Just as builders use a scaffold to support and shape a building, educators use "scaffolding" to support and give structure to the learners' thinking.

Have you ever been given an assignment you don't understand? When you were at school, did you ever struggle over an essay because you found the concepts just too difficult to grasp? Do you remember being extremely pleased with yourself when eventually you did manage to complete the task? Was this perhaps because a teacher, a tutor or a peer helped you to break down the concepts and gradually get over each hurdle? One can describe this process of dividing a complex task into simpler, structured sub-tasks as scaffolding.

Scaffolding has been defined as

" A process where an expert performs part of a complex task for which the learner is unprepared, thereby allowing the learner to engage in work that would normally be outside their grasp."

Collins, A., Brown J S, & Newman S E (1989) Cognitive Apprenticeship

There is a history to the development of the concept of scaffolding starting with the work of Vygotsky in 1978 concerning social constructivism but the theory is not the focus of this activity.

Scafffolding for learning can take many forms. Here are some examples:

• a storyboard for a powerpoint presentation or website about the project
• a study guide that structures a complex task for you
• a checklist of steps to follow
• a worksheet
• a template for a mind map, organisational chart, Venn diagram
• a project planning template
• or it could be any other aid that is specifically designed by you, the educator, to assist learners to achieve tasks for which they would otherwise be unprepared.

There is more need for scaffolding when learners are faced with new ways of learning. Younger and weaker learners benefit from more detailed scaffolding. Many learners have not had to work on long-term activities before. They have been used to having the teacher do the work, the talking and the thinking for them. They will be unfamiliar with working with information, the components of a project and the stages of the process of a project, how to pace themselves and how to plan their objectives. They need a scaffold.

It is expected that you will provide the scaffold for learners when they start doing project work. Learners may then start to modify the scaffold you provide and eventually become independent enough to create their own scaffolding. A scaffold is therefore also a way in which you model thinking and planning for the learners.

You may like to read more about:

Social constructivism theory

Characteristics of constructivism in the classroom

Bernie Dodge's scaffold types and examples