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

Teachers Gained Confidence as their Knowledge Systems Expanded 
Increase in levels of knowledge and skill use during the study and immediately 
following completion of the PDP was evidenced. However, this development focused 
on outdoor and adventure activities and considered depth as opposed to breadth. The 
strength is that it allowed the teachers ‘to refine their delivery of one curriculum 
(initiative) before (moving) onto to a new curricular approach’ (O' Sullivan & Deglau, 
2006, p. 442). The outcome was that teachers’ confidence developed especially in the 

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areas related to O&AA, such as orienteering, challenges and walking activities. This is 
important to note in the context of theorists such as Bandura, who argue that positive 
self-efficacy beliefs are an important pre-requisite for change (Martin, McCaughtry, 
Hodges Kulinna & Cothran, 2007). As a result of the PDP teachers showed a greater 
commitment to physical education and their own professional statement in this subject 
(Keay & Spence, 2010; Kennedy, 2008b). This study showed that this type of PDP can 
initiate change in knowledge and change in practice. However, it also found that a 
successful PDP involves learning, and this is an on-going process, one which requires 
sustainability. Supporting other researchers in the area, this need for support, lessened 
as teachers become more competent and confident and responsible for their own 
learning (Armour, 2006; Armour, 2009; Betchel & O'Sullivan, 2006; Murphy, 2007; 
Petrie, 2009). However, adoption and full completion of all learning outcomes at stage 
2 was varied. Rodgers’ (1995) description of adoption of a new practice therefore was 
partial with some teachers abandoning certain learning intentions from lessons. This 
was particularly evident among the teachers of senior classes as they ‘dropped’ compass 
work and map walking due to the negative feedback they received from the children and 
the inactivity of the lessons. This confirms the delicate nature of change, emphasising 
Guskey’s call for reinforcement, but stressing the importance of knowing where this 
reinforcement of teachers’ positive changes in teaching and classroom practices is 
coming from and what type of feedback it is. This finding demonstrates that the early 
change stage in a teacher can be persuaded in either direction – adoption or avoidance – 
of subject matter and learning intentions based on feedback and reinforcement.
According to Guskey (2000),
practices that are new and unfamiliar are more likely to be accepted and retained 
when they are perceived as increasing one’s competence and 
effectiveness…new practices are likely to be abandoned, however, in the 
absence of any evidence of their positive effects – hence specific procedures to 
provide feedback on results are essential to the success of any professional 
development endeavour (p. 141).
As teachers’ content knowledge increase was evidenced so too was their 
pedagogical content knowledge skills in relation to O&AA, with teachers adapting 
content to suit their context and their class and also grouping children to meet the 
children’s needs. The contextualised and personalised nature of the teachers’ learning 
supported Cochran and colleagues (1993) research which states that pedagogical content 
knowing is best learned while working directly with pupils in the classroom because 

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‘live teaching permits the direct interaction that shows ideas in use and opens the way to 
negotiating paths of understanding’ (p. 267). Teachers were moving from behaviourist 
teaching tendencies to a more constructivist style of teaching (Kirk & Macdonald, 
1998). Instruction, feedback and teaching methodologies were also expanded from pre-
PDP. Although there may have been some hesitancy due to lack of experience of the 
strand, at least teachers saw and wanted to react to problems they saw occurring.
Any PDP must consider factors beyond its control, as a reason for non-adoption 
of the programme rather than it solely being their experience of the PDP. Multiple 
factors affect teacher’s behaviours (Guskey, 2000) and ‘not all teachers respond to an 
innovation, commit to collaboration, or construe the purposes of education, for instance, 
in quite the same way’ (Hargreaves, 1995, p. 11). Changes in the personal life of one 
teacher in the study impacted on her practice following the PDP. It was encouraging to 
note that this teacher did ensure that the children in her class experienced the O&AA 
unit by having another teacher take them for physical education, thus supporting her 
value of O&AA from her experience of stage 1. A late-career teacher (teaching over 30 
years) (Templin, Hemphill, Richards & Haag, 2010) felt the PDP did not influence a 
major change in his practice, even while acknowledging what he learned through 
participation in the PDP. Any PDP must consider the factors beyond their control may 
lead to non-adoption of the programme rather than it being solely their experience of the 
PDP. Changing teaching methodologies can be threatening for late career teachers who 
are often more comfortable with the traditional methods of pedagogy they have become 
accustomed to (Guskey, 2002b). More subtle pressure (Kabylov, 2006) on the part of 
the facilitator may have encouraged this teacher to change and apply the new 
knowledge mediated as part of the PDP.
The aim of the PDP was that the teachers would teach lessons similar to those 
provided as resources and subsequently modelled, adapting them when and where 
necessary.
The idea that the teachers perceived an increase in their confidence and 
competence after the first stage of the PDP (indicated by teachers’ willingness to teach 
O&AA again) was apparent but they still required support. This suggests that there was 
a scale of motivation to change practice, with some teachers very motivated and self -
determined to change and others less so. Facilitation of discussion among teachers, who 
confront similar problems in embracing a PDP fully, can encourage change by allowing 
opportunities for teachers to share solutions to problems and also to reinforce that these 
changes will take time and with time improvement is possible (Garet et al., 2001).

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