10/13/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/12/2021 19:42
According to EdGlossary, scaffolded instruction refers to a variety of teaching techniques used to move students progressively toward a stronger understanding and greater independence in the learning process. Instructors provide temporary support or resources that help students gain skills and improve their understanding. Then, the supportive resources are slowly removed as they are no longer needed, and the instructor gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student.
How can scaffolded instruction be applied to your course in WebAssign? Let's explore techniques discussed during Fisher College Professor Willem Wallinga's presentation Dealing with the Learning Gap to help you transform your WebAssign course with scaffolded instruction.
1. Use an Advanced Module Design to Build Self-Sufficient Learners
As you embark on scaffolding, always start with a strong structure. Professor Wallinga recommends using an Advanced Module Design. A "module" refers to anything you may think of as an assignment which includes homework, laboratory problem sets, review and self-guided practice, summative assessments or even projects. This breaks down your course design into three core steps:
2. Delivering Scaffolding to Students within Assignments
Once you have your learning objective and course content, you'll be able to construct an effective, scaffolded module using these techniques. In Dealing with the Learning Gap, Professor Wallinga demonstrates how to transform typical word problems with scaffolded instruction to increase student understanding using tutorial questions.
Begin with Tutorial Questions
Start each module by introducing students to the new topic using tutorial questions. Tutorial questions will break down the learning process to help students better understand the necessary steps it takes to solve the problem. Here are a few tips:
Tutorial questions help to close readiness gaps by walking students through problems step by step. They also add a layer of academic integrity to ensure students understand how to solve the problem rather than just look up the answer.
Slowly Remove Learning Support and Resources
As you scaffold your assignment, you'll want to consider: How much guidance are you interested in giving? How much can your students handle? When students see a topic for the first time, you want to make sure they have that support and guidance available to them along the way. At the beginning of the assignment, make learning tools available -such as Read Its, Watch Its and Master Its-as optional resources to help your students if they get stuck.
Then, as students progress through the module, slowly remove the support so eventually they are responsible for solving the problem independently. For example, you may choose questions with an abundance of learning support (Read Its, Watch Its, Master Its) toward the beginning of the assignment then follow it with a question that only has a video resource.
End with Assessment Questions and Show my Work
Now it's time for students to solve the problem independently and, if necessary, demonstrate the work they completed to do so. After students have encountered step-by-step tutorials and resources, they should be ready to apply their knowledge without assistance. At the end of the assignment, you'll want to ensure students understand the topic with an answer blank without any learning support, tutorials or resources. You can also enable Show My Work to ensure they truly understand the final topic by having them upload or annotate their thinking.
With scaffolding in assignments, you want to see evolution. You'll want to start a new topic with heavy scaffolding-tutorials and support-then slowly remove that scaffolding to move students through the learning process. In addition to scaffolding your assignments, you can also rethink how you deliver your course to students with scaffolding techniques.
3. Build Your Course with Scaffolding
A scaffolded course applies all the techniques we just learned but delivers them at a greater scale within your course. Professor Wallinga takes a three-step process to creating a scaffolded course, which he applies to his learning objectives. Even if you've already built your course, you can still apply scaffolding to your existing course.
Professor Wallinga breaks each unit into three distinct assignments:
This is just an example of one of the many ways scaffolded instruction enhances the student learning experience. Keep in mind that Course Packs are also available to make this process easier for you.
Key Takeaways
Watch the full webinar recording of Dealing with the Learning Gap presented by Willem Wallinga.