Teaching outdoor and adventure activities: an investigation of a primary school physical education professional development p

Chapter Five: The Development of a Professional Development Programme in 
Outdoor and Adventure Activities 
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a description of the professional 
development programme, its guiding principles and how it was facilitated. 
Aim and Focus of the Professional Development Programme 
The teachers in this study indicated that they lacked content knowledge in 
Outdoor and Adventure Activities (O&AA) (chapter 4; Coulter & Woods, 2007), and 
according to the literature teachers are rarely offered opportunities to learn more about 
physical education subject matter(Ward, 2009)
.
Teachers need numerous opportunities 
to engage with subject content and to develop their understanding of the nature and 
content of physical education (Borko & Putman, 1996; Cochran & Jones, 1998). By 
focussing on content knowledge initially the PDP could then be developed to facilitate 
other aspects of physical education. According to Siedentop (2002, p. 368) ‘you can’t 
have pedagogical content knowledge without content knowledge, and all advances in 
pedagogy in physical education can’t change that simple truth’. The content focus 
therefore is specifically on the O&AA strand of the Physical Education Curriculum 
(Government of Ireland, 1999b). It was felt that it was beyond the capabilities of the 
teachers, at this early stage of the PDP, to include other content aspects such as health-
related fitness and formative assessment. A number of specific objectives related to the 
findings in chapter four were addressed in designing the PDP as follows: 
Enable teachers to develop an understanding of the content of the O&AA 
strand of the curriculum and the teaching methodologies recommended 
for its implementation 
Utilise the school facilities to their maximum in the implementation of 
O&AA 
Include fun, enjoyable and physically active experiences for the children 
including some element of competition 
Provide resources and materials required to implement the O&AA 
strand 
Be flexible in the type of support provision as identified by individual 
teachers 

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Encourage discussion and reflection on all aspects of the lessons, such as 
suitability of content.