Reflection

Critical reflection:

 

Sir William Fry Reserve offers opportunities for authentic learning in primary students, specifically looking at the geography curriculum. Authentic learning is explored through real-world situations, meaningful contexts and opportunities for students to interact with issues that exist beyond the classroom (Herrington & Oliver, 2000). Students will be investigating sustainability, human interaction with the environment and a local environments action within their community, this will deepen their conceptual understanding but also build civic awareness and responsibility for change.

 

A strength of visiting Sir William Fry Reserve as a community resource is its connection with place-based learning. Place-based learning prioritises “experiential, community-based and contextual” (Yemini et al., 2023) learning to make a link between cultures and the environment. Place-based learning allows students to build deep emotional, social and ecological connections to places. For primary learners, the reserve is close and familiar, it is accessible to everyone and culturally relevant. The geography curriculum focuses on the concepts and skills students develop, they highlight particularly place, space, environment, interconnection and sustainability. The Curriculum also strengths the understanding of civics and citizenship regarding community participation and the roles and responsibilities they take. Students are given the opportunity to engage with sustainability challenges that occur close to them rather than leaning about abstract environmental issues, therefore giving these issues more urgency for change and personal relevance. Authentic learning also requires pedagogical design, teachers must scaffold inquiry, model how to interpret data, prompt reflection and link observations to curriculum outcomes. Activities following the incursion will need to be carefully sequenced to ensure students move beyond superficial engagement.

 

Community resources also create a sense of urgency for students. When students participate in activities (eg. iNaturalist observations) they can begin to see what contributes they can make towards environmental issuers. Reynolds (2019) explores the ideas that experiential, action-orientated learning increases students’ belief that they can make a positive impact on community outcomes. Providing students with the knowledge of making a change which could include joining the working bees or creating a ‘School nature action plan’ encourages them to feel a difference and see the positive difference they can make.

 

Furthermore, incorporating digital tools (eg. Padlet, Canva), enhances reality by mirroring real-world environmental practices. Throughout the activities students will upload evidence, share observations, analyse photographs they took on the incursion and collaborate to find solutions. This process reflects professional environmental inquiry, this involves collecting data, sharing findings, interpreting geographical information and communicating evidence-based recommendations. All these activities link directly with the Victorian curriculum capability ‘Critical and creative thinking’ and ‘intercultural capability’. This link comes from students discussing environmental decisions, considering multiple perspectives and justifying actions that support the reserve being environmentally sustainable.

 

Sir William Fry Reserve supports students sustainable thinking, This is a cross curriculum priority that is essential for building environmentally friendly citizens. Students will learn to recognise the interconnections of natural and social systems through observing native flora, biodiversity features and human modifications. Therefore, students are encouraged to understand ecological systems, evaluate what impact humans make on this reserve and make informed decisions on how to support a sustainable future.  

 

Overall, Sir William Fry Reserve functions as an engaging, authentic community resource that effectively supports the geography section of the year 4 Victorian curriculum. It allows teachers to create inquiry-based experiences and strengthen students conceptual understanding. By inviting learning in real places close to students, teachers help develop knowledgeable, reflective and active young learners who can recognise the contribution they can positively make towards their community and environment (Sobel, 2013).

 

584 words

 

Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02319856

Reynolds, R., Macqueen, S., & Ferguson-Patrick, K. (2019). Educating for global citizenship: Australia as a case study. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 11(1), 103–119. https://doi.org/10.18546/ijdegl.11.1.07

Sobel, D. (2013). Place-Based education: connecting classrooms and communities closing the achievement gaP: the seer rePort. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1183171.pdf

Yemini, M., Engel, L., & Ben Simon, A. (2023). Place-based education - a systematic review of literature. Educational Review, 77(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2177260