Abstract:

The mastering of the content of educational programs is expressed in academic load that influences the health of each student and leads to fatigue. Increased loads result not only in a possible increment in the quality of education, but also in an increased fatigue, being a threat to the students’ health. Academic staff should assist to solve this contradiction. So, pedagogical support of educational activities should be complemented by health saving competencies.

The issue is to develop the health saving competencies for the academic staff. Insufficient attention to the development of these competences in the theory and practice of higher education slows down the activation of the role of academic staff in students’ health saving. Professors are often not aware of the need to participate in students’ health saving. Pedagogical support of educational activities, including the execution of competencies saving the students’ health, can help boost the quality of higher education.

This article discusses the competencies of academic staff in students’ health saving. The analysis of the literature and regulatory information sources allowed us to identify the competencies of academic staff in students’ health saving. Some of the competences are: the extraction of information about students’ health; regulation of the volume of academic load, depending on the health of an individual student; student familiarization with the social experience of the health saving in education or in relationships with others; students awareness about the need to save health. Expert testing by the specialists in medico-biological and psycho-pedagogical areas confirms the usefulness of these competencies in students’ health saving.

The execution of these competences caused the need to clarify the properties of students’ health, academic staff should be oriented to. After reviewing the literature in medical, biological, psychological, and pedagogical areas we identified five characteristics of students' health: the body's resistance to stress and adaptability, maintainability, mobility and health ability to evolve. We gave the rationale for the competences to be used as a part of pedagogical support in educational activities of university students. The model to evaluate health properties’ data of students is offered. Academic staff can use the model to perform the competences in students’ health saving. The observation and surveys of academic staff indicate the usefulness of the model developed.

We determined the distribution of the random variable that characterizes changes in the state of students’ health under the influence of pedagogical support of their educational activities. Experimental data shows the increase in students’ health saving under pedagogical support with the respective competencies in health saving.

Keywords:

Students’ health saving, academic staff competence, educational support, health properties of students, the model to evaluate health properties’ data.