2) The Present Status and Delivery of Physical Education

2.1 Physical Education and Individuals with a Disability

Deenihan (1990) examined Physical Education provision in special schools, response rate were approximately 50% (54). The findings of the survey were as follows:

• 70% of School principals stated that there were no guidelines or standard syllabi to help teachers design and construct Physical Education programmes in Special Schools.
  
• 50% felt that equipment and facilities were totally inadequate.
  
• 80% indicated a major need for ongoing in-service courses.
  
• 55% felt that the Department of Education's policy of allowing only two hours a week payment towards the cost of the employment of a Physical Education teacher was inadequate.
  
• 60% felt that schools should have a special Physical Education teacher with special training in pedagogical skills adapted to the needs of children with learning difficulties/disabilities.
  
• 63% felt that the training the teachers received in Adapted Physical Activity (APA) was inadequate and almost non-existent as there is no recognised course for APA in this country.

In 1998 the People With a Disability in Sport Taskforce commissioned research on the provision of Physical Education and School Sports for people with disabilities. The overall response to the Questionnaires submitted was poor; this should be taken into account when viewing the results. The following education sectors and associations were survey:

• Special Schools (83 responses)
  
• Mainstream Schools (21 responses)
  
• Third Level Colleges (30 responses)
  
• Physical Education Association of Ireland (37 responses)

Special Schools

The following is a brief summary of the information received from analysis of the returned questionnaires:

School Type: The categories of disability type catered for by the schools may be broadly grouped as follows: Learning Difficulty 64%, Emotional Disability 22%, Sensory Disability 3%, Physical Disability 1%, Other Categories 10%.

Teaching Staff/Professional Development: 65% of respondents indicated that they had undertaken in-service training to teach people with disabilities. 49% of Special schools employ a Physical Education Specialist. It was not possible to quantify the number of full-time or part-time P.E. specialists, however of the 41 (of 83) respondents that indicated they employed a P.E. specialist, the average teaching time was 105 minutes per week. The class teacher was responsible for teaching P.E. in 54% of the Special Schools.

School P.E./Sport Policy: 43% of respondents indicated that they had a written policy on Physical Education/Sport in their school. A total of 74% of the respondents stated that they had some form (oral or written) of policy on Physical Education.

Facilities: 78% of schools had some form of suitable indoor facilities for P.E.. All respondents had outdoor facilities. 10% had no form of suitable indoor facilities, and were weather dependent for the provision of some form of P.E./School Sport programme.

General Conclusion: The class teacher was the Primary source of instruction with regard to Physical Education/school Sport in special schools. The response rate to in-service education for teachers in special schools was quite high at 65%. However, due to the limitations of the test instrument, it was not possible to determine if these courses were specifically orientated towards Physical Education or towards other aspects of teaching in special schools. Of the respondents who attended such courses, they felt that such courses were valuable and informative. The respondents also indicated their discontent with issues related to the poor frequency of provision and notification of such courses.

Primary Schools

Incidence of students with disabilities: There were 10% of students in the Primary sector with disabilities. The broad categories of disabilities may be sub-divided as follows: Learning Difficulty 43%, Physical Disability 29%, Sensory Disability 14% and Multi-Disability 14%.

School P.E./Sport Policy: 93% of respondents stated that they had a policy (oral or written) for Physical Education within their schools, however, only 54% indicated that their policy was written.

Teaching Staff/Professional Development: The class teacher is wholly responsible for the provision of Physical Education in the Primary School. Of the total number of respondents 76% indicated that their undergraduate training did not help them to teach Physical Education to students with Disabilities, while 12% stated that they had sufficient training at undergraduate level (the remaining 12% were unsure). Only 11% of Primary teachers had undertaken in-service training in Adapted Physical Activity. 73% of respondents stated that they would be interested in attending in-service courses in Adapted Physical Activity, if provided. However, 89% stated some form of dissatisfaction with the location, notification or placement during the school year of such courses. The months of July and August were indicated, by 85% of respondents, as the preferred month for the delivery of any such course.

