Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor N.M. Pestereva^{1 ,3}
Zhang Xia²
PhD, Associate Professor M.Y. Belyakova^1
1 Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia
² Harbin Association of International Sports Cooperation and Exchanges, Harbin, China
³ Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia

Keywords: basketball, students sports, motivation, internationalization.

Introduction. In today’s world, sports, especially student sports, play an increasingly important social role in the life of society. According to well-known Russian physical exercise theoretician and practician L.I. Lubysheva, doing sports is a form of human activity that shapes a person’s physical, moral, and, social traits (Lubysheva, 2019). In this regard, there is added relevance in research into issues related to students’ awareness of the role of sports as an area that helps cultivate a set of essential personal qualities and gain some experience in social life.  A mechanism that helps shape personality traits in students and youth is motivational behavior. The various aspects of motivation in student basketball players have been explored by scholars T.S. Golovkova (Golovkova & Asadullaeva, 2016), L.N. Koval' (Koval', Alekseeva, & Shevchenko, 2019), and N.S. Shumova (Shumova, Baikovskii, & Siuntse, 2019). This paper brings forward a concept that makes it possible to analyze the development of motivation in Russian and Chinese student basketball players in the pre-college period. This concept is grounded in the precondition that players on the basketball teams of top Russian and Chinese universities who are showing today good academic progress toward obtaining a bachelor’s, specialist’s, master’s, or doctoral degree have been motivated since childhood to strive for success, develop the qualities of a leader, the ability to efficiently work in a team, the ability to make effective decisions in complex situations, the ability to “take the heat”, and the ability to take responsibility for personal decisions. In the development of personal qualities in these students, a major role must have been played by basketball, as a factor that can help integrate and nurture a person’s physical, moral, and social personality traits. 

Objective of the study was to make a comparative analysis of the development of motivation in players on Russian and Chinese student basketball teams from the moment they start playing basketball (at preschool and school age) to the moment they enter university.

Methods and structure of the study. The survey engaged players on the basketball teams of the following top Russian and Chinese universities: Saint Petersburg State University (QS world ranking – 234), Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin (364), Zhejiang University (54), and Harbin Institute of Technology (277) (QS, 2020). A major contribution in terms of helping arrange and obtain the funding for the tournament was made by Rector of Harbin Institute of Technology Prof. Zhou Yu and President of the Harbin Association of International Sports Cooperation and Exchanges Zhang Xia. The survey questions were designed by Prof. N.M. Pestereva, based on recommendations from the Student Basketball Association of Russia. To assess the level of statistical significance of the survey results and test the null hypothesis, the authors employed Pearson's chi-squared test.

Results and discussion. A key benefit of this sociological research study is that it has provided the opportunity to analyze in real time the motivation of students who have been quite successful in basketball and in school. Table 1 lists the survey’s key questions and possible answers. Table 2 displays the consolidated data on the authors’ statistical assessment of the survey results.

Table 1. Questions and Possible Answers in the Authors’ Survey of Russian and Chinese Student Basketball Players

    Table 2. The Authors’ Test of the Null Hypothesis (H₀) and the Level of Statistical Significance (P) of the Survey Results Using Pearson's Chi-Squared Test

Note. Designations: H_j – null hypothesis (j = 0, difference between the distributions is not statistically significant, H₀; j = 1, difference between the distributions is statistically significant, H₁); χ²_emp – empirical frequency, χ²_0.05 – critical value of the theoretical frequency, significance level Р – 0.05; χ²_0.01 – critical value of the theoretical frequency, significance level Р – 0.01.

It was established that, thanks to their motivation and the fact that they started to play basketball early on in life, the respondents had managed to achieve optimum results. These students, who had been doing an active sport since childhood, had achieved significant athletic results and top physical condition.  These basketball players’ success in school was evident too – they were attending top universities in Russia and China. The future professional activity of these students is unlikely to be associated with just physical exercise and sports – there could well be future Humanities scholars, economists, managers, IT specialists, engineers, and biotechnologists among them (Pestereva, Kholina, & Qi, 2019). Thus, as a competitive sport, basketball may be stated to have had a significant effect in terms of shaping the students’ social, moral, and physical personality traits.

Conclusion. The research reported in this paper helped establish the following: (1) there was a lot in common in terms of why both the Russian and Chinese students chose basketball (e.g., deference to the parents, learning to play basketball mainly in a children’s sports school); (2) around 30% of the Russian respondents started to do basketball prior to seven years of age, whereas all of the Chinese respondents started to do it at the age of seven; (3) 70% of the Chinese respondents were motivated to do basketball in the pre-college period by prizes, gifts, etc., whilst a major portion of the Russian respondents (42%) prioritized self-esteem and deriving pleasure from playing basketball; (4) with the Russian respondents, one of the key motives for doing basketball was the opportunity to take part in international tournaments; (5) in choosing a college to attend, many of the Russian and Chinese respondents took account of the opportunity to continue doing basketball, as well as the availability of financial assistance. 

References

1. Golovkova T.S., Asadullaeva O.V. (2016, May). The effect of playing basketball on senior high school students’ motivation for success. Paper presented at the Osnovnye Voprosy Teorii i Praktiki Pedagogiki i Psikhologii [Key Issues of Theory and Practice in Pedagogics and Psychology]: 3rd Research-to-Practice Conference, Omsk, Russia. (in Russian). Available from https://bit.ly/37XLCzK
2. Koval L.N., Alekseeva E.N., Shevchenko A.M. (2019). Revisiting a person’s motivational orientation in student sports. Vestnik Tomskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 438, 176–179.
3. Lubysheva L.I. (2019). Sports i socialization: The sociological context. Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury, 9, 95-96.  
4. Shumova N.S., Baikovskii Yu.V., Siuntse L. (2019). The link between the structure of the personality and the efficiency of players on Russian and Chinese student basketball teams. Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kultury, 5, 17–19.
5. Pestereva N.M., Kholina V.N., Qi J. (2019). The Russian market for exported educational services: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Network University. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 8, 574–586.
6. QS. (2020). World university rankings. Retrieved https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-ran... https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2020

Corresponding author's email: pnm_06@mail.ru

Abstract

Currently, student sports mobility is increasingly characterized by internationalization. Russian and Chinese colleges have been engaged in cooperation in student sports via, most importantly, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Network University.

Objective of the study was to make a comparative analysis of the development of motivation in players on Russian and Chinese student basketball teams from the moment they start playing basketball (at preschool and school age) to the moment they enter university.

Methods and structure of the study. The authors conducted a survey of 48 basketball players from four men’s university basketball teams. The survey was carried out during an international student basketball tournament held in Harbin, China, in June of 2019 to mark the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and China.  The authors employed a set of traditional methods of research, including statistical and comparative analysis, generalization, and juxtaposition, and methods of sociological enquiry. The age of the respondents ranged from 19 to 25 years old, with their experience doing basketball ranging from 14 to 16 years and their qualifications ranging from Class 2 to Candidate Master of Sport. Each team comprised 12 players. All of the players took part in the survey.

Results and conclusion. The authors’ analysis of the development of motivation in the student basketball players surveyed from the moment started doing basketball to the moment they entered university helped bring forward a set of uniform approaches to fostering motivation in both Russian and Chinese students, as well as identify a set of distinct national and regional characteristics.