Dr. Hab., Professor S.I. Filimonova ^{1, 2}
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Lotonenko³
Dr. Hab., Professor A.V. Lotonenko⁴
Y.S. Molodykh^4
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow
²Moscow City Pedagogical University, Moscow
³Lipetsk State Pedagogical University named after P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Lipetsk
⁴Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh

Keywords: physical education environment, cultural approach, personality.

Background. Physical education is now ranked among the core academic education disciplines and is highly appreciated for the synergy of spiritual and physical development domains it is designed to build up. The core mission of the academic physical education and sports service is to facilitate the students’ spiritual and physical progress to meet the practical demand of the educational sector. The process shall be formatted by the cultural gravity field with the relevant ideological and ethical values and priorities mobilized and developed to build up individual physical culture. One of these transformation models gives a special priority to the physicality and functionality development activities within the relevant competitive and regulatory provisions to effectively format the physical education service by the relevant regulations.

Objective of the study was to provide a theoretical basis for the academic physical education and sports (PES) service.

Study findings and discussion. One of the reasonable ways for the academic physical education and sports (PES) service reform is to re-orient the academic PES curricula so as to meet, to the best possible degree, the genuine interests and needs of the student communities, with the PES service being designed on an age-specific basis and driven by the individual resource development logics. Thereby the PES service may be optimized based on the relevant ethical and humanistic fundamentals for the physical training process being duly individualized, with the sport and health methods and models customizable to the training process missions largely set by every student on his/ her own as required by the individual demands and motivations for the PES service. It should be noted that every physical education model has its specific internal mission within the mainstream physical education and develops the relevant methods and toolkits with and the application experiences. Success of the academic PES service largely depends on the institutional, material and technical provisions i.e. sport assets, equipment and facilities and their accessibility factors. It is only conditional on the facilitating academic PES service provisions that the student’s physical qualities and motor skills may be efficiently developed being encouraged by a wide range of optional PES service models to facilitate the spiritual and physical progress and build up the individual physical culture. PES departments shall give a special priority to every student’s self-identification and progress agenda facilitated by a wide range of PES service options to meet the individual short- and long-term progress needs and objectives, with such PES service sensitivity viewed as one of the key provisions for the academic progress.

As far as the health improvement, educational and cultural domains of the academic physical education and sport process are concerned, it is important to emphasize that neither of them should be limited by the domain-specific missions since its contribution to the general cultural process needs to be considered on a synergized basis.

The available questionnaire survey data show that the academic PES service role for the bodily resource mobilization and development is appreciated by 81% and 78.1% of the qualified academic athletes and recreation-activity-prioritizing students, respectively, and by 74.5% of the students without formal sport qualifications; with the survey data confirmed by analyses of the examination reports of the Russian universities in the central regions.

The academic educational period is particularly important in the personality formation domain when the socializing and maturing process is very active and versatile, with every individual gradually accepting the adult responsibilities including civic, social, political and professional ones. This process helps a young individual evolve into a fully-fledged personality and a responsible specialist highly appreciated by and contributing to the democratic society. In this context, the PES service at humanities and technical universities shall be designed to: form the ability to analyze and solve problems in the context of the mainstream student culture; secure progress in the PES methods and their application experience; develop socially-sensitive thinking ability in the PES process; advance the social competences as an integral part of the general human culture; encourage multisided cooperation of the faculty and student PES associations; and create a facilitating academic communication climate to help develop the students’ motivations, interests and needs in the personality-building physical education. This complicated process is naturally fraught with the relevant socio-cultural, general tutorial and personal creativity related contradictions, and it is through their settlement, in opinion of M.Y. Vilenskiy, that the ‘self-progress and development’ dimension of the PES process is secured. The socio-cultural contradictions may be viewed as the markers of how well the academic PES service meets the demands of the valid socio-cultural system. It is the specific contradictions settled in the academic educational process that the mechanisms of creative self-identification and self-fulfillment in every physical education domain are activated and operate in the relevant individual education formats within the academic socio-cultural universe.

The questionnaire survey data show the student population largely recognizing the values of the PES service, with only 2% reportedly skeptical about them. Students of natural scientific and technical departments generally appreciate benefits of the modern academic PES, physical recreation and health services. The academic sporting population is dominated by the students who came to the university with some basic sport backgrounds and experiences, plus senior students.

Generally, the students’ motivations for physical progress and education shall be designed and managed to attain the following two goals: (1) form a due mindset to facilitate acceptance of the socially-sensitive PES values and encourage the individual self-fulfillment agenda driven by the personality progress motivations with an emphasis on the still underdeveloped physical qualities and abilities; and (2) build up the physical training competences as a foundation for the individual physical progress in vocational fields and cultural/ aesthetic progress. In the efforts to attain these two goals, an individual shall in no case be limited by the academic PES curriculum only. It should be complemented by a reasonably designed and effective off-class physical education process, with a special role played by the student sport clubs.

Conclusion. Physical education as a social phenomenon and integral part of the general human culture provides a basis for many social phenomena including historical human activity, its products and consolidated benefits. Physical education is rather specific due to its health improvement function that makes it so special among other social services and prioritizes it in the values system of the young people. Modern academic communities give a growing priority to different physical education service models that should be prudently applied and combined in the student physical activity management process.

References

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Corresponding author: filimonovasi@mail.ru

Abstract

The study outlines an academic physical education and sports system design; underlines its importance for the academic progress; and analyzes the contribution of its cultural domain to the students’ harmonic development process to make them fully competent for the professional career. It is further emphasized that physical education as a social phenomenon and integral part of the general human culture provides a basis for many social phenomena including historical human activity, its products and consolidated benefits. Physical education is rather specific due to its health improvement function that makes it so special among other social services and prioritizes it in the values system of the young people. Modern academic communities give a growing priority to different physical education service models that should be prudently applied and combined in the student physical activity management process.