What is scaffolding in educational psychology?

Throughout our stage or academic life, the role of educators is essential when it comes to promoting the acquisition of knowledge. Good educational work aims to enhance the abilities and skills of students.

One of the theories or concepts that try to explain this process is scaffolding.. Throughout this article we will explain what this term used in educational psychology consists of, as well as how it can be carried out and what collective scaffolding consists of.

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What is scaffolding?

The scaffolding process finds its theoretical basis in the scaffolding theory developed by psychologists and researchers David Wood and Jerome Bruner, which in turn started from the assumption, developed by the well-known psychologist Lev Vygotskyknown as the "zone of proximal development".

In order to better understand these concepts, first of all we will review What is the "zone of proximal development"?. This idea elaborated by the psychologist of Russian origin, tries to give an explanation to how certain learning characteristics can facilitate the intellectual development of people and enhance their maturation.

Specifically, the "zone of proximal development" is that strip of knowledge or learning that needs to be enhanced through the help of another person. That is, the distance that exists between those skills or knowledge that the child can acquire on his own, and those others for which he needs the help of another person.

Starting from the base provided by this theory, Wood and Bruner develop their scaffolding theory, which hypothesizes that at the moment in which the teaching/learning link or interaction, the resources of the teacher are inversely related to the level of competence of the person learn.

These mean that the fewer abilities or skills the child presents, the more resources the educator will need. Therefore, a correct adjustment between educator and student is essential for the correct acquisition and assimilation of information.

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Where does this concept of educational psychology come from?

The concept of scaffolding turns out to be a metaphor that the authors use to explain the phenomenon by which the educator serves as support for the student to acquire and develop a series of strategies that enable you to acquire certain knowledge. Therefore, thanks to this function of "scaffolding" or support by the educator, the child is able to acquire knowledge, perform a task or achieve academic objectives, which he would not be able to achieve without he.

However, this scaffolding process is not only carried out in schools or academic settings, but also It can also take place at home, with the parents being the support or base that enhances the child's learning, or even at a social level or between equals, which is known as collective scaffolding.

The authors emphasize the idea that scaffolding does not consist in solving the problems or carrying out the child's tasks, but in increasing the resources that the child possesses. We could say that it is a transfer of learning strategies, which facilitates the development of more complex knowledge structures.

Thanks to this theory, we can understand how important the role of the educator is, and how active participation tailored to the specific needs of the child, serve to consolidate the construction of knowledge.

How it is performed?

In order to carry out a learning process based on the scaffolding theory, educators They must take into account a series of factors or key conditions so that this is carried out in the best way possible.

1. Preparation of the information

The knowledge or information that the educator must explain or to the student must be prepared in advance, in order to be able to expose it at the moment in which he needs it.

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2. Education as a challenge

In the same way, the level of difficulty of the information should be high enough to pose a small challenge for the child. This means that it should be a little above the child's capabilities, but not too much, since otherwise it can generate a feeling of frustration in this.

3. evaluate the student

In order to carry out a correct scaffolding process, the information must be adjusted to the specific needs of the child; Therefore, it will be necessary to carry out an assessment or evaluation of its capacities, in order to maximize its learning capacity.

4. The educator's efforts are inversely proportional to the child's abilities

As mentioned above, scaffolding is characterized because as the child has less abilities or learning capacities, the educator must carry out a much more intense intervention and deep.

This means that in those areas in which the student experiences difficulties, the educator must show greater support, which will progressively decrease as the child's abilities increase.

What is collective scaffolding?

At the beginning of the article it is specified that this learning process or method It does not have to occur only in the school or academic context. The interaction between educator and learner can also take place within the home or even between peer groups. These cases are what we would consider as collective scaffolding.

Some studies that aim to evaluate the effectiveness of this method reveal that when this process occurs between groups of equals; that is, between groups of students with quantitatively and qualitatively similar abilities, it is exercised a reinforcing effect of the learning process, since a mutual consolidation of the learning.