Research on the Innovation and Development of University Physical Education from the Perspective of Strengthening the Country through Sports ()
1. Introduction
In 2008, China held the 29th World Olympic Games, at which the Chinese athletes got excellent achievements. China is not only showing its big nation style, but also setting off a wave of strengthening the country through sports at home. Since then, the concept of strengthening the country through sports strategy gradually took root in people’s minds. There is no doubt that our country has become a big sports nation in terms of the number of MEDALS, which shows that our country has a great potential for development in sports. But how to advance from a big sports nation to sports power, is the question that our generation of sports people should think about. Since the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country through sports strategy, it has caused waves of sports upsurge in various fields of society, among which university physical education is undoubtedly the most eye-catching existence. The history of university physical education in China has a long history. In 2002, the Ministry of Education issued the National Physical Education Curriculum Teaching Guidelines for Colleges and Universities. The aim of college and university physical education is to strengthen the body, enhance the health and improve the physical literacy”, which coincides with the national strategy of strengthening the country through sports. The purpose of building a powerful sports country is also to improve the physical quality of the whole people and enhance their physical literacy through diversified sports activities. Therefore, it is of practical significance to use the spirit of strengthening the country through sports strategy to guide the practice of university physical education and carry out innovative research on the course of physical education (Du, 2013).
2. The Connotation of Strengthening the Country through Sports Strategy
The term of strengthening the country through sports strategy, earliest appeared in 1983 national sports work conference. At that time, my country was in a period of many things need recovering and great courage for reform. Sports undertakings are also recovering and need the guidance of the correct concept of physical education development. The concept of strengthening the country through sports strategy arises spontaneously. According to the 1983 “Request for Instructions on Further Opening Up a New Situation in Sports”, sports power includes the following four indicators: 1) About half of the people in China regularly take part in sports activities; 2) Come out ahead in the Olympic Games; 3) Build sports grounds; 4) Improve the structure of sports teams. Thus, the concept of strengthening the country through sports strategy comes into being in order to solve the problem that Chinese sports undertaking faces in development, and the implementation of strengthening the country through sports strategy is also for promoting the development of China sports enterprise. Although China has not become a sports power at that time, and it cannot realize the goal of strengthening the country through sports in the short time, after the concept of strengthening the country through sports strategy is put forward, many experts and scholars in China still conduct research on strengthening the country through sports strategy. For example, scholars such as Liu & Liu (2009), Wang (2012) and Du (2013) have carried out the analysis of trengthening the country through sports strategy, and point out that the implementation of strengthening the country through sports strategy meets the requirements of China’s present sports cause development (Feng, 2022).
A big sports nation is not equal to sports power, a big sports nation is only a noun to measure national sports strength. The main performance of national sports strength is the number of MEDALS in various sports events, and it’s a competition between nations. Strengthening the country through sports strategy, on the other hand, emphasizes the sports strength of the country itself, which refers to the number of citizens engaged in sports activities, the development degree of sports industry in the country, and the popularization degree of core sports literacy. It can be seen that sports power compared with a big sports nation, is more difficult to reach. At present, China has become a real big sports nation, especially from the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing to 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, sports enterprise in China has entered a golden period of vigorous development, the country’s sporting prowess dramatically increase, the number of MEDALS of China rises constantly, and China has achieved brilliant results in many projects. During that time, Chinese athletes won 986 world championships in 216 sports, and broke the world record 108 times. Sports strength has led to the growth of the sports industry. In 2014, China issued Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of sports Industry and Promoting sports consumption, which pointed out that the total scale of China’s sports industry is expected to exceed 5 trillion yuan by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of more than 12%.
But we can’t negate the function of a big sports nation blindly. The foundation laid by a big sports nation can provide support for the realization of strengthening the country through sports strategy. For example, Chinese athletes have been in the international leading position in table tennis and other sports for a long time, on this basis, it has driven the enthusiasm of Chinese residents in table tennis and other sports. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games have made more people realize the charm of ice and snow sports, and the number of ice and snow sports participating the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is much higher than the same period in previous years (Gao, 2021).
