Scaffolding meaning in education

By identifying the next skills just above the child's current skill level, then providing scaffolding (or assistance) in a way that helps the child display the identified skills accurately, and then fading out the need for scaffolding, you can help a child to learn new things and become more independent. — Heather Gilmore Recent Examples on the Web Vollmer’s reforms of a hundred years ago are the LAPD’s scaffolding to this day. — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2023 Senior conservator at Daedalus Joshua Craine and Liz Vizza, president of Friends Of The Public Garden looked over the sculpture from atop the scaffolding. — Kate Armanini, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2023 In previous years, workers in Havana would have been setting up scaffolding and screens in preparation for the parade. — Ed Augustin, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2023 But, on the balance, the series has been filled with too much of what an old writing teacher of mine would call throat-clearing or scaffolding. — Brandon Taylor, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2023 Lambah is often getting her hands dirty, either up on scaffoldings or working away to fortify foundations alongside local builders. — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Mar. 2023 Its sweetness resided in how gamely the crew stepped up when guests (or hosts) broke through the party’s scaffolding to get real: grieve personal failures, confess disappointments, strive for connection. — Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2023 These transactions utilize th...

When you earn an education degree, you learn how to teach successfully. Part of this process is discovering that students learn in many ways. As a teacher, you strive to develop practices that help students understand and interact with new information. Scaffolding is one such educational practice—a powerful one—that helps students retain and apply new knowledge. Scaffolding is a teaching technique that helps students acclimate to new learning. Continue reading to learn more about scaffolding in education and how to apply it as you earn your In This Blog: • • • • What Is Scaffolding? Scaffolding refers to a method where teachers offer a particular kind of support to students as they learn and develop a new concept or skill. In the instructional scaffolding model, a teacher may share new information or demonstrate how to solve a problem. The teacher then gradually steps back and lets students practice on their own. It also can involve group practice. The model of instructional scaffolding is also sometimes described as “I do. We do. You do.” In other words, the teacher shows how something is done, then the class practices together and, finally, students work individually. Benefits of Implementing Scaffolding Strategies in the Classroom Your education degree program will introduce you to many theories of education. Among them, the term “scaffolding” was coined in the 1970s. 1 The word itself originates from construction and refers to the temporary platform that is set up for ...

You probably first learned the term before you started teaching. And then you likely started using the concept without even knowing it. But you may still be asking, “what is scaffolding in education?” For starters, here’s a little background. In the 1930s, Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky developed the concept “zone of proximal development” or ZPD and determined that the correct way to test young students was to test their ability to solve problems both independently and with the help of a teacher. In 1976, Vygotsky’s work was revived by researchers David Wood, Gail Ross and Jerome Bruner who coined the term “scaffolding.” Their report, “ What is scaffolding in education? It’s a process of teaching where an educator models or demonstrates how to solve a problem, then steps back and encourages the students to solve the problem independently. Scaffolding teaching gives students the support they need by breaking learning into achievable sizes while they progress toward understanding and independence. In other words, it’s like when a house is being built. The crew uses scaffolding to help support the structure as its being built. The stronger the house is, the less it needs the scaffolding to hold it up. You’re supporting your students as they learn new concepts. The more their confidence and understanding grow, the less support or scaffolding they need. The difference between scaffolding and differentiation Sometimes teachers confuse scaffolding with differentiation. But the ...

Let’s start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and then read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you might give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, or shorten the text or alter it, or modify the writing assignment that follows. Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common, though. In order to meet students where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson or differentiate instruction, you have to know the individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. Education researcher Eileen Raymond says, “The ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance.” How many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Modeling for students is a cornerstone of scaffolding, in my experience. Have you ever interrupted someone with “Just show me!” while they were in the middle of explaining how to do something? Every chance you have, show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do. • Try a • Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. If a teacher assigns a persuasive essay or inqu...

By definition, scaffolding provides a temporary support, is sensitive to students' strengths and weaknesses, and aligns with the learning objectives and the assigned task. Additionally, scaffolding is standards-based, provides students with necessary supports to accomplish a task, and demonstrates respect for all learners. Scaffolding is useful because it helps young children who are new to a school environment If a child gives the wrong answer to a question, a teacher using a scaffolding method can use that incorrect response coupled with a previously learned skill to help the child come to the correct conclusion. Scaffolding helps kids reach a learning goal or objective that they do not yet have the skills or ability to do on their own. In early childhood education, scaffolding can be implemented in many ways. For example, once a child recognizes a specific letter, you can teach the sound that it makes, Next, you can move on to words that start with that sound. Or, if a child can use safety scissors already, they can try using a hole punch, since it is a similar Facilitates Engagement and Motivation Because scaffolding involves kids directly into the learning process, it helps keep them engaged in learning and focused on developing the skills they are trying to master. Plus, the process can be adjusted to meet the specific needs of each child; this is one reason why teachers use scaffolding not just with young children, but with kids who have learning differences and oth...

