Scaffolding as a Teaching Strategy free essay sample

In a chapter on scaffolding, Scaffolding for Success, Jamie McKenzie provides a visual image analogy of how scaffolding works, â€Å"The workers cleaning the face of the Washington Monument do not confuse the scaffolding with the monument itself. The scaffolding is secondary. The building is primary. † (McKenzie, 1999, Matters of Definition section, para. 6). He goes on to describe eight characteristics of scaffolding. The first six describe aspects of scaffolding instruction. The last two refer to outcomes resulting from scaffolding and are therefore presented in a later section of this paper. According to McKenzie scaffolding: 1. Provides clear direction and reduces students’ confusion – Educators anticipate problems that students might encounter and then develop step by step instructions, which explain what a student must do to meet expectations. 2. Clarifies purpose – Scaffolding helps students understand why they are doing the work and why it is important. 3. Keeps students on task – By providing structure, the scaffolded lesson or research project, provides pathways for the learners. We will write a custom essay sample on Scaffolding as a Teaching Strategy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The student can make decisions about which path to choose or what things to explore along the path but they cannot wander off of the path, which is the designated task. 4. Clarifies expectations and incorporates assessment and feedback – Expectations are clear from the beginning of the activity since examples of exemplary work, rubrics, and standards of excellence are shown to the students. 5. Points students to worthy sources – Educators provide sources to reduce confusion, frustration, and time. The students may then decide which of these sources to use. 6. Reduces uncertainty, surprise, and disappointment – Educators test their lessons to determine possible problem areas and then refine the lesson to eliminate difficulties so that learning is maximized (McKenzie, 1999). Scaffolded instruction is also employed in problem based learning environments. â€Å"Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach that challenges students to learn to learn. † (Ngeow and Yoon, 2001, p. 1). In this type of classroom the teacher must assess the activities that the students can perform independently and what they must learn to complete the task. The teacher then, â€Å"†¦designs activities which offer just enough of a scaffold for students to overcome this gap in knowledge and skills. † (Ngeow and Yoon, 2001, p. 2). The authors also describe several of same scaffolding activities or characteristics that were presented by Bransford, Brown and Cocking and McKenzie thus illustrating scaffolding’s applicability to various educational settings. II. Scaffolding – Related Theory, Theorists, and Research Scaffolding instruction as a teaching strategy originates from Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and his concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist whose works were surpressed after his death in the 1930s and were not discovered by the West until the late 1950s (â€Å"Lev Vygotsky’s archive,† n. d. ). His sociocultural theory proposes that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. (â€Å"Social Development Theory,† n. d. ). Vygotsky â€Å"†¦theorized that learning occurs through participation in social or culturally embedded experiences. † (Raymond, 2000, p. 176). In Vygotsky’s view, the learner does not learn in isolation.