Teachers’ and Children’s Perceptions of Physical Education Began to Change during the Professional Development Programme The physical education culture in the study school was one of games and
therefore physical education was defined as such (Kirk, 2010). Over the course of the
PDP, teachers moved from this concept of physical education as games skills and
teamwork to a broader conceptualisation of physical education. However, achieving
change in a school culture is extremely difficult (Grimmett & Crehan, 1992). It is only
by being onsite and experiencing the school culture that a PDP facilitator can
understand the culture and suggest ways and means of eliciting cultural change.
Teachers were aware of the importance of a broad and balanced programme,
providing children a variety of activities and ensuring inclusiveness but in practice this
was difficult. Teachers suggested that changes should begin with the younger classes
and move through the school. The problem for the younger classes was that they
continued to see that physical education in the senior classes was games and many of
them longed to be in senior school where they could take part in these games, hence the
games culture existed with these young children already (Fahey et al., 2005). The older
children pressured teachers into providing games, which were not games lessons per se
but rather recreational games lessons. Until these teachers are clear about the
educational purpose of physical education, long term changes in practice may be slow
as changes in schools depend on what the teachers think (Fullan, 2001). Although in
the short term, content knowledge about what and how to teach is vital, theoretical
knowledge of physical education is also necessary to bring about school and lasting
classroom change. Ideally, a PDP should address these aspects concurrently,
