SCAFFOLDING IN CLIL

Happy Saturday!

Today I feel like talking about Scaffolding in CLIL, but scaffolding is in fact important when learning any language or any content. I hope you enjoy the article below ↓↓↓. It was written during my stay at the University of Nottingham.




EXPLORE THE ROLE OF SCAFFOLDING IN CLIL

 The word “scaffolding” used for an educational purpose was first used by Wood, Bruner and Ross in Wood et al. (1976). In an educational context scaffolding refers to giving support to learners so that they can ‘move forward and continue to build new competencies’ (Bigge et al. 1999).

An example of scaffolding is the process of learning to write. First, children are asked to write a word below a picture, then a short sentence, then they have to add adjectives until they are asked to write the description of an object. The teacher will probably make the pupils talk about certain characteristics: size, colour, use and so on. Then the pupils will have to think of an object and write the description following a guideline. These descriptions will become more complex to the point they will not need the teacher’s support.

The theoretical background of scaffolding relies on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (Z.P.D.). Vygotsky defined the Z.P.D. as “the gap between what a child can achieve alone, their ‘potential development determined by independent problem solving’, and what they can achieve ‘through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with a more capable peer’” (Wood, 1996) This means that there are tasks that children cannot perform on their own, but which they can achieve with help from others, whether it is a teacher, a parent or peer. This process, as Bigge (1999) explains, helps the children invoke mental functions that are still in process of developing.

 

The child is no more a passive agent receiving knowledge but an active agent constructing his/her own knowledge. For this to happen, he also claims that interaction with others  is necessary:

 

‘the learner does not learn in isolation. Instead learning is strongly influenced by social interactions, which take place in meaningful contexts. Children’s social interaction with more knowledgeable or capable others and their environment significantly impacts their ways of thinking and interpreting situations’ (Van Der Stuyf, 2002, p. 6)

 

Bruner and other educational leaders were the first to use the metaphor of “scaffolding”. He believed adults can support children by scaffolding their learning. He advocated that the adult should assist the child to move from where they are to where they want to go.

 

Bruner also introduced the term spiral curriculum, which means that any subject can be taught to any age by adapting it to the learners’ capabilities. In this case, scaffolding is also needed.

 

With a constructivist approach the teacher’ role changes: the role of the teacher is to support the learner’s development and provide support structures to get to the next stage. As the learner’s abilities increase, scaffolding is gradually removed until the learner is capable of completing the task by him/herself.  Additionally, the teacher has to observe when a learner might not be able to make progress alone and provide him/her with the right scaffolding that will move him/her higher.

 

Bloom’s taxonomy also plays an important role when scaffolding. Whereas Vygotsky’s theory describes the assistance that a teacher gives a learner, the former helps teachers identify the cognitive skills they want learners to practice in a lesson. In other words, it shows what goals teachers should have in mind when describing activities.

 

Scaffolding in CLIL is needed both for language and content. Regarding language, our pupils do not have enough command of the language so we, as teachers, have to provide them with the language (language of/for) they will need at each stage. There will be times in which some pupils will need to go further (language through) and we will have to help them achieve what they want.

Regarding content, we should lead pupils from simple activities which they can relate to their previous knowledge to more complex ones. This is not an easy issue. When planning a lesson we might have scaffolded the contents considering the majority of our pupils and we might have anticipated where they will have to struggle, but in practice we have to be more flexible and be ready to scaffold difficulties which may appear at any time because each pupil, as an individual, is different and he/she might get stuck at a point of the process we had not foreseen.

A scaffolding strategy could be started by making a question about the new topic so that I can elicit what the pupils know. This makes them relate their previous knowledge to what they know and I write their answers on the board. Sometimes we decide what we want to learn about the topic and we search the information in sources I give them. Otherwise, they would not know where to seek. If several questions are to be answered, I arrange them in small groups and each group finds a piece of information. Each group is given a guideline. Once they have all the information, they report it to the rest of the class and sometimes we make a display with all the information compiled.


scaffolding in clil, scaffolding, clil, aicle




Eva๐Ÿ’–

 

 

REFERENCES

Bigge et al (1999) Learning Theories for Teachers. New York: Longman pp. 130-131

 

Bruner, J (no date) Interactive Learning for early education and childcare www. rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk/project_pages/docfiles/health_social_care/index.pps (Access date 10 March 2009)

 

Larkin, M (2002) Using Scaffolded Instruction to Optimize Learning www.vtraide.com/png/ERIC/Scaffolding.htm (Access date 10 March 2009)

 

Van Der Stuyf, R (2002) ‘Scaffolding as a Teaching Strategy’ Adolescent Learning and Development p. 2-13

 

Wood, D (2001) Scaffolding, contingent tutoring and computer-supported learning in Interaction Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education http://aied.inf.ed.ac.uk/members01/archive/vol_12/wood/full.html (Access date 10 March 2009)

 

www.answer.com (Access date 11 March 2009)

 

http:// learngen.org/resources/module/lgend101_norm1/3000/3100_4/3130/3131.html (Access date 11 March 2009)

 

http://www.education.vic.gov.au (Access date 11 March 2009)

 

 

 



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