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

Reviewed Conference Proceedings 
(Appendix C) 
 
Coulter, M.,
and Woods, C., (2008), Children’s perceptions and enjoyment of physical 
activity and physical education. Proceedings of the Third PE PAYS Forum. Engaging 
Young People in Physical Activity and Youth Sport. University of Limerick.
Coulter, M
., and Woods, C., (2007), ‘It’s all about out of the classroom’ Classroom 
teachers’ on teaching physical education. Proceedings of the Second PE PAYS Forum.
Evidence-based Research in Physical Education, Physical Activity and Youth Sport.
University of Limerick.
Ní Bhrian C., 
Coulter, M
., and Woods, C., (2007), An examination of activity levels of 
Primary school pupils during a physical education specialist taught outdoor and 
adventure strand of the Irish physical education curriculum. Proceedings of the Second 
PE PAYS Forum. Evidence-based Research in Physical Education, Physical Activity 
and Youth Sport. University of Limerick.

---

1 
Chapter One: Introduction 
Teachers today face the complex demands of different languages and student 
backgrounds, culture and gender issues, disadvantage, disability, learning and 
behavioural problems, new technologies, developing knowledge and student 
assessment, and ultimately these demands require changes in classroom practices 
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005). Excellent teaching 
is rare, according to Schulman, because, ‘after some 30 years of doing such work, I 
have concluded that classroom teaching … is perhaps the most complex, most 
challenging, and most demanding, subtle, nuanced and frightening activity that our 
species ever invented’ (2004, p. 504). Yet, teachers are constantly being asked to teach 
to high standards in this rapidly changing world, and to ensure that they are up-to-date 
on all educational reform and policy. ‘Education has indisputably taken a prominent 
place on the political agenda, and, in many countries, educational reform has become 
characterised by a top down approach, an extensive reform agenda, and a rapid 
implementation schedule’ (Calderhead, 2001, p. 778). According to Ward and Doutis 
(1999) reform has become ‘a catch-all term that includes a variety of initiatives from 
home-grown changes to national standards and curricula’ (p. 382). Educational reform 
happens on a continuum from teacher initiated practice to systematic changes mandated 
by government. The mechanism by which reform happens is professional development 
(Fullan & Hargreaves, 1992). 
Reforms have at their centre, aspirations towards ‘more ambitious student 
outcomes’ (Warren Little, 1993, p. 130). With the implementation of the Primary 
Curriculum in Ireland (Government of Ireland, 1999a), generalist teachers were 
expected to deal with these demands across a number of subject areas. The response by 
teachers to curricular reform, whether positive or negative, is known as teacher change. 
These reforms are a departure from teachers’ usual practices, established beliefs and 
prior experiences and therefore require teachers to change. This piece of research was 
undertaken in a climate of government imposed professional development, whereby 
teachers were undertaking consecutive and concurrent phases of national in-service, and 
curricular reform in the twelve subjects of the curriculum between 1999 and 2007. The 
Primary Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999a) recognises the fact that teachers 
need to ‘adopt innovative approaches to teaching and to be aware of changes and 
developments in educational theory and practice’ (p. 21) and the curriculum also points 

---

2 
to the role of the teacher as one where the teacher is, ‘committed to a process of 
continuing professional reflection, development and renewal’ (p. 21). At the time of 
this research teachers were challenged in dealing with the implementation of new 
curricula, with negotiating a number of professional development initiatives and with 
school related policy development. 
Reform is not just a feature of Irish education but a world-wide occurrence 
which is leading to an intensification of teachers’ workloads in an ever-expanding 
curriculum (Gleeson & Ó Donnabháin, 2009). In the past twenty five years the Irish 
education system has undergone major government legislation, policy and curricular 
reform. This has occurred at a number of levels; curricular reform, professional 
development reform, special educational needs reform, increased accountability at 
teacher education level and in schools and also an increase in parental involvement in 
their children’s education (Egan, 2004). ‘These major reform initiatives have placed the 
responsibility on teachers to develop their capacity to be lifelong adaptive learners’ 
(Conway, Murphy, Rath & Hall, 2009, p. 175). It is essential that teachers are equipped 
to meet the challenges of these reforms and are encouraged to do so through 
professional development. Despite its recognised importance in facilitating change, 
professional development provision has been described as ‘woefully inadequate’ 
(Borko, 2004, p. 3). Although, in Ireland, teachers report positive experiences from 
professional development activities they undertake, their impact on changing practices 
has been questioned (Sugrue, 2002) and their fragmented provision and their lack of 
learner centred structures debated (Coolahan, 2003; Sugrue, Morgan, Devine & Raferty, 
2001; Sugrue, 2002). Other trends identified in Irish research studies on continuing 
professional development (CPD) are the dominance of transmission rather than 
reflective mode, lack of co-ordination structures, limited opportunities for observation 
of teaching, and the dominance of the one shot knowledge transfer model of CPD 
provision with limited opportunity for reading and critical engagement with theory 
(Conway et al., 2009). High quality professional development programmes can help 
teachers deepen their knowledge and transform their teaching (Borko, 2004).
In Ireland, recent curricular reform followed a consultative approach with all 
stakeholders involved in curriculum design. Teachers were involved in designing and 
delivery of the national in-service following the curriculum’s publication. Although 
consultation occurred with all stakeholders, including teachers, a national framework to 
implement this reform and support the change needed is still in the planning stages.

