Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).
Table of Contents
Scaffolding is based on Vygotsky's constructivist approach to effective student development.
Scaffolding refers to a teaching method where teachers demonstrate how to solve a problem by letting students try to solve it themselves, giving support only when unavoidable.
To develop it, it is necessary to:
Students learn by example, in the 'show and tell' method, a teacher can solve a problem aloud by guiding them through the steps, can divide them into groups and place them in a concentric circle. The students in the centre can perform the activity while teaching the students outside how they are doing it.
During scaffolding reading, one must preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, break it down, reread it and discuss it. Differentiation is important: you give each child a completely different piece of text to read, abbreviated, modified in the reading or writing task following tasks.
Scaffolding is what you do first with the children, you may need to differentiate by modifying a task or making accommodations such as choosing a more accessible text or assigning an alternative project. Children's cognitive abilities are still developing; therefore, opportunities to see developed critical thinking are essential.
Students must be involved with their own experiences, insights and ideas about the content or concept and relate it to their own lives. Suggestions can be made by addressing the connections, so once there, they will grasp the content as if it were their own.
Everyone needs time to process new ideas and information. Students also need time to make verbal sense and articulate their learning with the community that has the same experience.
Shared pairs, turnandtalk, triads or other structured conversational moments should be thought of during the lesson, and include this strategy regularly.
Graphic organisers, pictures and charts can serve as scaffolding tools. The firsts are very specific and help children visually represent their ideas, organise information and grasp concepts such as sequence and cause and effect.
Some students may not need to use the tool, but many benefit from using it.
Verbal Scaffolding is useful for checking comprehension as students read a difficult piece of text or learn a new concept. Here is how this strategy works: share a new idea from the discussion or reading, then pause (providing time to think) and then ask a strategic question, pausing again.
You need to design the questions in advance, making sure they are specific, guiding, and openended. (Great questions fail if we do not give time to think, so hang on during that uncomfortable silence). Keep children engaged as active listeners by asking someone to summarise what has just been discussed, discovered or questioned. If the class seems stuck on questions, offer students the opportunity to discuss in pairs.
Teachers need to slow down to go quickly afterwards. "Stacking" a lesson may mean that it takes longer to teach, but the end product is of higher quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.
Designing research assignments serves students who know little or nothing about the process, instructing them to design scaffolding as much as possible, during the assignment, incorporating elements of the threshold concepts in information literacy along with those of the discipline.