Students will need scaffolding to complete complex tasks successfully. Scaffolding refers to a variety of different kinds of help that enable students to complete tasks that they could not have completed on their own. Scaffolds may be provided by the teacher.
One method of scaffolding is pre-teaching needed knowledge and strategies. Teachers might provide instruction into how to construct arguments before asking students to complete tasks involving written argumentation. Another method, task decomposition occurs when teachers break tasks down into smaller parts.
Self-evaluation is a powerful scaffolding method that encourages students to regulate their own learning processes. In self-evaluation, groups of students evaluate their own performance along criteria provided by a teacher or developed by themselves. Self-evaluations help students learn the criteria by which high levels of performance are identified.
An important principle of scaffolding, regardless of which form of scaffolding is used, is that scaffolds should be faded over time. This means that students are given less and less help until they can complete the task on their own.
All of these scaffolding methods are designed to facilitate productive group processes as students work together in groups. Many scaffolding methods are particularly focused on promoting effective use of high-level strategies as students work on complex tasks. The complex tasks themselves are designed to encourage engagement, positive interdependence, and a desire to work well with peers to solve a challenging problem that requires all of their knowledge and abilities to solve.
Clark Chinn and Lisa Chinn promoted collaborative learning through another methodology: scaffolding. They’ve cited some strategies to be used. It is really impressive if teachers and educators facilitate learning with different kinds of methodology and strategy. Teachers must not be afraid to explore and utilize scaffoldings. This for sure will be a great help for the students. Strategies cited are challenging and not boring not only for teacher but also for the students.
By: JASMIN B. DUNO | Teacher III | Mariveles National High School (Cabcaben) | Mariveles, Bataan
