Reflection on Teaching Practice: Enviroschool, Standards, and Learning

This assignment is a reflective piece by a student teacher on their experience with an Enviroschool, a program focused on sustainable practices in education. The student describes their initial encounter with the concept, their research into its workings, and their application of the Smyth Model for reflection. The reflection covers four stages: describing the situation, informing themselves with relevant theories like Erikson's theory of learning and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, confronting their assumptions, and reconstructing their understanding to improve future practice. The student discusses how they incorporated new teaching methods, related to the Teaching Council standards, and explored the use of banana peels as fertilizer. They also identify areas for further development, such as gaining more experience and knowledge of environmental teaching techniques. The student aims to integrate this sustainable approach into their teaching to foster holistic growth in students and promote responsible citizenship. The assignment highlights the importance of continuous professional development and adapting teaching methods to provide a dynamic and engaging learning experience.

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

2REFLECTION
Information
This situation tells that there is a constant need to grow and create new ways of teaching
for the children and environmental school in one such way. This is not only the sustainable
system of education but also overall helps the growth and the development of the children. This
can be related to the Erikson the theory of learning as it is known that the children during the
initial years use a new set of skills which helps in the formation of their self-identity (Wang &
Chugh, 2014). Here also the student by learning new ways of sustainability will contribute to the
development of their own understanding and character, and these people will be more morally
responsible. The other theory which is related here the Lev Vygotsky sociocultural theory of the
cognitive development explains that the social learning actually comes before the cognitive
development among the children and is usual for the construction of the knowledge actively
(Davis et al.2015). Therefore, through this, the children will be able to learn on the basis of the
social activity which will help in children construction knowledge activity. It tells me that I am
usually drawing on the content knowledge as well as the pedagogical content of the knowledge
during planning, teaching as well as evaluating. This action further elaborates that I gathered the
information, analyzed the information and use to up by skill to impart better knowledge to the
students I am engaging with. My behaviour can be related to the standard three of the teaching
standard. Collaborating with Rishika further reflects the idea that I have not only used the
knowledge by myself but also use in its disposition to work effectively with the colleagues. This
is related to the standard six of the teaching standard in the graduating teaching standard
(Teachingcouncil.nz, 2020). Related to the council standard.
Confrontation

3REFLECTION
I behaved like this way as I wanted to learn and incorporate new ways of teaching in my
teaching methods in order to impart holistic growth to the students through my course. I came
back and started conducting researching on the concept of the environ school and function of the
school and dig deeper into the process, which is to be followed for making incorporating this
new concept. The assumption that I was acting on is as the children love to explore the practical
side of the course and through incorporating this model it will be easier to teach the student new
sustainable ways and to be socially responsible, and this will be a break from the classroom-
based learning. The research always says that it is important for a teacher to evolve and not
restrict the capacity of the learning as stagnation in the knowledge of the teacher will also
hamper the growth and the development of the children. I came to think like it because I really
like what I saw on the Enviroschool. The sustainability program, which was implemented by the
school was really remarkable and outstanding (Howlett, Ferreira & Blomfield, 2016). The usage
of the banana peel as a fertilizer will serve three purposes firstly it will help in eliminating the
chemical fertilizer which is an environmentally friendly way, and it will also develop the
characters of the children by performing such good deeds. Therefore I decided to do research and
act accordingly in the situation. There may be some other alternative views involved where it
would be more appropriate to attain the classes in the Enviro school to get a better understanding
of the subject rather than researching on my own.
Reconstruction
The things that I have learned through my thorough research on the process of the enviro
school I would try to incorporate the learning while teaching the students. The creative ideas and
the diverse activities in making useful things out of nothing will truly be important and will
introduce the learner with the new skill of sustainability. As a teacher of the student, I have

4REFLECTION
learned more about the new skill about the sustainable approach. I need to learn more about new
techniques of this environmental way of teaching as my knowledge is very limited and it is
restricted to my two weeks of research therefore in order to learn techniques and broaden my
area of knowledge. I will participate in the workshops which are conducted on a regular basis
and will go to the enviro school to observe the teacher more. One thing that I will try to adopt is
how to implement this new technique while teaching the student as it is very different in learning
a new set of skill and incorporating this in the teaching style. I might have broadened my area of
research my not only collaborating with Rishika but another teacher as well and also should have
incorporated this among the children while teaching them.

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References
Davis, S., Ferholt, B., Clemson, H. G., Jansson, S. M., & Marjanovic-Shane, A. (Eds.).
(2015). Dramatic interactions in education: Vygotskian and sociocultural approaches to
drama, education and research. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Howlett, C., Ferreira, J. A., & Blomfield, J. (2016). Teaching sustainable development in higher
education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Teachingcouncil.nz. (2020). Retrieved 13 April 2020, from
https://teachingcouncil.nz/sites/default/files/gts-poster.pdf
Wang, C. L., & Chugh, H. (2014). Entrepreneurial learning: past research and future
challenges. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(1), 24-61.