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

Context and partnership.
The first stage was concerned with becoming 
knowledgeable of the context in which the PDP would take place, and to develop an 
understanding of the study school. Additionally, partnership to enhance the PDP 
facilitation was to develop. This was possible as a result of understanding the case 
(chapter 4). Through spending time in the school the researcher became familiar with 
the physical context of the school and came to understand the school culture from the 
teachers’ and the children’s perspective. This knowledge gave the researcher guidance 
on how to plan and implement the body of content necessary in the PDP. In keeping 
with social constructivist theory, learning would be facilitated in context where it has 
been proven to be most successful.

---

148 
All the class teachers in the school were involved in the PDP (28 teachers year 
2006-2007 and 27 teachers in 2007-2008 – Appendix O). The school has an existing 
partnership with the college of education in which the researcher is employed, in that it 
hosts many of the college’s students on teaching practice at various times throughout 
the year. The researcher would also be known in her capacity as a lecturer in education 
to many of the more recently qualified teachers in the school. These were the 
foundations on which the partnership between school and researcher were to be 
expanded, specifically in the area of physical education. 
Negotiating PDP implementation.
Component two of the planning framework 
was to negotiate when the PDP would take place and what it should consist of. It was 
decided based on the findings in chapter four and the time of year, to start the whole 
school PDP with O&AA during term two, March – April 2007. A break would follow 
this to allow time for consolidation and review for both the teachers and the researcher.
The teachers were free to teach any aspect of physical education they wished during this 
time. It was considered very important that teachers should have time available to them 
to allow them to apply what they had learned initially in the PDP with the continued 
support of the researcher as necessary, therefore teachers agreed to teach the O&AA 
strand with continuing support early the following academic year (October-November 
2007). As the PDP was contextualised there was no negotiation as to when during the 
school day the PDP would take place. The unit of work consisted of six lessons, each of 
which took place during the classes’ timetabled physical education slot (Appendix P).
Due to school closures for various reasons (elections, religious days of obligation, staff 
meetings etc.) it took nine weeks to complete the unit of work for the entire school.