A Brief Introduction to the Theory that Underpins Scaffolded Pedagogy

The following extract is taken from PETAA book Teaching with Intent: Scaffolding Academic Language with Marginalised Students, written by Dr Bronwyn Parkin and Dr Helen Harper.

 Scaffolded pedagogy in the classroom is a negotiated, two-way transaction with an ‘informed’ or ‘knowledgeable’ other (usually an adult); where the teacher does what the student cannot do; where the student does with assistance what they could not have done without the adult; and with the expectation that, with the right kind of support, the student will take over the task with control (Bruner, 1986).

Scaffolding as reframing
The teacher ‘lends’ their cognition, thinking out loud as the student appropriates new ways of thinking and talking. From a Vygotskian point of view, thinking doesn’t belong to the individual, but is shared among members of a community, such as the members of the world of science. Thus it is the responsibility of the ‘knowledgeable other’ to share scientific thinking, through language, with the novice so that they can begin to develop a shared perception of the world, to be able to see the world through scientific eyes. If the learning is new, it requires a re-orientation to the world. This is progressed by the teacher reframing the student’s experience with new forms of language. Imagine standing behind the lens of a camera, and trying to point out to students what is important for them to see. The process of reframing has been given many labels. Just choose the one that makes sense to you: recontextualisation, recasting, reconceptualisation or redefining. Each term highlights the required shift between old and new perceptions as a result of teaching and learning experiences.

Who decides what to learn?
There is a commonly held belief in the top-left progressivist quadrant that teachers should be guided by students’ interests. In the subversive quadrant, this is not necessarily the case. If there is an imperative for completing a particular topic or activity, for example, if it’s in the curriculum for this term, or if it’s a fundamental scientific topic, then it’s the teacher’s role to recruit student interest through their own enthusiastic and interested teaching. (Yes, this is sometimes easier said than done, but nevertheless, it’s something for which we take responsibility.)

Sharing the learning goal
For scaffolding to be successful, there must be a shared understanding between teacher and students of the goal, even if some of the steps to attain that goal are out of reach for some students. During any activity, the teacher draws the students’ attention to what is important and maintains their ‘gaze’ on the important features of the task. The teacher demonstrates or models parts of the task that the child cannot do independently in a way that supports the child to imitate the adult’s actions for successful completion.

Contingent levels of support
Contingency is one of the most important properties of successful scaffolding (Wood & Wood, 1996). By that we mean the teacher’s ability to judge the right level of support to keep students learning: not too little support so that they don’t understand what they’re supposed to do, nor why they’re doing it. But not too much support either, because that leads to dependency as discussed earlier. Contingency requires the teacher to monitor student uptake lesson by lesson, and moment by moment. When students show signs of success, the teacher hands over more control. If they begin to fail, the teacher provides more help, taking back some control. Consistently finding the contingent level of support is difficult to reach, even with one adult and one child. It is even more difficult in a class of thirty students. Nevertheless, it is central to our work as teachers.

Scaffolding and power
Scaffolded pedagogy is not democratic. At the beginning of a topic, the teacher has a lot to say, and it is their responsibility to share the goals, motivations and processes with students. Power relationships between teacher and students change as a topic progresses. As students gain control of the thinking and language of the topic, they also take over power, beginning to initiate and problem-solve for themselves in authoritative ways, while the teacher takes more of a back seat (but always ready to intervene if students begin to falter).
This shift of power is known as the gradual release of responsibility (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). We call it ‘handover’, short for handover of knowledge, language and responsibility. Figure 4.2 represents this process of handover.

Early in any topic, when common understandings and language are absent, the teacher has control and a lot to say. As understanding grows, and students develop a common language with which to negotiate learning, the teacher can begin to step back and allow more independence, trusting that the students understand where the learning is heading and have the language to continue negotiating learning.

Handover is not, in reality, a nice straight line, but more like a pedagogic shuffle. Contingency requires that the adult is always prepared to shift the balance of responsibility, taking it back or handing it over whenever the student needs it.

Development of concepts
Scaffolding is language-centric, but we don’t assume that the learning is finished simply because a student has begun to use new language. On the contrary, learning can then proceed more effectively because the student now has the language skills to negotiate meaning through ongoing interactions with talk and other scientific activity. Conceptual development takes time, takes many repetitions and can be shaky to begin with.

The role of imitation in learning
New learning begins with imitation (Vygotsky, 1986). Children imitating adults in their social worlds is completely acceptable, and social media are full of cute little children dancing or rapping or singing in imitation of their parents. Yet in the Australian classroom, imitation is often regarded as anathema, as not ‘real’ learning. However, in the context of a scaffolding pedagogy, imitation is an active process that begins once a student understands the goal of an activity, when they borrow language from the teacher and other students in order to achieve that goal. When language is being imitated by students, they are ‘mouthing’ scientific words until they become their own (Wertsch, 1998). For scaffolding teachers, imitation is not the same thing as rote learning or ‘parroting’ but is rather a sign that student learning has begun. Imitation is of course not the end of learning, but it is an exciting beginning.