Common Ways of Scaffolding

There are very common ways that teachers scaffold. Many believe that the most two common ways of scaffolding that are seen in classroom teaching is modeling and coaching.

Modeling a task

Explicit teacher modeling provides students with a clear, multi-sensory model of a skill or concept. In effective modeling, first, teacher both describes and models the skill or concept then teacher clearly describes features of the concept or steps in performing skill. After that, teacher breaks concept or skill into learnable parts. Finally, teacher engages students in learning through demonstrating enthusiasm, through maintaining a lively pace, through periodically questioning students, and through checking for student understanding. An example of modeling.An expert designer thinking aloud during the design of a product, thereby pointing out critical aspects and important decisions during design. Afterwards students try to imitate this behaviour.

Providing coaching

Coaching can be defined as a continuous process of providing students with feedback to enhance, maintain or improve their performance. In the coaching process the teacher observes performance, shares knowledge and expertise, and provides encouragement to assist students in reaching continuously higher levels of performance. This method or strategy enables students to develop their thinking and actions in response to differing situations. This approach encourages learning, growth and teamwork. According to research there are three effective ways of coaching: retraining when students learn new responsibilities, guiding when students have the necessary skills and prompting when students know what to do. Example.Students design a product, an expert designer monitors their progress, solves problems together with the students, motivates students, and points them towards different directions.