In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. The term itself offers the relevant descriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance. Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student. Scaffolding is widely considered to be an essential element of effective teaching, and all teachers—to a greater or lesser extent—almost certainly use various forms of instructional scaffolding in their teaching. In addition, scaffolding is often used to bridge learning gaps—i.e., the difference between what students have learned and what they are expected to know and be able to do at a certain point in their education. For example, if students are not at the reading level required to understand a text being taught in a course, the teacher might use instructional scaffolding to incrementally improve their reading ability until they can read the required text independently and without assistance. One of the main goals of scaffolding is to reduce the negative emotions and self-perceptions that students may experience when they ...

What is Scaffolding in Education? Scaffolding is a For example, a middle school biology teacher may show students a video on mitosis, then have them take a short, open-book quiz aided by a glossary. After a classwide discussion on the topic, during which the teacher shows examples of mitosis and answers students’ questions, students may retake the quiz without textbooks to measure their comprehension. The scaffolding approach differs from traditional “independent learning” model, in which a teacher asks students to read an article as homework, write a five-page essay and hand it in by the end of the week without providing any additional structured support. (Students are typically able to ask questions, but many are hesitant.) In this scenario, students would be responsible for navigating their own way through new course content, which would likely prove challenging for students who do not learn well via independent study. The term “scaffolding” was first used in an educational context in the mid-1970s, coined by American psychologist Jerome Bruner. In The Child’s Conception of Language (ed. A. Sinclair, et al, 1978) Bruner describes scaffolding as: “…the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring.” Scaffolding can also be explained by the phrase “I do, we do, you do,” wherein the teacher demonstrates, guides, then hands the reins to the students. Scaffold...

Definition of Scaffolding Educational (or Instructional) Scaffolding is a teaching method that enables a student to solve a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal through a gradual shedding of outside assistance. It was first coined by researchers David Wood (Nottingham), Jerome S. Bruner (Oxford), and Gail Ross (Harvard) in their 1976 report, “The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving.” According to its original definition, scaffolding enlists the instructor as an “activator” whose role is to facilitate the student’s incremental mastery of a concept. “Fading” is the process of gradually removing the scaffolding that was put into place for the student until he internalizes the information and becomes a self-regulated, independent learner. TTwo years after their initial report, in 1978, the researchers revisited the work of famed psychologist Lev Vygotsky and found reason to revise their definition. Vygotsky writes in “Mind and Society” (Harvard University Press) that there are two levels of learning that need to be recognized as distinct: 1) the actual developmental level, “that is, the level of development of a child’s mental functions that has been established as a result of certain already completed developmental cycles”; and 2) the potential development level “as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” The difference between these two levels is called the student’s “proximal zone of development.” Since 1...

Update: This word was added in September 2020. This back-to-school season, adults may spend an evening sitting at classroom desks that are far too small for them and listening to their child's teacher talk about strategies for success in the classroom. Those adults might also hear a bit of educational jargon, which includes the term scaffolding. Get a vocabulary lesson before school starts. The verb scaffold goes back to the 16th century, where it had a more literal meaning: "to furnish with a stand or scaffold." The verb gained a number of extended meanings, including referring to hanging tobacco leaves prior to curing them, or figuratively propping something up ("New Titles may be Scaffolded with Laws," C. Blount, 1693). Scaffolds are handy things and apt metaphors. One scientist of the 20th century, Jerome Bruner, made the most of that metaphorical application. A psychologist, Jerome Bruner is best known now for his contributions to the cognition of learning, and he's considered one of the founding fathers of cognitive psychology. He was deeply interested in cognition and learning, and much of his published work focuses on this. Education was undergoing massive reform in the 20th century as psychologists like Bruner brought their field to bear on educational techniques. One earlier Soviet scientist, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, had proposed in one of his works the "zone of proximal development": that there is a place between not knowing something and knowing something where...