Public lecture, 22 November, 2017 - International Seminar "Evidence-based research: methodological approaches and practical outcomes“ hosted by the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change at the Open University of Catalonia, Spain
Substantial progress has been made in understanding how teachers design for learning. However, there remains a paucity of evidence of the actual students’ response towards leaning designs.
This paper describes a differing representation of the term scaffolding, with particular emphasis on spoken language as a tool to learning. Discussion examines difficulties faced by practitioners when transforming the theoretical aspects of scaffolding to more practical application, and in particular observes the value of involvement in the learning process. Discourse assesses how the child is led towards becoming an independent learner and how they subsequently reach a predetermined goal, set by the practitioner. It highlights therefore, the importance of evidence to support how scaffolding contributes towards increased competence, and examples provided demonstrate the transition from teacher support to that of independent problem solving. The paper concludes that the notion of scaffolding benefits greater understanding of both teaching and learning, which ultimately contributes to greater knowledge by the learner.
Paper presented by Rebecca Ferguson and Doug Clow of The Open University at the Learning Analytics and Knowledge 2017 conference (LAK17) in Vancouver, Canada