Unit 4 Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a method that helps teachers provide students with individualized instruction. While engaged in scaffolding, teachers become facilitators of learning in an instructional dialogue based on flexibility. Scaffolding fosters student academic achievement, self-esteem, and social skills.

With scaffolding, a teacher concentrates on developing student competencies. In the classroom, the teacher explains, step-by-step, how a decision was made or a conclusion reached. This explanation often takes the form of group discussion. The discussion is a stream-of-consciousness interaction with students and teacher. Later, the instructor shifts from teacher to coach as the students take over the particular skill. The performance of the student is coached until the mastery of the skill develops. At this stage, the student role resembles that of the apprentice, working under the guidance of the instructor. Gradually, the instructor reduces support, a process known as fading. Ultimately, support is no longer needed. Scaffolding is a highly individualized approach to teaching: "Almost all classroom teachers believe that instructional approaches which are attentive to the differences among individual learners will be superior to those schemes which are oblivious of such differences" (Popham and Baker, 1973, p. 27).

The objective of scaffolding is to give the student just enough support to help him or her achieve their current goal. Too much support can be stifling which scaffolding, students can learn at their own pace. The teacher is coach, facilitator, and tutor. After demonstrating and modeling a task to students, the teacher assigns the tasks, and offers feedback where necessary. Whereas when first taught, a skill might be meaningless to a student, by the time he or she has progressed through the integration of the skill in complex problems and in interaction with teachers and fellow students, an interpersonal connection results that enhances learning. The foundation of the scaffolding process is communication. Although the traditional focus has been personal interaction between student and teacher, the growing influence of computers in the classroom has extended scaffolding to electronic multimedia simulations as well. Scaffolding demands much from a teacher, and the incorporation of computers into the process can ease the instructional burden. As one teacher puts it, "The computer is an infinitely malleable tool, and it has the potential to enable us to teach things we were never able to teach before . . . " (Bollentin, 1998, p. 52). Thus many modern examples of scaffolding are often found in computerized instruction.

How teachers interact with students as they complete a task is important to the students' ability to perform the activity. Scaffolding is an instructional technique whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifts responsibility to the students.

Clay and Cazden (1992) point out two scaffolding strategies in teaching reading: working with new knowledge and accepting partially correct responses. In the first strategy, when a teacher suspects the child does not have the ideas or words needed for a particular text, he/she may explain some part of the story or contrast a feature presented with something he/she knows the child understands from another reading. In the second strategy, the teacher uses what is correct in the student's response but probes or cues the student, so as to suggest good possibilities for active consideration.

Another scaffolding strategy is for the teacher to model the appropriate thinking or working skills in the classroom. Such modeling helps children learn to operate in the school culture. Harmin (1994) notes the applicability of Rosenshine's Guided Practice technique for developing student understanding and provides an actual example in language arts instruction in the classroom.

Recognizing what you do know in a problem, as well as what you don't yet understand, are aspects of metacognition in problem solving that are similar to a scaffolding approach. Perkins & Solomon (1989) point out that an expert's behavior appears to be strongly driven by prior knowledge. When faced with an unfamiliar problem, he or she may construct a similar but simpler problem. In this way, the expert learner manages his/her own gradual self-regulation and enables him/herself to grow to meet the new task successfully.

Scaffolding techniques should be considered fundamental to good, solid teaching for all students, not just those with learning disabilities or second language learners. In order for learning to progress, scaffolds should be gradually removed as instruction continues, so that students will eventually be able to demonstrate comprehension independently.

Scaffolding instruction includes a wide variety of strategies, including:

• activating prior knowledge
• offering a motivational context to pique student interest or curiosity in the subject at hand
• breaking a complex task into easier, more "doable" steps to facilitate student achievement
• showing students an example of the desired outcome before they complete the task
• modeling the thought process for students through "think aloud" talk
• offering hints or partial solutions to problems
• using verbal cues to prompt student answers
• teaching students chants or mnemonic devices to ease memorization of key facts or procedures
• facilitating student engagement and participation
• displaying a historical timeline to offer a context for learning
• using graphic organizers to offer a visual framework for assimilating new information
• teaching key vocabulary terms before reading
• guiding the students in making predictions for what they expect will occur in a story, experiment, or other course of action
• asking questions while reading to encourage deeper investigation of concepts
• suggesting possible strategies for the students to use during independent practice
• modeling an activity for the students before they are asked to complete the same or similar activity
• asking students to contribute their own experiences that relate to the subject at hand

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Scaffolding    

One of the primary benefits of scaffolding instruction is that it engages the learner.  The learner does not passively listen to information presented instead through teacher prompting the learner builds on prior knowledge and forms new knowledge.  In working with students who have low self-esteem and learning disabilities, it provides an opportunity to give positive feedback to the students by saying things like “…look what you have just figured out!”  This gives them more of a can do versus a “this is too hard” attitude.  This leads into another advantage of scaffolding in that if done properly, scaffolding instruction motivates the student so that they want to learn. 

Another benefit of this type of instruction is that it can minimize the level of frustration of the learner.  This is extremely important with many special needs students, who can become frustrated very easily then shut down and refuse to participate in further learning during that particular setting.

Scaffold instruction is individualized so it can benefit each learner.  However, this is also the biggest disadvantage for the teacher since developing the supports and scaffolded lessons to meet the needs of each individual would be extremely time-consuming.  Implementation of individualized scaffolds in a classroom with a large number of students would be challenging.  Another disadvantage is that unless properly trained, a teacher may not properly implement scaffolding instruction and therefore not see the full effect.  Scaffolding also requires that the teacher give up some of the control and allow the students to make errors.  This may be difficult for teachers to do.  Finally the teachers’ manuals and curriculum guides that I have been exposed to do not include examples of scaffolds or outlines of scaffolding methods that would be appropriate for the specific lesson content.  Although there are some drawbacks to the use of scaffolding as a teaching strategy the positive impact it can have on students’ learning and development is far more important.