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support must be gradually shifted and the learner should take on more responsibility for completing the task p. 45-6. Gaskins, et al. conclude that:
scaffolding means explaining, demonstrating, and jointly constructing an idealized version of a performance. Scaffolding includes recruiting the
student’s interest, reducing the number of steps so the task is manageable, maintaining students’ persistence toward the goal, making critical features
evident, and controlling frustration and risk p. 47.
Above all, Riley 2011 states in his book that, “the scaffold is the potentiality of each individual to act and react” to a guidance, guided by “those
who have been entrusted with their care, because they cannot do it on their own.” Scaffolding is provided assistance in order to bring out learners’ potentiality to
respond to it because they cannot complete the task by their own. He also supports that the term of scaffolding in an educational field is a useful and appropriate term
since “it is a solid and yet transitory structure, semi permanent, rather than fixed, changeable with will be unlike a foundation, able to be modified without
destroying the structure itself” p. 21. He gives an understanding that scaffolding is not the same with building a foundation on students since a foundation is a
permanent structure that becomes a base before going further to the next process of learning. Scaffolding can be modified, based on the condition and the situation
happen around the students and along the process of learning. Scaffolding is flexible by following the happening moment and it will not destroy the structure.
On the other hand, scaffolding will develop the base.
c. Scaffolding as a Teaching Technique
Sometimes students find difficulties in completing their tasks by their own. In that case, students need someone who is qualified enough to assist them
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mastering some skills in a collaboratively way. This idea becomes the strategy of scaffolding. According to Herber and Herber, as quoted by Lange 1993, there
are processes to be applied in the use of scaffolding. The instructor to call someone who assists a student or students in their learning initially comes with
extensive instructional support. The instructor then continues with some assistance in building students’ understanding of new content and process. When
these processes have been done, the instructor is no longer assisting the students since they internalize the content and the process and later they are assumed to
have full responsibility for controlling the progress of a given task. It means that the instructor has removed the temporary scaffolding and shifts to build the
permanent structure of students understanding pp. 138-9. Turnbull et al. shares the similar idea with Herber and Herber in relation to
scaffolding processes. According to Turnbull et al., scaffolding involves two major steps. The first step is the instructional plans to lead the students to
associate the knowledge they have already known and possessed with the new material in order to acquire deeper understanding. Thus, they can perform the
progress of the learning process in the future. The second step is the fulfillment of instructor presenting support for the students while completing every step to be
taken in the learning process as cited in Lange, 1999. The significance of scaffolding is the adult’s direct contribution in
assisting and monitoring students learning process. Teachers or instructors must provide all information that students need to complete given tasks in order to
achieve the learning objectives. Teachers provide detailed advice, manage
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direction of the students’ attention, and watch the sequence of students’ activities. These are necessary in order to perform students’ ability within the scaffolded
teaching environment. Jones states that “gradually, with scaffolding, children are able to direct their own attention, plan, and control their activities” as cited in
Henry. According to Roehler and Cantlon 1997, there are five different types of
scaffolding, yielded from the research they had established. They are pp. 16-7: 1 Offering explanations
The first type of scaffolding consists of explanations. To contribute the scaffolding in teaching learning process, the teacher provides detail and explicit
explanations to the students about the knowledge they are learning, the purpose of the learning, when they can apply the knowledge, and also the application of the
knowledge. It is to prepare the students to go further and deeper to the material they will learn.
Explanations are explicit statements adjusted to fit the learners’ emerging scaffoldings about what is being learned declarative or prepositional
knowledge, why and when it is used conditional or situational knowledge, and how it is used procedural knowledge p. 17.
2 Inviting students participation The second element of scaffolding that teacher can use in the classroom is
inviting students participation. Through this type of scaffolding, teacher can explicitly or implicitly allow the students to be involved in the process of
learning. To accommodate the students to feel invited, teacher firstly gives them the example of thinking, feelings, or actions that will be needed to complete the
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task. Being given the activity, students are provided a time to comprehend the knowledge.
In this type of scaffolding, learners were given opportunities to join in the process that was occurring. After the teacher provided illustrations of some
of the thinking, feelings, or actions that were needed to complete the task, the learners had opportunities to fill the pieces they knew and understood.
