Physical education for Soviet children and teacher and coach education. Physical education for children (to seventeen years). An historical overview and contemporary study of organisation and methods. An examination of the professional training of physical education teachers and sports coaches.

摘要

The starting point for this study was when as audspecialist physical education teacher working in a school,udI undertook a part-time inservice B. Ed degree and wrote auddissertation comparing the systems of physical education inudthe USSR and in England and Wales. I made one visit in 1979udto Moscow but, otherwise, had to rely heavily upon Westernudsources of material owing to my lack of knowledge of Russianudand the difficulty in obtaining primary source material.udI discovered that virtually no profound study in Englishudhad been made of children's physical education in one of theudworld's largest and most important countries. Yet sinceudthe early 1950s, the USSR has been one of the leading sportingudnations in international competitions.udFor many years I have been interested in comparativeudphysical education and, helped by my background of foreignudlanguages' study at school, have visited schools in the USA,udCanada, Germany, Austria and Israel, as well as the USSR.udIn 1981, I began work as a university lecturer withudresponsibilities for teacher training and started to gatherudinformation for this thesis for which I had to learn Russian,udhelped by staff at the Centre for Modern Languages at theudUniversity of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.ududDuring several study visits to the USSR, I visitedud1981 - Two weeks sports study tour to Moscowt Leningradudand Minsk.ud1983 - Four weeks in Leningrad.ud1985 - Six weeks in Moscow, Leningrad and Brest on audBritish Council Travel Scholarship.udUSSR Ministry of Education Offices, teacher training institutions, schools, sports schools and other sportsudinstitutions, interviewed officials, lecturers, teachers,udstudents and pupils and observed lectures, lessons and trainingudsessions. In addition, I gathered text books, syllabusesudand journals and, after several years of research and studyudvisits, set out to describe and examine all aspects of Sovietudchildren's physical education from preschool to school-leavingudage as well as the training of their teachers and coaches.udIt has been necessary to describe the whole physicaludeducation system since it is a more complex series ofudactivities in and out of school than what we in England andudWales, understand as physical education, that is, lessons inudschool. Descriptions are fairly extensive since readers areudunlikely to be able to read the sources in Russian for themselvesudor to make their own visits.udBecause the concept of physical education in the USSRudis so different compared to our own, and because its structureudis determined by the state of development and needs ofudSoviet society, a background description of the country andudeducation system is given in Chapter I and an explanation ofudthe development of Soviet sport and physical education inudChapter II.udThe concepts of Soviet physical culture, sport andudphysical education are different to our own and are explained.udSoviet terminology in direct translation is used, for example,udschool physical education programmes, but physical cultureudlessons and teachers to emphasise the different conceptsudwhich are employed.ududThe aims, methods and reasons behind the system ofudphysical education for Soviet children are described andudanalysed and the theory and practice of its implementationudhave been investigated through primary sources - syllabuses,udvisits, observations. and interviews.udThe effectiveness of physical education for all Sovietudchildren is discussed and some cross-cultural comparisonsudare made. Finally, suggestions are put to physical educatorsudin England and Wales on how this study might be useful toudthem when considering changes in their own physical educationudsystem.