PhD, Associate Professor N.V. Kondrashova
Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevyev, Saransk

Keywords: preschooler, preschool education, educator, design, physical education.

Background. The ongoing preschool education system reform sets special requirements to the professional education specialist competency including the ability to design the physical education environment and processes so as to facilitate the children’s musculoskeletal system, physical qualities, basic motor skills and basic knowledge of some sport disciplines, healthy lifestyles and relevant values being developed in the most efficient manner with a special emphasis on the physical and mental health protection and improvement aspects.

Objective of the study was to consider basics of the future preschool education specialist training for the physical education and health improvement process design activity in preschool education establishments.

Study results and discussion. The education design initiatives and the relevant projects to improve the physical education and health improvement process in preschool education establishments are specific in many aspects, including: subject to the project design is the key education program, education space and different children’s developmental activities etc., with a special priority given to the project design of relevant educational regimen and cultural practices and educational situation models to facilitate the values-driven attitudes to health, sports and healthy lifestyles being formed in preschoolers with a special priority to the relevant physical experience, habitual cultural and hygienic skills etc. [1- 2].

Presently the preschool education specialist training to build due competency for the high-quality education process design and other professional responsibilities is viewed as a complex training system including the following three components: (1) invariable component designed to build a general competency in the education process design domain; 2) variable component focused on special training of a future education specialist to be competent in high-quality design of the educational system, environment and different children’s activity models to successfully attain preschool physical development process goals; and (3) individualised training component intended to make the trainees fit for the process design in assisted, self-reliant and cooperative preschool education formats to ensure the preschool physical development process being customised to different health groups to attain the process goals on an all-round basis.

The specialist competency for the preschool physical education and development process design may be classified into the following key components:

• Motivational component that implies due interest in the process design, control and prudential management to facilitate the preschool physicality development process; appreciation of the personal contribution to the children’s values-driven attitudes to health, sports and healthy lifestyles being formed with a special priority to the relevant physical experience and needs; etc.;
• Practical component that implies due knowledge of the educational process design basics; psychological and educational basics of the children’s physical education and development theory and technologies in application to relevant preschool age groups; modern health protection and improvement technologies; special requirements to the preschool physical education process design and management activity; range of developmental options offered in different special and regular training models and their benefits for the preschool physical education and development process; and
• Operational component that implies competency and skills in research, project design and other relevant domains including the ability to process and utilise research literature on the subject; summarise and analyse the existing theories and practices in application to the Physical Development discipline; children’s physical fitness rating competency (to rate their needs in one or another physical activity, habitual cultural and hygienic skills; physical qualities and basic motor skills etc.); ability to assess benefits of applicable preschool physical education technologies, tools and models of potential importance for the educational process; competency in the project values and goals setting domain; ability to apply relevant content, design, practices, management methods, socialising-and-psychological tools for success of selected preschool physical education model; competency in relevant situation-specific dialogues; game sessions; small creative forms; cultural practices with children; with a special priority to the overall facilitating context of the educational system design etc.

We believe that the future physical education specialist training for the preschool physical education and health process can and shall be designed in a staged format as follows.

At the first (basic theoretical) stage, students shall accumulate knowledge of the basics of the educational process design; key preschool physical education technologies, methods and models; practical experience of leading kindergarten specialists in creating good health protection environments with application of different folk games, developmental technologies and projects in preschool educational systems. Active training methods and tools shall be prudently applied to facilitate learning of the following subjects: research, theoretical, programmatic and practical aspects of the children’s physical education and development process; health protection environments and their components (including health centres; databanks of educational methods, technologies and interactive health improvement tools; master files of different health technologies and games; awareness information for families etc.); preschool physical education and health protection system; education project and environment design requirements to facilitate the preschool physical education process etc. With this purpose in view, pedagogical universities are recommended to require from students to make glossaries, tables, presentations; keep logbooks and game files, card files, synopses; summaries of standard, critical and extreme situations; and other elements of the physical education and development process designs and practices; analyse the best education projects designed by the leading education specialists etc.

At the education process design stage, students shall acquire practical skills and build competency in the age-specific preschool physical education environment and process designs with a special priority to the modern education technologies, traditional and new education models in application to different age categories of preschoolers, including morning gymnastics, physical trainings, adapted team sports etc. Students may be offered to: develop sample education projects like “One day in specific age group”, “Nutrition basics”, “Road safety”, “Daily regime”, “Safe behaviour at home and outdoors” etc.; make a three-day calendar plan for a specific preschool age group with a special emphasis on the cultural practices and relevant educational context building aspects (experience-building and/or ethical choice situations, standard/ game/ communicative situations etc.) of the regular educational process for practical implementation at a preschool education establishment. Furthermore, students shall be offered to develop creative training sessions with application of the relevant folk traditions like “Folk gymnastics”, “Story telling by movements”; quiz games like “Find the best proverb”, “Hurdles”, “Who is the fastest”, “Mimic the proverb”, “Good advices” etc.; small creative forms like “Doing it myself”, “Ears” etc. Every synopsis filed by the students must be checked by the applicable copyright protection system and only the works that are at least 55% unassisted shall be accepted.

