PhD, Associate Professor K.V. Chedov
Perm State National Research University, Perm

Keywords: succession, health culture, senior pupils and students.

Background. The ongoing reforms in the national education system give a high priority to the young people’s health protection and improvement aspects. The new education system model addressed by the valid Federal State Education Standards (FSES) makes a special emphasis on the integral personality formation goals rather than purely on the students’ knowledge, skills and competences as such. Despite these policies and some progress in the national education system reformation process, the medical statistics for the last decades show a health sagging trend in the adolescent and university student population [4].

This is the reason why the national education science and education system ranks on top of its priorities the initiatives to improve the educational processes and environments so as to protect and improve the student health and reverse the health sagging trend. A special attention in this context is given to the efforts to develop the health culture related values and priorities in students to help them realize and attain their life goals and missions.

Health culture is referred to herein as the genuine part of a general individual culture including knowledge of the modern health standards; mental conditioning tools with self-controls and tests; basics of the modern healthy lifestyles; awareness of the role of health values and healthy lifestyles in the personality progress; and the ability to design and manage own health protection and perfection strategies [2].

Different aspects of the young people’s health culture building process have been explored by many national researchers and analysts, including M.Y. Vilensky, M.K. Galiev, V.P. Gorashchuk, V.V. Kozhanov, L.I. Lubysheva, A.G. Majuga, N.N. Malyarchuk, I.V. Manzheley, G.A. Mysina, G.S. Nikiforov, T.F. Orekhova, T.M. Rezer, N.V. Tretyakova, O.L. Treshcheva, Z.I. Tyumaseva and A.E. Yugova et al; with their contributions highly valued by the national science. We would analyze herein one of the key aspects of the above process that is the principle of succession in the education process.

As has been found by many recent studies, the period of transition from a general education school to universities and vocational educational establishments is often detrimental for health and lifestyles of the young people [1, 6, 7].

Objective of the study was to provide theoretical grounds for and offer a set of educational process provisions for due succession in the student health culture buildig process in the period of transition from school to university.

Methods and structure of the study. Applied for the purposes of the study were a systemic analysis of the existing student health formation models; and generalization of the relevant health culture building theory and practice in application to the modern adolescents and students. We also used a comparative analysis, theoretical generalization of the study findings, educational process survey, questionnaire survey and interviews to find and analyze the respondents’ viewpoints by sets of standard questions on the subject.

The study was completed at general education schools (Senior School in Tchaikovsky, and Secondary General Education School #13 in Kungury town) and universities (Perm State National Research University and the Tchaikovsky State Institute of Physical Culture) in the Perm Territory.

Study findings and discussion. It should be emphasized that the period of transition from a general education school to universities and vocational educational establishments is often detrimental to health and lifestyles of the young people due to the following factors:

• Changes in the lifestyles with the associating social and emotional stressors and mental tensions further complicated by the unhealthy daily regimen, fatigue and malnutrition that altogether undermine the uneasy adaptation process and even provoke a variety of health disorders;
• High-intensity academic learning process;
• Lack of the parental restraints for unhealthy behaviors/ bad habits, with smoking as a result reported to grow 2.5 times and the alcohol consumption 4 times in the school-to-university transition period; with 80% of the university students tested with physical inactivity despite the fact that 90% are reportedly aware of benefits of healthy lifestyles;
• Studies combined with jobs, with 30% and 15% of the 1-2-year male and female population, respectively, reporting such combination; and
• Poor or mismanaged physical activity.

As found by the available study reports, most of the university students are largely unaware of the basics of modern health culture; they generally recognize the need for a healthy lifestyle being at the same time fully incompetent in the own health management domain and, therefore, exposed to the risks of bad habits and unhealthy behavior; with only one student out of three found to recognize the need for systemic physical activity i.e. habitual physical education and sport practices.

Succession is defined herein as the duly harmonized transition to the higher education level designed to avoid stressors in the process of transition and at the same time gradually reform the educational process content, models, methods and technologies [3]. The succession implies a high degree of inheritance in the core ideas, content, institutional forms of the educational process and the learning progress testing methods.

Such succession will be secured by due provisions to: wisely plan the education process content; reasonably and efficiently select and combine the education process methods, models and tools; secure due consistency in the education tools and requirements; facilitate progress in the universal learning skills (competencies). It should be underlined that the young people’s health sagging trend may overshadow the governmental efforts to reform the national educational system and secure high-quality education services geared to produce a knowledgeable, skillful, socially secure and healthy specialist.

The set of the theoretical and empirical research methods applied for the purposes of the study helped us work out and offer the following institutional and educational provisions for due succession in the health culture building process in the school-to-university transition stage.

Provision one: healthy environment in the education establishment. The healthy environment implies that: the academic education workloads are well managed (optimized) to avoid overstresses; students are kept physically active on a daily basis; the valid sanitary and hygienic standards are strictly observed; comfortable and friendly mental/ emotional climate is formed and maintained; every reasonable effort is taken to prevent drug/ alcohol addictions in the student community; modern health technologies are implemented in the academic education process etc.

Provision two: sportizated physical education. This provision is supported by findings V.K. Bal’sevich, L.I. Lubysheva [5] et al, plus our own multiannual studies. The modern sportizated physical education models make an emphasis on the basic sport elements being efficiently applied in the physical education curriculum. The presently popular sportizated physical education models may be classified into sports-centered physical trainings; school sport clubs; school sport teams; Sport Culture discipline in the senior school classes etc.

