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

Pedagogical content knowledge.
Content knowledge on its own would not be 
enough to enable teachers to teach a quality programme of O&AA, pedagogical content 
knowledge was imperative. I team-taught with Mary and noted that her pedagogical 
knowledge. She was a capable, late career teacher who had a wonderful way with 
young children. This coupled with the content knowledge she has gained led me to 
believe that Mary was beginning to master pedagogical content knowledge; 
She [Mary] knew her class best. She was able to get through the activity with 
her class and was able to explain things to them and now that she knows the 
activity, the next time she does it the organisation will come quicker and easier.
(FN 19.02.07) 
Although teachers were becoming familiar with O&AA, teachers also identified 
that they would still require support in developing content knowledge and pedagogical 

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content knowledge;
‘...the only person slowing them [the children] down is me…’
(1 
FGT Eamonn 3) 
‘I’d need more practice, to be honest, I don’t think I would be 
confident taking a class out yet.’
(1 FGT Lena 4) 
‘…it’s the games that I don’t know…to 
be more familiar with the warm-up games (
team challenges
), they would be my 
downfall….’
(1 FGT Elaine 4) 
I think I would need to go through it all again myself…in my head or with…with 
all the equipment so that I would know exactly. Because I would say it could go 
really wrong if you didn’t know…exactly what you are doing.
(1 FGT Amy 1)
 
The teachers in the study school were all qualified teachers with varying levels 
of experience. One teacher expressed how he had thought that because they were all 
teachers that they should be able to teach and therefore all they would need were the 
notes/lesson plans and they would be able to teach the content. However, he did 
comment that he found the interaction between facilitator and teacher important simply 
as teachers were shown what 
‘pathway to go down and given sequential following so 
outdoor and adventure meant something else to us [them]’
(1 FGT Michael 6).
(Michael was referring to the fact that there was a series of lesson which showed 
continuity and progression when he spoke of ‘
given
sequential following’
). Teachers 
were able to judge the learning progress of the children as they were aware of their 
ability and they applied this during O&AA lessons, for example the infant teachers felt 
that more repetition of activities would be important for their classes to reinforce new 
learning concepts. Other teachers pointed to their ability to group children according to 
their academic abilities, rather than randomly assigning children, to activities to enhance 
learning opportunities. 
Teachers were beginning to adapt activities to suit their children’s needs, 
pointing to the fact that they were moving towards pedagogical content knowledge; 
‘…trying to think of variations, now myself, that you could do. Even to use aerial 
photographs rather than maps…it has got me thinking definitely. So I am happy…’
(1 
FGT Cathal 3) and some teachers were quick to point out activities which could be 
integrated with other curricular areas especially geography; 
‘Yeah there is a tie in with 
let’s say geography…’ 
(1 FGT Eileen 2).
 
But even like the layout of the school and the playground and….do you know, 
like they might draw a plan of that themselves, say in a geography class or 
whatever else and then it will be brought in like…with the stuff you were doing 
was to find different…different items.
(1 FGT Amanda 1) 

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At this stage many of the teachers still had to teach the unit of work themselves.
Teachers at stage 2 would have the opportunity to teach O&AA and further 
opportunities to adapt lessons to suit their and their children’s needs.
During stage 2, direct observation of lessons taught by teachers showed that, 
although working with resources which has been facilitator provided, the importance of 
context and uniqueness of class groupings came through and teachers were able to adapt 
and change activities accordingly; 
‘Planning done - all equipment ready. Changed 
layout from modelled one to suit self – worked better’
(LO Amanda 1).
‘Equipment 
planned and organised. Teacher created own master poster’
(LO Eve 3). 
Although there may have been some hesitancy, due to anticipated child 
misbehaviour, to embrace the teaching of O&AA, teachers were still willing continue 
with the PDP and were surprised when they realised that the children would did not 
react in the way they thought. One teacher describes her concerns prior to teaching on 
her own; 
Would they kind of run wild. You know because this was a chance to go out into 
the wild now, because it is so….I knew you have it set up, but it is freedom in 
terms of running around, running here and there. I didn’t know if they would 
just go…if they would just ignore the task and take the opportunity to run 
around and have a bit of craic. But they didn’t at all, you know they didn’t.
(2 
FGT Amanda 1) 
During meetings with the teachers throughout the PDP the rationale for the 
sequence and flow of the lessons was discussed and through the PDP process the 
teachers learned how to improvise and use the resources more flexibly. There were 
mixed reactions to the resources with some teachers, like Eve, adamant that they were 
going to teach the complete prescribed lesson; 
I know I did everything, I stuck to it [the lesson plan] religiously and I was out 
for ages…but I just wanted to make sure that I was able…I got them to do 
everything, there was a lot in the lessons.
(2 FGT Eve 3) 
And then others such as Michael (LO 5), Coleen (LO JI) and Elaine (LO JI) 
taught only the main part of the lesson and either included a playground game or a team 
game to extend the lesson. Michael felt that a physical education lesson could comprise 
of any aspects of physical education regardless of strand and also gave into pressure for 
the children to play matches during physical education time. Future PDP design needs 
to address curriculum knowledge and overall programme planning prior to embarking 

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on individual strand PD. Although Coleen and Elaine were confident with the O&AA 
aspects of a lesson, rather than including an O&AA introductory or concluding activity, 
they reverted to other activities they felt comfortable with and which they felt were fun 
for the children. This might also be addressed with curriculum knowledge and 
programme planning in any future PDP. 
Some were confident to work within the lessons and adapt and choose as they 
felt suited their class; 
I just used that as a menu though. I mean the day that I had it inside with you 
three weeks ago, there was five things to do and I did three, and I cut one 
completely short. I did it but just did another version of it. I think it’s a menu 
and its brilliant to have more of a menu to choose from. I think it’s great.
(2 
FGT Moira 3) 
Amanda who would not have rated herself highly as a teacher of physical 
education prior to the PDP expressed how she felt following the PDP
; ‘Once you try it 
there and then you feel more confident. You know what I did that and it was fine and the 
world didn’t end. Grand. I’ll maybe do it again’
(2 FGT Amanda 1).