Applicant A.A. Gladyshev¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Gladysheva¹
PhD, Associate Professor Е.V. Klimova^2
1Novosibirsk State Agricultural University, Novosibirsk
²Siberian State Transport University, Novosibirsk

Keywords: student's motivation, special health group, elective physical education disciplines, applied professional physical training, physical education, students' health.

Background. The academic physical education disciplines are largely different from school ones in their design, content and teaching methods. The academic physical education sessions take up to two academic hours, complemented by comprehensive practical and theoretical components, with a wide variety of discipline-specific education tools and methods applied. They give a higher priority to the self-reliant training forms. The academic physical education service also offers the basic (obligatory) and elective disciplines with their educational models and content customizable to modern trends, needs, practical capacities of universities and students, and students’ predispositions, physical fitness and health levels.

Objective of the study was to offer new effective models for the elective academic physical education disciplines to reverse the negative health trends on a systemic, phased and accessible basis.

Methods and structure of the study. For the study purposes, we analyzed health reports of Novosibirsk State Agricultural University (NSAU); and run a questionnaire survey of the Siberian State Transport University (SSTU) students.

Study findings and discussion. The negative trends in the students’ health statistics are twofold as the numbers of the provisionally healthy students keep falling and the numbers of unhealthy students keep increasing. Our analysis of the SSTU health statistics showed the ‘poor’ and ‘below average’ somatic health indices in the student population to grow from 59% in 2013 to 83% in 2016; with the share of students diagnosed with health disorders increased from 39% in 2013 to 46% in 2015; and the share of the special health group estimated at 19.8% of the total student population in the academic year of 2017-18. The NSAU health situation is much the same, with the special health group reported to grow from 15% in 2012-13 to 18.3% in 2017-18. Other study data and analyses confirm the negative trends in the students’ health statistics with the growing numbers of the SHG groups [2, 6, 7]. Therefore, urgent efforts need to be taken to revise the academic physical education service with its models, methods and tools to reverse the negative trends in the students’ health statistics [1, 3, 8].

After the academic basic physical education curriculum was ranked a separate module of the PES service, the national educational community realized the need for the curriculum being revised as provided by the known Order #777 [5]. It would be logical to have complemented the traditional social and biological basics of physical education and healthy lifestyle basics in this module by applied professional physical trainings (APPT). The mission of the elective academic PES disciplines is to secure physical development, physically activate the student population and form motivations for self-reliant practices within the academic PES options [4], albeit the selected discipline may not be always compliant to the APPT requirements for future professional career. It should also be mentioned that the negative health trends require a special emphasis being made on the health component of the academic physical education service.

To prioritize the health aspects of the academic physical education, the NSAU management has designed a few elective PES modules for the special health groups customizable to the group health rehabilitation purposes, including body conditioning (BC), darts, health gymnastics and Nordic walking disciplines; with every module offering both discipline-specific and therapeutic physical practices.

Elective PES modules for the basic health group include track and field sports, cross-country skiing, skating, football, volleyball, basketball, powerlifting, sambo and table tennis disciplines plus the above mentioned ones.

The same studies at SSTU were complemented by a questionnaire survey of the 1-4-year students to profile their interests, predispositions and motivations in the PES domain and identify the most beneficial group training models. Sampled for the survey were 150 SSTU students dominated (92.3%) by the 1-2-year ones.

The respondents reported the following reasons for their academic absenteeism in the PES sessions: (1) no interest in the discipline reported by 44,9% in the context of the very low motivations of the beginner students; (2) excessive stress in the practices reported by 32.1% despite the fact that the trainings are designed on age-, gender-, health-specific basis, and the complaints are rather due to the habitual physical inactivity and poor physical fitness; (3) lack of their favorite PES activity on the lists of the academic elective PES disciplines reported by 15.4% of the sample; and (4) outdated sport facilities/ equipment reported by 7.6% of the sample.  

The respondents’ PES interests were profiled as follows: mixed fitness practices 46.2%; aerobics 40%; swimming 35.4%; volleyball 34.6%; track and field sports 23.1%; tennis 21.5%; basketball 15.4%; powerlifting 13.1%; football 9.2%; and sambo 7.7%.

The students’ sporting predispositions were found dominated by the mixed fitness and aerobics disciplines, with the sample particularly appreciating the modern fitness components of the academic PES. These positive attitudes may be applied to further develop the students’ motivations for the academic sports and step up their determination for the studies. Despite the fact that the other academic PES options were found less popular, the modular design of the elective academic disciplines makes it possible to compose the required groups for the trainings.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses demonstrate benefits of the modular/ group design of the elective academic physical education and sport service as verified, among other things, by the higher student’s motivations for the sport practices of their choice.

References

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Corresponding author: gaa_03@mail.ru

Abstract

The study analyzes the reasons for the existing academic physical education curriculum being revised to offer new physical education models, methods and tools plus a variety of elective physical education disciplines to meet the new educational standards and reverse the negative trends in the students’ health statistics. The study data show that the key objective of the revision initiative is to reform the academic physical education to reverse the negative health trends on a systemic, phased and accessible basis. The new models are expected to encourage interest in the academic physical education, activate students and facilitate the constructive synergy of the university faculty and students.