Essay Sample on Scaffolding in the Early Childhood Classroom

Introduction

In learning, different approaches are all designed to assist children in learning thoroughly and effectively. Some strategies work well when they are together whereas others do better whenever they are implemented individually. Scaffolding refers to the act of parents or educators of changing their support strategies to suit a child to a level that is developmentally appropriate. Most people who work with the young children usually use a type of scaffolding every day although they do not know it when they are supporting their students and children in learning new skills and ideas. Therefore, Scaffolding involves the kind of help that is provided when children are working to attain a given task. No particular strategy has been proven to be superior that may be used to provide support to children such as providing specific instructions regarding what to do, showing children through demonstration what to do, or giving general encouragement whenever they are not on the correct track. In education, the idea behind scaffolding is that the teacher offers activities that are just slightly above the ability of the students. These activities entail skills that the students have already mastered and some new goals of learning. Through the help from a teacher and use of previously acquired skills, students can carry out a new activity which eventually results in the building of new skills. This paper will discuss daily, weekly, and quarterly ideas involving scaffolding practice and how the method may be attached at homes.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

One of the daily ideas that promote scaffolding in the early childhood classroom is assisting children with their school work. The act of helping children with the schoolwork such as homework assignments is sometimes a problem for children as well as families. According to Kearn, (2000), schoolwork may also create an opportunity for the care providers and parents to get to understand what their children are learning at their schools and to promote their learning. Children usually learn better whenever they have the opportunity of practicing and sharing at their homes what they have been learning when in school. However, it is not recommended that the care providers or parents offer all the answers when their children experience difficulties with their schoolwork. Therefore, the role of the care providers or parents in helping their children with homework is only to guide the thinking and learning of children and support them to attempt the schoolwork for themselves.

Another daily idea that care providers and parents may incorporate when supporting scaffolding in the early childhood development is prompting children. According to Pentimonti & Justice, (2010), the act of a parent and the caregivers inspiring the children is aimed at extending their way of thinking. One way of inspiring children is through asking them to think about any given something which is relevant. Children are made to feel about significant things in their learning which boost their creativity. The other manner in which prompting children may be attained is by having the care providers and parent asking children to think about all available alternatives that can solve the challenges they are facing in their school work. This expands the thinking of children by making them about several ways in which they could be used in coming up with a solution to the problems encountered in the classroom. The other way of extending the thinking of children would be having the parents as well as caregivers providing support when thinking through challenging tasks. The parents and caregivers may help their children by thinking about the difficulties in the classroom together. Co-participating is an essential strategy in prompting children to come up with the right answers to a given task via completion of the schoolwork with another individual. The next plan in inspiring the children is eliciting. This strategy includes making the children come up with the correct answers by offering an exact approach to typical responses.

One weekly idea that may promote the practice of scaffolding in the early childhood classroom is giving feedback. This is significant in developing of self-help skills of children. Giving of feedback entails responding to the behaviors and activities of children which is a basic of early childhood direction. The level at which teachers and parents provide feedback is used as a way of determining if the children learning is occurring. In this manner, the teachers and parents will use little correction that is significant in facilitating the success of children. The teachers allow the children to try the task and giving helpful and appropriate correction (Jacobs, 2001). Making of proper recognition of the success of children affirms typically the individual abilities of the child which encourages the child to start reflecting on their accomplishment increasing the chances of completing the task when they re-encounter the same challenge.

One example of a quarterly idea involving scaffolding is assisting in the process of building the learning of children. The care providers and the parent may scaffold the knowledge of the children through coaching and leading them towards developing their answers. For certain things, children can require lots of assistance. This is usually relevant when handling cases that involve the learning of new ideas. While the abilities of the children develop, they gradually become much independent in their process of learning new things. When children have grown independent during the building of their learning, it is recommended that the care providers and the parent to begin minimizing their scaffolding (Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, & Chinn, 2007). The care providers and parents scaffold the learning of children through coaching and leading them towards accomplishing a given task. This provides a way through which children can learn and increase the chances for the children to succeed in the early childhood learning.

Scaffolding in the early childhood classroom may be attached to home through modeling of the thought processes of children. Just like the children in schools usually are found talking aloud to themselves to help their learning, parents, and caregivers at home may help through voicing of their thoughts to assist children in developing certain ways about how they may learn the process of solving problems on their own. This can be attained by having parents and caregivers at home providing both the answer and explanation to the challenges that their children have in the schoolwork (Anghileri, 2006). This is usually perceived as the highest level of support. Parents and caregivers at home may then start withdrawing their level of comfort when they realize that their children have begun comprehending and demonstrating the concept of learning on their own. When caregivers and parents voice their strategy of solving issues, they help the children in thinking about solutions to the challenges they face with their schoolwork (Gibbons, 2002). Therefore, parents may attach the practice of scaffolding at their home through teaching their children how they should state a problem, develop the probable solutions, examine the available alternatives, and make the logical conclusion that is suited to solve a given schoolwork issue.

Another way in which the parents and care providers may attach the practice of scaffolding at homes is through simplifying the task their children want to accomplish regarding schoolwork. This happens when parents and care providers at home reduce the steps required to achieve a given activity. At home, parents and caregivers may accomplish this through breaking of the schoolwork tasks into smaller sections or by minimizing the available alternative. Additionally, the caregivers and parents at home may help in simplifying tasks when they verbally limit the other options available for the children like using several choices as well as yes-no questions. In many cases, parents at home will start with the open-ended and more challenging inquiry and then offer alternatives whenever their children are unable to answer or understand the question. Parents and care providers at home may break the tasks into simple actions which they can accomplish.

Conclusion

To conclude, the infrequent usage of scaffolding approaches by parents and teachers can be partial as a result of the fact that the process of scaffolding is challenging and complex which needs integration of several knowledge sources of the art of parents and teachers. However, when given the right information concerning the use of scaffolding in the classroom, the learning of the children would be enhanced both in at school and when in the home. Daily ideas that promote scaffolding in an early childhood classroom include assisting schoolwork and prompting children. The weekly strategy comprises providing feedback while quarterly idea involves building the learning of children. Scaffolding practice may be extended at homes through modeling the children's thought process and simplifying tasks.

References

Anghileri, J. (2006). Scaffolding practices that enhance mathematics learning. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 9(1), 33-52.

Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom (Vol. 428). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Duncan, R. G., & Chinn, C. A. (2007). Scaffolding and achievement in problem-based and inquiry learning: a response to Kirschner, Sweller, and. Educational Psychologist, 42(2), 99-107.

Jacobs, G. M. (2001). Providing the scaffold: A model for early childhood/primary teacher preparation. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29(2), 125-130.

Kearn, C. M. (2000). Affecting the Future: The Role of Appropriate Scaffolding in the Development of Social Competence.

Pentimonti, J. M., & Justice, L. M. (2010). Teachers' use of scaffolding strategies during reading aloud in the preschool classroom. Early childhood education journal, 37(4), 241.