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

Development of the programme (resources and materials)
. In the 
programme design development it was important to determine the scope of the 
programme that was feasible. Outdoor and Adventure Activities could consist of a 
broad range of activities and learning experiences, however some of these experiences 
can be costly, for example water-based activities such as canoeing, or may require going 
off site. Therefore, the decision was made to focus the programme specifically on the 
content of the curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999b) which could be taught on-site 
and where possible to include additional activities and materials to support these 
activities. These additional resources were chosen for their suitability and relevance to 
the O&AA aims and objectives. These resources formed an essential part of the PDP as 

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they enabled the teachers to teach according to the suggestions made in the schemes and 
lesson plans. 
Much of the physical education literature highlights the importance of 
pedagogical content knowledge in teachers’ ability to make physical education 
accessible to their pupils (Graber, 1995; McCaughtry & Rovegno, 2003; Rovegno, 
1994). The opportunities provided during the PDP to increase teacher’s content 
knowledge laid foundations on which to build pedagogical content knowledge. The 
modelling of the lessons by the facilitator would also provide teachers with the 
opportunity to observe and question pedagogical content knowledge. Teachers would 
observe the facilitator teaching his/her own class and would be able to see not only 
‘what’ (content) to teach but also ‘how’ (pedagogy) to teach it. 
While undertaking the review of literature on professional development it 
became obvious that without adequate resourcing, professional development might be at 
best problematic and at worst futile (McCaughtry et al., 2006). Therefore it was vital 
that the resources necessary were available for the teachers. The school had excellent 
provision of general physical education equipment but had poor instructional resources 
specific to O&AA. The teachers were not familiar with the subject content knowledge; 
they were unsure which resources to source and/or how to source them, therefore, it was 
necessary to supply these resources as part of the programme. When the curriculum 
was published in 1999, teachers were not provided with resources nor during national 
in-service roll-out were they given any specific guidance on instructional resources. It 
seems strange that teachers would receive workshops mediating the O&AA strand but 
when they return to school they would not also have the resources to implement these 
changes. In designing and collating the resources it was hoped that they would 
positively influence the change process. According to McCaughtry and colleagues 
(2006), although rarely addressed, resources are critical for schools seeking change but 
more importantly, there is a ‘noticeable gap in the literature documenting the 
importance of resources in school performance involve(ing) the non-existence of 
analysis of what resources mean for physical education teachers’ (p. 222).
All teachers were provided with a folder which contained a scheme of work 
(Figure 5.1) (Appendix Qi-Qiv), 6 lesson plans (one per week) (Appendix Ri-Rviii) and 
tips for teachers about to teach O&AA (Appendix S). All resources were relevant to 
each teacher’s class level. The resources were informed by the following documents: 

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The Physical Education Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999b) 
The Physical Education Teacher Guidelines (Government of Ireland, 
1999c)
Resource Materials for Teaching Physical Education (Primary Schools' 
Sports Initiative, 2006)
Junior Certificate in Physical Education documents (www.jcpe.ie) 
Norfolk County Council, Physical Education Support Service – Areas of 
Activity (http://schools.norfolk.gov.uk) 
Finding the Griz (Martin, 1997a) 
Hunting the Griz (Martin, 1997b) 
Outdoor & Adventurous Activities for Juniors (Balazik, 2003)