Why scaffolding design important how to#

Vygotsky believed that any child could be taught any subject effectively using scaffolding techniques by applying the scaffolds at the ZPD. So a child develops his or her intellect through internalising concepts based on his or her own interpretation of an activity that occurs in a social setting. Vygotsky claims that: вЂњEvery function in the childвЂ™s cultural development appears twice, at two levels - at the social level and later at the psychological level вЂ“ or first between people as an inter-psychological category and then inside the child as an intra-psychological category.

If a teacher can apply the scaffolding strategy in teaching-learning activities in classroom, it definitely helps students to become self-regulated, independent and a problem solver, which ultimately helps in upgrading the quality, learning outcome and cognitive development of students. It emphasises active participation of studentsвЂ™ and a greater degree of control from students over their learning, making their learning much more effective and helping them in their cognitive development. Vygotsky defined scaffolding instruction as the вЂњrole of teachers and others in supporting the learnerвЂ™s development and providing support structures to get to next stage or levelвЂќ.

And this difference between the two levels is the childвЂ™s вЂњZone of Proximal DevelopmentвЂќ. As per Vygotsky, children who are able to perform their tasks at a particular cognitive level in cooperation and collaboration with others and with adults will be able to perform at a higher level. 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. Scaffolding is based on Lev VygotskyвЂ™s concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Likewise in the transfer of responsibility, the responsibility of performing tasks is gradually transferred from teacher to the students, which is normally referred as studentsвЂ™ cognitive and meta-cognitive activities. This is the stage where teacher support is no longer required. In fading, the teacher gradually withdraws the scaffolding as students at a certain point of time become able to carry out tasks independently.

In contingency, the teacher, as the scaffolder, continuously evaluates the studentsвЂ™ performance and provides appropriate support in specific tasks through studentsвЂ™ current strengths and weaknesses in dealing with textual information. Scaffolding has mainly three features: contingency, fading, and transfer of responsibility. It assumes that when students are given the support they need while learning something new, they stand a better chance of using that knowledge independently.

Why scaffolding design important how to#

So scaffolding refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then step back, offering support to students as needed. Weak students are given better attention together with the opportunity to progress at a slower pace. In scaffolding, each and every student is encouraged to participate actively and given opportunity to progress faster.