The sportizated physical education model recommended based on our study findings gives a special priority to the sport clubbing activity supported and supervised by the education establishments. The sport club operations will be designed to offer optional sports as a basis for the physical practices with at least three trainings a week, each taking at least two academic hours and managed by a trainer-instructor highly competent in the sport discipline. Such sportizated physical education model will help not only satisfy the young people’s natural need in physical activity but also provide a basis for the harmonized and multisided physical progress, with the relevant benefits for the personality development process in this age group.

Provision three: student’s physicality tests. Additional physical activity in the academic education process – like the one in the sport clubs – helps mobilize and build up the physical resource of the growing body. The individual progress in the physical trainings needs to be rated by fair monitoring and tests to duly design and manage the workloads and analyze the training system efficiency. We applied a computerized PhysMonitor system for the test data storage, processing and analyzing purposes to keep track of the students’ physical progress. The test data and analyses make it possible to closely control the physical progress on an individual basis by specific tests and make the individual progress profiles for the whole test period.

Provision four: trainings to improve the educators’ competency in the personality health cultural matters. Competency of the education service providers may be interpreted as the key prerequisite for success of the student health culture building process. We developed and tested benefits of an advanced training program for the education specialists called ‘Student health culture building model for the modern educational system’ to contribute to the professional service quality of the education specialists and education service managers.

Provision five: individual health protection and development trajectories for the students. It is the above physical progress test system and the best available health protection and building experience that provide a basis for the individual health protection and development trajectories in the educational process. A special emphasis in this provision shall be made on the supervision and counseling service provided to the students by educators to help master basics of the healthy lifestyles and behavioral patterns as indispensable components of the personal health culture. Presently we have a project in process to design and offer systemic practical recommendations for supervision and counseling in the individual health protection and development trajectories design process.

It is recommended that the counseling service to the senior schoolchildren and university students to help them design and realize the individual health protection and development trajectories should be provided under the valid Physical Education discipline. With this purpose we have developed and tested benefits of special training programs for the school and university Physical Education discipline. A high priority in the special training programs for physical education process was given to the didactic technologies applicable by the teacher to effectively build up an individual health culture. The experimental training programs were tested highly beneficial as verified by the progress of the education specialists in the individual health culture building domain, with a great contribution from the modern didactic technologies applied the theoretical part of the physical education process.

It should be mentioned that due succession in the health culture building process in the school-to-university transition time may be additionally secured by a few efficient cooperation formats applicable by the partner schools and universities, including the advanced training courses for the school teachers and academic physical education specialists; master classes in modern physical education theory; research conferences and contests to promote the best developments in the young people’s physical education and healthy lifestyles; sport competitions of the school/ university teams etc.

Conclusion. Programs to secure due succession in the young people’s health culture building process in the school-to-university transition period are recommended to be designed on the institutional and educational provisions offered herein, with the succession being given a special attention to by the relevant general school, vocational training, academic and advanced education establishments conditional on a sound interdepartmental cooperation and integration.

References

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2. Gavronina G.A., Chedova T.I. Professionalno-prikladnaya napravlennost uchebnoy distsipliny 'Fizicheskaya kultura' v klassicheskom universitete [Professional and applied orientation of Physical Education discipline in classical university]. Voprosy pedagogiki, 2017, no. 11, pp. 24-26.
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4. Dolzhikova R.A., Fedosimov G.M., Kulinich N.N. et al Realizatsiya preemstvennosti pri obuchenii i vospitanii detey v DOU i nachalnoy shkole [Realization of continuity in education and upbringing of pre-school and elementary school children]. Moscow: Shkolnaya Pressa publ., 2008, 128 p.
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8. Chedova T.I., Solovyev S.V., Starkov E.V. [chief ed.], Polyakov T.A. [scientific. ed.] Napravlennost deyatelnosti sportivnogo kluba na populyarizatsiyu zdorovogo obraza zhizni sredi studentov [Orientation of sports club activities to promote healthy lifestyle among students]. Mater. Vseros. nauch.-prakt. konf. s mezhdunar. uchastiem 'Fizicheskaya kultura, sport, turizm: nauchno-metodicheskoe soprovozhdenie' [Proc. nat. res,-practical conf. with intern. participation 'Physical education, sports, tourism: research and methodological support']; May 17-19, 2017. PSHPU, Perm, 2017, pp. 91–94.

Corresponding author: gagavronina@mail.ru

Abstract

The national education system, in its response to the modern challenges, gives a growing priority to the health values system formation in students with the relevant social and educational implications. A special emphasis is made on the succession of the health values and health culture building in the process of transition from a general education school to university or a vocational education establishment.

For the study purposes, we analyzed on a systemic basis the existing educational models in the context of the health culture building aspects and the modern theories, practices and policies with concern to the health culture of junior population. Research methods applied for the study purposes included a comparative analysis, theoretical generalization of the study findings, education process survey, questionnaire survey and interviews to find the respondents’ viewpoints by sets of standard questions on the subject. The study was completed at general education schools (Senior School in Tchaikovsky, and Secondary General Education School #13 in Kungury town) and universities (Perm State National Research University and Tchaikovsky State Institute of Physical Culture) in the Perm Territory. Based on the study data and analyses, we offer facilitating institutional and educational provisions to secure due succession in the young people’s health culture formation process.