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

Propositional Statement 7: Teachers’ and children’s perceptions of physical 
education began to change during the professional development programme 
Teachers after the PDP, stage 1, were beginning to see that physical education 
was more than games and physical recreation (Coulter and Woods, 2007) and some 
teachers admitted that their idea of physical education was all wrong. They stated that 
the children too might not have understood that O&AA was physical education as 
O&AA lessons were so far removed from what they were used to; 
‘…I would say that 
they weren’t as conscious that it was PE….so you had to explain that it was physical 
education. I suppose we have to be aware that their notion of PE is very confined too’
(1 FGT Eileen 2). Individual experiences of physical education as well as messages 
from wider physical culture, shape understandings of the nature and purpose of physical 
education, where physical education is defined by what is done in its name (Kirk, 2010). 
Despite Collier and colleague’s (2007) call that physical activity opportunities for 
young people should reflect the changing times, team games continue to dominate 
physical education provision in Ireland. This dominance influences all aspects of 
physical culture and impacts significantly on the practices of physical education in 
schools. 
Although teachers were provided with a programme of O&AA and stated 
indirectly that it had many of the key messages of the curriculum (Government of 
Ireland, 1999c), such as

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Being broad and balanced, including many of the strand units, offering 
challenge and achievement; 
‘You would have everything there to 
challenge every child.’
(1 FGT Michael 6) 
Showing progression and continuity; 
‘It was very useful to have the 
lesson planned out and there was kind of clear progression from one 
lesson to another…’
(1 FGT Kate JI) 
Being inclusive; 
‘…every single one of them was involved...’
(1 FGT 
Nicole 2) 
they had failed however to embrace these elements when asked about the future of 
physical education and specifically O&AA. Michael felt that doing the same thing for 
a number of weeks might be boring for the children, 
‘you could have too much of the 
same thing….and you would have to mingle them [the lessons] every week every so 
often’
(1 FGT Michael 6). He felt that within a lesson, various strands could be 
included (such as including a game such as basketball along with an orienteering 
activity) as well as varying the strand each week (such as having games one week, 
O&AA the following week and maybe athletics the week after). This would not allow 
for progression and continuity of learning for the children. Children seemed to be still 
confused as to the content of physical education lessons, comparing any new activity to 
their previous experiences of games; 
‘you think PE would be more physical like playing 
games or a sport or something but it is different with orienteering and challenges and 
the blindfold was different…’ 
(1 FGC Boy 5).
I don’t really think it was PE that much because in PE we usually play half the 
class play basketball or soccer and half the class play hockey or that. We play 
team games, we don’t really play small team games where two people run 
around or three or four.
(1 FGC Girl 4) 
Children, although enjoying the O&AA lessons still yearned for games; 
‘It was 
good and all but sometimes I would have preferred to play a game of basketball or