{"id":333,"date":"2019-11-15T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/?p=333"},"modified":"2019-12-06T14:17:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T22:17:41","slug":"scaffolding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/scaffolding\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaffolding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s blog post is about scaffolding, one of my\nfavourite topics, favourite ways to support instruction, favourite puzzles, and\nfavourite way to work some magic. And now that I am a UDLer at KPU, I get to\ntalk about scaffolding from a course design perspective, which frankly, is\nwhere this discussion belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people talk about scaffolding instruction, they often talk about \u201cscaffolding the student\u2019s learning\u201d. Following this line of thought scaffolding looks roughly like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SCAFFOLDING IS TASK-ORIENTED<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, scaffolding is not oriented to the PERSON, it is\noriented to the TASK. It is not breaking a person\u2019s learning into steps; it is\nbreaking the TASK (assignment, activity, concept) into component steps, pieces,\nprocesses, what have you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before we continue that thread, we should start with the\nidea that Jerome Bruner, the father of the term scaffolding<\/em>, emphasized the social aspect of learning; the ways\nthat learning occurs through helpful, structured interaction between children\nand more-knowledgeable others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘[Scaffolding] refers\nto the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task\nso that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process\nof acquiring’ (Bruner, 1978, p. 19).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The job of the older child, parent, teacher, or instructor\nis to modify the representation of the task so that it can be understood and\npracticed, each component threaded together until the task at large is\nmastered. As the more knowledgeable instructor, your job is not to observe and\nmodify the student<\/em> but to observe and\nmodify the task<\/em> so that step by step,\nthe student assembles the knowledge, skill, and ability that your course\nlearning outcomes embody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Bruner, knowledge creation pivots on symbolic representation<\/em> and who is the\nbest person to lead the forge in changing, playing with, modifying, and\nmanipulating symbols? You. The expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your students are struggling, start with two things: target\nthe symbolic representation and break the task into steps. In my experience,\nmany teachers do this implicitly. I believe that if you like teaching, you\ninevitably like looking at knowledge in different ways and breaking ideas down.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRY AGAIN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go back and look at the student-oriented scaffolding approach I mentioned earlier and shift it to a task-oriented scaffolding approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AN EXAMPLE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at scaffolding oral presentations as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many students loathe and avoid oral presentations, some\nexperience acute anxiety, others let their group members carry the presentation\nload, and some won\u2019t even show up. How can we use UDL design principles to\nscaffold oral presentations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step ONE –\nDon\u2019t start by thinking about the student! Don\u2019t think why they hate\npresentations, when they hate them, their latent fears and vulnerabilities,\nworkplace preparation, early traumatic experiences, or social anxiety disorder.\nFOCUS ON THE TASK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step TWO –\nFocus on the oral presentation task. Oral presentations are\/require:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Research<\/li>
  • Rehearsal<\/li>
  • Exposure to judgment<\/li>
  • Real-time responses to facial and gestural cues<\/li>
  • Behavioral inhibition (don\u2019t say something dumb,\nplease don\u2019t say something dumb)<\/li>
  • Attentional inhibition (focus on talking and\ntaking your turn)<\/li>
  • Thinking on your feet<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Step THREE \u2013\nUse UDL principles to design class activities around developing and practicing\noral presentation methods in accordance with these component processes. In the\nsame way as we have ways of working on and developing writing mechanics, design\nfor developing presentation mechanics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step FOUR \u2013\nDesign activities to practice research skills, developing some immunity to\nsocial judgment and audience cues and getting comfortable with inhibiting\nbehavior and attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step FIVE \u2013\nwork with students through component skills, designing for feedback and\nself-reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step SIX \u2013\nEnjoy the fruits of your task-oriented scaffolding work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Scaffolding, when practiced as a task-oriented process, has\nthe capacity to support learners (and instructors) in so many ways. Its\napplication through UDL can be poetic as UDL provides a method and framework to\nwork dominantly with representation, while pulling in expression and in turn\nsupporting student engagement. If you\u2019re interested in having a look at how\nscaffolding approaches can help you address your own frustration, switch up the\npresentation of information, deal with group work headaches and presentation\nconfounds, let me know. As I said, I love talking scaffolding and will be happy\nto work with you. In earnest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bruner, J. S. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In\nA. Sinclair, R., J. Jarvelle, and W. J.M. Levelt (eds.) The Child’s Concept of\nLanguage. New York: Springer-Verlag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This week\u2019s blog post is about scaffolding, one of my favourite topics, favourite ways to support instruction, favourite puzzles, and favourite way to work some magic. And now that I am a UDLer at KPU, I get to talk about scaffolding from a course design perspective, which frankly, is where this discussion belongs. When people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","iawp_total_views":39,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-universal-design-for-learning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}