survey showed 6 and 5 children from SG-1 and SG-2, respectively, coming to sports for the study period.

The children’s overall sporting culture (viewed as the integrated knowledge and skills) rating tests found no more low-rated children in any of the four groups, albeit the SG children showed the highest progress in this domain, with 7 and 2 children in SG-1 and SG-2, respectively, receiving the highest points in the tests – versus the RG children who all failed to reach this level of sporting culture.

Conclusion. The new family physical education model was proved beneficial for the preschoolers’ Olympic education process. The model offers a few progress paths customised to the family members’ preparedness levels for the Olympic family education with the relevant education courses. The proposed new Olympic family education model was tested to largely contribute to the overall sporting culture of both healthy children and those with medical conditions and facilitate their interest and engagement in active sports.

References

1. Kazak O.V. Optimizatsiya dvigatelnoy aktivnosti doshkolnikov v usloviyakh semeynogo vospitaniya. Avtoref. dis. kand. ped. nauk [Optimization of preschoolers' motor activity in family education. PhD diss. abstract]. Krasnoyarsk, 2005, 24 p.
2. Kozyreva O.V. Sportivnoe vospitanie detey doshkolnogo vozrasta v sisteme ikh gumanisticheskogo vospitaniya. Avtoref. dis. kand. ped. nauk [Preschool sports education in humanistic education system. PhD diss. abstract]. Moscow, 2002, 50 p.
3. Usakov V.I. Programmno-metodicheskoe obespechenie obrazovatelnogo vozdeystviya fizicheskoy kultury v usloviyakh sem'i, detskogo sada, shkoly. Avtoref. dis. dokt. ped. nauk [Procedural and methodological support of educational effect of physical education in family, kindergarten, school. Doctoral diss. abstract (Hab.)]. Omsk, 2000, 87 p.
4. Filippova S.O. Olimpiyskoe obrazovanie doshkolnikov. Metod. posobie [Olympic education of preschoolers. Guidance]. St. Petersburg: Detstvo-Press publ., 2007, 128 p.

Corresponding author: dobrovolsky@list.ru

Abstract

The study was designed to improve the underage family physical education by means of an Olympic education model designed for the 6-8 year-olds attending preschool educational establishments and children with medical conditions trained in families. The questionnaire survey data showed the need for an Olympic preschool family education model. The proposed education model is based on a differentiated approach to families with the relevant customization for practical and regional specifics. It was found by the educational experiment that the proposed education model is beneficial as verified by the growth of the sporting culture and social adaptation rates of the children and the growing interest of the children and families in sports.