PhD, Associate Professor D.N. Gavrilov¹
PhD, Associate Professor Е.В. Antipova¹
A.V. Malinin¹
D.N. Pukhov¹
A.I. Matochkina¹
Dr.Med., Associate Professor M.A. Savenko^1
1St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg

Keywords: schoolchildren, physical activity, physical state, health.

Background. It is common acknowledge that the modern physical education and sports service may facilitate solutions for many socio-economic issues including the disease prevention, communal consolidation, life quality and active longevity related initiatives. The Physical Education and Sports Sector Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 endorsed by Russian Government Decree #1101-r of 07.08.2009 offers a new vision of the national mass physical education and sports system with improvements in the obligatory physical education and sport service provided by the education establishments, with the service taking at least 3 hours and one extra hour per week as required by the valid Federal State Education Standard.

Objective of the study was to analyze the factors of influence on the school physical activity and the ways to improve quality of the physical education service provided by the general education schools.

Methods and structure of the study. Long-term studies of the schoolchildren’s physicality in different regions of the country have shown that the interest to and motivations for the school Physical Education discipline is falling and, hence, the physical fitness rates fall as well. The valid Federal State Education Standard put into effect in 2012 has provided a basis for revision of the school education and training practices [1-3, 6].

Saint Petersburg Scientific Research Institute for Physical Culture (SPSRIPC) has made an important contribution to the international Research Project ‘Health Behavior in School-Aged Children’ (HBSC) being implemented under the auspices of the WHO. The HBSC Project is designed to consolidate the national and international school health research to build up a database of school population health and wellbeing and better understand and control the social factors of influence on the children’s health; and provide a sound basis for the youth health policies correction and health improvement initiatives [5, 13]. The project teams collect data on the schoolchildren’s health, wellbeing and health behaviors in the project countries with account of the local social environments. The health database is updated by the questionnaire surveys scheduled once in every four years [14]. The Russian project team has contributed to the last seven questionnaire survey stages of the HBSC Project in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, with the relevant survey and monitoring technologies of the SPSRIPC design [4, 7] widely applied for the project studies.

Study findings and discussion. Given in Figures 1-2 and Tables 1-2 hereunder are the schoolchildren’s physical fitness rating test and survey data obtained by the HBSC Project team.

Figure 1. Physical fitness rates of the 5-grade schoolboys (n=263) from Naberezhnye Chelny

Figure 2. Physical fitness rates of the 5-grade schoolgirls (n=256) from Naberezhnye Chelny

The study data give the grounds to conclude that the sagging interest of the schoolchildren in the Physical Education discipline is due to their poor motivation for physical progress; formal attitudes to the school Physical Education lessons; little respect to the Physical Education teachers; and the low perceived rating of the Physical Education discipline in the school curriculum. The study data and analyses also found too low motivations for the self-reliant trainings; underestimation of the individualized training models by the teachers; poor competency of the teachers in the modern physical education tools and technologies; growing morbidity rates etc.

Table 1. Physicality test rates of the 5-grade schoolgirls (n=26) from Saint Petersburg general education school

Table 2. Physicality test rates of the 5-grade schoolboys (n=25) from Saint Petersburg general education school

The initiatives to improve the school Physical Education system on the whole and the school population physicality in particular shall be designed based on the modern Physical Education concepts and education technologies [4, 12], with some of them considered hereunder.

Thus the A.G. Komkov health improvement concept in application to the national school Physical Education system offers a variety of tools to satisfy the natural age-specific need for movement by P.T. breaks, morning gymnastics, postural/ flatfoot/ visual disorders control programs etc. [8, 9]. The modern school sportizated (sports-prioritizing) physical education concept by L.I. Lubysheva and V.K. Bal’sevich makes provisions for the school Physical Education lessons being driven by trainings in specific sport disciplines (supplemented by the off-class trainings when necessary), conditional on the schools being staffed with the relevant sport specialists and supplied by the relevant sport assets, equipment and resources [10]. The school Physical Education model by V.P. Lukyanenko makes a special emphasis on the studies of benefits of the school Physical Education on the trainees’ physical health and fitness [11].

The modern physical education and health technologies of the SPSRIPC design give a special priority to the practical and health components of the school Physical Education curriculum, including, for instance, the postural/ flatfoot disorders control tools; circular trainings for the GTO Complex tests; healthy lifestyle promotion with support from families etc. [5]; with the school Physical Education instructors required to progress in the Physical Education service related knowledge and practical training skills.

The SPSRIPC model make provisions for the school Physical Education quality improvements by the following: new Physical Education and health technologies; customizable Physical Education components geared to cater for the local traditions and practical interests and physical needs of the trainees; Physical Education competency advancement initiatives; empowerment of the school Physical Education system by the necessary training assets and resources; application IT implemented in the school Physical Education service; Physical Education teachers’ skills advancement courses; and the family activation initiatives to facilitate the family support for the children’s healthy lifestyles and physical progress [15, 16].

Conclusion. Modern physical education and sports service may facilitate solutions for many socio-economic issues including disease prevention, communal consolidation, life quality and active longevity related initiatives. Efforts of the Physical Education service community need to be driven by the modern values and priorities to facilitate formation of healthy agendas and lifestyles in the school population with the associating benefits for the physical fitness standards and general development rates. The school Physical Education system revision on a systemic basis with detailed new training programs and interim benefits will help train a harmonically developed and mentally and physically healthy personality – that is the core mission of the school education. The efforts will be designed to cultivate stable values and priorities in the young people by the modern physical education, sports and healthy lifestyle cultivation initiatives.

The study data and analyses showed benefits of the proposed and tested school Physical Education technologies that are recommended for application in the mass health/ physicality tests and surveys to profile group health situations in different social strata.

References

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Corresponding author: health@spbniifk.ru

Abstract

The study analyzes the ways to increase physical activity of school population on the whole and senior groups in particular, plus the factors of influence on the physical activity. Applied for the study purposes were the relevant combined physical education programs and information technologies that have been developed and implemented at Saint Petersburg Scientific Research Institute for Physical Culture for many years to study and analyze the mass physical activity. The study data give the grounds to conclude that the sagging interest of the schoolchildren in the Physical Education discipline is due to their poor motivation for physical progress; formal attitudes to the school Physical Education lessons; little respect to the Physical Education teachers; and the low perceived rating of the Physical Education discipline in the school curriculum. The study data and analyzes also found too low motivations for the self-reliant trainings; underestimation of the individualized training models by the teachers; poor competency of the teachers in the modern physical education tools and technologies; growing morbidity rates etc. Based on the analyses, the article gives an overview of the most promising ways to step up the school physical activity under the valid school Physical Education discipline.