Quality Indicators for Research There

Quality Indicators for Research There are many different teaching strategies available to educators. Scaffolding is one of them. Scaffolding simply means providing the student with aids in order to help him learn a subject and requires detailed planning on the part of the teacher. Scaffolding helps the student build on prior knowledge in order to move forward to gain new knowledge. This type of teaching strategy is not meant to be long-term because as the student continues to learn, the support from the teacher decreases.

An example of scaffolding would be where the teacher divides the class into small groups so that the students can learn from one another. However, the students still receive assistance from the teaching in this type of setting. Many teachers have used scaffolding and have used it successfully. The words scaffolding and bullying generally do not go together. When we mention scaffolding, we think of students working together and collaborating. Bullying conjures up the exact opposite image.

Scaffolding has not only been shown to help the individual student learn, but it can also lead to an environment where bullying is replaced with friendship and collaboration. A study was done by Morcom and Cumming-Potvin on two students. One was the bully and the other student was the one being bullied. After the teacher place both students in the same small group using scaffolding, changes took place. The students eventually began to be on friendly terms with one another as they assisted each other through the learning process.

This change did not happen overnight, but scaffolding played a large role in the change (2010). Some teachers have also used scaffolding in an online teaching environment. Since online learning is a bit different from traditional face-to-face learning, some of the scaffolding techniques used may be different. For online scaffolding the teacher may use movies, online collaboration software and other online methods to facilitate the learning process. When more than one scaffolding technique is used online, it is called multi-scaffolding. A multi-scaffolding environment was used to assist students with learning geography.

Students were required to view a movie regarding the subject and then placed into online groups where they could collaborate by discussing issues online. The result was that even in an online scaffolding environment, the students were still able to gain knowledge through problem-solving with group members (Doering and Veletsianos, 2007). Scaffolding software is fairly new, but is becoming increasingly popular in the classroom setting. Artemis is a scaffolding software program which gives students access to a digital library to search and sort science information related to project-based investigations.

Students are able to not only organize folders containing information on the information they are seeking, but they are also able to share this information with other classmates. This web sharing feature not only supports collaboration between students, but teachers are also able to collaborate. Studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between scaffolding software and student motivation as well as conceptual understanding (Butler and Lumpe, 2008). Based on the research on scaffolding, it is determined that it is evidence-based learning.

This type of learning incorporates learning by instruction and also learning by doing (Clark and Mayer, 2008). We have even seen that scaffolding is just as effective in an online learning environment in addition to the traditional classroom method of face-to-face learning. What seems to work best with the scaffolding teaching strategy is allowing for collaboration between the students by splitting them up into small groups.