Elucidation of the theory behind university swimming classes to improve self-preservation skills in the water

Abstract

　The purpose of this study was to translate tacit knowledge about enhancement of self-preservation skills in the water into explicit knowledge, and to clarify the aspects that should be taught and evaluated. Based on the findings, an attempt was made to devise a teaching theory for the design of university swimming lessons aimed at enhancing such skills. The participants were 17 experienced teachers who teach university swimming lessons, and SCAT was used to analyze the textual data to create a story line for each lesson in self-preservation skills. From the obtained storylines, we extracted important and common concepts of teaching aspects and how to assess them, and classified them into categories. The number of concepts generated by the text analysis was 36, and from among them, 2 small categories, 2 medium categories, 5 large categories and 5 core categories were generated. The 5 core categories were “Reasons for teaching self-preservation skills in the water in university swimming classes”, “Aims of university swimming classes”, “Self-preservation skills in the water to be taught in university swimming classes”, “Methods of teaching self-preservation skills in the water”, and “Methods of assessing selfpreservation skills in the water”. Based on these core categories, a conceptual diagram of the relationship between water self-preservation skills and methods for teaching and assessing them was presented. In order to enhance self-preservation skills in the water in university swimming classes, it became clear that it was necessary to design classes using four basic theories: 1) to enhance knowledge of water safety, 2) to enhance water movement skills, 3) to enhance the ability to cope with drowning situations, and 4) to assess water movement skills and knowledge of water safety. Also, it was considered necessary to incorporate the following 3 points when designing university swimming lessons for this purpose :1) to set the teaching objectives of the lesson, keeping in mind the type of lesson and the skill level of the students; 2) to set the ratio of the teaching of the 4 basic theories in each lesson in order to achieve the desired teaching objectives; 3) to provide time each hour for students to assess their selfpreservation skills in the water in order to monitor their own skill level.