Constructing Understanding and Scaffolding
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“Students learn what they care about, from people they care about and who, they know, care about them”
Barbara Harrell Carson, 1996 (Dyck, 2013)
This quote relates to the three-legged stool of learning. As previously mentioned, relationships are the basis for promoting learning and making information meaningful and relevant to students. Teachers are responsible for delivering the information, but the student is responsible for using that information, transforming it into knowledge, and applying it to their own context. This is the concept of scaffolding.
Usable knowledge "supports understanding and transfer (to other contexts) rather than only the ability to remember" (Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R.R., 2000, p.9). The definition of teaching and learning is expanding to include ways to help students concentrate on more than just memory but the creation of actual understanding of facts and the application of information. Scaffolding is the ability to provide students with whatever supports are necessary to accommodate learning and make it successful.
In my personal experience, learning was based on memorization. As students, we were taught to memorize information and replicate what we had memorized. My understanding of knowledge was built on the idea of memorization. While I still believe memorization is necessary to be knowledgeable in a certain field, there is also a crucial step missing and that is how to apply that knowledge to a variety of contexts. Scaffolding should be used to bridge the gaps between facts and knowledge, knowledge and expertise, expertise and application. Teachers need to allow students to construct their own understandings through instruction that makes them question the information and discover their own knowledge.
Barbara Harrell Carson, 1996 (Dyck, 2013)
This quote relates to the three-legged stool of learning. As previously mentioned, relationships are the basis for promoting learning and making information meaningful and relevant to students. Teachers are responsible for delivering the information, but the student is responsible for using that information, transforming it into knowledge, and applying it to their own context. This is the concept of scaffolding.
Usable knowledge "supports understanding and transfer (to other contexts) rather than only the ability to remember" (Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R.R., 2000, p.9). The definition of teaching and learning is expanding to include ways to help students concentrate on more than just memory but the creation of actual understanding of facts and the application of information. Scaffolding is the ability to provide students with whatever supports are necessary to accommodate learning and make it successful.
In my personal experience, learning was based on memorization. As students, we were taught to memorize information and replicate what we had memorized. My understanding of knowledge was built on the idea of memorization. While I still believe memorization is necessary to be knowledgeable in a certain field, there is also a crucial step missing and that is how to apply that knowledge to a variety of contexts. Scaffolding should be used to bridge the gaps between facts and knowledge, knowledge and expertise, expertise and application. Teachers need to allow students to construct their own understandings through instruction that makes them question the information and discover their own knowledge.