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

Teacher collaboration.
As the PDP progressed through stage 2 facilitator 
support decreased at the request of the teachers. Increasingly I was being told no – my 
help was not required as another colleague would provide the support; 
‘When I went in 
this morning, the other first class teacher was with Natalie, talking her through the 
activity’
(FN 19.10.07). When I came up with an activity for the infant classes based on 
Halloween, as an alternative to an activity carried out during the initial PDP, the 
teachers didn’t want me to organise it; 
‘We’ll do it, we’ll set it up … don’t worry, we’ll 
tell the rest of them, we’ll share ideas and we’ll do it.’
(FN 19.10.07) 
Teachers were beginning to plan and work together as a result of the PDP, or 
maybe more out of necessity to ensure they continued with the PDP. At stage 1 the 
findings showed that teachers were beginning to talk to each other about physical 
education and as one teacher pointed out, 
‘communication was the new medium of PE’
(1 FGT Eamonn 3). Communication continued during stage 2 of the PDP but it 
developed from communication to include, planning, organising equipment, sharing 
ideas and providing feedback on lessons. Teachers were beginning to collaborate.
There may have been many reasons as to why this happened but the findings point to a 
number of reasons why teachers began to collaborate. 
As the PDP took a whole school approach and all teachers were involved in the 
study, the staff voiced that they would feel encouraged to teach O&AA if it was part of 
the school plan and everyone agreed to teach it together for the same weeks; 
‘I think you 
are better off all doing it together, yeah’
(2 FGT Coleen JI). 
‘When you see everybody 
else doing it I do think it motivates you to do it’
(2 FGT Elaine JI
). ‘The fact that we’re 
all doing the same thing is a huge help as well. So you can ask somebody to go through 
it to get to know what to do’
(2 FGT Kate JI). 

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Otherwise teachers commented that they would stick with what they felt 
comfortable teaching. Collaboration was also going to be a motivating factor in getting 
teachers to teach the other strands in physical education; 
… do you know, you kind of, that really does help, if the other people in your 
class are doing it, like, if the people in your class groups are doing it as well, 
like, that’s enough pressure like, into doing it as well. If you’re planning with 
the other class teachers.
(2 FGT Maeve 2) 
Some teachers had commented that during stage 2, when they came into school 
in the morning they found colleagues rummaging through the resources in the PE store, 
finding things for lessons. The following week I witnessed this for myself when I 
observed two teachers working together deciding what they were doing and what they 
would need for their classes;
She said she was coming into school at half-eight in the morning and finding 
teachers in the PE storeroom, where teachers never went before. And the PE 
storeroom is just off the staffroom car park. So as teachers were passing in and 
out there, they were constantly looking in
. (FN 11.10.07) 
When I went to, walk through the school this morning, there were a group of 
teachers in the PE store, um, rattling through, trying to get their activities 
organised. Now, they were working together. They both have, the same class.
They were deciding what they were doing. They had their warm-up activities