Facilities/Resources: Teachers indicated that resources were inadequate to cater for students with disabilities in PE classes

Inclusion of students with Disabilities: The following percentage of students, within each category of disability, were included in the regular PE class: Learning Difficulty 93%, Physical Disability 61%, Sensory Disability 36% and Multi-Disability 29%. The general comments of respondents indicated that inclusion of students with Learning Difficulty was not as problematic as inclusion of either students with Physical or Multi-Disabilities. Full inclusion (66%) was the most frequent method used to accommodate students with disabilities into P.E./Sport activities. Other methods of accommodation used by respondents were: Small Group Activities (42%), and One to One/Individual attention (33%), Special Classes (15%), Other (1%). 3% of respondents did not accommodate students with disabilities in the P.E./Sport programmes. 89% of Primary teachers felt that inclusion of students with disabilities in regular P.E./Sport activities was beneficial to students without disability. 89% felt inclusion was beneficial to students with learning disability, while 77%, 73% and 66% feel that inclusion was beneficial for students with either Physical, Sensory or Multi-Disabilities, respectively. The data implies that the latter categories of disability are more difficult to integrate into the regular P.E./Sport programmes. The respondents stated that they considered the interests of the student with disabilities as the Primary issue, and were only in favour of inclusion if it was of benefit for each individual student with disabilities.

Post-Primary Schools

Incidence of students with disabilities: There were 9% of students in the second-level sector with disabilities. The broad categories of disabilities may be sub-divided as follows: Learning Difficulty 51%, Physical Disability 24%, Sensory Disability 15% and Multi-Disability 10%.

School P.E./Sport Policy: 86% of respondents stated that they had a policy (oral or written) for Physical Education in their schools. Only 33% of respondents indicated that their Physical Education policy was written.

Teaching Staff/Professional Development: 62% of the respondents felt that their undergraduate training was insufficient to them in teaching students with disabilities, a further 29% were unsure, whilst only 9% felt that they had sufficient training at undergraduate level, to work with students with disabilities. Only one respondent had undertaken an in-service course in Adapted Physical Activity. Two-thirds respondents stated that they were willing to attend in-service courses in adapted Physical Activity if available in the future. The placement of these courses in the school year differs from the Primary sector, with either January or September being the preferred months.

Facilities/Resources: All respondents had some form of either indoor or outdoor facilities for PE/Sport.

3rd Level Colleges

Incidence of students with disabilities: There were approximately 10% of students with disabilities in this sector.

Course Content: 73% (22) of the colleges that offer courses in Physical Education or Sports related studies, do not include a module(s) in adapted Physical Activity, while 27% (8) offer either optional (1) or compulsory modules (7) in adapted Physical Activity.

College Needs/Support: There was no objective data presented on this section, however, the report indicated that colleges would prefer support in the form of expertise.

Members of the Physical Education Association of Ireland (PEAI)

Professional Development: Only 22% of respondents stated that they were offered modules in Adapted Physical Activity at undergraduate level, with 16% indicating that they actually undertook these modules. The remaining graduates (84%) did not attend any in-service courses in the area of Adapted Physical Activity. 57% of respondents stated that they felt unqualified to teach students with disabilities, while 32% were unsure and only the remaining 11% felt competent enough to teach students with disabilities.

School PE/Sport Policy: 54% of respondents stated that they had a policy (oral or written) for Physical Education in their schools. 24% of all respondents indicated that their Physical Education policy was written.

Inclusion of students with Disabilities: The following data indicates the percentage of students within each broad category of disabilities that were included in the P.E./Sport programme: Learning disability 78%, Physical disability 70%, Sensory disability 46%, and Multi-disability 16%.

Resource Materials: It is not possible to provide objective data here due to report limitations. However, in general the majority of the P.E.A.I. members felt that the available resources for teaching students with disabilities were totally inadequate. The respondents also indicated that they were not aware of any specific resources available to them.

