Scaffolding Learning

PATRICIA B. ARINTO7 September 2006

What is scaffolding?

• A temporary structure that provides assistance at specific points in the learning process

• Allows learners to complete tasks that they would not be able to accomplish without assistance

Why provide scaffolding?

• To help learners make progress and avoid getting left behind

• To provide just-in-time assistance or help for learners

• In technology-supported learning, to help learners “focus more on content rather than on the mechanics of technology use” (Fryer, 1999)

• To direct students to good resources and help them form insights (McKenzie, 1998)

Scaffolding and constructivism

• Scaffolding is essential in construction work: for building tall structures, for reaching hard-to-reach places

Scaffolding and constructivism

• Learning is constructing/forming knowledge from various resources/ materials

• Learning is transforming information from various resources into new knowledge products

INPUTS

TRANSFORMATION

RECEPTION SCAFFOLDS

OUTPUTS

TRANSFORMATION SCAFFOLDS

PRODUCTION SCAFFOLDS

How do we scaffold learning?

• By providing guides, outlines and templates

• By guiding thinking through visual/ graphic and other means

Reception scaffolds

• Given to help learners gather information from sources

• Designed to direct learners’ attention to what is important, and to help them organize and record what they perceive

• Examples: interview guide, reading guide, dictionaries and glossaries, observation guide

Transformation scaffolds

• Given to help learners transform the information they have received or collected into some other form

• Used to impose structure on information, while reception scaffolds help learners perceive structure that is already in the information

• Examples: Venn diagram (for comparisons), inductive tower (for making inferences), causal loop (for analyzing causes and effects)

Production scaffolds

• Provided to help learners produce something observable that conveys what they have learned

• Useful when the form of what is to be produced follows the conventions of a genre, publication or presentation format

• Examples: presentation template, outline, story map, play structure, writing guide/template

Questions teachers should ask them-selves when assigning learning tasks:

1. Reception task: Do all of my students know how to make sense of this source of information?

2. Transformation task: Do all of my students know how to manipulate the information in the way I am asking them to?

3. Production task: Do all of my students know how to produce information in the format I am requiring?

If your answer to any of these questions is “No” or “Not Sure”,

then you need to MAKE A SCAFFOLD

for your students to use.

Questions teachers should ask them-selves when assigning learning tasks:

Key attributes of good scaffolds

• Available for just-in-time learning• Can be skipped by those who don’t need them• Blends content and structure to an appropriate

degree• Fades when students become more adept

Degrees of scaffolding

• Strike a balance between spoon feeding and allowing your learners to sink-or-swim.

• Don’t scaffold everything. Pick the 20% that will solve 80% of your problems.

Degrees of scaffolding

• Make sure your scaffolds do not stifle creativity.

• Over time, as your students internalize the structures and skills you want them to have, scaffold less.

References

• Dodge, Bernie. (1998). Thinking Visually With WebQuests. Available online at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/tv/. Accessed on 21 August 2006.

• Fryer, Wesley A. (1999). Teaching with Templates. Available online at http://www.wtvi.com/teks/99_00_articles/teachingwithtemplates.html. Accessed on 21 August 2006.

• McKenzie, Jamie. (1998). Grazing the Net: Raising a Generation of Free-Range Students. Available online at http://www.fno.org/text/grazing.html. Accessed on 21 August 2006.