It can be seen that strengthening the country through sports strategy has the following characteristics: First, strengthening the country through sports strategy has a long history in China and has always been associated with the development of China’s sports undertaking. The ideas of strengthening the country through sports strategy are consistent with the development of sports undertaking. Second, as China has become a big sports nation, it is closer to the sports power goal, and now it is the key period to realize the strengthening the country through sports strategy goal. Third, to realize the strategic goal of strengthening the country through sports, we need to make efforts from many angles and fields. We should not only pay attention to competitive sports, but also pay attention to sports for all, so that the concept of strengthening the country through sports strategy can be deeply embedded in people’s minds. Therefore, this paper carries out the research of university sports from the perspective of strengthening the country through sports strategy, and treats the development of sports undertakings from the perspective of mass participation, which is innovative.
3. The Integration of College and University Physical Education and the Strengthening the Country through Sports Strategy
As an indispensable part of the physical education in China, the college and university physical education courses are widely carried out in Chinese universities, and the connection with the primary and middle schools’ physical education and social sports is formed. College and university physical education courses vary from institution to institution, and different institutions offer different physical education courses. For example, in some areas with developed sports industry, there are many kinds of sports courses, including swimming, figure skating and other professional sports. In some ethnic areas, there are sports courses with ethnic characteristics, such as Tibetan wrestling courses in Tibet, equestrian courses in Mongolia, ethnic dance courses in Yunnan, etc. These courses form the big family of sports courses in Chinese colleges and universities. Students can choose appropriate courses according to their own interests, which not only meet the requirements of the development of students’ interests, but also promote the improvement of students’ physical quality and physical literacy (Liu & Liu, 2009).
Therefore, college and university physical education and strengthening the country through sports strategy have a good integration. On the one hand, the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country through sports has promoted the importance of physical education courses in colleges and universities. All the time, Chinese education neglects to physical education and other quality education curriculum. The examination of students pays more attention to the academic performance of students’ professional courses, but does not pay attention to the students’ physical ability. However, under the strategy of strengthening the country through sports, colleges and universities have promoted their attention to the physical education curriculum, carried out continuous reform in physical education curriculum, and provided more diversified physical education courses for students. To improve students’ physical quality and physical literacy as the goal, this model greatly promoted the development of students’ physical ability. It can say that the development of the college and university physical education and the implementation of strengthening the country through sports strategy complement each other. The two act together in the students’ sports movement to help students form the correct sports idea. On the other hand, the implementation of strengthening the country through sports strategy also puts forward new requirements for college and university physical education. The strengthening the country through sports strategy calls for improving the enthusiasm of the masses to participate in sports, forming the idea of the whole people participating in sports, developing the sports industry, and improving the overall sports level of the society. This strategic thought makes us pay more attention to students’ physical literacy in a more systematic way instead of only paying attention to physical performance in college and university physical education, which include students’ concept of looking at sports, students’ enthusiasm to participate in sports, students’ training level of sports, students’ degree of promoting the economic development of sports industry, etc., which brings new challenges to college physical education (Wan, Zhao, & Zhang, 2021).
4. Problems Existing in College and University Physical Education from the Perspective of Strengthening the Country through Sports Strategy
4.1. Lack of Scientific Curriculum
Different colleges and universities in China usually have different physical education courses, each has subtle differences according to the college or university situation, but generally can be divided into track and field, ball games, gymnastics, martial arts, dance and other categories, each of which also has subdivided categories, which together form the content of China’s college and university physical education. This leads to the lack of professional education in Chinese colleges and universities, especially in the public elective courses of non-physical major students (Wang, 2012).
