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

participated in the study.
Prior to the PDP the teachers taught a narrow programme of physical education using direct 
teaching styles. Teachers reported lacking content knowledge and confidence in teaching 
O&AA (pedagogical content knowledge). Children, prior to the PDP, enjoyed physical 
education and expected lessons to include moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity.
They met normative standards for physical fitness for their age and gender. However, they 
described their physical education experiences as predominantly ‘games’ and recreational rather 
than educational. Both the teachers and the children had a confused understanding of physical 
education with discourses focussing on health and physical activity.
Following implementation of the PDP the findings indicated that for the PDP to be 
effective and change to occur key features were necessary (described using the developed 
propositional statements). These were: a) The teachers reported that the provision of resources 

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played a strong role in the adoption of the PDP; b) The support provided by an external expert 
through modelling lessons, explaining activities and providing feedback impacted positively on 
teachers’ teaching; c) The support allowed teachers to build on their content knowledge and 
they gained confidence to use already developed classroom pedagogical strategies in the 
physical education context; d) Organisational changes within the school, such as timetabling 
and access to equipment, were necessary for the PDP to be successful: e) The PDP impacted 
positively on children’s perceived learning and engagement in physical education lessons; f)
Both teachers and children began to re-conceptualise physical education, from a games 
orientated, recreationally focused subject towards an understanding of physical education as a 
subject where teaching and learning happened; g) Collegiality and collaboration amongst 
teachers in physical education, and in other subjects, was an outcome of the PDP and was an 
important change strategy.
 
Conclusion:
This research confirms the importance of resource provision, contextualised and 
individualised support to develop teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge in the 
design of a PDP. It also provides evidence of the teachers themselves being an important 
resource and the need for future professional development to incorporate opportunities to 
facilitate communication and collaboration and formalise communities of practice. Teacher 
change is underpinned by the features of the PDP and the research indicates that change is 
multi-directional. Although the literature highlights the necessity to focus on the learning 
outcomes of the child in designing PDPs, it is imperative that we do not ignore the learning 
outcomes of teachers. If there is no teacher learning, this could potentially limit children’s 
learning.

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