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

Propositional Statement 3: For changes in teaching to happen, organisational 
changes are necessary 
 
Physical access to equipment and resources.
A barrier referred to in 
‘understanding the case’ was the lack of care given to the unorganised equipment stores.
If organisational change, through the leadership of the Principal, was implemented this 
barrier to effective teaching could be surmounted. The organisation of the equipment 
store was an organisational change which contributed to the success of the PDP.
Kate (1 FGT JI) - 
It is great to have it organised, the equipment room is fabulous now 
you can literally go and collect your box, you are not trying to take bean bags out of 
balls so it’s great to have that. 
Mary (1 FGT JI) - 
It was fantastic, the very neatness of the whole thing you had 
everything so nice … the problem is to keep it like that. 
Mary was concerned that the organised store might not remain as such and that 
accessing resources may once again become a barrier to teaching physical education 
with the infant classes. I noted that the teachers,
 
spoke about having their PE one after the other, having all the equipment there 
and having access to it to make their life easier. Again, it is boiling down to, as 
one of the girls said, if it’s not there and you can’t put your hand on it in ten 
seconds you are not going to make the effort. You are not going to look for it; 

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you just don’t have the time to waste with your class standing there.
(FN 
30.04.07) 
In the school resources were shared and were available to all teachers. It 
became clear by end of this study that care of equipment and resources was still not a 
priority for teachers or children;
Yesterday the teacher who couldn’t find the equipment didn’t have the lesson 
ready and even though the equipment was there in the gym as the other teacher 
taught the exact same lesson, no attempt was made by the second teacher or the 
children to return everything to the equipment store. I have seen that a lot in the 
school. They [the teachers] would bring equipment a lot to the GP room and just 
leave it there. Or when they finish in the GP hall they bring it to the equipment 
store and just drop it there. It doesn’t get put back where it should be put back 
to. This seems to be a big problem ... because it is outside of their room in 
another room, with equipment and resources in another room, that it is just so 
disjointed. I don’t think they see the link and how it all works together and how 
it is important as it is a sharing of resources … they have to be conscious of 
everybody else
(FN 28.02.07).
Everyone has access to the main equipment store, including children from 
classes returning and collecting equipment for teachers for lessons and adults other than 
teachers, who assist with school sporting activities. Similar to the resource provision 
finding, there was no real sense of ownership over the store. The Principal explained 
how managing shared resources in the school was a whole school problem and not just 
for physical education; 
They [teachers] send the equipment back to the store with a couple of kids and 
really it’s difficult to, it’s unfair to expect the kids to leave it in ship shape all the 
time…this is an issue we have with art materials as well…where a teacher is 
doing art in the classroom. They send Johnnie down to get some paper.
Johnnie pulls the paper from the bottom, and the paper falls out on the floor… 
and he’s in a panic. He doesn’t want to get caught, and he’s gone. You know, 
it’s the same with PE.
(IP) 
The junior equipment store did not have the same problem. Resources were 
available to the teachers and this is probably due to the fact that the teachers only have 
access to this store and keep it in order from day to day. Prior to stage 2, the stores 
were tidied and equipment arranged, by the researcher and four children who had 
responsibility for keeping the equipment store tidy;
The general PE store was a disaster. Everything was everywhere. It took two 
hours to give it a good tidy out, and another hour to go through all the resources 
and to ensure that they were there after tidying it.
(FN 07.10.07) 

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Having access to resources and equipment quickly and easily, when these are 
shared amongst a staff, can be a vital enabler to the facilitation of a physical education 
PDP and ultimately to the teaching of physical education in a primary school.