One of my publications is:
Taber, K. S., & Brock, R. (2018). A study to explore the potential of designing teaching activities to scaffold learning: understanding circular motion. In M. Abend (Ed.), Effective Teaching and Learning: Perspectives, strategies and implementation (pp. 45-85). New York: Nova Science Publishers.
This is one of two chapters in this book considering the theme of scaffolding. (The other chapter is Scaffolding learning: principles for effective teaching and the design of classroom resources.)
Abstract
Scaffolding allows a learner to succeed in tasks beyond their current developmental level, through sharing in activities that can facilitate the learner to internalise that activity through social mediation.This guides the learner's development towards autonomous success in the activity.The process is effective to the extent that the shared activity supports the learner in meaningfully engaging in, and eventually mastering, the activity.The notion of scaffolding was introduced in the context of a single child being supported by an adult who is giving them their full attention – where teaching, and so learning, can occur implicitly within the context of everyday interactions such as play. Extending the principle of scaffolding to the planning of teaching and the design of learning activities in formal whole-class contexts is challenging.The present paper reports one small scale study that explored an attempt to design materials using principles of scaffolding in an aspect of upper secondary physics known to present learning difficulties to students.An activity to potentially scaffold new conceptual understanding (a scaffolding POLE) was prepared to be undertaken after a short activity to reactivate prerequisite learning (a scaffolding PLANK). The materials were administered to students (n=122, c.16-17 years of age) taking an elective upper secondary (high school) physics course. The results demonstrate the difficulty of estimating the level at which to pitch learning materials intended to scaffold learning, but also suggest that such materials may contribute to shifting student thinking even when they are not optimally 'tuned'. The results of this small scale study indicate both the difficulty and the potential of transferring the scaffolding principle from dyadic (e.g., parent-child or tutor-single student) contexts to formal classroom teaching.
From Taber, K. S., & Brock, R. (2018). A study to explore the potential of designing teaching activities to scaffold learning: understanding circular motion.
Contents:
- Introduction
- Exemplification of scaffolding PLANKS and POLES: an example from physics
- Limitations of the study
- Exemplifying scaffolding – orbital motion
- Teaching context
- A tool to organise background knowledge
- A tool to scaffold the explanation
- Testing the scaffolding POLE
- The results of the trial
- Discussion
- Conclusions
