Scaffolding in Education: A Guide for Teachers

An effective teacher understands that children learn in a wide variety of different ways. Thus, it’s important to use multiple teaching methods to accommodate all students. One such teaching technique is scaffolding – a support strategy for students who lack confidence or need more instruction to gain independence in a particular area of learning. 

In this article, we’ll go into further detail about what scaffolding in education is, and why it’s an important teaching method. We’ll also discuss a range of examples of scaffolding and provide guidance on how to effectively use this strategy in your classroom.

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What is Scaffolding in Education?

As in any context, scaffolding provides required support which can then be removed when it’s no longer needed. The term originated from construction where a temporary structure is built for builders to stand on whilst putting up new walls and grounds.

In education, scaffolding relates to providing temporary and tailored assistance to an inexperienced or less confident learner to help them complete a task or acquire a skill, and then slowly withdrawing that support as they gain proficiency.

The overall aim of scaffolding in education is to gradually build on a child’s ability to achieve positive learning outcomes until they can do this independently. 

Psychologist Jerome Bruner first coined the theory of educational scaffolding during the 1970’s, when he and other psychologists began using the term to describe how early years teachers used extensive explanations to help children learn before gradually withdrawing so students could work independently. Bruner’s philosophy is very similar to the Zone of Proximal Development Theory, which states that new skills are often more easily developed with the guidance and encouragement of a teacher as they can be difficult to learn on their own. 

These theories also encapsulate the popular “I Do – We Do – You Do” model where instruction slowly switches from teacher demonstration, to student and teacher practice, and finally to independent application by the students. 

One common example of scaffolding is the way in which children are taught to read. Rather than presenting young students with books and expecting them to make sense of their contents immediately, we build a variety of skills that enable reading over time, such as learning the alphabet, sounding out letters, understanding phonics, recognising words by sight, and more. Eventually, we can remove the scaffolding and students are able to read independently and confidently.

Scaffolding Versus Differentiation

Scaffolding and differentiation are both examples of adaptive teaching methods and are used to address the diverse needs of learners in a classroom. But, whilst the two often overlap, they are not the same and cater to a range of needs in distinct ways. 

Differentiation involves modifying lesson plans to cater to individual learning needs, so that every student can access the information provided. You can learn more about this strategy in our guide to What is Adaptive Teaching?

In contrast, scaffolding focuses on how much information is provided and when it’s delivered, offering a gradual release of support to promote independent working and skill acquisition. 

As they are two different teaching methods that contribute to the same goal, scaffolding and differentiation should be used in conjunction with one another within a classroom in order to provide the most beneficial results for your students. 

Whilst scaffolding and differentiation are two vital strategies in effective teaching, they are just two of many teaching methods that can enhance student experience in your classroom. Discover more teaching methods and learn why they’re so important in our article on 8 Teaching Methods to Use in the Classroom.

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Importance of Scaffolding in Education

Scaffolding has many benefits in a classroom. Mainly, it helps students to take a more active role in their own learning as a teacher slowly phases out their original support. When you incorporate scaffolding into your lessons, you become more of a facilitator and mentor as your students now share the responsibility of teaching and have more ownership over their own education. As students begin working more independently, they become more engaged in their own learning and can reinforce skills in a self-directed manner, helping to prepare them for their future in the ‘real world’ outside of academics.

In addition to this core advantage, there are many other benefits provided by scaffolding in education too:

• Improves the likelihood that students will retain new information.
• Reduces student’s negative self-perceptions, frustrations or confusion. 
• Improves communication between students and teachers, helping to strengthen their relationship.
• Encourages asking for help. 
• Builds confidence.
• Enhances problem-solving.
• Keeps classes organised.
• Provides opportunities for peer-teaching. 

Furthermore, scaffolding is a valuable tool in aiding progression. Once a student has become able to complete a task without the teacher’s support, they can move onto more challenging learning for which a scaffold can once more be provided. Using this method, a teacher is able to maintain high expectations of all their learners rather than having to simplify tasks in order to have them completed. Similarly, for students, scaffolding provides greater confidence in advancing their learning as they always have the ‘safety net’ of the scaffold to fall back on whilst they progress through harder content. 

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Examples of Scaffolding in Education

Scaffolding is a highly valuable teaching method for all ages and all subjects, however it is perhaps most beneficial for early learning stages. 

There are numerous activities you can incorporate into the classroom which lend themself to the scaffolding method of teaching, but here are 5 examples of scaffolding strategies that are proven to be effective.

Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Pre-teaching vocabulary can have a great impact on children’s comprehension. By teaching critical vocabulary prior to a lesson, you can ensure all students have the correct foundational knowledge needed to understand and engage with the topic being discussed. 

This can be done in many interactive and memorable ways, rather than just providing dictionary definitions of the relevant terms. For example, using new vocabulary within a sentence, discovering the origins of the words, or drawing a representation of the term’s meaning, can all be more engaging ways to pre-teach vocabulary and provide that scaffold for your next lesson. 

