PhD, Associate Professor V.V. Kadakin¹
Dr.Biol., Professor G.G. Fedotova¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Kokurin¹
PhD V.V. Miroshkin^1
1Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevyev, Saransk

Keywords: education specialist training, education system reform, Physical Education Department.

Background. Presently Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevyev (MSPI) is recognised as a leading centre of education specialist training in the Republic of Mordovia since it trains highly knowledgeable, skilful, creative, socially active, professional, informed and mobile educators making a high direct contribution to the social, economic and spiritual progress of the national society [1, 3]. The education services provided at PED are designed as required by the following Institute development policies: the Department gives a high priority to the fundamental training in its curricula; takes persistent efforts to implements innovative education technologies; its operations are practice-centred to facilitate professional progress of its graduates; and these policies and practices heavily contribute to its brand name. The specialist training services provided at the Department are designed to embody in practice the physical education and sports specialist development idea offered by L.I. Lubysheva i.e. to create a facilitating education environment in the academic system to help the students develop creative thinking; creatively digest and master new physical education technologies; offer a progress-encouraging educational system based on the advanced research-and-education specialist training technologies to secure highest standards of the modern education specialist training system and to produce a new-type specialist having knowledge and skills of an education process researcher [2].

Furthermore, the PED services are specific in the sense that they are not limited by physical education only; but the Department also trains teachers for general education schools, kindergartens, universities, sport schools and clubs, i.e. contributes to the national policies geared to raise healthy and physically strong young generations in Russia.

Objective of the study was to analyse progress of the Physical Education Department initiatives to find the best ways and mechanisms for the education specialist training process to meet the needs of the national physical culture and sports sector.

Study results and discussion. Since the Federal State General and Secondary Education Standards have been implemented and the general education establishments have expanded the range of innovative education services, the requirements to the quality and efficiency of the physical education service and success of the education curricula were stepped up. The education specialist training system reform and projects to improve the material assets and equipment of the general education establishments were largely encouraged by progress of the efforts to: facilitate growth of the network of education establishments making a special emphasis on the trainees’ health improvement by the relevant physical education models; improve the disabled children’s physical education system; develop and implement new physical education and sport technologies adapted for children and adolescents with a special emphasis on the injury prevention in the physical training and sport practices; and modernise the sport assets and equipment of the general education establishments.

The professional physical education and sports specialist training system applied at PED MSPI is designed in compliance with requirements of the valid competency building Federal State Higher Education Standards (FSHES). The ongoing transition process has required the future education specialist professional training system content, design and quality assurance component being revised as follows: the education curricula were redesigned on a modular basis; education and teaching practice programs and formats were revised to expand the timeframe for practical sessions and field trainings at the relevant education establishments; and progress rating toolkits were designed for the competency building disciplines and practical tasks. The practice-focused design of the education process and the professional specialist purposeful training system, including its networking component, were significantly improved after the base sub-department Physical Culture and Life Safety Education Methodology had been established at Secondary General Education School #24 in Saransk city. A new adapted academic progress rating point system made it possible to effectively generate objective learning progress rating data to design the individual training systems and tools for application by sporting students in education and training field sessions. In addition, an independent monitoring system was implemented to control the educational process and improve its quality.

Thus, the educational process content, methods, technologies and its management and control tools were designed to attain the prime objective of training a competent and responsible specialist knowledgeable and skilful in the modern information and education technologies; highly fit for a successful professional career and progress; i.e. a socially and professionally mobile physical education trainer-instructor of a new type having every necessary professional competency and bearing full responsibility for success of the educational process.

The PED students were tested with high academic progress since modern sport assets and equipment had been applied in the educational process. The PED-owned sport facilities and systems are compliant with the modern safety standards and well equipped both for the standard body conditioning practices and special training sessions. Recently restored Health and Sport Centre “Olimpiyskiy” (Engl. Olympic) largely facilitates the academic physical education and sports as a basic facility for the academic training process and sport disciplines. The Centre facilitates the academic class and off-class training and ensures the education process being integral to attain a variety of academic process goals via high-quality recreational sport services provided to the students and faculty.

Presently the Department gives a high priority in the education specialist training system to prudent combinations of the academic education and research processes and modern scientific achievements being implemented in the academic curricula. On the whole the PED research projects are designed to address the priority development fields as specified by the research and innovative policies of the Institute management. The research projects are designed, among other things, to address the “Issues of physical education and sport specialist training service provided by pedagogical university” formally set as a thematic field for research. Innovative activity of the Department is largely determined by the development priorities of the Regional Physical Education and Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre. Modern equipment and systems used by the Centre make it possible to run computerised tests of children’s, students’ and sport school trainees’ functional state; and to develop and implement modern special physical education programs in application to children and young people. In addition, the Centre is readily available as an experimental site for the physical education specialist training to produce coaches of new generation highly knowledgeable and successful in modern training systems.

