Key Elements of Scaffolding
Instructional scaffolding is a process by which students or learners move to a more robust understanding and become independent in learning through teachers or more advanced students who offer support and help in the mastering of tasks and skills. According to (Belland, 2017), the first proposal on instructional scaffolding was to explain how parents and teachers help little children during their learning in the construction of pyramids and wooden blocks. There are different components of scaffolding which are:
Explanation: It is the detailed information or clarification provided by the instructor that helps the learner to carry on a task or in their understanding and thinking of a concept. The description given can be verbal or written.
Concept and mind maps: They are maps or plans that show relationships between different concepts. The students should fill uncompleted charts or formulate charts of their own.
Hints: They are clues and suggestions that give learners the directions and guidelines to move along the task. The clues do not deliberately provide the exact solution.
Prompts: They are physical or verbal cues used to help students remember the previously taught knowledge. They can be body movements, words statements, or songs.
Examples: They are samples, illustrations, and problems the instructor gives students to help them in a better understanding of a concept. They are used to represent a concept.
Questions: They are given to students individually or in groups about a particular topic or content area to test their understanding of that topic and encourage deep thinking.
Feedback: It is the information provided by the instructor or teacher concerning the learner’s performance to the learner.
An example of scaffolding is a case where students learn about sentence fragments. The teacher starts by explaining concepts of forming a sentence and how a sentence fragment looks. For better understanding, the teacher can provide an example of a sentence fragment like “if you eat a lot of food” and then ask students how to make the sentence. They come up with a sentence like, “if you eat a lot of food, you might have constipation.” The teacher helps the student know about sentence formation and hence it as scaffolding.