Engaging secondary vocational school students in military-applied sports as a condition for patriotic education

This article presents the results of a study conducted in 2024–2025 at the Kartaly Multidisciplinary Technical School, a regional innovation platform, was awarded the status of a regional innovation platform based on Chelyabinsk Region Government Resolution No. 603-P of November 10, 2021. The study focuses on the pedagogical conditions for integrating military-applied sports into the patriotic education of students in secondary vocational education. The goal is to develop and validate a pedagogical model aimed at fostering sustainable civic-patriotic competence. The study involved 683 students from the technical school’s main departments and branches. The theoretical framework was based on L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory, A. Bandura’s concept of social learning, and V. A. Slastenin and A. V. Mudrik’s approaches to patriotic education. The methods included an analysis of regulatory documents (the Federal State Educational Standard for Secondary Vocational Education, Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation No. 464 dated July 3, 2024, the Strategy for the Development of Education until 2025, and the federal project “Patriotic Education”), the design of a pedagogical model, a systems analysis of the educational environment, and empirical procedures — observation, questionnaires based on A. V. Mudrik’s questionnaire, expert assessments, and an analysis of participation in the Immortal Regiment and St. George’s Ribbon events and competitions in military-applied disciplines. The developed three-level model (value-motivational, activity-practical, and refl ective-evaluative) formed the basis of the “Patriot-Sport” supplementary education program. Diagnostic data, including biometric indicators, confi rmed the increased effectiveness of patriotic education by engaging students in socially signifi cant and personally meaningful activities, particularly military-applied sports. The innovative platform’s status ensured the regulatory legitimacy of the decisions, interdepartmental collaboration, and scientifi c and methodological support through the laboratory of the Chelyabinsk Institute for the Development of Professional Education. The novelty of this work lies in the creation of an integrative model combining an activity-based approach and sports practice; its signifi cance lies in the empirically proven effectiveness of developing civic-patriotic competence in secondary vocational education.