When building a structure, we build from the ground up. But we have to go further than the ground for a complete structure. Scaffolding, a temporary structure, provides builders with a way to access and work off the ground.
What is Scaffolding?
In education, the concept of scaffolding is much like the physical version – we build on what we already know and develop support structures to guide students to the greater lesson concepts. As the students become more confident with the material, the scaffolding is reduced to give more freedom and foster independence. Let’s take a look at some scaffolding techniques, and why they work well for 1:1 online tutoring.
How Teachers Can Use Scaffolding Techniques
The most important part of scaffolding is to start small. Especially when starting a new concept, students will build a solid foundation when lessons are brief and precise. Tutors who are scaffolding break lessons down into small parts and explain those parts explicitly.
Students gain more understanding from a lesson when teachers make real-life connections and show why the lesson is important for them in the real world.
The goal of this scaffolding is to give students clear, understandable background knowledge on which to continue building toward the overall concept. Starting with vocabulary is one method of ensuring that students have the background knowledge to call on before learning more advanced lessons.
For instance, it’s important for students to learn math terms before learning entire formulas. Students need to be fully competent with the new information before moving on to the next lesson. Skooli’s 1:1 online tutors are at an advantage when it comes to scaffolding because they can move at the pace that is best for each individual student.
Of course, there is more to scaffolding than just learning vocabulary words. Other important parts of scaffolding include showing and demonstrating parts of the lesson for students. This visual component of teaching, or show and tell, allows students to clearly visualize and better remember material to recall later in the course of learning.
This show and tell might be as straightforward as working algebra problems on Skooli’s virtual white board.
Toward the end of this demonstration, the students would work on their own problems along with the teacher. Continual, short assignments are another important part of scaffolding. Not only do they get support from the teacher’s explanations and demonstrations, but they build on their own knowledge by practicing the work themselves.
Skooli’s 1:1 Online Tutoring Helps Students Build A Strong Learning Foundation
Scaffolding is great for students in universal classroom instruction, but students in 1:1 online tutoring instruction have the added benefit of teachers who have the freedom to move at just the right pace for them. Also, Skooli tutors have the opportunity to focus on areas that are especially challenging and use the methods that work best for each individual student. We believe that every student deserves the chance to build the strongest foundation possible for a lifetime of learning.