Postgraduate O.V. Mamonova¹
Dr.Hab., Professor S.I. Filimonova¹
PhD, Associate Professor Т.N. Shutova¹
G.B. Kondrakov^1
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: students, special educational needs, physical education, model, health gymnastics, billiards, aquatic fitness, swimming.

Background. As reported by the Russian Statistics Agency, the student population with health limitations has grown up by about 1.5 thousand (from 18 to 19.5 thousand) in 2016 to 2015. The modern education service shall be customized to the needs of at least the following groups: groups diagnosed with visual, auditory, verbal, musculoskeletal disorders/ disabilities; disabled orphans; group with developmental retardations; mentally retarded group; sporting group; students with long academic leaves; disabled students; special health group etc. In addition, the academic education service needs to be customized to the students with a variety of social, physical and emotional disorders. On the whole, the academic physical education service (PES) model for the students with special educational needs (SEN) shall give a high priority to theses, health gymnastics, therapeutic physical trainings and vocational sport groups for sporting students [1, 7]. M.A. Ovsyannikova (2013) offers special health gymnastics including aerobics and fitball aerobic practices for the female students with CNS system diseases [4]; G.G. Ulyayeva (2004) analyzes in her dissertation the benefits of a socio-psychological adaptation model for the students diagnosed with cerebral palsy [6]; O.A. Pavlyuchenko offers a beneficial model with application of a few ethnic sports and health practices for students with health disorders [5]; P.R. Egorov analyzes benefits of modern adaptive computerized technologies for the special education process management models [2]; Y.Y. Karpova developed a special physical education model for the students diagnosed with musculoskeletal system disorders, including adaptive physical training and swimming practices, table games and intellectual sports [3].

It should be mentioned, however, that further solutions are needed to counter the fast growth of the students with SEN, particularly those qualified with the special academic health groups (making up 30-40% of the total student population at present). A special emphasis in the physical education service for this student group will be given to reasonably customizable respiratory and traditional developmental practices, aerobics, fitball gymnastics, Pilates, swimming, jogging, walking, stretching practices, team sports, dumbbell gymnastics etc. The PE service for students with SEN, however, is rather challenging in terms of the process design, management and customization and progress tests for every group, with a special priority needed to be given to the intellectual sports (billiards, chess etc.) and their popularization initiatives.

Objective of the study was to develop and test benefits of a physical education service model for students with special educational needs, with a special priority to health gymnastics, billiards, swimming and water fitness practices.

Methods and structure of the study. The model piloting and testing experiment was performed at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in the academic years of 2016-18 (240 hours in total), with the 1-2-year economics student sample split up into an Experimental Group (EG, n=82) and Reference Group (RG, n=80). The physical education service (PES) model for students with special educational needs (SEN) was designed on a categorical basis for the following groups: visually-impaired group; group with musculoskeletal disorders/ disabilities (formally exempted from academic physical education classes); mentally retarded group; special health group; sporting group; and foreign students’ group.

The students with visual, respiratory and musculoskeletal system disorders (formally exempted of the academic PES) were engaged into the individualized research Sport Science Project (60 hours) as an alternative to the academic PES; plus billiards and darts trainings as the low-intensity physical practices to effectively mitigate their mental and emotional stresses, normalize the sympathetic and parasympathetic effects on the CNS, train eye muscles, distance judging, accuracy and motor agility (with the course taking 140 hours). The academic workshops for these groups (40 hours) included the energy balancing skills mastering workshop, steps counting, HR measurement, everyday energy cost rating procedures, industrial gymnastics and eye gymnastic practices.

The special health group was trained under a special training model including health gymnastics (low-intensity aerobics, Pilates, fitball, athletic gymnastics and stretching practices taking 90 hours), swimming and water fitness (100 hours of swimming, aquatic jogging, strength building and water aerobics practices) and billiards (50 hours) practices. The trainings were run in special subgroups, with 2/3 of each session time scheduled for the group practices and 1/3 for the individualized trainings customized to the actual health disorders. The group with musculoskeletal disorders/ disabilities (formally exempted from PES classes) was offered the research project activity, billiards, energy balancing skills mastering workshop, steps counting, industrial gymnastics and eye gymnastic practices.

The sporting students were offered vocational and optional group sports including volleyball, football, basketball, ice hockey and other sports as an alternative to the standard academic PES model. And the foreign students were offered special video-fitness practices, swimming and athletic gymnastic practices assisted by the English-speaking instructors. The training model designs were based on the V.V. Lebedinsky’s classification of health disorders: see Figure 1 hereunder.

