Dr. Sc. Tech., Associate Professor M.V. Kornyakov¹
PhD, Professor A.A. Akhmatgatin¹
PhD, Professor S.A. Galtsev^1
1Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Irkutsk

Keywords: Physical Education Department, establishment, practical study, theoretical study, systemic approach, physical health.

Background. The Irkutsk National Research Technical University’s Physical Education and Sports Department is one of the oldest and leading establishments at the university with its 70-year theoretical and practical educational, research and tutorial experience.

Objective of the study was to analyze the Irkutsk National Research Technical University’s Physical Education and Sports Department 70-year progress history.

Methods and structure of the study. We used for the purposes of the study analyses of the reference literature and archive materials to summarize the Physical Education and Sports Department progress history with a special priority to the institutional, operational and management issues, plus an induction method to outline the further progress avenues for the Physical Education and Sports Department service based on the past progress analysis.

Results and discussion. The Physical Education and Sports Department was established as an independent unit at the university back in 1949 by the sports group being severed from the Military Training Department of the Irkutsk Mining and Metallurgical Institute. The new department was headed by V.G. Kind, graduate of the P.F. Lesgaft Leningrad Physical Education Institute who managed the new Physical Education and Sports Department for 29 years to form the top-professional faculty for the educational, theoretical and practical trainings, sports and mass physical education movement facilitation service.

In the 1950-60s the Physical Education and Sports Department faculty was reinforced by a group of sports professionals including A.G. Turchaninov, R.L. Boyarchuk, T.M. Tueusheva, I.P. Sedelnikov, A.N. Litvintsev, R.G. Vadutov, E.I. Mikhalev, V.I. Kirillov, B.I. Kalashnikov, Z.S. Maksimova, V.P. Shulikov, R.G. Mratova, P.M. Tochilov, P.I. Ineshin, V.I. Silyava et al. who formed its core for many years to come. Most popular at that time were track and field sports, artistic gymnastics, skiing, football, swimming, gymnastics and weightlifting. The Physical Education and Sports Department students were successful in qualifying for the sports classes and in the national academic competitions in classical wrestling, football, boxing, speed skating, cycling and rowing events. Since the Institute campus was relocated to the left bank of the Angara River, the Physical Education and Sports Department got an access to the best municipal sports center and gyms for the theoretical and practical trainings and competitions in many sports disciplines. It was at that time that the Physical Education and Sports Department formed excellent boxing, wrestling and weightlifting groups.

The Institute immediately launched a stadium construction project. The faculty was reinforced at that time by talented graduates of the national sports universities including B.D. Malykh, L.Y. Mikhaleva, L.A. Salova, L.K. Fedorenkova, N.M. Oshcherina, V.G. Kuriga, L.S. Cherepennikov, L.N. Shilnikov, V.G. Kozhemyakin, Y.P. Polyansky et al. who gave a new impetus to the academic artistic gymnastics, skiing and track and field sports. Reforms in the theoretical and practical trainings laid a basis for the competitive progress of the academic teams, with particular successes made by the biathlon team coached by V.I. Kirillova; classical wrestling team coached by R.G. Vadutov, B.I. Kalashnikov and E.I. Mikhalev; and the track and field sports team coached by V.S. Osipova.

In the period of 1979 to 2001 the Physical Education and Sports Department was headed by Associate Professor R.G. Vadutov with his 40-year practical experience in the academic physical education and sport service management domain. A special progress in that period was made by the academic women's volleyball team coached by K.K. Markova – that had been successful many times in the Russian Burevestnik Cups and the Municipal and Oblast championships. The other academic teams had been many times successful in the Oblast Student Games in 18 sports disciplines.

Since 2001 the Physical Education and Sports Department was headed by E.G. Shporin who paid a special attention to the physical education and sport service assets building and Physical Education and Sports Department research resource reinforcement initiatives, and made a special contribution to the university stadium rehabilitation project to host the national Olympic and Paralympic track and field sports teams in 2008. He encouraged the scientific progress of the Physical Education and Sports Department faculty, with many academic team members being titled and certified at that time. Thus in 2004 to 2014 the share of certified personnel in the faculty grew up from 2.4% to 23% including the shares of doctors and professors. Since 2006, the Physical Education and Sports Department has run postgraduate research in 13.00.04 discipline.

In 2016 the Physical Education and Sports Department was headed by Associate Professor A.A. Akhmatgatin who made a special contribution to the Physical Education and Sports Department human resource building initiatives. As a result, presently the Physical Education and Sports Department faculty includes 30 top-professional educators with 3 Doctors of Science, 5 PhDs, 4 Professors and 2 Associate Professors who every year publish 1-3 monographs and 25-30 study reports in the journals listed in the Web of Science, Scopus and Higher Attestation Commission Catalogue.

Presently the University holds 34 sports facilities including a stadium with a fifth-generation artificial turf, modern field sports sectors and 8 tracks; a team sports center for basketball and volleyball trainings and competitions, with a unique top-difficulty large-size climbing wall; plus 12 special sports gyms and 14 outdoor sports grounds. On November 30, 2019, the University met the XXIX World Winter Universiade flame on its way via Irkutsk to Krasnoyarsk, a host city for the event.

The Physical Education and Sports Department runs a Physical Health Monitoring Laboratory headed by Professor V.Y. Lebedinsky, and a University Sport Club that provides 33 group physical education and sport services to more than 1200 students. The physical education and sport service is provided on a health-group, gender-, sport-qualification- and interest-specific basis, with the range of optional physical education and sport sports including traditional physical training, athletic gymnastics, boxing, hand-to-hand fight, aerobics, health physical education and adaptive physical education groups.

