PhD, Professor I.I. Gotovtsev¹
PhD, Associate Professor T.K. Kolesova¹
Dr. Hab., Professor M.D. Gulyaev¹
PhD E.V. Korzhin^1
1Churapcha State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, Churapcha, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Keywords: integration, vocational physical education, continuity, succession, curriculum, interdisciplinary basis, special vocational education, academic education.

Background. Modern physical education service is multidimensional i.e. may be provisionally categorized into at least general, special and vocational physical education service. General physical education service is provided (as a process and result) by schools, gymnasiums, colleges, technical schools and universities. Special physical education services are provided by the children and youth sports schools varying in the types and missions. As to the vocational physical education service, it may be defined as more specific and designed on a sound socio-philosophical, biomedical, psychological and pedagogical basis so as to effectively control the physically educated personality formation process and sports trainings – and successfully employ the physical education service resource for the therapeutic, rehabilitation, military training and other missions. The vocational physical education service is provided by the secondary education system (schools, colleges, technical schools) and higher education establishments. Traditionally every education stage sets for the trainees a certain social service goal that largely overlaps the primary goal of the next training stage; whilst the stage mission is always to secure a reasonably complete education. The system, however, allows those who have not completed the prior education stage to qualify for the next education stage – that means that the entrants to either stage may widely vary in their background trainings.

Objective of the study was to provide a theoretical basis for an integrated vocational physical education curricula with a clear hierarchy and harmony of the education service stages.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the education curricula in module 1 of the standard academic education curriculum including 27 obligatory, 17 basic and 12 optional disciplines; and the secondary vocational education curriculum broken down into the GHSE (general humanitarian and socio-economic cycle including 8 disciplines; NS (natural sciences and mathematics cycle including 3 disciplines); and GVD (general vocational disciplines – 12 disciplines in 3 modules). We used the V.V. Zhebsainom’s method for analysis.

Integration may be interpreted as the process and result of an inextricable unification of many elements, i.e. "a system movement and development process with the growing elementary interactions and their intensities, with the mutual elementary connection intensified and the relative independence of the elements restricted" [4]. It is not enough for an analysis to track the connections as such from their point of emergence to their established relationships. It is important to understand exactly how this connection occurs. The concept of integration may equip us with the knowledge and method to design a didactic process for an integrated system.

The existing academic teaching practices need to updated on a creative basis pursuant to the Concept of the Federal Education Service Development Program for 2016–2020 approved by the Government of the Russian Federation Decree No. 2765-r dated December 29, 2014 and to comply with the new-generation FSES that give a special priority to the general cultural and vocational competences. A teacher is expected to excel the educational service by the efforts to encourage the students’ cognitive qualities and thinking skills, motivate them for learning, and help develop their vocational competences in the general cultural domain.

Integrative processes in the educational system are manifested in every service component. Education curricula integration means the unification of the educational service elements, modules and components in every disciplinary field and across them. The initiatives to ensure interdisciplinary connections in the curricula may include: coordination of subjective knowledge; coherence and continuity of the curricula; integration and harmonization of the educational materials around the core ideas and fields for cognition.

In the early 1990s the national educational system experiences a mass supply of various integrated courses which were designed to bridge the well-known serious gaps and deficiencies in the traditional educational service, particularly the fragmentation of the academic disciplines that gave virtually no chance for the students to develop a holistic world outlook, etc.

For the last few years, the national research community has come up with many study reports on the education service integration in the general and vocational education systems (V.S. Bezrukova, A.P. Belyaeva, M.N. Berulava, V.V. Guzeev, Y.S. Tyunnikov, O.M. Kuznetsova, L.D. Fedotova, N.K. Chapaev et al.). The study reports have analyzed different integration levels on the whole and the training material integration solutions in particular, with every of these integration levels implying a certain degree of interconnections of the educational service elements.

In addition, due consideration should be given to the horizontal and vertical correlations of the integrated objects, with the horizontal integration links established between the studied disciplines, their elements, human progress aspects (intellectual, spiritual, moral, labor, physical, aesthetic, communicative, etc.), individual personality qualities, key education technologies, models, methods, teaching tools etc. Subject to the vertical integration are vocational education service levels, general and vocational objects, different social roles accessible in every life stage, individual qualities etc. Vocational education service integration by an educational establishment implies the following:

• Integration of educational curricula, with a special priority to the staged education process continuity and harmony; and

• Interdisciplinary integration, with the relevant connections.

The national educational system has accumulated valuable experience of successive educational curricula in the secondary vocational to academic education model in related specialties. This experience and training model gives a frame solution for the problem since the study fields of the secondary vocational and academic education systems are the same for the related specialties.