Recommendations for development of Physical Education/Sport for individuals with disabilities:

• Further research is needed to investigate the provision of P.E./Sport within the Special School sector.
• The Primary issue for immediate action is the provision of modules in Adapted Physical Activity at undergraduate level, and the provision of in-service courses to facilitate professional development of existing PE teachers. The underlying feeling derived from the qualitative aspect of the investigation was that teachers had a fear of teaching students with disabilities. Although many teachers endeavoured to include students with disabilities in their classes, they expressed inadequacy in their professional qualifications/development.
• Formalise schools recognition of both Physical Education and their students with disabilities. The development of a written school policy on Physical Education/School Sport requires school management to formally address this aspect of the curriculum. School management must also be encouraged to include and highlight the schools intention towards catering for the needs of students with disabilities in Physical Education and all aspects of the curriculum.
• The provision of a full-time resource/development professional to facilitate each sector of the educational and/or Sporting establishments in the preparation and implementation of various action/research projects within the area of Adapted Physical Activity.
• The design of a comprehensive resource package, applicable to both schools and other Sporting bodies, to address issues such as inclusion, facilities, terminology, and adaptation techniques.
• The allocation of additional resources (grant-based) to schools with a high incidence of disabilities students.

2.2 Primary Schools

The current regulations at Primary school level require one hour per week of Physical Education. The 1971 "Curriculum for Primary Schools" has been totally revised and the new curriculum was launched in 1999. The implementation of this curriculum is being carried out on a phased basis. The Physical Education component of this curriculum will be implemented in the schools in 2004 - 2005 with in-career support available to teachers and schools in the school years 2003 - 2004 and 2004- 2005.

The following sections examine various pieces of research, which describe past and current level of provision within the Primary school sector.

Keating (1980) examined the Physical Education provision amongst 6th class Primary schools teachers in the Dublin area. The majority of teachers expressed the following opinions:

a) Admitted to teaching only 33% of the stated objectives during the school year 79/80
b) Felt that direction and guidance from the Department of Education was non-existent
c) Perceived themselves as receiving totally inadequate in-service training, and as having received totally inadequate pre-service training.
d) Felt that the availability of practical equipment was inadequate
e) While considering indoor and outdoor facilities to be less than adequate, they did not consider facilities to be as important a reason for not achieving a greater percentage of objectives as guidance and training from the Department of Education and Teacher Education Colleges.
Deenihan (1990) examined Physical Education provision in Primary schools, response rate were approximately 50% (n = 1510). The findings of the survey were as follows:

• 80% of responses indicated that facilities and equipment were totally inadequate;
  
• 30% had no indoor facilities;
  
• 60% of responses indicated that there should be an annual grant for provision and renewal of equipment;
  
• 66% of teachers did not feel confident to teach Physical Education;
  
• 70% felt that there was a major requirement for in-service and refresher courses;
  
• The average Physical Education time allocation to each class varied between 12 - 60 minutes each week;
  
• 75% of classes had less than 30 minutes Physical Education per week;
  
• 60% of those surveyed were in favour of having a teacher who specialised in Physical Education either shared by a number of smaller schools or employed full time by schools over 500 pupils;
  
• 68% of responses indicated that the Department of Education had no commitment or policy towards implementing a proper Physical Education programme in Primary schools;
  
• 50% felt that the biggest problem in schools as regards Physical Education is insurance cover and litigation;
  
• 50% felt that it was very difficult to teach PE to large classes in small spaces with limited equipment.

Broderick and Shiel (2000) examined the dietary and activity patterns of 1700 5th class pupils in 65 randomly selected Primary schools Their findings indicated that 55% of those surveys participated in PE once a week, 35% twice a week and only 7% three or more times per week (McGuinness and Shelly (1996) found that 55% of Primary teachers taught PE just once a week). Teachers indicated that children receive on average 61.7 ± 20.3 minutes of Physical Education per week. 60% of girls and 80% of boys indicated that PE was their favourite school subject. Teachers who had not received in-service training three years prior to the survey taught 70% of pupils. Almost half of the pupils surveyed never receive instruction in swimming during PE class. The majority of time was spent playing game activities such as Soccer, Gaelic Football and Basketball. Limited breadth of activities was apparent in the survey. This survey is of high quality and the findings are a useful benchmark regarding Irish Physical Education provision within the Primary school sector.

