Scaffolding

Tomorrow’s Professor has a good post on scaffolding that I think many higher ed instructors should really pay attention to. K-12 teachers are more apt to make use of the technique, so it’s no wonder there is a large transition for many students. Without the scaffolding it is often difficult to get students to “get into” the new concepts or deal with the speed or the detail that is required at the higher levels. Here is the list that they suggest:

1. Procedural Guidelines (outline in lock step the process behind arriving at a final result)
2. Partial Solutions (like incomplete notes, or guides that are missing stages to moderate difficulty, place emphasis or “track” thinking)
3. Think-Alouds (talk out the process behind arriving at a product, a verbal guideline)
4. Anticipate Student Errors (knowing where students make mistakes, pay attention to those points, use partial solutions to help this)
5. Comprehension Checks (short, low/no risk assessments – eg clickers – practice)

The problem will always be time and changes in workflow. Without incentive, it is unlikely that many profs will change. Instructors, particularly lab instructors might be an easier group to convince of this strategy as they have more interaction with students and would see the results much faster.