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

‘Like you forget the 
kids in your class who have no interest in competitive games and they 
love doing the orienteering and the challenges…’
(2 FGT Alannah 5). 
Physical education should be inclusive and include physical activity 
though not exclusively; 
‘So everyone is involved and it is a team effort.’
(2 FGT Michael 5) 
‘High level of involvement and activity’
(LE Mary 
JI). 
Although teachers were beginning to reconceptualise physical education, in the 
senior classes (fifth and sixth) children’s reconceptualisation at this level was slower to 
occur; 
‘…its [O&AA] absolutely brilliant, they really do love it… but then after it they 
still wanted to play PE. You know, they don’t look at it as PE. It’s not PE. No, real PE 
is a game, football and basketball’
(2 FGT Seán 6). It was pointed out that the children 
‘are programmed, they are programmed to ask that [for games]’ 
(2 FGT Michael 5).
The Principal went further to explain why the teachers and children were ‘programmed’ 
to expect games in their physical education lessons; 
It’d have been a lot of structured games being taught. In the upper end of the 
school teachers would have divided their classes into three groups, said right 
lads, you play football, you play basketball, and you guys there play hockey or 
rounders. You know without a lot of development, skill development in the 
lesson. So, and this is what children had come to expect. So it was relatively 
unplanned in terms of the lesson, and in terms of a progression in the school … 
well the children would certainly have perceived it as recreation time.
(IP) 
One teacher was adamant that teachers should try to manage children’s 
expectations and in so doing help with their and the children’s reconceptualisation of 
physical education; 
Do you know what I think it is important as well, is have your plans for your PE 
and do them, even if they go against the grain. The kids might say – oh teacher, 
we want games, we want games – in actual fact if you do orienteering and 
different challenges with them they will learn to adapt to those and enjoy those.
(2 FGT Alannah 5) 

---

215 
Teachers in the past would have abdicated their responsibility to pacify children 
demanding games. As a result of the PDP teachers were beginning to see that it was 
their responsibility to ensure children knew and understood what physical education is, 
and more importantly by teaching a quality programme of physical education children 
would come to understand physical education and its content. As well as teachers’ 
concept of physical education changing so too did their concept of O&AA and this can 
be summed up by the comments of Claire and Sophie (2 FGT 6); 
Sophie:
 … to be exposed to how to do it, just even one lesson, how to do this, how to do 
that, how to do the other, and they’ve done it, you’ve exposed them to it. 
Claire:
 At least you’d be a bit more competent in that than dance, we’ll say, and