It is a teacher’s job to shape the minds of the nation’s youth, teaching them the concepts and skills they’ll need to become functional adults. Early childhood education is critical, and it can affect everything from a student’s future academic success to his mental and emotional health.
Every child learns differently and his educational success depends, in large part, on his teachers and their method of instruction. Children learn by listening, observing, exploring, and asking questions. The more a child understands the “what” and “why” of the lesson, the more motivated and engaged they’re going to be. Scaffolding is an instructional tool teachers use to develop critical thinking skills and other skills they need to work more independently.
Read on to learn more about what scaffolding is, how it differs from other teaching methods, and what benefits it has for student success.
What is Instructional Scaffolding?
In higher education, students are often left to their own devices to take a project from the assignment phase to completion. A college professor might give a classroom full of students a research article and ask them to write a detailed essay about the key topic. As the professor in this example, you might expect to receive mixed results. Some students are more than capable of completing a project with minimal instruction while others might struggle. In many ways, it comes down to the way the student was taught in the early years of his education.