Adaptation of first-year students to the conditions of the educational environment by means of physical culture and sports

Abstract

The process of adapting students to the learning and educational environment of a higher education institution is an area of extremely close attention, as it is viewed from the perspective of student health promotion. Physical education and sport occupy an important place in the paradigm of health-preserving function. Given the socially conditioned orientation of the physical education and sport continuum, part of its tasks contribute to solving the issues of adaptation of the student population. The subject orientation of physical education and sport considers the mental processes and the physical state of the attending students’ organisms in the format of the adaptation capabilities of the said people. Due to the peculiarities of the adaptation process, what remains an important condition is the initial period of learning, which has a significant impact on the process of self-determination of students in the learning community. A special role is assigned to the process of physical upbringing with enhanced opportunities for specific communication in learning and sportsmanship in this context. The personal factors that stimulate the adaptability of the trainees – the presence or absence of sports experience, the level of physical fitness – are tested in the course of the study. A comparative analysis of the performance of the attestation requirements in the subject "Physical Education & Sport" in the 1st semester of 3 categories of students – with high, medium & low levels of physical fitness – is conducted. The lack of goal-oriented practice in the use of physical education and sport for the above-mentioned purpose is revealed in the study of 1st year students' adaptation to the conditions of the educational environment. This is the proposed in this study to consider the problematic of 1st-year students' adaptation through the analysis of the interacting components of the above-mentioned activity – motor training, motivational aspects, mental reactions. What served as evaluation tools in the process of extracurricular activities, included the motivational side of the conducted experiment, including personal sports achievements.