Associate Professor, PhD A.V. Tokareva¹
Associate Professor, PhD O.V. Mironova¹
Associate Professor, PhD I.S. Moskalenko¹
Dr.Hab, Professor, Honorary Figure of Russian Higher Education A.E. Bolotin²
Associate Professor, PhD L.V. Yarchikovskaya^3
1Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg
²Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg
³Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: self-reliant aerobic training system, university students, educational model, intellectual workability, examinations.

Introduction. Under current conditions, university students are held responsible for being successful in examinations. Success is associated with a high level of intellectual workability. So, it is required to search for the new approaches to the maintenance of this high level of intellectual workability needed to solve complex tasks during examinations [9]. Therefore, an increasing level of students’ workability and physical fitness for examinations is one of the most important training objectives [2, 4, 7, 8].

The level of students’ intellectual workability must meet the requirements determined by the peculiarities of current examinations: what is important are speed of mental processes, large memory span, high working capacity, as well as attention concentration against the background of mental fatigue [1, 2]. In this connection, the main type of physical education is that focused on the maintenance of students’ intellectual workability at a high level. As seen from domestic and foreign research, the highest value during such training practices should be placed on aerobic exercises [3, 5, 6].

Experience has shown that during examinations it is rather difficult to conduct regular physical education classes under teachers’ supervision. In this view, the objective of physical education of university students during examinations changes, as exams make it a specific point to form self-reliant aerobic training process management skills to maintain high intellectual workability. At the same time, the analysis of teaching practice revealed an insufficient level of university students’ preparedness for a methodologically justified self-reliant aerobic training system aimed to maintain intellectual workability during examinations. A typical error here is insufficient methodological preparedness for scheduling and normalization of loads, self-reliant aerobic training system that would help maintain high-level intellectual workability during examinations. This has a negative impact on the level of students’ intellectual workability during the session [1, 2, 9].

All of the aforesaid indicates the need to search for new, more advanced approaches to the organization of physical training process in order to raise the level of university students’ methodological preparedness for self-reliant aerobic training system that would maintain their intellectual workability during examinations.

Objective of the study was to develop and substantiate a special model of formation in university students of self-reliant aerobic training process management skills for success in examinations.

Methods and structure of the study. In the course of our research we have created an educational model of formation in university students of self-reliant aerobic training process management skills for success in examinations (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Educational model of formation in university students of self-reliant aerobic training process management skills for success in examinations

This model ensured practical activities of teachers and students on the achievement of physical training goals during examinations with the use of aerobic exercises.

The most effective solution of the educational tasks serving the up-to-date educational purposes is to use the educational systems for the organization of the self-reliant aerobic training process. As the main form of teaching students the technique of self-reliant aerobic training we have developed an educational complex (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. The content of the educational complex to teach students the technique of aerobic training during examinations

The main methodological concept of the mentioned complex consisted in the attempt to regularly accomplish the main purposes of the training process aimed to improve students’ intellectual workability during examinations.

This complex provided the informational content for the purposes of self-reliant aerobic training practices aimed to improve students’ intellectual workability. The informational content was developed with the participation of the teachers of the physical education departments of Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic University and Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. On their advice, we have designed an approximate subject matter for the given university students to conduct self-reliant aerobic training sessions.

The subject matter disclosed the informational content of the proposed modules on the main issues of organization and performance by students of self-reliant aerobic training sessions during examinations to improve their intellectual workability.

The proposed subject matter included lecture material aimed to help students learn the basics of self-reliant aerobic training technique on an individual basis. We set questions in examinations, made a reference list, created training and video tutorials on various aspects of teaching students the technique of self-reliant aerobic training during examinations.

The effectiveness of this model was evaluated in terms of students’ intellectual workability during examinations: speed of mental processes, memory span, attention concentration, well-being, activity, mood (WAM technique), as well as performance indices.

Results and discussion. Students’ intellectual workability during examinations is determined by success in examinations. Due to the severization of the requirements to training and intellectual workability of students during the session, it is the available means of physical education that come to the fore. Such means are aerobic exercises: walking, running, swimming, cycling, skiing, etc. The high efficiency of aerobic exercises to improve intellectual workability of students is confirmed by the results obtained during this research.