---

3 
Even though autocratic, this in turn creates its own problems, the largest of which is 
slow progress. Sustained and adequate funding has also been an issue; whereby even 
with a national framework, without the adequate resources, any change will be slow to 
happen.
Few understand that primary education is an area, ‘shaped by extraordinarily 
complex understandings, beliefs and cultures’ (O' Connell Rust, 2009, p. 333). Primary 
teachers have been resistant to changes imposed by successive governments over the 
past thirty years because in some instances they do not reflect the ways in which the 
subjects were previously taught. Change is difficult in an environment that seems 
familiar to all (Sugrue, 2004). Managing effective curriculum change involves ‘critical 
decisions in the selection of starting points and appropriate areas for development and 
renewal’ (Government of Ireland, 1999a) and it involves change in ‘what people know 
and assume’ (p. 62). This is similar to Fullan’s (2001) statement that change in schools 
depends on ‘what the teachers do and think’ (p. 115). Teachers often oppose change 
because of the perception of a constant overload imposed by national reforms and 
improvement projects that compete for the teachers’ time and attention as well as 
limited resources (Schmidt & Datnow, 2005).
In the case of generalist primary school teachers, they teach a group of children 
in their own classroom all day, every day with little or no communication with other 
teachers. The relatively private nature of teachers’ work behind the classroom door was 
noted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 
(1991) when they viewed Irish education, and they termed it, ‘the legendary autonomy’ 
of the Irish teacher. A number of researchers have written about this teacher isolation 
and how it can diminish teachers’ opportunities for teachers’ collegiality around 
learning and teacher development (Lieberman & Miller, 2001; Lortie, 1975).
Professional development programmes need to consider how they can reduce isolation 
of teachers and encourage collective participation (Desimone, 2009). Teachers may 
find that learning in their own environment with colleagues can be more effective than 
external, decontextualised professional development. Such arrangements allow for 
potential interaction and discourse which can be a powerful form of teacher learning 
(Desimone, 2009; Fullan, 1991; Guskey, 2004). Despite the best efforts of school 
principals to promote collegial cultures, these tend to remain at planning or talking 
about teaching level, rather than examining practice (Day & Sachs, 2004).

---

4 
Prior to the publication of the Primary School Curriculum (Government of 
Ireland, 1999a), the Department of Education and Science (re-established as the 
Department of Education and Skills in 2010) established the Primary Curriculum 
Support Programme (PCSP) in 1998, to provide and oversee a national in-service 
programme for teachers implementing the curriculum. The purpose of the PCSP was to 
‘mediate the Primary School Curriculum for teachers towards enabling them to 
implement it in their schools’ (Primary Curriculum Support Programme, 2007, para.1).
The Physical Education Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999b) in-service 
programme was implemented between the years 2004-2006. This national in-service 
consisted of two days facilitated workshops and one day in-school planning each year.
Since 1999, teachers may have participated in other in-service programmes in physical 
education or related areas such as dance or Gaelic games. These in-service programmes 
were facilitated by teachers under the auspices of the Irish National Teachers 
Organisation (INTO) or through Education Centres
1
. National Governing Bodies and 
other organisations such as the Irish Heart Foundation also delivered courses which 
were seen to supplement the physical education curriculum. Following national in-
service, all schools were required to implement the physical education curriculum from 
September 2006, seven years after its publication. In 2006, the Regional Curriculum 
Support Service (RCSS), which was established to provide support to teachers in their 
own schools, began to provide support in the area of physical education. The RCSS 
were invited by principals to visit schools to give advice on the curriculum content, 
methodologies, planning and implementation. Despite the acknowledged importance of 
physical education as a subject in Ireland, primary teachers were endeavouring to teach 
an ambitious physical education curriculum in the context of increasingly sedentary 
lifestyles and equipped with an uneven distribution of resources (Irish National 
Teachers' Organisation, 2007).
Physical education, with its distinctive subject content and pedagogy, ‘is 
arguably the subject that the generalist teacher finds the most difficult in which to 
develop competence’ (Carney & Winkler, 2008, p. 14). Other issues which impact on 
teachers teaching of physical education at primary level would appear to be, teachers’ 
previous experience of the subject (Petrie, 2008), initial teacher education (Hayes, 
1
The principle activity of Education Centres (originally Teachers’ Centres) is to organise the local delivery of 
national programmes of teacher professional development on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. 
Centres also organize a varied local programme of activities for teachers, school management and parents in response 
to demand.

---

5 
Capel, Katene & Cook, 2008) and the availability of professional development 
opportunities (Armour, 2010). Each of these issues is inter-related and each also impact 
on quality teaching and more importantly child learning.