Utilise Prior Knowledge

Scaffolding is all about gradually increasing knowledge, so linking to what students already know is important. It can be useful to ask students about their past experiences, inklings, and ideas about the topic you’ll be discussing, to help them connect the subject to their own lives and bridge the gap between their existing knowledge and this new material. After all, a student’s personal experiences are the foundation on which understanding is built, so activating prior knowledge can strengthen new learning and increase engagement. 

Show and Tell

Many of us are visual learners and absorb knowledge best by seeing something demonstrated rather than just hearing it explained. Thus, modelling is a crucial scaffolding technique. Teachers should frequently demonstrate how to do tasks with their learners actively watching. Additionally, presenting modelled examples of complete pieces of work helps students to see what they’re aiming to achieve. 

Use Knowledge Organisers

Utilising common ways of organising information, such as Venn diagrams, flow charts, timelines, or quotations (to name just a few) help students to grasp concepts by arranging information in a logical way and breaking down big concepts into manageable portions. In this way, organisers act as scaffolds by offering a simpler introduction to information that can then be removed once a student has understood the topic. They help to shape and guide a child’s thinking to make the overall subject easier to grasp.

Pause, Ask Questions, Review

This strategy helps to check for understanding during your teaching so that you can be sure your students have grasped everything that’s been said so far before progressing to harder content. The idea is that at various points during teaching, you’d pause to let students reflect on what they’ve heard up to now, then ask some strategic questions to test their understanding, before quickly reviewing any areas that haven’t yet been fully comprehended. The questions you ask should be planned prior to the lesson and should be specific, guiding, and open-ended. 

One benefit of using this strategy is that it helps to keep students engaged and listening actively as they know they may be called upon to answer one of your questions regarding the material. 

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How to Use Scaffolding in the Classroom

Although the strategies above give an insight into the kinds of activities you might include in the classroom to scaffold student learning, how you implement these strategies is equally important. 

Thus, keep the following tips in mind when carrying out scaffolding activities during your lessons.

Use Assessment for Learning (AFL)

Assessment for Learning (AFL) helps teachers to identify where students are in their learning so that they can bridge the gap between where a child currently is and where they want to get to. This can be helpful in the context of scaffolding as the results of AFL will help to improve your scaffolding strategy, which can be amended according to a student’s current knowledge. 

To learn more about AFL and the different types of assessment you can use to inform your scaffolding, read our article on How to Use Assessment for Learning in Schools.

Consider How and When you Remove Your Scaffolds

The purpose of scaffolding is to help progress students towards being able to work on a topic independently by gradually building on their knowledge and confidence. To do this effectively, it’s vital to strike the right balance between giving too much and too little support throughout the process. The aim is to very gradually remove the support so that the journey to independent learning is smooth and untroubled. 

Keep Track of Any Progress

To keep your scaffolding as effective as possible, it’s important that you keep track of everything you do to support the scaffolding process, such as the activities you’ve led in the classroom, when these were done, and any feedback given or received. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of student progress so that you remain aware of how well they’re advancing towards independent learning and how long the process is taking. This will all help you to identify which strategies your students respond best to so you can adapt and improve your scaffolding as time goes on. 

You can find more information about the importance of tracking and contemplating your activity in the classroom in our article on What’s the Importance of Reflective Practice in Teaching?

Use Multiple Methods of Scaffolding

As evidenced earlier, there are many examples of scaffolding strategies that you can implement in the classroom. It’s wise to use a wide range of these methods rather than relying on one or two. This is because each student you teach will learn in different ways, and will therefore respond to some scaffolding methods better than others. Using a mixture of various strategies in every lesson will help ensure you’re catering to different learning styles and giving every child the best chance at progressing towards independent learning. 

Review Confidence Before Moving Onto Another Topic

It’s no good going through the steps of scaffolding then moving on to your next topic if your students haven’t achieved the objective of becoming proficient and independent in this area. As such, you should always check each child’s level of understanding and confidence on a topic before leaving it behind. If a student is not yet able to comprehend the learning material and complete related tasks on their own, you may need to reinstate some scaffolding to support them until they can achieve this. Thus, it’s essential that you review each student’s confidence in a topic before moving on to the next one.

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Scaffolding is a highly valuable tool in education for supporting students to become more independent and self-sufficient learners in a gradual way that is barely noticeable to the children themselves. The benefits of scaffolding are numerous as it helps to make information more memorable, keeps students engaged, and encourages skills – such as problem solving – that will extend beyond the classroom. There are many various strategies for implementing scaffolding in your classroom so remember to utilise various methods as well as monitoring and reviewing student progress throughout the process. 

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Further Resources:

• What is Adaptive Teaching?
• 8 Teaching Methods to Use in the Classroom
• Courses for Teaching and Education