Dr. Hab., Associate Professor G.V. Rudenko¹
O.V. Kostromin¹
V.A. Dorofeev^1
1St. Petersburg Mining University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: vocational training, field services, job responsibilities, physical education, physical qualities, labor efficiency.

Background. The national government and society rank the high-quality education service among the key priorities of the policies to facilitate the general and professional progress and human resource reproduction in the professional and cultural domains and one of the key prerequisites for progress of the national economy [2]. An academic study period is highly important in the personality development process when the cognitive and spiritual development needs are met and the individual gifts are mobilized and employed by a variety of the traditional education methods and tools plus the self-reliant learning and cultural formats [1, 6].

Vocational physical education formats for different academic specialties are in growing priority today, with the academic curricula being increasingly enriched by a range of the vocational physical education service models and tools. However, the vocational physical education service design and content related issues for technical universities are still underdeveloped.

Objective of the study was to develop and test benefits of a new customizable special vocational physical education model for the field specialists including the relevant service-specific physical education and sports curriculum.

Methods and structure of the study. In the period of 2016-17 we run a questionnaire survey of students in the field practices, certified geologists and physical education faculty members from 20 technical universities in Saint Petersburg to analyze the situation with the special vocational physical education service. For the purposes of the study, the academic physical education and sports staff members visited the geological companies that the students and graduates worked for to explore their responsibilities and actual job conditions and produce job descriptions (profession profiling diagrams and passports).  

Results and discussion. The questionnaire surveys generated the data to profile the service-specific physical workloads, stresses and fatigues: see Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Field geologists’ fatigue profiling survey data, %

As demonstrated by the above data, of the dorsal and leg muscles fatigue, visual system fatigue and overall fatigue were reportedly dominating; with the auditory system fatigue reported mostly by the drilling rig crew members exposed to a heavy noise. The high nervous system fatigue by the end of a field season may be explained by the long-lasting service-specific discomfort and risks associated with the pressure of the managerial responsibility for the crew members’ health and lives. It should be mentioned that the high fatigue of the key functional systems as a result of long pressure of different service-specific stressors and environments is known to pave the way for a variety of job-specific diseases and injuries.

Based on the above questionnaire survey data, we would offer the vocational physical education service for the engineering geologists being designed to:

1. Develop good overall/ strength/ special endurance, explosive strength, fast response, overall dexterity, coordination and fine motor control qualities and skills in the future geologists;
2. Step up the unspecific endurance and tolerance to a variety of the service-specific discomforts and stressors including the high/ low outdoor temperatures, solar radiation and other potentially harmful weather and industrial conditions;
3. Develop the attention control skills (attention scope, switchover, distribution, concentration and stability), short- and long-term memorizing skills, good eye and fast thinking;
4. Develop high willpower (courage, decisiveness, and self-control); and
5. Help master the job-specific knowledge and skills.

For the vocational physical education service improvement purposes, the Saint Petersburg Mining University management has long cultivated the sport disciplines of special benefits for progress in specific specialties and professional groups [3, 4] including mountaineering, all forms of tourism, competitive orienteering etc. [5]. Generally the physical education service at the Geology Department of Saint Petersburg Mining University may be classified into (1) traditional physical training service; and (2) vocational physical education service.

The traditional physical training trainings are dominated by practices in the optional sport disciplines particularly popular at the university like volleyball, basketball, football, swimming, martial arts etc. (group of the service-specific sports dominated by mountaineering, tourism and competitive orienteering); with the individual progress tested by regular standard traditional physical training tests. And the vocational physical education service trainings are designed and managed as required for success of the future service-specific missions of the geology students.

Our analysis of the regular traditional physical training system design and progress statistics showed that the regular academic traditional physical training curriculum largely fails to develop the job-specific qualities, abilities and skills in the geology students. The physical education service deficiency was successfully corrected by special vocational physical education courses (28 hours each) in the field practices for the first- and second-year students of the Geologic Survey Department.

Conclusion. Benefits of the vocational physical education field courses for the Saint Petersburg Mining University geology students were verified by their professional qualities/ skills tests, plus excellent feedback from their field service managers and supervisors.

References

1. Grakhov V.P., Kislykova Yu.G., Simokova U.F. Formirovanie i razvitie tvorcheskogo potentsiala lichnosti studentov tekhnicheskikh vuzov [Formation and development of creative potential of technical students]. Zapiski Gornogo instituta, 2015, vol. 213, pp. 110-113.
2. Kazanin O.I., Drebenshtedt K. Gornoe obrazovanie v XXI veke: globalnye vyzovy i perspektiva [Mining in the XXI century: global challenges and prospects]. Zapiski Gornogo instituta, 2017, vol. 225, pp. 369-375.
3. Kostromin O.V., Rudenko G.V., Dorofeev V.A. Professionalno-prikladnaya podgotovka studentov gornykh spetsialnostey na osnove izbrannogo vida sporta [Vocational-sports-driven professional training model for university students specialties based on chosen type of sport]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2018, no. 4, pp. 37-39.
4. Panchenko I.A., Volkov A.V., Bolotin A.E. Pedagogicheskaya model obespecheniya fizicheskoy gotovnosti lichnogo sostava gornospasatelnykh podrazdeleniy [Pedagogical model of physical training of rescue units personnel]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2014, no. 2, pp. 32-34.
5. Panchenko I.A., Rudenko G.V. Professionalnaya podgotovka studentov polevykh spetsialnostey sredstvami i metodami fizicheskoy kultury [Professional training of field students by means of physical education]. Chelovek i obrazovanie, 2010, no. 2, pp. 103-106.
6. Rudenko G.V., Panchenko I.A. Rol pedagogicheskikh usloviy v protsesse podgotovki spetsialista v vysshey shkole [Role of teaching conditions in university specialist training process]. Zapiski Gornogo instituta, 2011, vol. 193, pp. 143-145.

Corresponding author: gena39@mail.ru

Abstract

Studies of the individual vocational qualities critical for success of a geological service demonstrate that the existing physical education system in application to the future professional geologists with its range of academic sports largely fails to meet the growing service-specific requirements and cultivate good tolerance to fatigue. Objective of the study was to develop and test benefits of a new customizable special vocational physical education model for the field specialists including the relevant service-specific physical education and sports curriculum. In the period of 2016-17 we run a questionnaire survey of students in the field practices, plus surveyed certified geologists and physical education faculty members from 20 technical universities in Saint Petersburg to analyze the situation with the special vocational physical education service. For the purposes of the study, the academic physical education and sports staff members visited the geological companies that the students and graduates worked for to explore their responsibilities and actual job conditions and produce job descriptions (profession profiling diagrams and passports). Based on the survey data, we outlined requirements to the key personality qualities and skills critical for success of the geologic services and offered a set of goals for the special vocational physical education service model. The new special vocational physical education service model benefits were verified by the academic physical progress records of the future field specialists