In our opinion, when selecting means and methods of aerobic training, one needs to take into consideration individual characteristics, interests and fitness level of students. It is known that most students do not perform any physical exercises not because they do not realize the importance of aerobic exercise, but because they are not interested in it. This is due to the inadequacy of students’ motor actions to their individual physical and mental abilities. Their athletic interests and capabilities could be duly considered while using aerobic exercises as chosen.

While determining the means of aerobic training needed to improve intellectual workability of students during examinations, it is necessary to pay closer attention to the following:

•  rational design of the aerobic training process of students during examinations;
•  accurate standardization of training loads based on students' physical fitness levels;
•  simulation of different types of aerobic training practices to improve students’ intellectual workability;
•  motivation and degree of activity of students during examinations.

In our opinion, aerobic physical training should be associated with the dynamics of students’ physical state during examinations. This concept must be taken into account when scheduling physical load during aerobic training of students. The requirements imposed on the load scheduling during aerobic exercise were expressed in the theoretically grounded consistent load increase.

We assume that the physical load scheduling to improve intellectual workability of students during aerobic training should comply with the principle of consistency.

In the matter of load-rest alternation, we adhered to the concept that rest intervals between training sessions were determined by the specific relations between the processes of fatigue and recovery of the functional capabilities of the students' body. Regular load should be scheduled not later than the traces of the previous load are completely gone. The study revealed that aerobic exercises could effectively contribute to the improvement of intellectual workability of students, enhance their resistance to adverse factors during examinations, and compensate for the negative functional shifts in the body.

The implementation of the planned educational measures made it possible to analyze the dynamics of intellectual workability indices in students of the study groups throughout the educational experiment. At the end of the experiment we compared the indices of the functional and mental states of the body and intellectual workability of students.

The impact of aerobic exercises on students’ intellectual workability was of the utmost interest to us. During the educational experiment we conducted a comparative analysis of the intellectual workability indices in students of the study groups. The analysis of the effects of aerobic exercises on students’ intellectual workability revealed positive changes in both study groups (refer to Table 1). Similar changes in the reference group students could be attributed to the specifics of the university educational process. While positive changes in the study groups, we think, were mostly due to the specific impact of the developed educational model for self-reliant aerobic training during examinations. These exercises were designed to maintain intellectual workability and prevent negative effects of learning. A higher increase, which was statistically significant in some cases, ​​could be explained by the influence of the experimental educational model for physical training of students.

Table 1. Estimation of the intellectual workability indices in SG (n=27) and RG (n=28) students before and after the experiment (X±m), points

The effect is the most pronounced in such indices as: WAM, attention concentration, memory span and speed of mental processes, where the changes are statistically significant (p<0.05). Given that the difference between the subjects of the study and reference groups was that those of the study group used the experimental educational model for self-reliant aerobic training, the results obtained can be attributable to its positive impact on students’ intellectual workability.

Conclusion. According to our findings, aerobic exercises are among the most effective means of improvement of students’ intellectual workability. While analyzing the causes and mechanisms of influence of aerobic exercises on students' intellectual workability, we have concluded that the development of the neuromuscular apparatus during training practices activates the overall nervous system. All this enhances intellectual workability of students during examinations. The research suggests that regular and strenuous functioning of the same brain centers while taking exams leads to the inanition of the body of students. Aerobic training practices switch students to another type of activity and thus allow tired nerve cells to be at rest, which tonifies the nervous system and prevents nervous breakdowns during examinations.

References

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Corresponding author: sasha_vgafk@mail.ru

Abstract
The available education process study reports on the problems of the national academic physical education process give no consistent definitions of the “physical fitness for examinations” with due consideration for the role of aerobic training practices for the student’s intellectual workability maintenance and improvement. As things now stand, sport science is still in need of the following: key criteria to rate students’ physical fitness for examinations; an educational model for self-reliant aerobic training system; prime objectives for and methods of the self-reliant aerobic training system to maintain/ improve the student’s intellectual workability; and a consistent frame system for the relevant physical education problems being solved on a systemic basis.