Dr. Hab., Associate Professor L.I. Kostyunina¹
PhD O.S. Nazarenko¹
PhD E.E. Panova^1
1Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N. Ulyanov, Ulyanovsk

Keywords: morality, motivations, values, professional identity, graduates, Physical Education and Sports Department, professional service, model, professional sports specialist excellence.

Background. University graduates may be viewed as a valuable human resource and progress driver for the national education system, modern technologies and industries, i.e. the future national intellectual elite. The human resource morality (that may be interpreted as the ability to establish healthy social relationship and assess every social event and phenomenon in the categories of right and wrong) largely determines the professional service quality in every professional service progress stage. When the individual morality of a physical education and sport service specialist is substandard, even when the professional competencies and skills are well developed, his/ her teaching or coaching service may never be productive and successful [1, 4, 5]

Objective of the study was to develop and test benefits of a morality cultivation model for professional progress of the future physical education and sport service specialists.

Methods and structure of the study. We sampled for the new morality cultivation model testing experiment the 2- and 3-year students (n=36) of the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University’s Physical Education and Sports Department split up into Experimental and Control Groups (EG, CG) of 18 people each. The CG was trained as required by the standard curricula; and the EG was trained so as to cultivate high morality with valuable personality qualities of special benefits for the professional service in the vocational sport disciplines and professional sports specialist excellence (PSSE) disciplines.

Results and discussion. Trainings in the vocational sport disciplines and professional sports specialist excellence (PSSE) disciplines give a special priority to the key personality qualities of the future specialists including perseverance, integrity, decision-making, responsibility, willpower, and resource mobilization in the challenging professional service situations. It should be mentioned that the joint academic studies always develop in students the ability to recognize and appreciate valuable personality qualities in their teammates, differentiate the individual business-specific and personality traits, and, hence, develop their own pedagogical service styles customizable to the individual qualities of the trainees.

Underdeveloped morality is known to be associated with remissness and dishonesty in academic studies with the desire to gain for free, with minimal efforts, and these corrupt behavioral models cannot but later on manifest themselves in the professional service. It is not unusual for the theoretical and practical trainings to put the students in the situations of choice when he/ she may either honestly solve the problems in the self-reliant trainings with no control/ assistance from the teacher (as is the case in the cross-trainings and other independent training models) or abuse the situation to ease the workload. Particularly disruptive for the further professional growth and integrity is the fact that the dishonesty may become habitual and detrimental for the professional competences, skills, personality qualities and future career, values and lifestyle on the whole [2, 3, 5].

We have developed a morality cultivation model (see Figure 1 hereunder) for professional progress of a future physical education and sport specialist including the following components: professional service motivations; professional service goal-setting; plus the key personality qualities building methods and tools customizable to the service responsibilities. It is the professional service motivations that largely determine the student’s attitudes to the academic studies and progress and his/her commitment for creative and cognitive research and growth. We have classified the Physical Education and Sports Department students’ professional service motivations as follows:

– Master, on a systemic basis, modern professional service competences for success, with a special role played by the self-reliant supplementary studies. Motivated students actively contribute to every creative/ research project or event; and are highly successful in every academic work and initiative due to such moral qualities as determination, initiative, independence, responsibility, efficiency, discipline, etc.;

– Master the professional knowledgebase and practical skills to successfully qualify for a good well-paid job with the desired progress opportunities. Motivated students normally work hard and reputed as diligent executives demonstrating reasonably humble progress ambitions. Their moral qualities include conscientious attitudes to the studies, diligence, discipline, responsibility and independence;

– Get higher education and find a good job. This group tends to learn hard mostly for the academic credits. Their moral standards are generally lower than the above in terms of responsibility, diligence, professional ambitions and self-assertion agenda.

Figure 1. Physical education and sport specialist morality cultivation model

Goal-setting is one of the key components of the new model. A student’s ability to set individual goals based on the actual motivations and needs for successful professional service helps form the key personality qualities including determination and responsibility. The goals depend on what the student’s ambitions and expectations are in the professional service domain – Innovative teaching, national team coaching, management career, etc. Every of these specializations shall be supported by the relevant personality/ business qualities and driven by one of the management styles i.e. authoritarian, democratic or combined. Each of them has its requirements to the personality qualities, whilst the actual choice of the style may be dictated by the professional service specifics and individual traits of the physical education and sport specialist. The academic trainings mimicking the sports management/ coaching practices with different didactical styles may be tested in a variety of active games and modeled situations. These games and models has proved beneficial for the personality qualities profiling, analyzing and improvement purposes when supported by the individual correction and excellence tools applicable in the academic trainings.

