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

Suggestions for Future Research 
Further investigation to determine the level of on-going support required 
by these teachers in order to provide quality programmes of outdoor and 
adventure activities is required to consolidate the professional 
development provision in this area. 
A follow-up study of the teachers who partook in the PDP to determine if 
their provision of O&AA remained constant or improved since the PDP 
and if there were any further impacts long-term on their teaching would 
be informative. 
As O&AA is a relatively new area in Irish physical education it would be 
interesting to explore the level of support required by teachers to 
implement a quality programme of any one or all of the strands of the 
Physical Education Curriculum. 
The study indicated that learning as a key component in physical 
education lessons as opposed to recreation/free play facilitated inclusion 
and enjoyment for the children. A study that explored whether sustained 
exposure to quality teaching and learning and children’s enjoyment in 

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physical education in all strand areas over a number of years could 
continue to keep children interested in physical education through their 
secondary education and onwards to enjoy a healthy lifestyle into adult 
life. 
Further investigation should focus on a wider sample of teachers to 
establish if the PDP can lead to further improvements in the provision of 
quality physical education and impact on children’s learning. 
This study highlighted the differences that exist amongst teachers within 
one school, meeting these individual needs merits more investigation. In 
line with the physical education curriculum which encourages teachers to 
ensure opportunities exist for all children to achieve within a class and to 
differentiate for children, professional development programmes for 
these teachers should foster the same considerations. 
A study on facilitators of professional development and the impact of 
providing individualised, contextualised programmes of professional 
development whereby the facilitators are unfamiliar with the context they 
might be working in, merits investigation. 
Further work is necessary to establish the professional development 
requirements of teachers at various stages of their career and in different 
contexts. 
The support that teachers showed to each other throughout their teaching 
of the strand and how this impacted on other areas of school planning 
merits further investigation.
As the primary school teacher in the Irish context is a generalist teacher 
other models of professional development needs to be investigated to try 
to improve teachers’ teaching and children’s learning across subjects 
rather than through subjects to ensure maximum use of teachers’ 
precious time. 
This research study was based on a practical and theory based programme of 
professional development, informed by the literature on professional development, 
teacher knowledge and teacher change and the design of programmes of professional 
development to impact a whole school staff to provide a quality programme of outdoor 
and adventure activities. The outcome of the facilitation of the programme has provided 
evidence that teachers were teaching a quality programme of outdoor and adventure 

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activities thus supporting the theory of teacher change. It has also proven that a 
contextualised, needs based programme can be successful in achieving its aims. 
The study can contribute to the growing body of research on professional 
development for primary teachers in physical education with particular reference to 
outdoor and adventure activities and the facilitation and design of such a programme.
As the child is central to all teaching and learning it is imperative that these 
recommendations be addressed by all those concerned with the promotion of physical 
education at all levels, both educational and political. Professional development 
opportunities must be foremost in policy makers’ minds in ensuring that children’s 
learning experiences are addressed at every decision making level so that they may 
become a reality. 

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