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

Approaches to teacher change. 
Moffett (2000) reviewed a number of studies 
where external and internal change agents or facilitators are essential for supporting 
schools as they ‘navigate the labyrinth of change’ and point towards the fact that the 

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presence of a facilitator contributed to increased confidence, personal mastery and 
ownership of the change process in a school staff. A change agent is someone who 
influences others to adopt an innovation within an organisation (Metzler, Lund & 
Gurvitch, 2008). Rodgers (1995) describes two processes involved in moving an 
innovation into practice or thought: adoption or diffusion. Adoption occurs when one 
or more individuals move along a path from first becoming aware of an innovation to 
the regular usage of that idea or practice. Diffusion occurs as an innovation spreads 
from introduction to wide usage among members of the same social system. A social 
system in the case of the current study, and from a social constructivist perspective, 
could be defined as a group of teachers who share similar expertise and job 
responsibilities, and apply them in similar settings i.e. their classrooms. Teachers 
control diffusion, adoption must precede diffusion within a social system. According to 
Hargreaves (1994),
if teachers don’t like change, don’t understand it, don’t think it is 
practical or don’t agree with it, then change will be implemented incompetently, 
insincerely or not at all.
Fullan (2006) in writing about approaches to teacher change wrote about seven 
premises which underpin change theory. The premises are those he deems necessary to 
design strategies of instruction which elicit results. These premises are related to the 
key features of effective professional development (
in italics
). They are as follows: i) 
motivation (
active learning and coherence
); ii) a focus on results (
content
); iii) learning 
in context (
active learning, 
coherence and collective participation 
); iv) changing 
context (
coherence
); v) reflective action (
active learning and collective participation
); 
vi) tri-level engagement (
collective participation and coherence
); vii) persistence and 
flexibility to stay the course (
duration
). To bring about change the instruction strategy 
must motivate the teachers which may not be there initially but can be established over 
time. Kabylov, (2006) notes that pressure is often necessary to encourage change 
particularly among those who are less willing to change. He goes one step further to 
say that support provides encouragement, motivation and nudging that many 
practitioners require and this is needs based. This point is supported by the INTO 
(2004a) and Guskey (2002b) when he says ‘both pressure and support are necessary 
ingredients of success. Untapped competence can surface and flourish in this 
environment’ and ‘support coupled with pressure is essential for continuing educational 
improvement’ (p. 388). This study aimed to develop teacher content and pedagogical 
content knowledge, including providing resources and to bring about organisational 

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change where necessary. Learning in context, as well as a key feature, is also an 
instructional strategy which informed the professional development programme in this 
study. According to Elmore (2004), those involved in professional development need to 
be cognisant that as learning occurs in context, the learning context itself is in a constant 
state of change. Randi and Corno (1997) contend that ‘change is not simply a matter of 
implementing innovations’ (p. 1165) as without a clear understanding of how teachers 
implement innovations or new practices it is unlikely that staff development can support 
innovation at classroom level. For innovation to be successful they point to the ability 
of teachers to be able to respond to the unique and varied context in which they teach.
Teachers’ beliefs, practices and experiential contexts intersect and interact and these are 
personal experiences which they bring to teaching (Opfer, Pedder & Lavicza, 2011); 
Teaching has to do in part at least with the formation of beliefs, and that means 
that it has to do not simply with what we shall believe, but with how we shall 
believe it. Teaching is an activity which has to do, among other things, with the 
modification and formation of belief systems. (Green, 1971, p. 48)
As the professional development takes place in context any changes required in the 
contextual infrastructure or school organisational change can occur simultaneously.
These changes can help facilitate programme success and further motivate teachers.
The instructional strategy of a professional development programme needs to include 
time and space for reflection as ‘people learn best through doing, reflection, inquiry, 
evidence, more doing and so on’ (Fullan, 2006, p. 10). It is vital that teachers 
experience regular positive feedback on their teaching, when implementing changes in 
practice, this will reinforce their teaching and encourage sustained change and further 
change (Guskey, 2002b). Although not applicable to this study, tri-level engagement 
which according to Fullan (2006) refers to connecting school, district and state as part 
of the change strategy of the professional development programme. Finally as the 
process of professional development facilitation can be a bumpy one, persistence and 
flexibility are vital to ensure the programme is seen through to the end. The premises of 
motivation, results, learning in context, context change, reflection and persistence and 
flexibility were premises which informed the professional development programme 
design. As the purpose of the professional development programme was to elicit 
change in teachers’ knowledge these premises (instructional strategies) aligned with 
effective features of professional development and facilitated through a workable model 
should impact on teachers’ teaching and bring about change in practice.

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Guskey (2002b) identified the importance of introducing content that can fit in 
with teachers’ existing practices based on teachers’ needs, while at the same time 
allowing for adaptation and change to occur. Duffy (1993) found that although teachers 
initially asked for prescriptive lessons in his study, over time the teachers showed 
progress from modelling these prescribed practices to revising and inventing new 
strategies. Prescribed practices provide a starting point for the learning of new 
knowledge and the development of new ideas for many teachers trying to meet the 
needs of their pupils. Sparks (1986) found that teachers’ attitude toward innovation and 
change was a person, the person who affected implementation – pointing to the 
importance of the role of the facilitator of the professional development programme in 
this study.