PhD, Professor K.N. Dementiev
St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg

Keywords: motivations, motivating factors, physical activity.

Background. Since the 1990ies till now, evolution in the academic Physical Education discipline with its goals and missions showed the following two trends: advancing the young people’s fitness for labour and defence of the Motherland; and improving the national physical education in the context of the relevant values of physical culture [1, 2]. Modern developmental vector of the academic Physical Education discipline makes a special emphasis on the initiatives to balance the following systems: physical culture values – social mobility – life quality – social and economic opportunities – and innovative environment [3], with the motivational component viewed as an integral part of the academic education and development system.

Due diligence and progress of young people both in the academic Physical Education discipline and in habitual off-class self-trainings outdoors on sport grounds and indoors in fitness clubs contribute to the national health protection and improvement initiatives and, hence, progress of the nation on the whole. It is the issues and challenges of the students’ training for the Russian Physical Culture and Sports “Ready for Labour and Defence” (GTO) Complex tests that have been in top priority for the last few years for researchers. The relevant studies published for this time period both reporting the data on the actual academic health situation and physical fitness and offering new approaches and solutions to improve the academic physical education and sport services on the whole and the student’s fitness for the GTO Complex tests in particular have mostly considered the ways to reform the relevant academic curricula, create the relevant educator-assisted group training models and individualise the education and training processes to better meet the health needs and agenda of every student.

It should be noted that the past experience of mass physical culture movements and fitness trainings for the GTO Complex tests accumulated in the 1930-70ies and well-described by the leading physical education experts at that time is hardly applicable today under the modern social conditions and living standards dominated by low and further falling physical activity and growing information flows and pressure; with the physical inactivity being increasingly ranked among the habitual negative factors of detriment for the public health, and with the situation being further aggravated by the degrading natural environments. As reported by the academic analysts from Saint Petersburg universities, more than 30% of the modern university students are tested with low physical fitness and functional state rates [1-3].

Motivational aspects of the age-specific physical activity have been studied in the national science based on a variety of approaches and concepts. Potential ways to intensify motivations and other driving forces for general and specific physical activities have been considered in sport-discipline-specific, personality-centred, kinesiological, educational-values-prioritising and other aspects. Many study reports underline the low motivation for physical training and sports being in correlation with habitual physical inactivity.

The national policy to introduce the GTO Complex tests into the academic physical progress and fitness rating system in parallel with the traditional physical progress and fitness rating tests recognises the importance of new strategic methods, tools and models geared to meet the requirements of the academic Physical Education discipline and thereby fulfil the social order for healthy human resource and attain specific goals of the education discipline.

Striving to find solutions for bridging the gap between the still low students’ physical progress and fitness standards and the high qualification requirements of the GTO Complex tests in the academic education period, we made a special emphasis in the study on the motivational specifics, opportunities and the ways to apply the motivational data for revision of the policies and practices of the standard academic Physical Education subject.

Objective of the study was to analyse the students’ motivations for academic physical education process including their actual interests in the physical education service in the context of the fitness training for the GTO Complex tests.

Methods and structure of the study. Experimental work under the study was performed in 2015-2016 under the research projects run by the Physical Education Department of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Subject to the study were 129 first-to-third-year students of the Construction Department. For the purposes of the study, we analysed the group motivations by a variety of relevant rating criteria. Group 1 (n=39, 30% of the sample) was composed of the students tested with poor physical fitness; Group 2 (n=78, 55% of the sample) – of the students tested with fair physical fitness albeit still short of the GTO Complex requirements; and Group 3 (n=12, 15% of the sample) was composed of the students who have successfully passed the tests to qualify for the Gold, Silver or Bronze GTO badges.

The study data and analyses were used to improve the study approaches, perform a theoretical analysis and summarise the findings. The subjects’ motivations were rated under the study using the A.A. Rean and V.A. Yakunin Academic Motivations Test method adapted by N.T. Badmaeva. The test data were applied to rate the subjects’ motivations and needs that determine their commitment for the academic Physical Education, individual attitudes to the GTO Complex tests and the relevant fitness training components.

