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

Teachers much happier with me observing and doing notes afterwards, rather 
than writing as they’re teaching. It seems to completely put them off. They do 
know I’m observing them. They do know I am watching them. But it’s just I am 
not writing as I watch, and I’m having little discussions with them afterwards.
(FN 19.10.07)
 

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I also had to keep reinforcing with teachers that I was still there in a supportive 
role and that the notes I was making while they were teaching were for me, so that I 
could see where teachers still required support and in which areas. Others saw my 
observations as an enabler or opportunity for me to provide support and feedback;
 ‘I 
was worried about – that I would do it wrong…but it did feel supportive like I knew you 
would be there to help it along’
(1 FGT Cathal 3).
 I was conscious of you being around assessing but I don’t experience 
assessment as bad, as I am assessing all the time myself. So I think assessment 
to me is the medium to me in which I live and teach. So if it is not hostile, so if I 
have someone to watch over me like a guardian angel of assessment, that’s what 
you were, so you know again maybe next time I will go a little bit further. That 
is the way it will be. It seems to me that a lot of this is unimportant I think, feel 
it it’s unimportant…what is important is to start, to review what you have done, 
with the children, see how you can improve it, with the children, discussion, try 
again and just keep going.
(1 FGT Eamonn 3) 
Eamonn’s understanding of assessment was to reflect or review on what he 
taught, and try to improve it for the next lesson. He did not see reflection as a barrier but 
rather something to be embraced and something which should be done as a natural part 
of teaching and learning.
But the point is you were actually very helpful to me. You didn’t keep coming up 
to me upfront and saying - do this. You actually sat down with me and 
[explained] this is what I am trying to do. You actually made me see it clearly 
and see pitfalls and see things were actually available in what I call the magic 
room [PE Store] which I didn’t even know were there. So, it actually, I was 
trying to see into the landscape and you lit it up at points so it was 
approachable. Now in that sense I would like someone like you around all the 
time
.
 
(1 FGT Eamonn 3)
 
A sentiment reported by Eamonn and echoed by a number of teachers was how 
great it would be to have someone around all the time to offer support and to facilitate 
discussion/ reflection. It was difficult at the beginning of the study to schedule focus 
group interviews and the interviews may have been an imposition on teachers’ time.
Ultimately, however, the focus-group interviews provided teachers with opportunities to 
have in-depth discussion about content, reflect on the lessons they had seen or taught 
and to critically challenge the O&AA content.
At stage 2, the teachers who taught for the first time at this stage of the PDP, 
similar to those who taught at stage 1 sought reassurance and feedback that they were 
teaching the content correctly
. ‘Teachers not afraid to ask ‘is that ok?’ in front of 

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children’
(LO Simon 4, Eve 3).
‘Always asked [if unsure about anything] and liked 
having support of having someone there to ask’
(LO Amanda 1). Teachers looked for 
feedback regularly and not just on how they taught but also how they might teach, even 
when they had solutions to problems they might encounter they required affirmation 
that they had come to the correct solution; 
The teachers are having problems, coming up with solutions, and just running 
the solutions past me to check if they’re okay. And I think this is where you need 
the teacher on-site to be able, or the supporter, or the PE advisor, that little 
questions like this can be answered. If I had, hadn’t been able to answer him, 
would he have gone in with less confidence? Um, if I hadn’t been there, would 
he have abandoned the lesson? Or would he have gone on and tried it anyway 
and seen what would’ve happened for his own sake? 
(FN 07.10.07)
 
Although the teachers may have seen lessons modelled and may have been able 
to adapt content to suit their or their children’s needs, they continued to experience a 
doubt in their planning and teaching and this may have been due to the fact that they 
were still coming to terms with this new content and pedagogical content knowledge. 
Many of the teachers were caught in a ‘professional’ dilemma. During the first 
week of the PDP I felt that some of the younger teachers who would have done a 
module in O&AA in college were hesitant in asking for support because they felt I 
would have expected them to be able to teach it. One of these teachers tried to teach the 
lessons and following the lesson came and asked for support because she didn’t 
understand the lesson fully. The late career teachers were similar, and felt self-
conscious with a younger person showing them what to do, when they have been 
teaching for over 20 years. Other teachers’ professionalism showed when they kept 
children for O&AA for over their allocated hour to ensure that they had taught all 
aspects of a lesson while the facilitator was present, to ensure they made the most of all 
the support on offer. 
When asked if teachers would have taught the O&AA strand without some 
encouragement they responded as follows; 
‘I actually think it is because you spend so 
much time talking to all the teachers and trying to help teachers out that the teachers 
actually want to do it’
(2 FGT Miriam 5). Although I observed that teachers were able 
to teach the O&AA strand, considering this was their first or in some cases second 
attempt at teaching the lesson content, many of the teachers did say that if I wasn’t there 
to provide that push or requirement to teach the lessons they wouldn’t have done so.

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Some of the teachers may have taught the first lesson but if that hadn’t gone well then 
they wouldn’t have gone any further.
Facilitators of professional development programmes should be aware of the 
relationship that may exist between them and teachers. In this case, there existed a dual 
relationship between the facilitator and the teachers i) five teachers had the facilitator as 
a lecturer in college and found it difficult to separate the role of lecturer and teaching 
practice supervisor (though the facilitator had not supervised any of the teachers on 
teaching practice during their ITE) from facilitator and ii) the remaining teachers were 
aware of the role of the facilitator as a lecturer and would have described the facilitator 
as an expert in the area of physical education. While many of the teachers saw this 
‘expert’ role as a benefit to them, it became a barrier when observing lessons. The 
facilitator felt that at times the teachers were under pressure and compared their 
teaching to the modeled lessons. Facilitator encouragement and reassurance became 
important elements of effective PDP facilitation.