V.N. Baranov
Dr.Hab. B.N. Shustin
All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sport (VNIIFK), Moscow

Keywords: theses, research thrusts, analysis.

Background. Theses on the physical culture and sport matters have been defended in our country for 80 years. For this period, more than 15 thousand works were completed including doctoral theses that account for 8.6% of the total. The post-Soviet period (1991-2015) has seen more theses (54.3% including 11.7% of doctoral ones) than in the last 55 years [1-4].  

Objective of the study was to make a quantitative analysis of the physical culture and sport related theses in the field of pedagogics published in 2015. 

Study results and discussion. VNIIFK Research Institute has made annual analytical reports on the theses on physical culture and sports published for the last 10 years. Topics of the theses subject to analyses have been classified by the physical culture and sport research area as given hereunder in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparative qualitative analysis of theses on physical culture and sports

It should be noted that around 75% and 20% of the theses published in the Soviet-period explored the matters of competitive training and mass physical culture, respectively. Nowadays the research priorities are notably different, with the sports- and mass- physical-culture-focused theses accounting for some 39% and 37%, respectively; and the theses considering the problems of the physical education staff training and the physical culture and sports sector management making up 16.7% and 7.4%, respectively. One more recent trend is that the total number of theses for the last 5 years has been on the fall, the trend being particularly expressed in 2014-2015 (see Table 2 hereunder). 

Table 2. Theses on physical culture and sports: statistics for 2011-15 (doctoral/ PhD theses)

As many as 260 theses were reported for the year of 2015, including 29 doctoral theses (11.2%). Theses on the problems of physical culture of young people and age-specific mass physical culture accounted for 38.6% of the total; matters of elite sports and sport reserve training were addressed in 39.1% of the theses; institutional and management problems of the physical culture and sports sector were covered in 7.7% of the theses; and problems of the staff training and advanced training for the physical culture and spots sector were explored by 14.7% of the works. It should be mentioned that both proportions of theses classified by the above topics and the proportions of doctoral vs. PhD theses have stayed virtually the same for the last 5 years.

The national physical culture and sport research institutions and universities reported 76 theses published for the year of 2015 (that makes up 29.3% of the national total), including 51 theses in the Speciality 13.00.04 (versus 62 theses in 2014). The theses may be broken down by 10 research branches dominated by education (68.8%) followed by the theses in biology (10.8 %), medicine (8.1%), psychology (2.7%) and economics (4.6%), see Table 3.

Table 3. Breakdown of the 2015 theses by research sectors and key educational specialties (doctoral/ PhD theses)

The proportions of the ready 2015 theses by research branches stayed virtually the same as in 2014, with a slight growth of shares of theses in education, medicine and biology. The theses in the pedagogical specialities are dominated by Specialty 13.00.04 “Theory and practice of physical education, sport training, health-improvement and adaptive physical education” making up 72.1% of the total and Speciality 13.00.08 “Theory and practice of professional education” estimated at 15.1% of the total. 

The theses on mass physical culture are dominated by the educational specialities making up 82.0 % followed by theses in medicine, biology and psychology with the share of 18.0%. Most of the theses explore the matters of university and school physical education that account for 41.0% and 29.0%, respectively; followed by the adults’ and pre-school children’s physical education matters that make up 18.0% and 12.0% of the total, respectively. In 2015, 11 doctoral theses were published (compared to 8 in 2014). Notable part of the theses explores the matters of adaptive physical education in application to children and young people with impairments.

The theses on the institutional and management issues cover 5 research branches, including economics with the share of 60.0%. Much attention has been given in 2015 and for the last few years to the issues of professional sport labour relationship regulation (15.0%). Theses on educational matters and in medicine and biology accounted for 20.0% of the total. It should be noted that the number of theses on economic matters of the physical culture and sports sector was found to grow up 1.5 times versus that of 2014.

Theses on the physical education staff training problems may be broken down by 4 research branches dominated by the educational specialities (81.6%) including Speciality 13.00.08 with the share of 47.4 % (versus 60.9% in 2014) and Speciality 13.00.04 with the share of 31.6% (versus 13.0% in 2014) followed by the theses on history, sociology and philosophy. A notable part of the theses consider matters of Olympic education. Let us dwell in more detail on the theses on the matters of sport sector.     