Available research indicates the extent and nature of the PE experience within Primary school is limited. Before the Physical Education experience can be educationally worthwhile participation in at least two periods per week is required. The Council of Europe recommend a period of Physical Education each day for children at Primary level. Additionally the nature of the experience needs to be specific to the child's level of development and behavioural stage (not all children play football). Extensive in-service/career development provision within the Primary sector is required to up skill teachers in the context of Physical Education. The need for a strategic policy for the provision of quality Physical Education at all levels of educational spectrum and within the community is immediate. The government should appoint a taskforce, which represents all key stakeholders in Physical Education to complete this task. Experts in the field must lead this initiative.

2.3 Post Primary

At Post Primary level the current syllabus was introduced in 1985. While the 'Rules and Programme for Secondary Schools' recommend that Physical Education "should form part of the curriculum" there is no compulsion on schools to offer the subject at this level.

Curriculum Time allocation is not assigned the minimum at both Primary and post-Primary - currently the minimum recommended time for Physical Education provision in Irish post-Primary schools is 120 minutes/week for each year group. The current Department of Education recommendation is 1 hour for Primary schools. Research by the Physical Education inspectorate (Darmody & Halbert, 1996) indicated that time allocated to Physical Education from 1st year through to 6th year in post-Primary schools was as follows: 1st - 79min; 2nd - 74 mins; 3rd - 66 mins; 4th - 73 mins; 5th - 57 mins and 6th - 46 mins (Figure 1).

This finding is supported by a survey of all Limerick schools (Sohun & MacDonncha, 2001), which indicated that average time allocation at Junior cycle was 57 minutes and 47 minutes at Senior cycle. Only one school in Limerick met the recommended Department of Education and Science time allocation of 120 minutes at both junior and senior cycle. Within this survey a Physical EDucation provision score was allocate to schools based on the minimum requirements for the provision of an effective Physical Education programme as described by the Department of Education and Science (Rules and Programme for Post Primary Schools, 1987-98) and the Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department at the University of Limerick. 16 variables relevant to Physical Education contributed to the provision score achieved by each school. No school in the Limerick region met the minimal level of provision required. Average percentage provision score for the Limerick region taking school size into account reached 58.7 ± 22.5%. This finding clearly indicates that provision for Physical Education within Limerick is clearly below par. It is important to remember that the optimal provision score i.e. 100%, was based on minimal provision levels for an effective programme. It would be logical to assume that the findings within Limerick County would be representative of the national situation. In total 77 teachers were allocated Physical Education hours within the Limerick region only 47% of these had a qualification to teach the subject. At a national level more than a quarter of Post Primary schools do not employ the services of qualified Physical Education teacher (Deenihan, 1991, Darmody & Halbert, 1996). 56% of schools in the Limerick region categorised their programme as 'average', 'inadequate' or 'totally inadequate'.

The situation in Ireland does not compare well with other European Countries. Of twenty-one countries surveyed (Fisher, 1995) Ireland had the lowest time allocation (1.3 hr/wk) for Physical Education at Post Primary level (Figure 2). This lack of time allocation is primarily due to subject status and the focus on subjects, which are allocated CAO points. This is not a complete education. The Council of Europe recommend a minimum of three Physical Education periods a week for children at post-Primary and a period each day for children at Primary level.

Figure 1 Actual versus recommended time allocation to Physical Education in Irish Post-Primary schools (Darmody & Halbert, 1996).

Figure 2 Hours of Physical Education weekly in post-Primary schools in European Countries (Fisher, 1995).

2.4 Nature of Physical Education Programmes

At both Primary and Post Primary level a great many Physical Education programmes are dominated by games, in particular team games. Broderick and Shiel (2000) found that almost half of the children (47%) surveyed in Primary schools played soccer every week in Physical Education. Darmody and Halbert (1996) found that of the seven practical areas within the Physical Education syllabus, games dominated the programme in the majority of schools.

A number of factors act to produce this narrowing of the curriculum including the effects of tradition, large class size, absence of adequate facilities, competencies of the teacher and inadequate curricular time. It is necessary to introduce a change in this practice if the quality of experience offered to young people is to be improved.