Mulching is the practice of covering the surface of soil with a layer of material, called mulch, to protect and improve the soil and support growing plants.
(Stick with me here, the blog post isn’t about gardening.)
The thing is, you don’t actually have to mulch. You can just jam those plants in the ground, and as long as the conditions are relatively suitable, they’ll grow. However, if you take this extra step, there are many benefits, including suppressing weeds, retaining water, protecting the soil from baking in the sun, and even feeding the plants. The plants have a much better chance of thriving.
(Ok, I am aware not everyone gets analogies, so let’s unpack this a bit).
Mulch is scaffolding. In the same way that mulch creates the ideal environment for plants to thrive, scaffolding provides the structure and support students need to grow into independent learners. You can dump a bunch of resources, readings and videos online for students to complete. Some of them may even complete them. But if you want your students to thrive, then you need to take the time to explain why you selected those resources, what value they have to the student learning, and how they connect to the assessment and their future careers. Scaffolding can take time, but provides a solid environment for your students to thrive. This blog post will help you with that.
Scaffolding refers to the intentional support provided by educators to help students progress from what they can do with help to what they can do on their own. At its core, scaffolding is about designing learning experiences that gradually move from dependence to independence, ensuring every student can succeed at each step.
Designing Activities with Increasing Complexity
Effective scaffolding starts by structuring activities from simple to complex and small to large. This means beginning with easy and manageable tasks, then building up to more challenging and comprehensive activities. For example:
Individual Reflection: Individual activities are often underused in education, as ‘active learning’ is sometimes misinterpreted as ‘always talking’. Start with quiet, individual tasks that encourage personal reflection. This helps students process their own thoughts without external pressure or influence. You want students to be reflective without needing to censor themselves.
Think-Pair-Share: Next, students discuss their ideas with a partner, allowing them to articulate their thinking in a low-stakes setting.
Small Group Discussion: Moving into small groups builds confidence and trust, exposing students to diverse perspectives with a safer audience size.
Whole Class Engagement: Finally, students share insights with the entire class, having already built up their ideas and confidence in smaller groups. It can be stressful when we ask a question and no one immediately responds, but give the room some space and silence and allow them to process or build the courage to respond. It’s much easier to elicit responses from a whole class when they have had a chance to break the ice and warm up in smaller groups/pairs.
Aligning Activities with Learning Outcomes
Each activity must be explicitly linked to the learning outcomes for scaffolding to be effective. This alignment ensures that students are engaged in the skills and knowledge needed to achieve the learning outcomes successfully. When designing or revising activities, ask:
- Will this activity help students achieve the learning outcome?
- Can the activity or the outcome itself be tweaked for better alignment?
- Are the verbs and content of the outcome reflected in the activity design?
- Can you use the learning outcomes, particularly the verbs, to design an activity?
- If an activity doesn’t align, can you adjust the instructions or create a new task that directly supports the desired outcome?
Ensuring the activities align with the learning outcomes can be a two-stage process: it can mean changing the activity, but also changing the learning outcome. Often, when you start to look at alignment, the quality of the learning outcome really comes into focus. You may realise that the learning outcomes may be describing one thing, but you actually want them to do something different.
Providing Clear Instructions and Rationale
Clear, transparent instructions are essential for scaffolding. Students must understand what is expected of them and why an activity is structured a certain way. Make the alignment between activity and outcome explicit, and explain the real-world relevance. Use prompts and explanations to connect each activity to prior learning and future application. This motivates students and helps them see the value in each step of the learning process.
Key Questions for Providing Instructions
- Are there any steps to the activity, and are they clearly written?
- Are the questions clear, and are they visible to the students while they are completing the activity?
- Why did you design the activity in this way?
- How will this help the students achieve the learning outcome?
Key Phrases to Scaffold Learning
- This activity will help you to practice [specific skill], which you will find to be a critical skillset for [related learning outcome or real-world application].”
- This approach mirrors the challenges you may face in [specific real-world scenario], and we hope that through this, you will have a safe space to learn..
- This activity acts as a bridge between what we previously explored and what you’ll need to complete [task] successfully.
- Completing this activity will help you develop confidence and practical skills in [specific context].
- Consider how this connects to your own experiences or learning goals. How might you use this in a future experience?
- Take a moment to consider: What are you hoping to get out of this activity? How can you make it most valuable for yourself?
By thoughtfully designing, aligning, and explaining learning activities, educators can scaffold the student learning journeys from dependence to independence.