My
opinions and experiences on scaffolding
The literature meaning
of “Scaffolding” is to provide a support with framework or platform. In
education, I think this word means instruction. Usually, teachers play a main
role in instructing students in their learning process. So this word may refer
to teachers’ varieties of instructional techniques in the teaching process. In
this process, teachers offer a temporary support to help students get a better
comprehension which students may not able to understand by themselves without
the assistance. When teachers teach new knowledge which may beyond the students'
comprehension level, the teachers give students some kinds of support to help them to reach a
new level of their comprehension. Little by little, the students can enhance
their skills of acquisition. Therefore, I think it is a really effective way of
teaching.
First of all, this kind
of teaching can get students involved in their learning process. Students use
their brain to think or use their hands to do experiments with the teachers’
instruction in order to get new knowledge by themselves rather than just tell
them the right answers and let them recite it. During this process students can
acquire much fun in their learning process and also gain a better understanding
of what they learn, it is good for them to use what they have learnt in the
future. If teachers just tell them the right things and let the students follow
it, students may forget what they learnt very quickly after the class.
Another benefit of this
teaching way is that it can avoid students’ negative emotions. When students
facing a difficult task they may get frustrated. At this point, if the teacher
provides effective support to students and let them finish it by themselves can
make students have a sense of achievement. Otherwise, students may get tired of
learning or lose the interest and confidence.
This kind of teaching
straggles went through my English learning process. First, basically, the teacher
would give us a vocabulary lesson before we learn a new article. The teacher
taught us the meaning of the words and how to use the words in different
situations in order to help us get a full understanding of the new
words, which we will encounter in the article. Therefore, when we read the
article, we would feel easier to understand and have a great confidence in our
reading ability. During this learning process, we felt more likely to
comprehend and remember the content.
Second, at the beginning
of a lesson, teachers usually told us the learning goals of this lesson and
gave us a direction to follow. As for now, studying in Western, I think the syllabus is a very good example. It
told us the main goals of a lesson and separates it to every lesson. By the
step-by-step instruction, we can achieve the main goals of this cause at the
end. Also, it provides us the “assignments and course requirements” to tell us
how we will be evaluated and graded. By knowing this, we are clear about what
we are expected to do and will be more motivated to achieve the learning goal.
Meanwhile, it can avoid the frustration causes by having no idea about the
cause.
Third, as for second
language acquisition, the social culture behind one language is also an
important point. If we learnt more about the culture we can fully understand
the meaning of the language. We can use the words more native. Just like “dog”
has different meanings in different cultures. For example, in North America,
dogs convey the symbolism of protection, friendship and communication. Whereas in
Asian, dogs convey symbolic of loyalty and good luck. Therefore, if the
teacher tells us the culture behind the context will make it much easier for us
to understand.
In conclusion, the “Scaffolding”
is an effective instructional technique. It is a gradual process in which the teacher offers a great deal of assistant to student independent learning till
no assistance needed. To achieve this goal, the teacher needs to scaffold students
by first giving them a learning goal, designing a teaching plan and offering appropriate assistance at the appropriate time. In addition, I think this kind of
teaching approach being used very frequently during my second language
acquisition. It is a perfect student-centered technique, which can get students
fully involved in class and make the learning process more interesting and
impressive.
