SOE 115 Assignment

1. Vygotsky's Scaffolding
Theory and Student
Success
Shakemma Robinson
SOE 115
Kendall College

2. Vygotsky's Scaffolding
Vygotsky believed that social interactions helped to shape
children's cognitive structures as they developed.
According to him children were always in the process of
problem solving during thinking and could figure it out on
their own or do so with help. He called this process the
ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) which is the area
between what the child is able to do and what the child can
do with the help of an adult or a more cognitively
developed peer. When an adult or peer of a child helps
them to solve a problem or complete a task either by verbal
instruction or modeling is a process called Scaffolding.
I work with two years old children at my center, and I've
learned that they have mastered many of our daily routines
and also potty-training simply by listening to me when I
explain what to do or watching their peers who are able to
do the things they want to learn . So I chose scaffolding
because I'm sure it contributes to a child's success.

3. Credible Source 1
In this journal entry I read a study that took place amongst an entire 7th
grade social studies program. In this study students were taught a unit on
the European union and were scaffold with high and low contingency
depending on whether the children were working independently in groups or
dependently in their groups. The groups where the students were working
independently but received the most teacher scaffold interventions had a
higher success rate than the students who worked dependently with the
teacher but received less scaffolding intervention.

4. Credible Source 2
This study happened a little different but ultimately
rendered the same result that I believed to be true which is
the fact that scaffolding does effect student achievement
through peer or adult intervention. In this study the
conductors wanted to measure the effects of worksheets as a
scaffolding tool in student achievement. What they found was
that the worksheets didn't make a difference but the help of
the tutor and being able to work with peers directly
contributed to student achievement.

5. Credible Source 3
In this study 111 seventh grade students were given a problem based
activity to complete. They were asked to complete a science project on
becoming the youngest people to fly around the world in an air balloon in
which they had to design a balloon and create a plan. The students were
placed in different groups with varying achievement abilities and
scaffolds that differed from required use, optional use and none at all.
It was found that the students with that were required to use scaffold
interventions were more successful than their peers in completing task
efficiently.

6. Analysis of Scaffolding and Student
Achievement
All of the sources pretty much had the same correlation between
scaffolding and student achievement. The first source explored the effects
of high and low contingency scaffolds and working dependently or
independently with the teacher. This study found that despite working with
the teacher around it was important to have their input and guidance. The
second source examined whether or not worksheet scaffolds helped and found
that peer and teacher (social) scaffolding actually contributed to student
success. The last source identified that no matter what the student
ability is scaffolds still contribute to student success when completing
task.

7. Connections
• One important connection that I
made is the importance of adult
intervention in education. As
Vygotsky said children are always
in ZPD and the difference between
success and failure sometimes is
guidance. When given the choice to
complete task without scaffolds
the students who chose against
them didn't do as well.

8. Connections Cont'd
• Another connection I made was that as Vygotsky theorized, social
interactions contribute to cognitive development which was proven in
the second source I found. Despite the students not progressing with
the help of the material scaffolds they were able to with peer and
adult interactions.
• Another connection I made about children being in ZPD and scaffolded
intervention was that success is the inevitable result. One of the
sources identified how higher achieving students who received less
scaffolding than lower achieving students didn't do as well despite
their higher cognitive abilities.

9. Conclusion
I came into the assignment with the idea that scaffolding was
important to student success. I also agreed with Vygotsky
that social- interactions have a positive effect on cognitive
development. After researching the topic my thoughts were
confirmed. Students were able to complete goal oriented or
problem based task most successfully when guided through the
process by adults or aided in the process by their peers.

10. Communication With Families
Dear Family,
I created this presentation to present to you solid evidence that
scaffolding is a tool for success with children of any age. As your
child explores their environment there will be things they won't
understand or are trying to connect to and will be able to with my
help or from their peers who have reached this area a little ahead
of them. You're little one will also learn how to navigate their
world around them at home with your help. Their developing brains
can only process what it can understand therefor we must make sure
we are helping them to make the necessary connections when
thinking.

11. References
• Van de Pol, J.; Volman M.; Oort,F.; Beishuizen, J. (November 2017). The
effects of scaffolding in the classroom: Support contingency and
student independent working time in relation to student achievement,
task effort and appreciation of support. Instructional Science, 43(5),
615-641. 10.1007/s11251-015-9351-z
• Choo, S. S. Y; Rotgans, J. I.; Yew, E. H. J.; Schmidt, H. G. (2011).
Effects of worksheet scaffolds on student learning in problem-based.
Advances in Health Sciences Education. 16(4). 517-
528. URL: HTTP://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10459-011- 9288-1
• Simmons, K.D; Klein, J.D. (January 2007). The impact of scaffolding
and student achievement levels in a problem based learning
environments. Instructional Science, 35(1), 41-72. doi: 10.1007/s11251-
006-9002-5