Results and discussion. The Churapcha State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports (CSIPCS) faculty has successfully implemented an experimental integrated Continuous Regional physical education Service Curriculum that covers the preschool, school and university physical education service domains. Content of the experimental physical education service curriculum was formed via integration of the ethnic and federal physical education curricula [1] into an integrated network of continued education designed to form a holistic personality, with a special attention to the ethnic physical education domain. The experimental physical education service curriculum includes the following 4 stages:

Stage 0 is the preparatory preschool physical education service stage for the early physical development;

Stage 1 is the elementary school (grades 1-4) physical education, with the school securing a gradual transition to the developmental education service, and with the children encouraged to opt for certain sports groups;

Stage 2 is the basic physical education (grades 5-8) with sports classes composed since grade 5 and with every student specialized in the preferred sport;

Stage 3 is the pre-vocational training stage (grades 9-11) with an advanced pre-vocational training service; and

Stage 4 is the vocational training (vocational physical education) period.

This particular integrated physical education specialist training model secures integration of two general vocational physical education service stages namely: secondary vocational education plus the academic bachelor (stage 1) and master (stage 2) education levels. The integrated physical education curriculum was developed based on an analysis of the internal logics and requirements of the relevant state education standards, since they formulate the federal requirements for the vocational education service in every stage.

Every discipline in the staged education curriculum is expected to build up the required specialist’s qualities, competences and skills, although the practical disciplinary inputs may differ. Some disciplines will form only a minor part of the future specialist’s competences and skills. For example, the Physical Education and Sports Theory and History discipline at the special vocational physical education stage forms competences in the Fundamentals of the Physical Education and Sports Theory and Practice at the academic education level. On the other hand, there are a few secondary vocational to academic education-level and academic-level disciplines that form almost every specialist quality – for example the Vocational Sport with Training and Competitive Event Management Service Basics discipline at the secondary vocational to academic education level and Sports Training Technologies in Vocational Sport discipline at the academic level.

Thus every level includes some discipline that consolidates and finalizes the education cycle (different from a cycle of disciplines), i.e. a cycle of disciplines is logically crowned with this “mega-discipline”. Even the prime-level disciplines are consolidated by the lower-level mega-disciplines which subject areas include the elementary independent disciplines as dictated by the historical segmentation (for example, Pedagogy discipline in the secondary vocational to academic education). Such discipline completes the educational cycle. The key difference of the secondary vocational to academic education and academic education curricula is the interpretation of the subject areas in terms of mega-discipline Pedagogy and pursuant to the secondary vocational to academic education / academic education service missions and goals.

The Churapcha State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports faculty developed the integrated curriculum on the common principles of consistency and concretization of general didactic units in mega-disciplines and other disciplines, plus the following principles:

Succession principle that implies that the integrated curriculum includes the secondary vocational to academic education / academic education disciplines, with their contents being developed based on the prior education levels.

Continuity principle that secures the time gaps in the vocational module being bridged, with virtually all disciplines studied on an uninterrupted basis. Continuity principle in the studies ensures the academic subjects being logically complete and harmonized so that the teacher and student could: highlight the basic didactic units in the educational materials; generalize them; develop a holistic perception of the educational material; and successfully form a systemic knowledgebase for practical service.

Conclusion. The Churapcha State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports faculty has successfully developed and implemented the integrated vocational physical education curricula with a clear hierarchy of the educational service stages so that every stage secures a complete and values-centered education.

References

1. Gotovtsev I.I. Ethno-pedagogical aspects of physical education of schoolchildren (based on experience of youth sports school of Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)). M.: Sputnik publ., 2006. 135 p.
2. Zhebsain V.V. Principles of integration of educational programs with multi-level form of training of software engineers. Problems and prospects of training for industrial complex of the RS (Y): Abstracts of NPK reports. Yakutsk, 2003. pp. 31-36.
3. The concept of the Federal target program for development of education for 2016-2020, approved by order of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014 No. 2765-r.
4. Paveltsig G. Integrative trends in the modern world and social progress. M.: MSU publ., 1989.  184 p.

Corresponding author: kolesovatk@list.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to scientifically substantiate the pervasive content of vocational physical education with due succession in structuring of educational materials at different levels of student course.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the subject matter of the disciplines being included in the curricula of various levels of student course under Block 1: for higher education - a total of 56 disciplines; for secondary vocational education - a total of 23 disciplines, and 3 professional modules.

Results of the study. Each level of student course includes a discipline that terminates the educational cycle (not a cycle of disciplines), i.e. all disciplines are logically completed with a "mega-discipline", which contributes to the formation of basic qualities of a future specialist. At the same time, at the basic level, there are also mega-disciplines of the lower level, the knowledge domain of which expands and breaks down into independent disciplines, historically derived from the main course units. Originating from a mega-discipline in vocational education, they culminate in a mega-discipline of the highest level. This is how a full educational cycle terminates. The principle of succession implies that academic disciplines are to be preserved in an integrated curriculum, as provided by the standards for the levels of student course in the secondary vocational and higher education systems, and that their content is expected to be developed on the basis of previous education levels. The principle of continuity implies the absence of temporary gaps in the process of mastering academic disciplines of the professional module and part of the educational relationships formed between the participants. Almost all disciplines are studied continuously. Continuity of the educational process creates an effect of logical completeness of the student course.

Conclusion. At Churapcha State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, they built up the pervasive content of vocational physical education based on due succession in structuring of educational materials. At the same time, they ensured the completeness and inherent value of each training stage.