Reflection on Child Interaction: Education Module, University

This assignment presents a detailed reflection on a student's interaction with a child during playtime, analyzing the child's behavior and the student's responses. The student applies Erikson's theory of psychosocial development and Piaget's theory of cognitive development to understand the child's actions within the context of the environment. The reflection follows Smyth's model, describing the incident, informing the analysis with relevant theories, confronting the student's assumptions, and reconstructing the experience to inform future practice. The student highlights the importance of building positive teacher-child relationships, fostering communication, and creating a supportive learning environment. The assignment also references the New Zealand teachers guide and professional knowledge standards, emphasizing the ethical, professional, and legal responsibilities of educators. The student demonstrates a commitment to continuous self-improvement and a deeper understanding of child development and effective teaching strategies.

Running head: REFLECTION
Reflection
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Authors note:

1REFLECTION
Information:
The children mixing with me in the playtime was a big deal for me. This was important
as a child who is reserved in nature is opening up to me. I was quite surprised by the behaviour
of the child. This attitude of the child can be related the Erikson’s theory in the term of the
behaviourism According to this theory, there is a direct influence on the environment forces and
the social context in the mind of the child (Greene, 2017). In the situation, the environment was
fun and playful; therefore, it prompted the student to come to me and approach me. Another
theory that can be related is the is the piglet theory of the cognitive development which describes
how human gather information and which changes to the development process (Smart, 2014).
Therefore in terms of the children the focus is usually on the mental structure and the
experiences in the changing environment. Therefore it can be said that the as the child saw me
for the first time in that environment there was a development of the schema in the child. This
tells me that I have an understanding of the within the the social context and also I am capable of
communicating the with the students appropriately to the learners. And I can set a positive
relationship among the students and I can give them their space to open up. This means that I can
use my skills in interacting with the students, and this is a positive incident that took place.
Confront
I behaved like this because I wanted to build an interactive relationship with the student.
It is very important for a teacher to build a good relationship with the students, especially in the
case of the children (Ferreira et al. 2016). As teaching is not just an individualistic process, it is a
collaborative process. The assumption that I was working on was that if I give the child some
space and behave in a friendly manner. Reflection is a process which is centrally concerned with

2REFLECTION
the challenging myths and assumption (Portilla et al. 2014). I came to think like this because the
forme it is very important to establish communication between my student and me.
Communication is not just about talking with each other but involves the sharing of ideas; thus, I
decided to have a proper interaction with the student by listening to him and giving an upper
hand (Roorda et al. 2014). Sharing responsibility in the teaching and with the learner actually
helps in the well being of the learner as it is mentioned in the New Zealand teachers guide
(Teachingcouncil.nz, 2020).There is a possible perspective as well like like others may want to
guide the student rather than following the instruction of the student.
Reconstruction
Trough this incident I have learned a lot. I have got a better understanding of myself and
also about myself. I have learned about myself that through my experience as a teacher and also
the inherent character of myself, I understand the behaviour pattern of the child which helps in
understanding the child and succeed helps me in teaching the students. I have also learned that I
should have proper understanding of the ethics, profession as well as the legal responsibilities of
the teacher as it is mentioned in the new Zealand teachers guide (Teachingcouncil.nz, 2020).
Some may just learn by following the teacher, while others may just learn in activity-oriented
work, as it is evident in the case of the children. Next time I will also try a more in-depth analysis
of the attitude and behaviour of the student. I would also try to able to articulate and justify the
emerging personal as well as professional philosophy of the teachers as well as learners.

3REFLECTION
References
Cadima, J., Doumen, S., Verschueren, K., & Buyse, E. (2015). Child engagement in the
transition to school: Contributions of self-regulation, teacher–child relationships and
classroom climate. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32, 1-12.
Cadima, J., Verschueren, K., Leal, T., & Guedes, C. (2016). Classroom interactions, dyadic
teacher–child relationships, and self–regulation in socially disadvantaged young
children. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 44(1), 7-17.
Ferreira, T., Cadima, J., Matias, M., Vieira, J. M., Leal, T., & Matos, P. M. (2016). Preschool
children’s prosocial behavior: The role of mother–child, father–child and teacher–child
relationships. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(6), 1829-1839.
Greene, R. R. (2017). Eriksonian theory: A developmental approach to ego mastery. In Human
behavior theory and social work practice (pp. 107-136). Routledge.
Portilla, X. A., Ballard, P. J., Adler, N. E., Boyce, W. T., & Obradović, J. (2014). An integrative
view of school functioning: Transactions between self‐regulation, school engagement,
and teacher–child relationship quality. Child development, 85(5), 1915-1931.
Roorda, D. L., Verschueren, K., Vancraeyveldt, C., Van Craeyevelt, S., & Colpin, H. (2014).
Teacher–child relationships and behavioral adjustment: Transactional links for preschool
boys at risk. Journal of School Psychology, 52(5), 495-510.
Smart, J. B. (2014). A mixed methods study of the relationship between student perceptions of
teacher-student interactions and motivation in middle level science. RMLE Online, 38(4),
1-19.

4REFLECTION
Teachingcouncil.nz. (2020). Graduating Teacher Standards | Education Council. Retrieved 8
April 2020, from https://teachingcouncil.nz/content/graduating-teacher-standards