Building Scaffolds

When the traditional teacher presents a concept or explanation, he or she often assumes that the students will be able to fit these ideas into the larger edifice of knowledge being built in the course. This may be a rather shaky assumption, however. Educators have realized that many times students do not have an adequate command of how to put new bits of knowledge together with their prior understandings. They are greatly aided when the teacher offers some directions for how to organize and work with the ideas as they are presented. Such help has been called "scaffolding" because it provide intellectual supports for students' thinking until they learn how handle the subject matter more independently. Susan Johnston has recently summarized how various types of scaffolding can be used to guide student learning. This week's tips offer some suggestions for ways to build scaffolding for your course.

Concrete Scaffolds

Sometimes students do not know which questions to ask or what comparisons to make. Concrete prompts require them to use basic guides designed by the teacher.

Reading Questions. Provide students with a set of questions that must be used to respond to their reading.

Contrast or Compare. The difficulty in making comparisons is to know what characteristics to use. Provide a list of the areas you expect to be compared. Have students fill in the details.

Steps. Break a complex task into a series of steps that students can do. Have them respond to each of the steps and provide them with feedback. Then point out how these steps add up to a larger project (which they have now completed).

Triads. Assign students into triads where each has a role. Student 1 works on a task. Student 2 uses prompts supplied by the teacher to guide Student 1. Student 3 observes the interaction and notes what has helped. After 5-10 minutes share Student 3's observations and rotate roles.

As with all these scaffolding techniques, the teacher starts out by providing detailed directions. As students gain competence, the prompts become more general.

Think-Aloud Scaffolds

Share with students the thinking that an expert in your field is likely to use as they approach a task or solve a problem. Reflections that reveal the process help humanize the complex mystery of how to uncover complex answers.

Explain Your Thinking. Take on a sample assignment and describe how you would approach it. Have students interrupt and ask questions (you may need to give them a list of questions to ask). Provide rewards for questions if needed. Students are not used to questioning teachers.

Process Debates. Have students explain the steps they used to solve a problem or develop a point. Compare the advantages of the various approaches.

Model Scaffolds

Students often cannot move from the abstract or general requests teacher make. Once they observe or examine a sample of what is to be done, the process is usually more clear.

Samples. Give students samples of the work you expect them to do. Comparisons between work that is well done and poorly done can be instructive.

Stages. Show students a project in various stages of completion. Point out the kind of task performed at each stage.

Role Play. Have someone (yourself or other students) act it out. Show how to debate or discuss. Demonstrate a successful presentation.

Partial Scaffolds

Begin by giving students most of what they need and help them fill in the missing part. Gradually increase the parts that they must fill in.

Fill In. Provide a table, graph, or diagram with missing elements. Have students fill these in based on their knowledge of the lecture or reading. Decrease the details you fill in each week. Students should be creating a collection of good study aids.

Problem Posing. Lead a discussion of how to approach an assignment by posing, one-at-a-time, the problems they are likely to encounter. Allow the class time to discuss ideas about how to resolve each problem.

Final Comments

Avoid the frustration that arises when students are uncertain of what steps to follow by explicitly teaching the intellectual processes that you want them to use. Build mental scaffolds that students can rely on. Then, as students find that your scaffold makes the thinking process to easy, begin to remove these aids. Because of the planning required to create these scaffolds, focus on those processes that will help your students throughout the semester. Or, choose those points in your course where students seem to get overwhelmed or confused. Contact the CIRT if you would like help developing scaffolding for your students. We will also be glad to send you a copy of Susan Johnston's short essay on how to support student success.

This Teaching Tip was first published by the Indiana State University, Center for Teaching and Learning on September 21, 1998.