Scaffolding in teaching: 5 strategies to stimulate active learning
Thomas Courtley
Education Specialist
Scaffolding in teaching is an instructional method by which learning material is broken down into smaller content and skills that fall in the learner’s development zone. Teacher scaffolding techniques prompt learners to actively engage in each step of the learning process. This allows them to practise skills, retrieve information, and receive feedback.
Try scaffolding for teaching in a safe digital environment.
1. Formulate clear learning objectives and expectations
Formulating clear learning objectives for yourself and your learners will help them become more aware of what’s expected from them: “What do I know, and what do I still need to learn?”
If you use LessonUp 👉 Create a slide with the learning objective of each lesson, stated in clear and simple language. An example could be: “At the end of this lesson you will be able to...", or "You will know how to…”. Students whose expectations are addressed in a clear and direct way feel recognised, and are encouraged to own their learning. It helps clarify their goals.
2. Activate learners’ prior knowledge
As you know, activating prior knowledge creates space for new information. If we don’t review our memories, remembering old information will hinder us from acquiring new information.
If you use LessonUp 👉 Use a mind map to create on overview of your students’ prior knowledge, all in one digital slide. It will not only give you insight on the level of your entire classroom, but each student will feel heard and understood. In a later stage of your lesson you can show students the information in the initial mind map, to make them aware of how much they learnt.
3. Inspire learners with engaging visuals
People are hardwired to respond to imagery. The visual cortex is the largest system in the human brain. Reading is a skill we learn, as opposed to spoken language and picture processing.
If you use LessonUp 👉The LessonUp library, with lessons created by teachers from all around the world, serves as a vast resource for images and videos. In LessonUp, images can be easily edited, or provided with hotspots (clickable buttons) and other interactive features. Videos can be paused and overlayed with a range of interactive features, such as quiz questions.
4. Think, pair, share
To encourage a student's learning, it's essential to foster critical thinking and make their thought process visible. A famous technique to achieve these goals is ‘Think, pair, share’.
If you use LessonUp 👉 Students are first asked to think about a topic, then discuss it in pairs, and finally share their thoughts with the entire class. In LessonUp you can easily implement a digital open question. Students can then share their ideas in the classroom. The results are saved in lesson reports, to make sure you can always track and review the outcome.
5. Meet different needs in different ways
Each student is unique, and has different difficulties and needs. Slightly differentiating your learning material might be the recipe to stimulate active learning for every student.
If you use LessonUp 👉 As a teacher, you can easily create several slightly differents versions of a digital lesson to share with your students. The automatically generated lesson reports give you a clear idea about your students’ understanding of a specific lesson. Based on this information, you can customise a lesson with content matching your students’ level and pace.
Interested in ways to help your students become active learners?
