Dr.Hab., Professor Y.M. Nikolaev
Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg

Keywords: modern physical education theory, sample theory, evolution of theoretical knowledge, physical education theory and practice.

Background. L.I. Lubysheva in her editor’s note in “Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury” no. 12, 2016 headed “In search of new breakthrough” mentioned that nowadays the national physical education theory is still largely based on and driven by the past theories and concepts. This conservatism virtually stalls further progress of the science and hampers an inflow of potentially productive ideas and concepts. This holds true for the national physical education theory (PET) with its core ideas dating back to the 1950-80ies. With time, however, these good old fundamentals have more often than not caused a restraining effect on the theoretical progress. Therefore, giving credit to the scientists of the past for their theoretical creativity and valuable contributions, we still need to move forward being fully aware of the fact that further progress may be impossible unless the past fundamentals are at least partially revised and transformed.

We are fully supportive of the above view and fully appreciate the great conceptual, methodological and practical contributions based on perfectly classified data that were made to the national science in the 1980-90ies; and do believe that new integrated theoretical knowledge shall be advanced in the early XXI century (defined as ‘intellectual-and-informational civilisation’ by A.I. Subetto, 1993) with no detriment to the best past experience and accomplishments. It is high time to come up with a new policy driven by modern methodology, humanistic ideas, values and projects to advance the national physical education sector based on the relevant modern theoretical grounds; and the key role in this process shall be played by a “sample theory” (as provided by G. Kun, 1975) setting a sort of framework for the theoretical progress in this field and imposing its new thinking style.

Role of the modern PET in the national physical education and sport practices shall be particularly high in the following two domains: world-outlook-building-and-cognitive and practical ones.

The world outlook building and cognitive role of modern PET is determined by the fact that it shall totally revise the traditional ways of thinking/ consciousness in the relevant communities (including academic ones) with concern to the national physical education and sports so as to consider the relevant values and processes as spiritual and physical drivers for the human-building agenda on the one hand; and, use them to hugely expand the cultural knowledgebase in the sector by mobilising its natural predetermined connections with the broader common culture.

The world-outlook-building (both in the theoretical and practical aspects) and cognitive components of the modern physical education (both general and professional) will significantly grow, whilst the physical education system operation will be more harmonised to duly prioritise the key aspects of a general education including cultural, humanistic and methodological ones and thereby improve its prestige.

In the practical domain, modern PET shall be focused on the socio-cultural (spiritual) component of the physical education and sports process to contribute to the personality-development, intellectual and socialising progress of trainees in its role of the powerful driver of the physical education and sport process – in view of the fact that a spiritual impetus shall either precede or merge with physical activity (i.e. the somatic-psychical component). This results from the essence of culture and the concept of integrative effects of physical practice (by P.F. Lesgaft, Y.A. Gagin, 1997; S.V. Dmitriev, 1997 et al) that may be viewed as the key physical education element in the context of the modern PET with it superstructure of the needs-and-motivations, priority-values and cognitive components.

Conclusion. Nowadays the national physical education and sports sector development process is in need of a different view, and the research methodology in the sector shall be now designed on a “from the whole to its parts” and top-down basis, i.e. from culture – for the reason that the horizontal/ coordinative links in the system are much better studied than the vertical/ hierarchical ones. Strategically, modern physical education and sports shall be viewed as integral systems in the context of the relevant new systemic-logical and theoretical cultural thinking style. That is why it is so important today to give a high priority to the studies of deep human-building processes in the modern PET based on the culture-related data. New theoretical challenges shall be addressed, new goals and missions shall be set and new practical grounds shall be provided for progress in the sector.

References

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Corresponding author: m.a.safronova.science@gmail.com

Abstract

The study considers some issues of theoretical knowledge accumulation in the physical education sector in the context of “sample theory” notions; and demonstrates that it is the modern physical education theory that may be applied as a sample theory. It has been recently developed via a cardinal transformation of the theoretical knowledge paradigms related to the essence of physical education and its progress from human training and sports with formation of the relevant spiritual values (ranked among the top priorities in the valid physical education theory and practice) to other domains; with the top priority given to development of an integral human personality with its somatic-psychic (bodily) and socio-cultural (spiritual) components being harmonised (with the leading role played by the latter). Modern physical education theory may be viewed as a product of a long evolution of human knowledge in this cultural domain. The study analyses its revolutionary effects on the physical education and sport practices, with a special emphasis on the progress paths, advantages, drawbacks and further potential development avenues of the modern physical education theory and practice.