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

Conclusion.
This study took cognisance of the international research findings 
on features of effective professional development and this explains some of the design 
features that were put in place in the PDP at the centre of this study. The current study 
proposes to include all teachers in the case study school and each teacher may be very 
different and learn very differently, therefore it would be unwise to exclude any 
‘effective feature’ at this early stage of development. Guskey (1994; 2003) argues that 
an optimal mix of professional development needs to be found for each teacher and 
school: 
There is no right answer to the best way. Rather there are a multitude of ways, 
all adapted to the complex and dynamic characteristics of specific contexts.
Success therefore, rests in finding the optimal mix of process elements and 
technologies that can then be carefully, sensibly, and thoughtfully applied in a 
particular setting. (p. 10)
This study will provide additional insight into the features of effective 
professional development. Consequently, the following definition of effective 
professional development (author inserted features, outlined in italics), which contains 
many of the effective features outlined in this section, is the definition which will 
inform the design of the professional development programme;

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59 
focus on clearly articulated priorities (
coherence
), provide on-going (
duration
) 
school-based (
contextualised
) support to classroom teachers (
collective 
participation in active learning), 
deal with subject matter content (
content 
focused
) as well as suitable instructional strategies and classroom management 
techniques, and create opportunities for teachers to observe, experience and try 
new teaching methods (
active learning
). (Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development, 2005, p. 129).