The sports-focused theses may be broken down by 6 research branches dominated by the educational specialities with the share of 61.4% followed by the theses in medicine, biology and psychology with the aggregate share of 36.6%. Accounts of 2015 give 29 sport-unspecific theses (that make no indication of specific sport subject to the studies). Overall, 73 theses were defended in 32 sport disciplines, including 20 theses exploring Olympic sports (as compared to 2014 with 26 sport disciplines including 18 Olympic sports). On the whole, the theses published for the last 5 years (2011-15) have covered 55 sport disciplines including 31 Olympic sports (see Table 4).

Table 4. Breakdown of theses by sport disciplines for the period of 2011-15 (doctoral/ PhD theses)

Furthermore, quite a few theses were defended in 2015 on the matters of elite athletes’ training in Olympic sports (kayaking sport theses by S.V. Verling, PhD in Education from ARSRIPC (VNIIFK); swimming sport by T.V. Bushueva, PhD in Biology from KSUPCST (KubGUFKSiT); track and field sports by Y.I. Mosina, PhD in Education from MSPU (MGPU); women’s boxing by V.V. Lisitsyn, PhD in Education from ARSRIPC (VNIIFK); cycling sport by K.Y. Kosorogina, PhD in Biology from SSAPCST (SGAFKST), etc.). It should be noted that 12 theses on the matters of adaptive sports have been published for the last 5 years, including 4 theses of 2015 on adaptive swimming, powerlifting, competitive tourism and equestrian sports.

Conclusion. The study identified a few key trends in the focuses of the theses on physical culture and sports for the last few years. Special emphasis is to be made on the recent trend of the theses on physical culture and sports falling in numbers for the last two years. Note that quality of the theses under the study was left beyond the scope of the analysis. It should be mentioned that some of the theses under analysis were later on turned down by the Supreme Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. As far as the topics of the theses are concerned, we would note that a few important research-intensive topics (for instance, sport reserve training, skilled and elite athletes’ excelling training etc.) are still largely beyond the focus of the research theses published in our country.

References

1. Baranov V.N. Nauchnyie osnovyi sporta vyisshih dostizheniy i podgotovki sportivnyih rezervov (Scientific grounds of elite sport and training of sport reserves) / V.N. Baranov, B.N. Shustin // Osnovnyie napravleniya nauchnyih issledovaniy i tematika dissertatsionnyih rabot v sfere fizicheskoy kulturyi i sporta. Mir atletov (Main research fields and topics of theses in the field of physical culture and sports. World of athletes). – Moscow, 2008. – 556 p.
2. Baranov V.N. Analiz tematiki dissertatsionnyih rabot po problemam sporta (Analysis of sports-related theses topics) / V.N. Baranov, B.N. Shustin // XIII mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. po problemam fizicheskogo vospitaniya uchaschihsya «Chelovek, zdorove, fizicheskaya kulturyi i sport v izmenyayuschemsya mire» (materialyi konferentsii) (XIII Intern. res-pract. conf. on the problems of physical education of students "Man, health, physical culture and sports in a changing world "(Conference Proc.). – Kolomna: MSRSHU (MGOSGU),  2013. – P. 418-421.
3. Baranov V.N. Razvitie dissertatsionnyih issledovaniy po problemam modernizatsii fizicheskogo vospitaniya naseleniya i massovoy fizicheskoy kultury (Development of dissertation research related to modernization of physical education of the population and mass physical culture) / V.N. Baranov, B.N. Shustin // Vestnik sportivnoy nauki. – 2013. – № 2. – P. 8-13.
4. Baranov V.N. Razrabotka organizatsionnyih problem upravleniya fizicheskoy kulturoy i sportom v Rossii (Development of organizational issues of management of physical culture and sports in Russia) / V.N. Baranov, B.N. Shustin // Vestnik sportivnoy nauki. – 2014. – № 5. – P. 7-13.

Corresponding author: vniifk@yandex.ru

Abstract
The article analyzes the topics of theses on physical culture and sports published in 2015. The analysis was designed along the following key lines:

• Mass physical culture and physical education (“Sports”) including pre-school and school physical education; university physical education; and physical culture of adult population (referred to as mass physical culture);
• Elite sports and sport reserve training process, including the theses on the general matters of competitive training with no focus on specific sport disciplines;
• Institutional and management matters of the physical culture and sports sector, including organizational, informational, legal, financial and technical provisions for the physical culture and sports sector; and the physical culture and sports sector economics (“Management”);
• The physical culture and sports sector personnel training, further training and retraining policies and practices; the physical culture and sports theory and history (“Physical education staff training”).