ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ТА ЕФЕКТИВНІСТЬ ПРОГРАМ З ФІЗИЧНОГО ВИХОВАННЯ В КОЛЕДЖАХ ТА УНІВЕРСИТЕТАХ США

The purpose of the article is to determine the characteristics of teaching and degree of efficiency of physical education in the US higher education institutions, depending on their content based on literature analysis. Research methods: the comparative and theoretical analysis of scientific publications, government programs dedicated to the development of higher education in the United States, comparison, generalization and systematization to identify the features of the theory and practice of physical education of US students. Results. According to the American specialists, the majority of young people do not involve in motor activity regularly, despite the large number of studies that indicate its health benefits and quality of life. It is proved that some knowledge about the benefits of exercise is not enough to motivate most young people to start training, emphasizing the need to incorporate well-established habits of students’ behavior. Course for health promotion on the basis of the College should potentially include all the levers of influence on indicators of behavior change. Among the theories that explain how the behavior forms, the most relevant is the ecological model. A characteristic peculiarity of teaching physical education in higher education institutions of the United States is a difference in the effectiveness of its results, depending on their content. There are three types of programs: sports-oriented programs; programs aimed at the assimilation of the conceptual theoretical knowledge required for the formation of the motives and interests of a healthy lifestyle; mixed type programs that are a combination of the first two. Exactly conceptual information about the benefits of physical activity combined with practical sports activity allows for a more effective impact on the health and physical condition of young people than sports oriented programs in pure form as they give higher long-term outcomes in the form of shaped motives and interests to employment by physical activity. Among the information about health which is interesting to the students in the USA, physical activity and fitness take the third rank place. The perspective directions of further research are related to the improvement of the system of physical education of students in Ukraine on the basis of studying the experience of the United States.