Dr.Hab., Professor F.I. Sobyanin¹
PhD, Associate Professor L.E. Pakhomova¹
PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Petrenko¹
PhD, Associate Professor Е.S. Nikolaeva^1
1Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod

Keywords: teachers, education teachers, trends, physical education, attitudes.

Background. Progress of the national physical education system has been as yet somewhat contradictory. Not every innovation in the Russian and foreign education systems has been unanimously welcomed by the national educational community, and not every modern development has been accepted and implemented by the school Physical Education teachers of secondary special vocational establishments [1, 2, 3, 4].

Objective of the study was to survey attitudes of school Physical Education (PE) teachers of secondary special vocational establishments (SSVE) to modern physical education trends and innovations.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the questionnaire survey were 197 Physical Education teachers of the Belgorod region, the survey data being supported by a content analysis of 135 study reports. The study was performed in 2016-2017 at Belgorod State National Research University and Belgorod Education Development Institute.

The survey sample included 85% male and 15% female respondents aged 47.7 years on average with the employment records averaging 20 years; the sample being considered representative. It should be noted that 60% of the respondents were graduates of Belgorod State University and the other 40% graduated from other Russian and NIS (newly independent state) universities.

Study results and discussion. Given in Table 1 hereunder are the survey data showing the respondents’ awareness of the key development trends in the modern physical education system.

Table 1. Respondents’ awareness of the key trends in the modern physical education system

It was found that only 25-35% of the respondents have some idea of the modern development trends in the physical education system. We can only guess how the other education teachers may accept or reject these trends and factor them in the education process if they have no idea about their senses.

The next question was intended to explore the subjects’ attitudes to the trainees’ progress scoring system (PSS). Only 10% of the respondents believe that the system is necessary as it gives due means to assess progress of the trainees; the other 15% hold to the opinion that PSS gives no means to fairly rate the students’ progress; and 5% of the people polled wanted to see a comeback of the former 4-point progress scoring system. It should be noted that 30% of the respondents showed reserved attitudes to the PSS and reported being physically unable to implement and apply it in full. And the dominating share of the respondents (40%) rated the PSS as an efficient progress rating tool albeit reported being unhappy with the system claiming too much time.

As things now stand in the national physical education system, it has long been a sort of battlefield for traditions and innovations, and this was the reason for the survey form to offer a few questions on the attitudes to both. Given hereunder in Table 2 are the feelings about innovations in the national physical education system reported by the respondents.

Table 2. Feelings about innovations in the national physical education system reported by the respondents

    The above three optional responses were chosen by the respondents from a much wider variety of options. As demonstrated in Table 2, only 10% welcomed innovations in the education system feeling confident and stable; but most of the respondents reported negative feelings, with 75% saying they are anxious and even concerned by the state of the national physical education system.

It should be noted that the respondents at the same time were largely favouring the past traditions of the national education system: see Table 3.

Table 3. Feelings about the past traditions of the national physical education system reported by the respondents

Most of the respondents would like to take all the best from the past national physical education system and adapt it to the new challenges and requirements.

Our next question was on the respondents’ opinions on the trainees’ attitudes to the modern physical education. Part of the respondents (5%) believed that all the trainees are different and, hence, no clear trend may be found in the attitudes. The same part (5%) believed that the trainees are unhappy with the competency of the modern education teachers and prefer self-reliant learning process; another 10% believed that the trainees strive to obtain good knowledge and skills from highly competent teachers. Large share of the respondents (45%) feel that most of the trainees are eagerly waiting for the education process coming to an end to start making money, and the quality of education is the last thing they worry about. The idea is supported by 65% of the respondents who believe that all the trainees wait for their diploma or school-leaving certificate and its quality does not matter for them.

In addition, we scored the respondents’ attitudes to the national physical education system (unprofessional and professional) on the whole on the traditional 4-point scale. It is a telling fact that nobody scored it “excellent”, with only 25% of the respondents rating it “good”; 45% assessed the system as “satisfactory; and 30% as “unsatisfactory”; and it should be mentioned that these assessments of the insiders of the Russian physical education system cannot but raise concerns about its present situation.

The questionnaire survey form was finalised by the question about the respondents’ professional career expectations. The responses showed the career expectations being clearly age-specific as the averagely 26 year-old respondents said they are still shaping up their career expectations; the averagely 42-year-olds reported seeing the nearest professional future clear enough and moving to their goals; the averagely 49-year-olds confessed expecting no progress (nor promotion) in the further professional career. The averagely 53 year-old physical education teachers tend to believe that their careers are over; and many of the averagely 59 year-olds confess being “sick and tired of any expectations”.

Conclusion. The survey data and analyses showed the subjects’ attitudes to a few modern innovations in the national physical education system being largely contradictory and wary.

References

1. Kozina J.L., Ermakov S.S. Analiz individualnykh tipologicheskikh svoystv nervnoy sistemy studentov v aspekte osobennostey reaktsii na ekstremalnuyu situatsiyu s pomoshchyu metodov mnogomernogo analiza [Multivariate analysis to study individual typological properties of nervous system in students in context of specific reactions to extreme situation]. Fizicheskoe vospitanie studentov, 2015, no. 3, pp. 10-19.
2. Sobyanin F.I., Petrenko O.V., Nikolaeva E.S. Kulturologo-akmeologicheskiy podkhod kak metodologicheskaya osnova povysheniya kachestva professionalnogo fizkulturnogo obrazovaniya [Culturological-acmeological approach as a methodological framework to improve quality of professional sports education]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 1, pp. 6-8.
3. Stanković V., Pavlović P., Ilić J. The attitudes of students of the faculty of sport towards university sport. Physical education and sport through the centuries, 2014, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 78-89.
4. Wasiłek J. Stan nawyków і wiedzy prozdrowotnej u gimnazjalistów z Pionek. Turystyka i Rekreacja. Przegląd Naukowy, 12. Radom. 2015, pp. 71-82.

Corresponding author: sobyanin@bsu.edu.ru

Abstract

The study was designed to survey attitudes of school Physical Education teachers of secondary special vocational establishments (SSVE) to the modern physical education trends, developments and innovations. Subject to the questionnaire survey were 197 Physical Education teachers of SSVE and school Physical Education teachers of the Belgorod region, the survey data being supported by a content analysis of 135 study reports. The study was performed in 2016-2017 at Belgorod State National Research University and Belgorod Education Development Institute. The survey sample included 85% male and 15% female respondents aged 47.7 years on average with the employment records averaging 20 years; the sample being considered representative. The survey data and analyses showed the subjects’ attitudes to a few modern innovations in the national education system being contradictory and wary.