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

Points to Note
 
To develop the children’s understanding, you need to 
Show, support and explain
Observe their actions and question their approach

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Intervene to suggest ideas and teach new skills
Give the children regular feedback on how they are getting on
Figure 5.1 O&AA scheme of work for 1
st
and 2
nd
class
The lesson plans contained detailed instructions for the sequence/structure of the 
lesson, specific learning intentions linked to the curriculum, activities, assessment and 
in some instances questions that would need to be asked to develop learning. The key 
feature of the lesson plans were as follows: 
Each lesson included a warm up, a specific skill to be taught, time for the 
children to practice the skills and engage in other activities. 
The main activity was based around orienteering activities, with 
activities on walking and/or outdoor challenges and/or understanding and 
appreciation of O&AA. 
Teaching points were highlighted on each lesson. 
Continuity and progression from Junior Infants to Sixth class was 
evident. 
Lave and Wenger (1991) emphasise the importance of contextualised learning 
and suggest that practitioners should generate knowledge within the practice in which it 
would be required. Therefore, all materials were sourced or constructed to fit the case 
study school to ensure teachers had what was required for them to teach a lesson. The 
following is a brief list of the type of resources that were constructed: 
Maps for each class level and for activities such as point to point 
orienteering, star and photo orienteering were drawn and laminated 
(Figure 5.2). 
Photographs were taken of various places and objects around the school 
for photo orienteering for each class level (Figure 5.3). 
Controls and control cards for each class level for orienteering 
Scavenger and treasure hunt clues/worksheets 
(See Appendix Ti-Tvii for further samples of resources) 

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Figure 5.2 Ordinance survey map adapted for school use
Figure 5.3 Sample photographs for photo orienteering