The 6th Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences

Changes in the Requirement System of Hungarian School Swimming Lessons in Light of the Curricula

Zsófia Kovács 1 Gyöngyvér Prisztóka 2
1University of Pécs Medical School Sport and Physical Education Center, Pécs, Hungary
2University of Pécs Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, Pécs, Hungary

Background: Studies indicate that the practice of swimming lessons in public education is characterized by changes. In some countries changes in the approach occurred decades ago. Core changes can be found in the aims, which are examined by practical tests at the end of the courses.

In Hungary, changes were made concerning swimming lessons in public education since the first documents in 1805, while today the development of environmental factors and various national swimming education programs help more children to acquire swimming skills within the school framework.

Aims: How have the curriculum requirements for swimming movements changed in Hungary and what is the training goal? With what requirements does the swimming education process end? Our research aims to compare the curriculum requirements of primary school swimming education with different curricula, to determine how consistent they are with the findings in the foreign academic literature as well as in the 15 competencies representing water safety.

Methods: We examined the curriculum drafts and the curricula of primary schools for elementary and civic schools published in public education from 1918 to 2020, by content and source analysis (n = 45). We examined these in the light of the context and the output requirements, and the requirements of the subject of physical education, including the keywords related to swimming. We compared the results with the content definitions of water competencies.

Results: Documents were grouped according to which components represent water safety and swimming competence in curriculum requirements. Of the 45 documents, 10 did not include swimming instruction at all, while 26 documents could be further examined based on competencies. The fewest competencies are found in the 1932, 1963, 1973, 1974 plans, while the most are found in the 1941, 1943, and 1992 documents. The rescue competence is shown in 1926, 1941, 1943, the 1970s, 1992, and 2020.

Discussion: Summarizing the positive development of infrastructural conditions and the introduction of various educational support programs is not parallel with the existence of water safety competencies that could be filtered out based on curricula. A previously issued curriculum contributed to the quality and effectiveness of swimming lessons with more detailed, goal-oriented tasks and requirements. It can be said that the output requirement of swimming education in Hungarian public education focuses more on swimming competencies than on water safety competencies.

Conclusion: We could consider a form of practice-oriented training where teachers develop children`s water safety and swimming competencies in addition to the latest methodological trends. Training would ensure that from the playful habituation to water, through mastering successful swimming techniques and developing water safety competencies, drowning can be reduced.

Zsófia Kovács
Zsófia Kovács
University of Pécs Medical School








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