PhD A.I. Grebennikov¹
Department Head, PhD E.A. Zyurin^2
1FSBI “Saint-Petersburg Physical Culture Research Institute
²FSBI “Federal Science Center for Physical Culture and Sport”, Moscow

Corresponding author: agrebenn@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to survey the young school physical education teachers’ progress encouragement initiatives and analyze their practical benefits.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed, for the purposes of the study, the relevant available study reports and run a questionnaire survey of 50 school principals from St. Petersburg and schoolchildren covered by the HBSC research program. We selected three most promising young school physical education teacher encouragement options from the following nine ones offered by the respondents: (1) special progress facilitating environments for the young teacher; (2) analysis of the young teacher’s social, personal and psychological traits, ambitions and needs; (3) young teacher associations; (4) innovative domains for the young teacher’s creativity and progress; (5) special provisions to facilitate the young teacher careers; (6) young teacher contests supported by the municipal and regional authorities; (7) success histories and experiences of the best young teachers; (8) professional synergy of the best pedagogical practices for the young teacher’s progress; and (9) modern mentoring service sensitive to the individual gifts and ambitions to facilitate the young teacher growth with the growing appreciation from the students of their physical education service.

Results and conclusion. We found no significant intergroup differences in the reported physical activity.

 The questionnaire survey data and analyses found the school principles giving the key role to the welcoming and supportive school climates for the young teacher, with the innovative domains for their creativity and ambitions to facilitate engagement of the schoolchildren to the physical education service. These initiatives will be designed to encourage the young teacher’s professional progress agendas and mitigate the high emotional stressors to avoid overstrain and burnouts not unusual in the maiden periods and secure good adaptation to the teaching staff and school community on the whole. The young teacher’s adaptation options found by the questionnaire survey has been proved beneficial.

Keywords: adaptation, young teacher, continuous professional development.

Background. Young physical education teachers’ progress at schools has been encouraged by the priority national educational policies as provided by the National Education Project [1], regional Future Teacher Project [3, 4] and the valid Professional Pedagogical Service Standards [2]; with every initiative corrected based on the practical service experience and using the traditional institutional and practical support toolkit for the young teacher to contribute to progress of the relevant educational institutions. The educational system, however, has reported deficiencies in the future teachers' professional commitments, since many physical education graduates are hesitant to face the adaptation challenges in new teams where they have to cooperate with much more experienced partners with different approaches and values systems. They also doubt they will be offered good progress opportunities to fully mobilize their creativity, and these and other doubts and concerns often force them to retire. The schools in their turn are often reluctant to address the specific problems faced by the young teachers – referred herein as the beginners with at most three-year experiences.

Objective of the study was to survey the young school physical education teachers’ progress encouragement initiatives and analyze their practical benefits.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed, for the purposes of the study, the relevant available study reports and run a questionnaire survey of 50 school principals from St. Petersburg and schoolchildren covered by the HBSC research program. We selected three most promising young school physical education teacher encouragement options from the following nine ones offered by the respondents: (1) special progress facilitating environments for the young teacher; (2) analysis of the young teacher’s social, personal and psychological traits, ambitions and needs; (3) young teacher associations; (4) innovative domains for the young teacher’s creativity and progress; (5) special provisions to facilitate the young teacher careers; (6) young teacher contests supported by the municipal and regional authorities; (7) success histories and experiences of the best young teachers; (8) professional synergy of the best pedagogical practices for the young teacher’s progress; and (9) modern mentoring service sensitive to the individual gifts and ambitions to facilitate the young teacher growth with the growing appreciation from the students of their physical education service.

Results and discussion. The sample emphasized every of the above options being important for the young teacher adaptation although the special progress facilitating environments and peer support for the young teacher were ranked on top (72%). Ranked second was the innovative domain for the young teacher’s creativity (68%) followed in the third place by the physical education progress agendas sensitive provisions to facilitate the young teacher’s growth with the students’ growing appreciation of the school physical education service (60%).

To rank the potential benefits of the above young teacher’s adaptation options, we surveyed the school students (1) from the physical education classes served by the young teacher subject to these options (Teacher A); and (2) served by the more experienced (having three-plus-year experiences) school physical education teachers (Teacher B). The survey was designed to rate the students’ appreciation of the physical education service, physical activity and teacher’s support. Groups A and B were tested significantly (р<0.05) different in responses to the question "Do you like the physical education classes?" (Figure 1) and opting for "I do trust my teachers" (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Shares highly appreciating the physical education services by Teachers A and B

Figure 2. Shares highly trusting Teachers A and B

We found no significant intergroup differences in the reported physical activity (р<0.05).

Conclusion. The questionnaire survey data and analyses found the school principles giving the key role to the welcoming and supportive school climates for the young teacher, with the innovative domains for their creativity and ambitions to facilitate engagement of the schoolchildren in the physical education service. These initiatives will be designed to encourage the young teacher’s professional progress agendas and mitigate the high emotional stressors to avoid overstrain and burnouts not unusual in the maiden periods and secure good adaptation to the teaching staff and school community on the whole. The young teacher’s adaptation options found by the questionnaire survey has been proved beneficial.

References

1. Passport of the national project "Education" 02/11/2019 [Electronic resource] Available at: http://government.ru/info/35566/ (date of access: 19.06.2020).
2. Order of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation of October 18, 2013 No. 544 n "On approval of the professional standard" Teacher" (with amendments and additions) [Electronic resource] Available at: https://base.garant.ru/70535556/ (date of access: 19.06.2020).
3. Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 31, 2019 No. 3273-r "On the approval of the basic principles of the national system of professional growth of teachers in the Russian Federation, including the national teacher development system" [Electronic resource] Available at: https://www.garant.ru/products/ipo/prime/doc/73284005/ (date of access 19.06.2020).
4. Regional project "Teacher of the Future". [Electronic resource] Available at: https://spbappo.ru/uchitel-budushchego/ (date of access: 19.06.2020).