J.A. Karvunis¹
Dr. Med., Professor L.V. Kapilevich^{1, 2
1}National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk
²Siberian State Medical University, Tomsk

Keywords: sports tourism, children and youth tourism, supplementary education, tourism with local history studies, physical education and recreation, physical education and sports, healthy lifestyle.

Background. For the last decade, the relevant Russian governmental agencies have given a special priority to modern education technologies and concepts to improve the educational service standards for the young population groups [1, 2]. Of special interest in this context is the range of modern children and youth tourism services with their patriotic education basics, natural environment awareness and practical physical education and recreation elements [3, 4]. special tourism with local history study programs well-designed and enthusiastically implemented by the sector professionals could be of special benefits for these initiatives.

Objective of the study was to analyze the existing children and youth tourism services in the supplementary education system with a special priority to their sporting, physical education and recreation elements.

Methods and structure of the study. The first stage of the study was designed to analyze the contents and ranges of the tourism-prioritizing supplementary education programs in the Tomsk Oblast supported by the state personified funding system in the 2019-20 academic year. Subject to analysis were 295 supplementary education programs including 24 for the children and youth population with special health needs; with 238 programs reported to prioritize the physical education and recreation service; 17 natural scientific studies; and 8 social studies, with every program reporting different priority physical education and recreation and sporting components. And 32 special purely physical education and sports programs offer trainings in sports tourism techniques and technologies, refereeing service basics and sports excellence trainings with expected sports qualifications. The second stage of the study was designed to comprehensively analyze contents of the training programs on an age-specific basis.

Results and discussion. We analyzed the tourism-prioritizing supplementary education programs to prioritize their cultural, educational, and developmental aspects for the children and youth tourism service: see Figure 1 hereunder. Most of the regional programs were found to prioritize hiking with local history studies, and only a few – cycling tourism services.

Figure 1. Priorities of the children and youth tourism supplementary education programs with the tourism with local history elements

Every program includes 1 to 8 modules for the 5-18 year-olds, with the preschool programs (for 5-7 year-olds) found to make up only 6% of the total – that means that this service sector is still heavily underdeveloped. Most of the programs offer staged trainings for the 10-16 year-olds, plus many of them include advanced training modules for the 16-18 year-olds inclusive. Age classes in the children and youth tourism programs are rather important for their design and priorities, since the children and adolescents have special needs for cognitive and active elements, whilst more adult population tends to prioritize the emotional and practical (‘consumer’) elements of the services [2]. Based on the content analysis of the supplementary education programs, we categorized their services as follows on an age-specific basis.

Physical education and health service geared to form the children and youth health agendas and motivations, i.e. health-sensitive attitudes to own body with needs for habitual physical education, healthy lifestyles, good personal hygienic habits etc. This children and youth tourism service component is also intended to secure progress in general physical fitness and every physical quality (movement coordination, dexterity, endurance, strength etc.), with a conscious recreational activity.

Sporting service to form the sports tourism knowledgebase with tourist training basics; primary knowledge of modern tourist technologies and tactics; natural obstacles crossing and survival skills; with a special priority to the physical training elements; trainings for sports qualifications in tourism, other relevant sports and coaching service; plus competitive experience accumulation, sportsmanship and discipline building elements.

Psychological and communicative progress service element makes an emphasis on the individual communicative skills and core mental qualities including the leadership/ managerial ones – for successful socialization of the children and youth trainees; to make them fit for good teamwork and cooperation under pressure, on a tolerant, friendly and constructive basis.

Research element is intended to encourage the research and project skills building, natural studies, progress planning and forecasting capacities – to help students learn how to mine data, find key facts, analyze, systematize and present the collected materials.

Life safety service element is geared to develop survival skills in natural environments in the hiking and competitive events and expeditions based on the sound life safety knowledge and practical experience. The trainees are expected to develop the extreme/ unexpected situation analyzing/ coping/ response skills based on a perfect knowledge of the individual/ team safety standards and requirements.

Creative element encourages self-assertion of the children and youth trainees in the creative, intellectual and practical thinking and design domains, with a special emphasis on the creative gifts and skills development aspects – including the tourist equipment design, operation and maintenance skills.

Local history and environmental study element familiarizes the CT trainees with the local natural, cultural and historical heritage and attractions for the local, federal and international tourism, with a special emphasis on the patriotic education and environmental sensitivity components.

Professional identification element facilitates basic vocational awareness and training in the tourist and recreational service domains.

Based on the content analysis, we prioritized the above children and youth tourism training service elements on an age-specific basis and rated them on an 8-point scale: see Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Supplementary education program elements and priorities for the age groups

Conclusion. The study data and analyses found the physical education and recreation and sporting elements being dominant in every children and youth tourism program. The sporting physical education and recreation programs for the children and youth population give a special priority to the above service aspects irrespective of the age groups. The tourism with local history, natural science and social studies prioritizing children and youth tourism programs for beginners (9-11 and 12-13 years-olds) still rank the physical education and health element on top of the list of priorities till the basics of the relevant tourist techniques and technologies are fully mastered by the trainees.

References

1. Alieva L.V. Tourism and local history activity - innovative block of educational system. Vestnik akademii detsko-yunosheskogo turizma i kraevedeniya. 2016. No.4. pp. 116-129.
2. Shipko A.L. Children and youth tourism in context of scientific research. Vestnik akademii detsko-yunosheskogo turizma i kraevedeniya. 2018. No. 1. pp. 90-105.
3. Karvunis J.A., Kapilevich, L.V. Specificity of fitness and recreational programs in children and youth tourism. Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury. 2016. No. 2, pp.86-87.
4. Karvunis Yu.A., Kapilevich L.V. General cultural competence building at sport and health tourism sessions. Teoriya I Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury. 2016. No. 6, pp.89-90.

Corresponding author: juliakarvounis@gmail.com

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the supplementary education programs in the field of children's and youth tourism and highlight the specifics of physical education and sports components in their realization.

Methods and structure of the study. At the first stage of the study, we conducted quantitative and content analyses of the supplementary education programs for children and youth in a given region (Tomsk region) implemented within the state personal finance system in the 2019/2020 academic year. The total number of the analyzed tourism-related educational programs amounted to 295. At the second stage, we carried out the content analysis of the selected components of educational programs for individual age groups of students.

Results and conclusions. The results obtained indicate that the physical education and sports components are leading in all tourism-oriented supplementary programs for children and youth. In terms of physical education and sports programs, the predominance of these components over others is characteristic of all age groups. Programs concerned with tourism, local history, natural science, and social pedagogy give priority to the components of the corresponding specialization, however, at the initial stages (9-11 years and 12-13 years), their health and fitness component remains at the forefront until students have completed their training in tourism techniques and technologies.