Rethinking Scaffolding For Learner Development
The terms “scaffolding” and “zone of proximal development” have been widely
used in recent years and become an integral part of CLIL learning and teaching
methodology.
However, for most people scaffolding simply means providing students with
enough supporting materials to help them complete a given task.
It is important to understand that scaffolding is much more than that:
following Lantolf we believe that scaffolding is about optimizing learner
development through appropriate forms of mediation.
Just like a gardener who needs to attend both the flowers that have already
blossomed and the ones that are only budding today, it is not enough for us
teachers to be only concerned with functions that have already fully formed;
we must pay equal attention to functions that are still developing and which
might be amenable to teacher intervention.
We must therefore focus our teaching as much on products of past development
AS WELL AS on emerging abilities that may become manifest in learner
participation in joint activity with others: “what a learner can do today in
a cooperative activity, s/he can do tomorrow independently” (Lantolf
2014: 149).
PTL is oriented towards learner development by scaffolding deep learning
(defined as the internalization of conceptual knowledge and increasing
mastery/automatization of the skills and strategies needed to construct and
communicate that knowledge).
In PTL, scaffolding becomes multi-dimensional, it is both pro-active and
responsive, differentiated and individualized, it ranges from short-term
lesson planning to long-term learning trajectories. Scaffolding for deep
learning is about providing materials and tasks for knowledge construction and
meaning making as well as practice opportunities and feedback (by peers and
teachers) designed to help learners master relevant skills and strategies (via
automatization) and internalize conceptual knowledge.
In PTL scaffolding is:
-
pro-active because it anticipates students’ prior knowledge and skill level
and it focuses on learning progressions;
-
responsive & process-oriented because it contains feedback and
reflection activities;
-
performance-oriented by increasing our students’ subject specific
performance through carefully balanced practice activities (controlled
practice, communicative practice, awareness-raising activities as well as
opportunities to reflect on learning experiences);
-
continuous because it constantly provides feedback and practice loops;
-
contingent because it is only put in place for as long as the learner needs
it.