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

Physical Education in the 1999 Irish Primary Curriculum 
The professional development programme which was designed to support 
teachers teaching of physical education as part of this investigation was aligned with the 
1999 Physical Education Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999b), therefore, it is 
important that we understand how it came about and its content. 
Physical education was one of the subjects for which a new curriculum was 
devised. The previous curriculum had been in place since 1971 and included health 
education. Health education has since become a separate subject in the curriculum and 
is known as Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). Primary school physical 
education is an integral part of the education process, without which the education of 
the child is incomplete (Government of Ireland, 1999a). According to the Primary 

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Curriculum for Physical Education (Government of Ireland, 1999b), physical education 
is ‘the process which provides the children with learning opportunities through the 
medium of movement and contributes to their overall development by helping them to 
lead full, active and healthy lives’ (p. 2). Individuals should establish the habit of being 
physically active from a young age, as participation in exercise is associated with a 
reduced risk of many chronic diseases and improved psychological health (McGuinness 
& Shelly, 1995; Woods, Nelson, O’ Gorman & Moyna, 2007; Woods et al., 2010). By 
the time a child reaches the end of primary school a significant proportion of his or her 
mental and physical potential has already been realised and a child who has not 
mastered a physical skill may well be disadvantaged for the rest of his or her life (Balyi, 
Cardinal, Higgs, Norris and Way, 2006).
The focus on the body and on physical experience makes physical education a 
unique subject in the curriculum. It provides opportunities for acquiring skills such as 
the development of initiative, tolerance, patience, safety, communicating with and 
understanding of others, ability to get on with others, thinking before acting, enjoyment 
of participation and satisfaction from success (Government of Ireland, 1999b). Among 
the many social skills that can be promoted are; the ability to work in groups, coping 
with success and failure, responsibility, organisation, leadership and coping with 
competition and co-operative play. The Primary Physical Education Curriculum 
(Government of Ireland, 1999b) aims that, ‘through a diverse range of experiences 
providing regular, challenging physical activity, the balanced and harmonious 
development and general well-being on the child is fostered’ (p. 2). It is designed to 
meet the physical needs of the child and the need for movement experiences, challenges 
and play. It aims to develop a desire for daily physical activity and encourage 
constructive use of free time and participation in physical activities in adult life. The 
system claims to be built on the principles of variety and diversity and not of 
specialisation.
The programme for the subject is outlined in the Physical Education Curriculum 
(Government of Ireland, 1999b). The subject content is divided into six ‘strands’, 
which are Athletics, Aquatics, Dance, Games, Gymnastics and Outdoor and Adventure 
Activities. This document is supported by the Physical Education Curriculum, 
Guidelines for Teachers (Government of Ireland, 1999c). The publication provides 
suggested teaching approaches and methodologies, guidelines on organisation and 
assessment as well as school and classroom planning. The approach teachers should 

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take to issues such as gender, competition, extra-curricular activities; children with 
special needs and sport are also outlined. In Ireland, the majority of children are taught 
physical education by their class teacher. The curriculum has been designed with class 
teachers in mind and states that ‘in order to implement the programme the teacher does 
not need to be a specialist in the teaching of physical education’ 
(Government of 
Ireland, 1999c, p. 24). According to Hardman and Marshall (2009), recent educational 
reforms in some countries and in response to the perceived obesity epidemic and 
concepts of active lifestyles some physical education curricula are undergoing, or have 
undergone, change. Terms used most frequently are physical education (e.g. Ireland, 
United Kingdom and some states in America) or health and physical education (e.g. 
Australia, New Zealand and Finland). In Scotland physical education is within Health 
and Wellbeing and ‘in South Korea it is with music and art to form ‘
a pleasant life 
course
’ (Keay, 2011, p. 30). However, similar to practice reported in Ireland (Broderick 
& Shiel, 2000; Deenihan, 2005; Woods et al., 2010), it is reported worldwide that there 
is a ‘sustained orientation towards sports-dominated competitive performance related 
activity programmes … which collectively account for over 70% of PE curriculum 
content in both primary and secondary schools’ (Hardman & Marshall, 2009, p. 53).