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

 
Human resource.
Infant teachers saw the PDP facilitator not just as an expert 
supporting them in their teaching, but also as another adult, an enabler to quality 
physical education for the children. They reported that having the facilitator present 
ensured that children got more individual attention; 
‘there is always some little thing 
with small infants … so it is handy having someone, so if you have to leave the lesson, 
to carry it on’
(1 FGT Mary JI). Most teachers felt that with the amount of organisation 
required for putting out controls for orienteering and supervision of the class over a 
large area, an extra pair of hands was required and without this (a barrier) they would 
find O&AA difficult to teach; 
‘To be honest I …I think I would need another person 
with me... because they will be running and chasing and all the rest to get there first.
So you definitely need two [people] for parts of it’ 
(1 FGT Amy 1).
‘There were kind of 
logistical things as well… like putting out the clues … as a teacher you have to have 
someone to cover your class…’
(1 FGT Darragh 6). 
‘Now my biggest problem with that 
[teaching O&AA again] would be, to be honest with you, would be organising the 
equipment out and what do I do with my class...’
(1 FGT Wilma SI).
One teacher summed up the thoughts of many of the teachers when it came to 
organising resources and equipment for physical education and O&AA; 
I think sometimes PE generally as a subject is difficult and organisation. I think 
once you are up and going and you’re … it’s just the actual equipment 
movement. Movement of equipment, no matter what it is, it is difficult. It is just 
at the start, you are picking things up or you are going through things and you 
are saying – do I have everything I need? – and you have a list in front of you, 
and that is the hardest part for PE I think.
(2 FGT Cathal 4) 
This was supported by another teacher; 
‘…it’s mind boggling how much you 
actually do need isn’t it?’
(2 FGT Eileen 3) 
Children too, were conscious of the fact that extra help would be beneficial in 
organising equipment;
Boy 
- If you have a lot of people it is pretty easy but if it was only you, you would be 
running around all over the place. 
Girl - 
Yeah, you would need four or five people to help but when you are playing games 
two or three people usually go to the PE place and they get a basket.
(1 FGC 4) 
Some teachers even felt that an extra pair of hands in preparing resources would 
be beneficial; 
‘…you would really need an assistant for something like this [preparing 

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resources]. It is very labour intensive’ 
(1 FGT Sophie 6). As an extra pair of hands 
would not always be available to teachers it was imperative that organisational 
strategies were developed, as part of the support offered in the PDP to enable teachers 
manage on their own; 
I have now decided to have the children do much of the organising … to show 
teachers that … they can just get on with it and do it, you don’t need another set 
of hands, you don’t need two or three people putting out things. It can be done 
with one teacher on their own with the equipment being carried out in the box, 
the children putting out all the equipment and preparing the lesson for 
you…already this week I was already using fifth and sixth class children to put 
out equipment for their own classes and also for the younger classes. So it’s just 
to use the children and use the resources in the school as best as can be done.
(FN 28.02.07)
 
This ‘use’ of children could be, involving the children in the organisation of 
equipment for their own lesson or having senior children organise equipment for the 
younger classes where possible.
During stage 2, teachers themselves tried to find ways around the equipment 
organising difficulties that they encountered. Two of the infant teachers asked two of 
the fifth class children to put out scavenger hunt materials for their class. They only 
required the older children for 10 minutes but yet were conscious that this might not be 
appropriate all the time; 
It’s just to clarify that we’re not annoying fifth and sixth class teachers because 
they have choir and they have this and they have that. And if they’re out… 
they’ve loads. So if we’re taking them for 15 minutes we’re another 15 minutes.
(2 FGT Coleen JI) 
Other teachers came in early to prepare resources and equipment, to have it 
ready for their class time. They still could not put the controls out before school, as on 
one occasion a teacher put orienteering controls out only to have some infant children 
collect and return it to the teacher, trying to be helpful, when they saw it in the yard at 
break-time. Senior teachers had similar difficulties, if they wanted controls or activities 
put out prior to lessons they would require help; 
That was the one trouble we had…who would put the buckets out and if you put 
them out and left them over break it would be the kids during break might 
tamper with it…..windy day they would have blown away so…that’s the only 
thing now that would be a little off-putting if you were setting out…
(2 FGT 
Alannah 5) 

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Having it ready for you when you go out. I really think that’s a huge 
thing…because I think once the resources are there it’s only a matter of going 
through the list in your head and kind of knowing what it is yourself, and kind of 
going out and teaching it.
(2 FGT Maeve 2) 
Sophie, a teacher in sixth class said that she put controls up for her class and it 
had put her off teaching the activity again; 
It took her about half-an-hour with a map and the controls herself, trying to put 
them up and find [the points on the map] around the place, and go around the 
school, tie them up securely, make sure they were still there for her class then 
later on that day. So she said without somebody there to put them [controls] up 
they probably wouldn’t do the activity. 
(FN 19.10.07) 
Claire another sixth class teacher encountered the same barrier; 
I did one [orienteering lesson] last year myself near the end of the year and I 
was out in the rain for 45 minutes trying to put them [controls] up in the 
morning and that’s a long time to be putting them up and then looking at the 
map to make sure it was right, it was quite difficult.
(2 FGT Claire 6) 
As the senior classes required ‘an extra pair of hands’ primarily to place controls 
for orienteering activities we discussed a solution to this during the interviews. One 
idea was to place permanent controls around the school but as the school site is small 
and was about to undergo some construction work it was thought best to leave putting 
up permanent controls and creating new maps until after any building works. Another 
option was to choose tiny control cards that would be difficult for children to notice and 
remove, and which would also challenge the children when orienteering to a greater 
extent. Junior teachers decided as a solution to their organisational issues, to approach 
senior class teachers to ascertain if they could ‘borrow’ some older children to help with 
the organisation of their equipment for lessons, on a regular basis without encroaching 
on the children’s time for too long. This was agreed to by their teachers on a trial basis 
to see how it might work.