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Educ Psychol Rev (2010) 22:271296
DOI 10.1007/s10648-010-9127-6
REVIEW ARTICLE
Janneke van de Pol & Monique Volman & Jos Beishuizen
Published online: 29 April 2010# The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract Although scaffolding is an important and frequently studied concept, much discussion exists with regard to its conceptualizations, appearances, and effectiveness. Departing from the last decades scaffolding literature, this review scrutinizes these three areas of scaffolding. First, contingency, fading, and transfer of responsibility are discerned in this review as the three key characteristics of scaffolding. Second, an overview is presented of the numerous descriptive studies that provided narratives on the appearances of scaffolding and classifications of scaffolding strategies. These strategies are synthesized into a framework for analysis, distinguishing between scaffolding means and intentions. Third, the small number of effectiveness studies available is discussed and the results suggest that scaffolding is effective. However, more research is needed. The main challenge in scaffolding research appears to be its measurement. Based on the encountered and described measurement problems, suggestions for future research are made.
Keywords Scaffolding . Teacherstudent interaction . Review . Primary and secondary education
The concept of scaffolding has received a great deal of attention in educational research over the past few decades. An abundance of research on scaffolding in different contexts is thus the result. Scaffolding highlights one of the key aspects of childrens learning, namely that it is often guided by others (Stone 1998a, p. 351).
Scaffolding is typically associated with the socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky. Wood et al. (1976) adopted the scaffolding metaphor to explain the role that adults can play in joint problem-solving activities with children. Borrowed from the field of construction, where a scaffold is a temporary structure erected to help with the building or modification of another structure, the use of scaffolding as a metaphor within the domain of learning refers to the
J. van de Pol (*) : M. Volman
Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlandse-mail: [email protected]
M. Volmane-mail: [email protected]
J. Beishuizen
Centre for Educational Training, Assessment and Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Scaffolding in TeacherStudent Interaction: A Decade of Research
272 Educ Psychol...