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

Primary Physical Education Initial Teacher Education 
Initial teacher education (ITE) is the beginning of teachers’ professional learning 
and it is necessary to examine ITE in an Irish context to understand better teachers’ 
practices and perspective on teaching physical education, The literature suggests that 
this is the time when a solid foundation for lifelong learning should be laid (Cochran-
Smith & Lytle, 1999; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005), but, it is often the blame 
for teachers’ perceived lack of knowledge and expertise. Many research studies in 
Ireland (Cosgrave, 2006; Deenihan, 2007; Fahey et al., 2005; Irish National Teachers' 
Organisation, 2007; McGuinness & Shelly, 1995) point to the source of teachers’ 
difficulties related to perceived competence in teaching physical education as ‘to derive 
their origin, in part at least, from the low level of time devoted to the subject during 
primary school teacher training courses’ (Duffy, 1997, p. 209).
The majority of Irish Primary teachers take a concurrent, three-year, Bachelor 
of Education degree (B.Ed.) at one of the country’s five colleges of education.
Currently there are approximately 1,500 students graduating as primary school teachers 
from the colleges of education each year. On average these students receive between 

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30-50 hours (depending on the college) of physical education instruction during their 
time spent in pre-service education. Some students, on average a total of 50 per year, 
can choose to study physical education as a special option in three of the colleges of 
education. These fifty students leave college with, on average, 90 hours of physical 
education tuition, compared to, on average, 1200 hours tuition received by a physical 
education specialist at secondary level (Murphy, 2007). Students undertaking the three 
year undergraduate course, also take an academic subject, for example, maths, music or 
bio-science as part of their degree, but cannot take physical education for primary 
school level as a specialist academic subject. More recently a postgraduate qualification 
(consecutive course) in primary teaching, where students complete an eighteen-month 
course, including physical education as one of 11 subjects has been established. The 
hours vary between the colleges, with students receiving between 20 and 30 hours of 
physical education. Approximately 180 students graduate from the colleges of 
education with this qualification each year. Once qualified, teachers can undertake 
further taught studies in primary physical education, at St Patrick’s College (a college of 
Dublin City University), either at Post Graduate Certificate, Diploma or Masters in 
Education level.
Many students entering the college do so with a deficit in physical education 
compared to other subjects. They may not have received any physical education tuition 
at second level, or their exposure to the subject may have been very limited, focusing 
mainly on the games strand (Woods et al., 2010, Ní Chróinín & Coulter, 2012). In the 
literature on teacher education, there is a strong emphasis on academic preparation, with 
subject content of the most interest to physical education teacher education 
professionals (Siedentop, 2002; Tinning, 2002). Time allocation to physical education 
in primary ITE courses, across the globe, is claimed to be a barrier to accrual of 
adequate content knowledge. Finland is reported as having the highest number of hours 
(189 hours) allocated to physical education teacher education, while in Norway no prior 
training in physical education teacher education is required for primary teachers (Keay, 
2011, p. 30). In some states in North America, physical education is taught by 
‘classroom teachers who have no substantial training in the subject matter, (and) are 
often without serious preparation in the necessary pedagogy’ (Locke & Graber, 2008, p. 
267). Other countries permit a one year postgraduate course in order to obtain the 
necessary teaching qualifications for teaching at primary level. In reality this means 
fewer hours in subject specialism, and may mean no exposure to physical education 

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teacher education at all. In summary although the time allocation to primary physical 
education teacher education in ITE in Ireland could be improved upon, the hours 
allocated are relatively high on a global scale.