On the one hand, colleges and universities usually arrange 1 - 2 hours of physical education courses a week, the number of courses is small, students only learn sports items in a short period of 2 hours, including two parts of theoretical knowledge learning and physical exercise, learning time is obviously insufficient. Students can not get sufficient physical exercise in class, and they can not consciously carry out physical exercise after class, so the learning effect is difficult to guarantee. In terms of course arrangement, colleges and universities usually pay more attention to the arrangement of students’ professional courses and take into account the working hours of different teachers, thus pay less attention to the scientific schedule of sports. For example, some schools arrange physical education courses after breakfast and lunch, during which time students have just finished eating and the food has not been digested. If students take physical exercise immediately, it is likely to cause gastrointestinal damage to students, which is not conducive to students’ health (Wei, 2022).
On the other hand, under the background of diversified physical education curriculum, the physical education curriculum in colleges and universities is constantly updated, but the number of physical education teachers is obviously insufficient, and many physical education teachers in colleges and universities hold several posts, and teach different sports. In some projects, teachers themselves are not professional and can not provide adequate teaching guidance for students. They can only teach superficial knowledge. In such physical education courses, students cannot get professional guidance. Many colleges and universities sports curriculum require specialized equipment, such as the rise of ice and snow sports with the Winter Olympics. In China, only Northeast Normal University, Beijing Sports University and Hebei Sports Institute have set up these courses, most of colleges and universities can not afford the cost of ice and snow courses, so it is difficult to carry out the course construction. This leads to the establishment of physical education curriculum in Chinese universities being influenced more by external factors. Factors such as climate change and teachers’ status will cause the teaching effect of physical education curriculum to be reduced, which is not conducive to the development of physical education.
4.2. The Course Assessment Method Is Not Flexible
In terms of course assessment methods, the implementation of strengthening the country through sports strategy requires colleges and universities not only to assess students’ mastery of sports, but also to assess students’ core physical literacy, which is an all-round investigation of students’ physical ability, obviously, it can not be achieved only by a single index of sports test results. However, in the current college and university physical education, there is a high dependence on the performance of sports tests. Many colleges and universities do not examine the comprehensive sports ability of students, but only require students to participate in how many morning runs each semester, and what level of performance should be achieved in sports tests. Although these hard indicators can help to understand students’ participation in sports and the level of sports, they lack flexibility and effectiveness. Whether the students’ physical education concept is formed, whether they acquire new sports knowledge through the learning of physical curriculum, whether it is helpful for the development of sports enterprise in China, the current way of college and university physical examination does not help to solve the above question.
In different types of physical courses, different assessment methods are also needed. For example, in track and field courses and ball courses, students’ athletic performance can show the learning effect. However, in dance and martial arts courses, it is also necessary to check whether the students have a sense of physical beauty and have an understanding of the relevant knowledge of the course content. This requires teachers to flexibly adopt a variety of assessment methods according to the different courses to meet the requirements of physical curriculum development (Yang, Ma, & Wang, 2022).
4.3. The Guiding Ideology Deviates from the Original Intention
The thought of strengthening the country through sports demands that we should not only demand ourselves with the thought of big sports nation, can’t just focus on the number of MEDALS in a sporting event, and can’t just focus on the few athletes who have done well, but to take a longer view and focus on the entire students, pay attention to the performance of each student in college and university physical courses to realize the improvement of all students’ physical quality. But in college and university physical education, its guiding ideology has not yet escaped from the bondage of big sports nation thought, many physical teachers pay more attention to the physical major students who can make achievements and win gold MEDALS, and pay less attention to the general students who participate in public elective courses, and teach sports knowledge not in depth, and require students with low standards. As a result, many students first pay attention to whether the course is easy to pass, whether it is easy to get good grades, and do not pay attention to the professional physical education, and whether they can learn sports knowledge in physical course when they choose sports elective course. In this case, a bad closed loop is formed between teachers and students. Teachers ignore routine physical education and students fail to form correct learning concepts.