A special emphasis shall be made on the practical aspects of the education specialist training for the preschool physical education and development process design i.e. the following technologies: case (educational situation) analysing method that requires special education competency and personal qualities being demonstrated by the student to show how the theoretical knowledge is applied in a specific situation; analytical abilities building to help the students analyse practical educational situations, efficiently find the reasons and forecast outcomes of some specific actions in the situations; with a special emphasis on the adult educator’s role in the solution-finding process in the situation with a high priority being given to harmonious physical, spiritual and ethical progress of preschoolers. Computerised technologies may be applied in the educational process to demonstrate video cases of the preschool physical education and cultural process designs to support the regular educational process.

Special attention shall be given to the students’ competency building in different health technologies including: health protection and improvement technologies like stretching, active breaks, competitive and active games, finger gymnastics, eye gymnastics etc.); healthy lifestyle promotion technologies; problem-solving game sessions, trainings and therapeutic practices; communicative games; point massage; corrective technologies (tale-therapy; colour application technologies etc.). In doing that, high priority shall be given to a positioning method, educational studios and master classes of the leading and experienced education specialists to update the students on benefits of the technologies for the modern preschool education process design. To help the students master practical and regulatory basics of the education environment designs with the equipment and tools selection options, the education shall include case projects and presentations like “Group health protection environment”, “Physical training and health equipment for kindergarten” etc. The academic educational process shall include both class- and off-class-training components in the curriculum and relevant education plans in the academic and optional subjects and in the practical training components.

At the third and final stage, students shall have their education projects tested, with the test process including the following two avenues or phases: (1) public defence of the projects in the academic process at regular sessions, conferences, contests of students’ projects and/or in business games; and (2) educational or work practices, with home tasks being subject to obligatory checks and approvals by the educators. Most effective are business games including the operational aspects that help master specific operations at different stages of the project design process; imitative and staged games geared to mimic some elements of an educational process with a special emphasis on specific problematic situations etc., with the game participants taking different roles in every game. Students shall take turns acting as educators in their education project tests, with others watching or joining the process followed by an analysis of the student’s success in capacity of the project designer and educator. Regardless of a specific purpose of every such session, the following key aspects shall be assessed: grounds for and benefits of the designed and tested educational process; the student’s ability to learn; ability to unite and mobilise the audience; knowledge of the synopsis etc. It may be beneficial to design some practical training sessions as conferences, workshops, master classes and education consulting sessions to discuss the preschoolers’ physical education process design and management issues on a regular basis; to update the students on the modern developments in the education theory and practice; update them on the best modern designs at master classes etc.

As a result, by the end of the academic period educational competency and practical skills of every student shall be based on the independent accomplishments in the form of individual project designs; presentations; game collections for every preschool age group; best project design collections from practical experiences of the leading educators; lists of folk-tradition-based masterpieces and creative education tasks etc.

Conclusion. The future physical education specialist training for the preschool physical education and health process design is viewed as a complex, cycled and staged process. The following educational process algorithm is recommended in every academic semester with its curricula and practical studies: first, the students shall master the basics of the educational process design with a special emphasis on the preschool physical education aspects; and then due experience in specific physical education and health models and environments shall be accumulated, followed by obligatory tests of the students’ progress in education project designs.

References

1. Berezhnova O.V., Timofeyeva L.L. Tekhnologiya proektirovaniya obrazovatelnogo protsessa v doshkolnoy organizatsii [Preschool educational process design technology]. Moscow: Tsvetnoy mir publ., 2014, 144 p.
2. Kondrashova N.V. Nauchno-teoreticheskie osnovy i osobennosti pedagogicheskogo proektirovaniya v oblasti doshkolnogo obrazovaniya [Scientific-theoretical basics and features of pedagogical design in preschool education sector]. Detskiy sad ot A do Ya, 2016, no., pp. 22-28.

Corresponding author: kondnatalya@yandex.ru

Abstract

The study considers the special role and basics of the future preschool education specialist training for the physical education and health improvement process design activity in preschool education establishments. The study offers practical recommendations on how the basic academic educational process design and progress test stages should be structured to develop competency in assisted, self-reliant and cooperative preschool education to ensure the preschool physical development process goals being attained on an integrated basis.

The future physical education specialist training for the preschool physical education and health process design is viewed as a complex, cycled and staged process. The following educational process algorithm is recommended in every academic semester with its curricula and practical studies: first, the students shall master the basics of the educational process design with a special emphasis on the preschool physical education aspects; and then due experience in specific physical education and health models and environments shall be accumulated, followed by obligatory tests of the students’ progress in education project designs.