In education, there are various types ways that are used to teach and learn. Every student is unique and has their learning style or preferred method to grasping the information. But when it comes to gaining knowledge, the primary focus is to know how you can learn to do something new and be able to do it independently. This concept is known as the scaffolding method.
Scaffolding refers to a process of teaching where teachers demonstrate how to solve a particular problem for their students. Afterwards, they step back and let the students solve the problem themselves, supporting them when needed. This method is effective as the teacher/learning process sheds layers of assistance as the students progress and gather new knowledge on their own.
Simply put, the teacher acts as an ‘activator’ or pumps up the students to learn a new concept. Scaffolding here refers to the fading or lowering of the support level when the student gains hold of the process, task, or concept.
The researchers of this method have identified two important aspects that are considered while manoeuvring scaffolding in education-
1. Child’s potential development level and,
2. Child’s development level
In both these aspects, each child faces their level of differences and labels it as their ‘proximal zone of development.’ Accordingly, scaffolding in education targets the proximal zone of development to succeed.