5. Countermeasures for Innovation and Development of College Physical Education from the Perspective of Strengthening the Country through Sports
5.1. Enhance the Professionalism of the Course
First of all, in terms of the selection of course content, colleges and universities should conduct a full investigation of their own sports resources, including the hardware facilities such as venues and equipment, as well as the software facilities such as the professionalism of teachers and the adequacy of teaching materials. Colleges and universities should set up physical education courses and choose the content of physical education on the basis of fully examining physical education resources, combining with students’ interest, to prevent the lack of curriculum professionalism.
Secondly, in terms of course teaching personnel, colleges and universities should carry out teaching ability training for physical education teachers to continuously improve their professional ability. Colleges and universities can establish a curriculum contact system between different colleges and universities. Colleges and universities with weak resources can form a friendly and mutual help relationship with colleges and universities with strong physical education resources to develop their own sports cause with the help of the advantages of other colleges and universities, so as to promote the improvement of their own physical education level.
Third, in the extension of the curriculum, there are many associations in colleges and universities, many of which are related to sports projects. These associations activities can form an effective supplement to the physical education curriculum. Therefore, colleges and universities can attach importance to the development of sports associations, combine sports associations with physical education, and improve the professionalism of the associations through the professional guidance of teachers. At the same time, encourage more students to join sports related clubs. In club activities, students can not only exercise sports items, but also exchange sports knowledge and compete sports skills, so as to improve the core quality of sports (Zhao, 2022).
5.2. Enhance the Flexibility of Physical Education Curriculum Assessment
In order to improve the flexibility of physical education, a variety of assessment methods can be set up in college and university physical education. First of all, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of different physical courses, study the types of core qualities that can be cultivated in the course teaching, and set up the assessment methods of different courses flexibly on this basis. For example, in ball games, the number and accuracy of shots can be taken as the assessment criteria, while in gymnastics courses, the completion degree of gymnastics movements and whether there is a sense of sports beauty can be taken as the assessment items.
The assessment criteria need to take into account the professional level of students. In public elective courses, there are great differences in students’ physical ability. Some students have strong physical ability, while others have weak physical ability. In this case, teachers can set multiple levels of assessment standards. Teachers could set stricter standards for students with stronger physical abilities, and judge progress for those with weaker abilities. The establishment of standards at different levels can not only guarantee the implementation of physical education, but also enhance students’ attention, so as to enhance the professionalism of physical courses.
5.3. Take the Strategy of Strengthening the Country through Sports as the Guiding Ideology
College and university physical education should take strengthening the country through sports strategy as the guiding ideology. PE teachers should analyze the relevant content of the strategy, study the combination point between the strategy and college and university physical education. The strategic thought should be integrated into the daily teaching work, so as to change the traditional sports concept aiming at building a big sports nation, and realize the innovation of educational thought (Zhao, Zhao, & Wang, 2021).
In order to realize the change of concept, P.E. teachers should take the improvement of students’ core physical quality as the starting point and goal of P.E. education, treat P.E. from the perspective of long-term development, promote the spread of lifelong P.E. and mass P.E. among students, and combine the practical education of sports with the ideological education of students’ ideas, and put the sports consciousness, sports interest, sports concept and sports habit in the first place. Competitive sports should also be taught to students who are not physical education majors. But in the teaching, teachers need to pay attention to the combination of competitive sports and students’ real level, carry out the course of “soft competitive sports”, so that students can like competitive sports on the basis of understanding competitive sports, and improve students’ attention to competitive sports.
6. Conclusion
This article studies the innovative development of China’s college and university physical education from the perspective of strengthening the country through sports strategy. The strategy is the guiding strategy of China sports cause development, which can supplement each other with the development of China’s college and university sports cause. The improvement of our university physical education level, the integration of the sports power strategic idea, the transformation of the traditional education idea, the formation of professional, diversified and flexible university physical education pattern, contribute to the final realization of China’s sports power goal. However, the conclusions on curriculum setting and assessment methods in this study have not yet formed quantitative indicators, which need to be improved in future work. This is the limitation of this paper, which will be left for future study.