Study results and discussion. The sample grouping with separation of the group in need of intensified physical training with a special training component to get fit for the GTO Complex tests made it possible to rate, on a categorical basis, the subjects’ priorities and potential motivations for the academic physical education service. Each of the groups was tested to find the group-specific top-three key motivations for the academic physical education. The tests showed that communicative, avoidance and learning-and-cognitive motivations were dominating in the least physically fit Group 1; whilst the fairly fit (albeit still unfit for the GTO Complex tests) Group 2 showed on top of the list social, professional and learning-and-cognitive motivations. The best trained Group 3 (that passed the GTO Complex tests) was tested with social, professional and learning-and-cognitive motivations being on top of their motivations lists.

Furthermore, we found that a special priority given to the educational actions to mobilise and develop the relevant motivational mechanisms and needs in the academic Physical Education process with due attention to the process being reasonably customised to the individual physical qualities and needs of every student, associated with the background knowledge accumulating efforts including the competency-building in the self-training domain – are beneficial enough as they help transform the individual behavioural patterns to give a higher priority to physical education activity: see Table 1 hereunder. As demonstrated in Table 1, Group 3 showed the most expressed social motivations including the need for recognition, safety and affiliation in the context of the future professional career.

Table 1. Students’ motivations for academic physical education versus their physical fitness rates (points)

It is the learning-and-cognitive motivations that were ranked among the top-three ones, and the new motivations-prioritising education models are recommended to make a due emphasis on the initiatives to mobilise and develop these motivations so as to encourage every group students for the academic physical education service. It is a matter of common knowledge today that this group of motivations is generally much more important for the individual academic progress than intellectual qualities. It should also be noted that the learning-and-cognitive motivations showed some intergroup differences in goals as verified by the test data arrays. Thus these motivations in Groups 2 and 3 were centred on sound professional knowledgebase and practical skills important for professional progress, with the academic physical trainings being viewed by these groups as the means to step up the physical and intellectual performance for professional purposes. Group 1 was tested to give the top priority to external goals in their motivations like getting their scholarships, avoid disfavour or penalty for poor academic progress etc.

It is important and beneficial for the educators to apply the relevant education and training tools to scale down the effects of external motivators and mobilise the internal ones to improve the academic physical education and sporting process under the academic education curriculum so as to shape up modern conscientious outlook and health agenda in the students with due priority to modern healthy lifestyles and physical activity as a basis for the professionally important physical qualities, abilities and skills.

Conclusion. The study showed that the university students’ physical activity, progress and fitness levels including the fitness components required for the GTO Complex tests are largely determined by the relevant group motivations dominated by the learning-and-cognitive, social and professional ones.

References

1. Dementiev K.N., Golubev A.A., Rysev Y.L. Sovremennye tendentsii povysheniya effektivnosti zanyatiy fizicheskoy kulturoy studentov v vuzakh [Modern trends in improving efficiency of students’ academic physical education classes]. International Journal "The Path of Science”, 2015, no. 2 (12), pp. 95-97.
2. Konstantinov D.V., Petrov S.S. Filosofiya fizicheskoy kultury i sporta: perspektivy metafizicheskogo podkhoda [Philosophy of physical culture and sports: prospects for metaphysical approach]. Omskiy nauchny vestnik, 2012, no. 3-109, pp. 85-88.
3. Pristav O.V., Dementev K.N., Mironova O.V., Pristav O.V. et al. Proektnye vozmozhnosti fizicheskoy kultury studentov v novykh usloviyakh [Project capacities of academic physical education under new conditions]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 10, pp. 56-58.

Corresponding author: dementevkn2013@yandex.ru

Abstract

The national policies to encourage popular physical activity and regular sports are forming a basis for new values, senses and priorities in the public opinion domain. Physical culture activity is increasingly appreciated as an individual social behavioural model and this appreciation contributes to the individual motivations and relevant needs of the trainees to help the latter mobilise their resource on a multisided basis for physical perfection.

A special priority in the study was given to a motivations analysis of the highly sporting students’ group demonstrating stable and sound determination for physical education and striving to improve their physical fitness for the GTO Complex tests in particular; to obtain the key data to provide grounds for a motivations-prioritising approach to youth physical education process with the relevant psychological and educational provisions for the students’ success in the academic Physical Education discipline.