The physical education and sport service mimicking games offer a few roles for the students including “teacher”, “excellent student”, “top-skilled sporting student”, “unhealthy student qualified with a special health group”, “lazy student”, “cheeky student”, “student who lost his sports uniform”, etc. The role games are strictly individual, with every actor expected to keep within the social frame of the role.

For example, the core idea of “I am a teacher” game is that a student runs a lesson acting as a teacher for the group widely varying in the personality qualities and academic progress rates. The game “I am a referee” trains the refereeing skills, with the student expected to be fair and expressly impartial dealing with the players and teams when settling the modeled conflict situations. A special attention will be given to the referee’s authority with the ability to justify his viewpoint and win trust of the competing teams. The referee must show profound knowledge of the rules of competition, perfect restraint, composure, firmness, perseverance and integrity. Such role games have proved highly beneficial for the specific educational missions as they facilitate the morality cultivation process to consolidate character and style of the future teacher.

The model testing academic experiment had been run for an academic year. Business and role games were designed to develop specific personal qualities, attitudes, volitional aspects, worldviews etc., with every game modeling some professional-service-specific situations. Prior to the games, the students were briefed on the game goals, requirements and necessary preparations, plus were given recommendations on what individual qualities/ skills should be given a special attention in the professional service modeling practice. In reflections and collective analyses after every game, the individual successes and failures were constructively discussed, with every execution drawback analyzed and corrective measures spelled out in detail.

In the academic experiment, the EG and CG were tested in a business game and role game, with the average group qualities and skills tested by qualified teachers on a 5-point scale. The pre- versus post-experimental tests found the CG making progress from 3.21±0.24 to 3.51±0.24 points (p>0.05) in the business game; and from 3.42±0.19 to 3.69±0.22 points (p>0.05) in the role game; versus the EG that made progress from 3.48±0.26 to 4.15±0.32 points (р<0.05) in the business game and from 3.31±0.27 to 4.06±0.35 points (р<0.05) in the role game. Therefore, the new model testing academic experiment  showed benefits of the morality cultivation toolkit as verified by the significant progress of the EG versus CG in the pre- versus post-experimental business game and role game tests.

Conclusion. A sound morality shall be ranked among the key prerequisites for successful professional growth of university graduates and their progress in every aspect in the practical education service. Modern academic education needs to prioritize not only the educational and professional competence building missions but also facilitate progress in the professionally valuable personality qualities of a future teacher based on the high moral and ethical standards.

References

1. Bal'sevich V.K. Natural and social resources of development of motor potential. M.: RSUPESYT publ. , 2012. 35p.
2. Kolesnik I.S. Boxer identity. M., 2007. 484 p.
3. Kolesnik I.S., Kostyunina L.I. Development of moral-volitional qualities as component of motor and intellectual activity. Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury. 2012. no.3. pp. 78-84.
4. Lubysheva L.I. Sport and socialization: from sport-centered methods to innovative socio-cultural projects. Fizicheskaya kultura: vospitanie, obrazovanie, trenirovka, 2017, no. 1, pp. 2-4.
5. Nazarenko L.D., Anisimova E.A. Parenting in sports. Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury i sporta publ.. М., 2015.  80 p.

Corresponding author: likost@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to develop a model of formation of morality as a factor in improvement of professional skills of future physical education and sport specialists.

Methods and structure of the study. The educational experiment involved the 2nd- and 3rd-year students of the Physical Education and Sport Faculty of FSBEI of HE Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after V.I. Ulyanov (n=36), who made up the Control and Experimental Groups, 18 students each. The Control Group subjects were trained according to the traditional physical education program. In the Experimental Group, the training process in the sport disciplines and professional-pedagogical sports skills perfection process were focused on the formation of personal qualities as required by the orientation of future professional activity.

Results of the study. We developed a model of formation of morality of future physical education and sport specialists; disclosed the contents of its main components. The results of expert evaluation of the students' personal and business qualities during the preparation for the role playing games and participation in them showed that the Experimental Group subjects had a higher level of formation of the leading personal qualities, organizational and pedagogical skills. The results of the educational experiment testified to the effectiveness of the model as applied to the process of training of the students of the Physical Education and Sport Faculty.

Conclusion. The search for the ways to effectively control professional becoming of graduates of the Physical Education and Sport Faculty should be viewed in conjunction with solution of personality formation issues. The problem of personal development of future physical education specialists is among the fundamental ones in the system of vocational training and arises from the need to understand personality traits of a future teacher, his value orientations, and behavioral characteristics.