Figure 1. Physical education service model for students with special educational needs

Note: MSS musculoskeletal system; MR mental retardations

The progress test exercises for the special health group include: dip-ups test; medicine ball throw test; sitting body bend test; one-leg balance test; plank execution test; squats with a gymnastic stick; aerobics test; 30-second squats test; knee push-ups test; and hyperextension on a gymnastic mat test. The progress test exercises and credits for the groups released of the standard academic PES include: billiards skill tests (lined balls potting test; middle/ corner potting test; Finnish frame test; and 14 balls break-and-pot test); billiards competitions; and some other billiards skills test; plus contributions to the Student Research Conferences on Academic PES and Healthy Lifestyles; and industrial gymnastics. The progress test credits for the sporting groups include: individual contributions to the group trainings; sport-special physical fitness tests; and competitive accomplishments. And the progress test exercises for the foreign students are the same as for the special health groups.

Study findings and discussion. The special physical education service model for the students with health limitations was tested beneficial as verified by the EG versus RG significant progress in the physical fitness rates (see Table 1 hereunder) including: 14 to 6 min progress in the endurance rating swimming test (р<0.05);  9 to 15 times progress in the dip-ups test (р<0.05); 19 to 30 times progress in squats test (р<0.05); 16 to 40 times progress in the shoulder joint flexibility test (р<0.05), with the male/ female group performance rated good and excellent; -7 to -16 times progress in the sitting bends tests (р<0.05), with the EG performance rated excellent; and 18 to 26s progress in the balancing test (р<0.05). In the lined balls potting test the EG performance was rated by 4.5 points versus the RG rate of 3.4 points. In the Finnish frame test both the EG and RG showed good and excellent performance. The 14 balls break-and-pot test showed a significant progress of the EG versus RG, with 4.9 versus 3.3 points. It may be concluded, therefore, the EG showed a significant progress versus the RG in the movement coordination, agility and the potting technique tests.

The model offered special billiards competitions for the groups released of the academic PES, with the simplified competitive skills tests to rate the following: knowledge of the game rules and rules of competitions, the competitive scoring, eliminating and drawing rules; and the competitive reporting and awarding rules and standards. As demonstrated by Table 1 hereunder, limited competitions in the events like Finnish frame were found to facilitate the group progress in the movement coordination, agility and accuracy and improve the individual mental qualities and motivations for the academic and off-class trainings.

Table 1. Pre- versus post-experimental physical progress tests indices of the EG versus RG

Note: X͞ mean arithmetic value; σ mean square deviation; * significant difference (р<0.05); ** significant intergroup difference

It should be noted that the pre-experimental functionality tests of the SEN sample showed, for instance, that the heart rates averaged 95.8 and 89.3 beats per min in the female and male groups, respectively, with the group integrated functionality rated by ‘satisfactory’ 70-80 points indicative of the poor functionality.

Conclusion. The special physical education service model for students with special educational needs was tested beneficial as verified by the significant progress of the EG versus RG in the physical fitness rates and moderate progress in the functionality rates.

The study was supported by an internal grant financing from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics under the Physical Education and Sports Specialist Advancement Course: Theoretical and Practical Provisions Development and Implementation Project.

References

1. Goncharova L., Kukushkina O. I. Rebenok s osobymi obrazovatelnymi potrebnostyami [Child with special educational needs]. Almanakh Instituta korrektsionnoy pedagogiki RAO. 5/2002. [Electronic resource]. Available at: http://www.ise.iip.net/almanah/5/st04.htm.
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6. Ulyaeva G.G. Sotsialno-psikhologicheskaya adaptatsiya studentov s posledstviyami detskogo tserebralnogo paralicha, sredstvami adaptivnoy fizicheskoy kultury. Avtoref. dis. kand. ped. nauk [Adaptive physical education for socio-psychological adaptation of students suffering from infantile cerebral palsy. PhD diss. abstract]. Moscow, 2004, 22 p.
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8. Shutova T.N. Fitnes i kompyuternye tekhnologii v optimizatsii fizicheskogo vospitaniya studentov [Fitness and computer technologies to optimize academic physical education]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 3, P. 101.

Corresponding author: mamonova-o-v@mail.ru

Abstract

The study was performed at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in the academic years of 2016-18, with the economics students’ sample split up into an Experimental Group (EG, n=82) and Reference Group (RG, n=80). The special physical education service model for the students with health limitations was designed on a categorical basis for the following groups: visually-impaired group; group with musculoskeletal disorders/ disabilities (formally exempted from academic physical education classes); mentally retarded group; special health group; sporting group; and foreign students’ group. The special health group was trained under a special training model including therapeutic gymnastics, swimming, water fitness and billiards practices; the group with musculoskeletal disorders/ disabilities (formally exempted from classes) was offered research project activity, billiards, energy balancing skills mastering workshop, steps counting, industrial gymnastics and eye gymnastic practices. The special physical education service model for students with special educational needs was tested beneficial as verified by the significant and significant progress of the EG versus RG in the physical fitness indices and moderate progress in the functionality indices.