Critical Analysis Of Scaffolding In Education

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Introduction
Boblett’s “Scaffolding: Defining the Metaphor” tackles the daunting tasks of defining the term scaffolding within education as it has evolved over the past two decades (Website). Boblett explores the “Theoretical Background: Origin of the Metaphor” by looking a “The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)” and “Mediation & Appropriation”; “Empirical Endeavors: Expanding the Definition” through “Expanding the Definition and Scope of Scaffolding”, “Utilizing Scaffolding in Pedagogical Approaches”, and “Refining the Metaphor: A Critical Analysis”; and “Scaffolding: The Current State of the Art” (Website). Scaffolding within education necessitates an extensive comparison of the term to other educational and non-educational terms to establish …show more content…

It can be compared to Alice falling down the rabbit hole, in the fact that she continued to add, clarify, glean, and apply a detailed explanation of pedagogical scaffolding and its application to the teaching of English Learners. Three elements in her work that stood out to me as the reader were the clarification of the terms Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), mediation, and appropriation. I was amazed to learn that Vgotsky’s theory of child development was not dependent of the ZPD but instead ZPD was viewed as “an important place and moment in the process of child development” (Website). Vgotsky only gave brief examples of work that can be included in the ZPD such as “giving demonstrations, asking leading questions, and giving part of a task’s solution” (Website). Mediation as defined “the process whereby an individual connects to and learns from the surrounding social and cultural environment” expands what is known as human intelligence and learning through the exploration of mental activities in lower forms (biologically programmed) and higher forms (complex mental activity) (Website). Appropriation as the process to intermental to intramental takes the learner from learning in isolation to learning as social and solidifies Vigotzky’s learning within social cultural theory

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