The Physical Education and Sports Department faculty takes persistent efforts to further improve the physical education and sport service quality on a systemic basis, with a special priority to the goal-setting aspect, with a goal viewed as the image of the desired future or a progress model that needs to be achieved [5], with the relevant interim and final deliverables [1]. To ensure an effective and systemic performance in any field, it is important to secure the system-specific self-regulation progress in the following two forms: (1) feedback-driven progress to control the system performance versus the process goals and the interim/ final reference points/ deliverables; and (2) more complex self-regulation and progress longer-term mechanisms largely independent of any predetermined system of standards and performance criteria [3].

It should be emphasized, however, that one of the main goals of the Physical Education and Sports Department service is to secure the high physical health standards for the students, with the physical education and sport service being designed to improve the individual and collective health resource as a basis for professional progress [2]. In this context, the Physical Education and Sports Department service algorithm may be presented as follows:

1. Set the physical education and sport service goals with the expected deliverables as a systemic basis for the service;

2. Develop a set of the progress-rating criteria and the interim (stage-specific) performance and progress models with the reference points;

3. Develop and implement an education technology to attain the above goals; and

4. Rate actual progress versus the planned deliverables/ reference points and the performance/ progress models.

Based on the above provisions, the Physical Education and Sports Department Education Methodology Commission will set a specific physical education and sport service goal – that is generally to secure the physical health standard for the students for their professional progress, with the relevant values system, motivations and personality qualities to secure their healthy lifestyles for the whole lifetimes.

One of the most important and challenging physical education and sport service elements are the academic progress test systems [7], with the progress tests forming a frame for self-regulated performance model and students’ motivations [6]. Based on the students’ physical health rating tests and academic physical education and sport service progress analysis, the Physical Education and Sports Department faculty, Physical Health Monitoring Laboratory and Physical Education and Sports Department Education Methodology Commission will develop a set of the progress rating criteria classified by the academic Health Groups I, II and III on a gender- and year-specific basis.

The Physical Education and Sports Department Education Methodology Commission will offer, based on the group progress goals and using the relevant progress rating criteria, specific physical education and sport technologies to attain the specific goals; and the Physical Education and Sports Department faculty will implement these technologies in the standard academic physical education and sport service and optional practical physical education and sport disciplines, with the students’ progress tested every semester. The Physical Health Monitoring Laboratory will analyze the academic progress tests data versus the yearly progress models using the sets of the progress-rating criteria. The resultant progress test data will be analyzed by the Physical Education and Sports Department Education Methodology Commission versus the target physical education and sport competences and standards to offer further education process improvement solutions on a physical education-and-sport-discipline-specific basis.

Conclusion. On the whole, the modern Physical Education and Sports Department service is designed to secure its operation on a self-regulation basis in the following two forms: (1) feedback-driven progress, with the system short-term performance controlled and managed versus the educational process goals, interim/ final reference points/ deliverables and practical individual progresses. This form is applicable in the direct educational models; and (2) more complex self-regulation and progress mechanisms that secure the educational process being adapted to the variable process conditions, with the relevant progress rating sets of criteria versus the service models and contents. This process regulation form is applied on a longer-term (5 plus year) Physical Education and Sports Department service planning basis to effectively customize the service standards to variations in the educational conditions and training-discipline- and area-specific standards [3].

References

1. Anokhin P.K. Essays on the physiology of functional systems. Moscow: Meditsina publ., 1975, 447 p.
2. Belov V.I. Correction of health status of adult population by means of integrated physical training. Doct. thesis abstract (Hab.). M .: MPU publ., 1996.55 p.
3. Brushlinsky A.V. Subject-activity concept and functional system theory. Psychology issues. 1999. no. 5. pp. 110-121.
4. Shporin E.G., Lebedinsky V.Yu., Kolokoltsev M.M.  [ed.] Department – ​​Center – faculty. History of Physical Education Department. Irkutsk, 2010.178 p.
5. Peregudov F.I., Tarasenko F.P. Introduction to System Analysis. Textbook. M.: Vysshaya shk. publ., 1989. 367 p.
6. Black P., William D., 2009 “Developing the Theory of Formative Assessment.” Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability (Formerly: Journal of Personnel Evaluation, in Education) 21 (1): 5-31.
7. López-Pastor V.M., Kirk D., Lorente-Catalán E., MacPhail A. & Macdonald D. . Alternative assessment in physical education: a review of international literature. Sport, Education and Society, 2013; 18:1: 57-76. doi:10.1080/13573322.2012.713860.

Corresponding author: ahmatgatinaa@istu.edu

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the process of establishment and development of the Physical Education Department of Irkutsk National Research Technical University, as well as elaborate the ways to improve its work. The study was conducted using the methods of scientific literature analysis and induction. The article presents historical materials on the establishment and development of the Physical Education Department of Irkutsk National Research Technical University, as well as the directions of improvement of its activity based on the relevant provisions of the system approach. It also covers the peculiarities of activity of the Physical Education Department in the process of its development, discloses the information about the people who have made an invaluable contribution to the improvement of its work. During the period of operation of the Physical Education Department, the methodology of organization of classes, lesson plans, training aids and scientific knowledge base for physical education and sports activities have been improved significantly. Currently, the Department staff publish 1-3 monographs and 25-30 articles annually in the journals approved by Web of Science, Scopus, and those from the list of the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles. At the same time, effective organization of work of the Department as a unified system, that includes coordinated interaction of its main units aimed to obtain such a result that would ensure achievement of activity goals, seems to be the main condition for physical education process improvement.