The FSHES implementation process has given a new impetus to the education specialist professional self-improvement agenda. The academic process designed to build modern professional and general cultural competences implies that the future education specialist needs to further develop the acquired competences. It should be emphasised that it is traditional for PED to set high requirements to qualifications of its research and education specialists and duly motivate them for persistent professional progress. High professional standards of PED were acknowledged once again when its team was engaged into an experimental project to test the Education Process Design at Secondary School Module for the Physical Education and Sport Education Master Training Course; with the team acting as a project implementation partner for the professional Master course in the education specialist training curricula under the Pedagogical Education discipline, the project being implemented in a network cooperation format by the relevant partner universities. The experimental project outcomes are expected to propel further reforms in the national education system: they should help put the academic staff quality in compliance with the valid Professional Educator Standard and notably improve the graduates’ training quality.

The policies and practices to advance research projects at PED with a special emphasis on their practical benefits made it possible to significantly expand the range of the advanced education and professional development services offered by PED to meet the regional demand for education specialists. Presently PED offers high-quality advanced education services for professional development of the PED graduates to improve their mobility and competitiveness on the labour markets. The students are offered 30 advanced education curricula designed to build due competences in the modern physical education technologies and models applicable at general education establishments, with the educational process taking full advantage of modern innovations in the physical education domain and meet the valid Professional Educator Standard.

The progress made by MSPI and PED was acknowledged once again by MSPI being qualified as an operator for the GTO programmatic initiative implementation in the home region. The initiative to integrate the Russian Physical Culture and Sports “Ready for Labour and Defence” (GTO) Complex in the education curricula and programs of the regional education system has given the means to notably improve the students’ motivations for the academic Physical Education discipline and offer them new opportunities for the individual sport resource to be fully employed and developed.

Conclusion. Education specialist competency in the educational process design domain is pivotal for success of an innovative professional activity. Knowing that, the PED management has developed and offered, in addition to the traditional professional physical education specialist training curricula, new opportunities and concepts for the modern education specialist training to produce a new-type educator capable to efficiently design and manage the educational process on a cost-efficient basis. The educational process reforms implemented at PED include the following four renewed components: content, design, technology and assets viewed as the core elements of the reform process. The education process development policies and practices have proved their benefits for the education specialist training in the academic Physical Education discipline (with the Bachelor training course Athletic Training in Vocational Sport; and Master training course Natural Scientific Basics of Physical Education and Sports) and Pedagogical Education discipline (with Bachelor training courses Physical Education; and Physical Education and Life Safety; and Master training course Education in Physical Culture and Sports Sector); and for the secondary professional training in the Physical Education discipline in specialties of Physical Educator and Education Specialist in Physical Education and Sports. Presently the Department has every opportunity to hold its leading positions in the national education specialist training system and secure high quality of the education services it provides.

References

1. Kadakin V.V., Shukshina T.I. Pedagogicheskiy vuz kak bazovyiy tsentr podgotovki uchitelya [Pedagogical University as base teacher training center]. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii, 2013, no, 4, pp. 60–67.
2. Lubysheva L.I., Magin V. A. Kontseptsiya modernizatsii protsessa professionalnoy podgotovki spetsialistov po fizicheskoy kulture i sportu (avtorskiy proekt) [The concept of physical education and sports specialist vocational training process modernization (author's project)]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2003, no. 12, pp. 13–16.
3. Shukshina T.I. Mordovskiy bazovy tsentr pedagogicheskogo obrazovaniya kak innovatsionnaya model podgotovki uchitelya [Mordovian base teacher education center as an innovative model of teacher training]. Rossiyskiy nauchny zhurnal, 2011, no. 4, pp. 76–86.

Corresponding author: reception@mordgpi.ru

 Abstract

Physical Education Department (PED) of the Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevyev (MSPI) was established back in 1971 and since then acted as a driving force for the physical education specialist training in the region and new research-and-education elite formation process in the physical culture and sports sector of the Republic of Mordovia. The Physical Education Department operations for this period have resulted in reforms of the education specialist training system for the national physical culture and sports sector; good progress of the research projects; new admission and graduation system; and progress in accumulation of the academic human resource and modern material assets. The Department management has always been determined in their support of the social and national development process, innovation policies and ambitious goals. As things now stand, PED is one of the most successful and fast developing units of the Institute and the only one education establishment in the Republic of Mordovia to offer modern physical education and sport specialist education services. Commonly acknowledged leadership of the Department is largely due to the high quality of its education services and accomplishments of its graduates whose names are recorded both in the national and global sports history by golden letters. The PED graduates work in most of the regional general education establishments and highly reputable as physical educators, coaches and instructors in the Trade Unions Physical Education and Sports Association “Russia”, secondary special education establishments, Children’s and Youth Sport Schools (CYSS) and Children’s and Youth Olympic Reserve Sport Schools (CYORSS) of the country. 

The ongoing sector reforms and new challenges faced by the Russian nation and state require the existing education specialist training system being reformed, and the Department in this context has taken efforts to radically renew the content and design of the professional education service provided.

The article considers the top priority components of the PED MSPI service reforms in the physical culture and sports sector in the context of new physical education models being implemented by the national education establishments.