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

Outdoor Education/Outdoor Pursuits 
Outdoor education deals with the outdoors which is linked to the notion of an 
outdoor environment such as a national park or an outdoor and adventure centre, the 
idea for most being outdoor education takes place in the ‘wild’ (Stiehl & Parker, 2010).
This is not to say however that the O&AA strand does not include aspects of ‘off-site’ 

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activities which may be undertaken by teachers and children in parks and adventure 
centres. According to Zink and Burrows (2008) outdoor education, ’does occur in the 
outdoors but…it can occur in classrooms and on the sports field at school.
Nevertheless, students and teachers alike can readily claim the other activities such as 
sport that occur on the same outdoor fields are not outdoor education’ (p. 252). Outdoor 
pursuits/education or wilderness sports are intended to provide participants with 
experience and skills to enjoy and care for our natural environment. Outdoor activities 
include rock climbing/ bouldering, hill walking, caving, snorkelling, surfing, kayaking, 
backpacking, boating, camping, canoeing, fly casting, orienteering, wilderness trek, and 
more. Outdoor pursuits will normally require additional qualifications for teachers, and 
usually may only include a small number of pupils in extra-curricular time in an off-site 
setting (Martin, 2000). Stiehl and Parker (2010) describe the difference between 
outdoor education and adventure education as, outdoor education places ‘greater 
emphasis on skill development. Whereas adventure education emphasises symbolic 
activities such as rope challenge ropes courses and new games, outdoor education 
focuses more on explicit knowledge and skills that are pertinent to a specific outdoor 
activity’ (p. 249). They point to the similarity between both as their focus on personal 
and group development.