2. What is scaffolding?
Scaffolding is an instructional technique,
associated with the zone of proximal
development, in which a teacher provides
individualized support by incrementally
improving a learner’s ability to build on prior
knowledge. Scaffolding can be used in a
variety of content areas and across age and
grade levels.
4. What is the zone of
proximal development?
The zone of proximal development is the gap
between what a learner has already mastered
(the actual level of development) and what he
or she can achieve when provided with
educational support (potential development).
5. Scaffolding in the
classroom
When using scaffolding as an instructional
technique, the teacher provides tasks that
enable the learner to build on prior knowledge
and internalize new concepts. According to Judy
Olson and Jennifer Platt, the teacher must
provide assisted activities that are just one level
beyond that of what the learner can do in order
to assist the learner through the zone of
proximal development. Once learners
demonstrate task mastery, the support is
decreased and learners gain responsibility for
their own growth.
6. Scaffolding in the clasroom
Motivate the child’s interest related to the task.
Simplify the task to make it more manageable
and achievable for a child.
Provide some direction in order to help the child
focus on achieving the goal.
Clearly indicate differences between the child’s
work and the standard or desired solution.
Reduce frustration and risk.
Model and clearly define the expectations of the
activity to be performed.
10. Thank you for your
attention!
Kamila Piotrowska
&
Klaudia Peczyńska
Editor's Notes
Scaffolding is an instructional technique whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifts responsibility to the students.
Scaffolding essentially means doing some of the work for the student who isn't quite ready to accomplish a task independently. Like the supports that construction workers use on buildings, scaffolding is intended to be temporary. It is there to aid the completion of a task and it is eventually removed.
When using scaffolding as an instructional technique, the teacher provides tasks that enable the learner to build on prior knowledge and internalize new concepts. According to Judy Olson and Jennifer Platt, the teacher must provide assisted activities that are just one level beyond that of what the learner can do in order to assist the learner through the zone of proximal development.1 Once learners demonstrate task mastery, the support is decreased and learners gain responsibility for their own growth.
In order to provide young learners with an understanding of how to link old information or familiar situations with new knowledge, the instructor must guide learners through verbal and nonverbal communication and model behaviors. Research on the practice of using scaffolding in early childhood development shows that parents and teachers can facilitate this advancement through the zone of proximal development by providing activities and tasks that:
Possible early identifier of giftedness
Provides individualized instruction
Greater assurance of the learner acquiring the desired skill, knowledge or ability
Provides differentiated instruction
Delivers efficiency – Since the work is structured, focused, and glitches have been reduced or eliminated prior to initiation, time on task is increased and efficiency in completing the activity is increased.
Creates momentum – Through the structure provided by scaffolding, students spend less time searching and more time on learning and discovering resulting in quicker learning
Engages the learner
Motivates the learner to learn
Minimizes the level of frustration for the learner
Very time consuming
Lack of sufficient personnel
Potential for misjudging the zone of proximal development; success hinges on identifying the area that is just beyond but not too far beyond students’ abilities
Inadequately modeling the desired behaviors, strategies or activities because the teacher has not fully considered the individual student’s needs, predilections, interests, and abilities (such as not showing a student how to “double click” on an icon when using a computer)
Full benefits not seen unless the instructors are properly trained
Requires the teacher to give up control as fading occurs
Lack of specific examples and tips in teacher’s editions of textbooks
Principle 1: Students learn more when they are engaged actively during an instructional task.
Principle 2: High and moderate success rates are correlated positively with student learning outcomes, and low success rates are correlated negatively with student learning outcomes.
Principle 3: Increased opportunity to learn content is correlated positively with increased student achievement. Therefore, the more content covered, the greater the potential for student learning.
Principle 4: Students achieve more in classes in which they spend much of their time being directly taught or supervised by their teacher.
Principle 5: Students can become independent, self-regulated learners through instruction that is deliberately and carefully scaffolded.
Principle 6: The critical forms of knowledge associated with strategic learning are (a) declarative knowledge, (b) procedural knowledge, and (c) conditional knowledge. Each of these must be addressed if students are to become independent, self-regulated learners.
Principle 7: Learning is increased when teaching is presented in a manner that assists students in organizing, storing, and retrieving knowledge.
Principle 8: Students can become more independent, self-regulated learners through strategic instruction.
Principle 9: Students can become independent, self-regulated learners through instruction that is explicit.
Principle 10: By teaching sameness both within and across subjects, teachers promote the ability of students to access potentially relevant knowledge in novel problem-solving situations.