3 Verifying and clarifying student understandings This type of scaffolding is also the important element to apply. Teacher
has to check the students’ understanding that appears when the learning process is in progress. There is a condition when students present their understandings and it
seems to be reasonable. Teacher’s duty is to confirm that their thoughts are acceptable. If students say their understanding but it seems unreasonable, the
teacher can clarify their responses. Teachers checked the students’ emerging understandings. If the emerging
understandings were reasonable, the teacher verified the students’ responses. If the emerging understandings were not reasonable, the teacher
offered clarification.
4 Modeling of desired behaviors Duffy, Roehler, and Hartman state that “modeling was defined as a
teaching behavior that showed how one should feel, think, or act within a given situation” as cited in Roehler and Cantlon, 1997, p. 20. A teacher is the role
model that teaches the students such required behavior. Later on, students are expected to follow, imitate, and process the feeling, thought, and action like what
they are modeled. The teacher demonstrates how to make a process of thinking aloud in order to accomplish the task. Hereby, the students are given such model
on how to complete a task without thinking aloud or with talking aloud.
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The modeling, based on Roehler and Cantlon analysis, are broken down into two main functions. The first function is called making thinking visible,
including thinking aloud. It occurs when the teacher models how to think sequentially to construct own understanding. The students follow the same way in
order to attempt to solve an issue. Indeed, this process is difficult since it can be obtained usually after a number of students contribute clues. The second type of
modeling is found as question and comment generation. It can be categorized as talk-aloud modeling.
5 Inviting students to contribute clues In the learning process, the teacher should give students motivation and
stimulation to contribute clues when completing the task given. When few students can take part in contributing clues, the teacher can help them interpreting
their opinion and verbalizing them. While the process is taking place, the teacher encourages the students to say aloud about what clue they are trying to reveal.
The fifth type of scaffolding was one in which several students contributed clues for reasoning through the issue or problem. In this form of
scaffolding, learners were encouraged to offer clues about how to complete the task. Together, the teachers and students verbalized the
process 27. Having learned the types of scaffolding, the writer hereby managed a
study to identify the occurrence of those five types of scaffolding and figure out what functions are obtained from the use of scaffolding during the English
conversation class best fitted. This theory is used to seek the answer of the first research question.
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According to Henry 2002, scaffolding is not an isolated teaching technique. Instead, teacher should employ scaffolding technique by increasing the
difficulty constantly. In other words, scaffolding should be rotated in the use. Nevertheless, student centered is the majority of the instruction, yet, the presence
of the teacher to support the students is essential. According to Bransford, Brown, and Cooking 2000, the scaffolding
provided in learning process exists for kind of activities and tasks that: 1 Motivate or enlist the child’s interest related to the task
2 Simplify the task to make it more manageable and achievable for a child 3 Provide some direction in order to help the child focus on achieving the goal
4 Clearly indicate difference between the child’s work and the standard or desired solution
5 Reduce frustration and risk 6 Model and clearly define the expectations of the activity to be performed
Van Der Stuyf quotes Hartman’s statement that scaffolding in the educational setting may include models, cues, prompts, hints, partial solutions,
think-aloud modeling and direct instruction. A teacher can also use a problem and complete a task. The teacher will get various responds from the students after
giving questions. The correct answers must be expected, but the fact is, the answer can always be wrong. Therefore, the teacher can increase the level of
questioning or specificity until the students are able to provide a correct response. This kind of scaffolding is presented in the following example. According to
Olson and Platt as qcited in Van Der Stuyf, they state:
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“… if you receive no response or an incorrect response after asking the question, ‘How do we change lady to ladies?’ you should proceed with a
more intrusive verbal prompt, ‘What is the rule?’ to remind the student that there is a rule. If necessary, continue with, ‘What do we do when a
word ends in y to make it plural?’ to give the student a part of the rule.” When the teacher observes that the students’ comprehension have evolved,
the amount of questions should be decreased step by step until students can do the task independently without prompting.
As the consequences of following scaffolding technique, a teacher can have their students working collaboratively. It means that students do their task
within their groups as well as individually, but still with teachers’ assistance. Hartman states that, “this can serve as a step in the process of decreasing the
scaffolds provided by the educator and needed by students” as cited in Van Der Stuyf, 2002.
According to McKenzie 2000, there are eight characteristics of scaffolding:
1 Provide clear directions A teacher provides step-by-step instructions that give clear explanation
about what students must do to complete their task and to reach the goal. It is done in order to avoid problems or misunderstanding that students might
encounter during the learning process. Through scaffolding, teachers reduce students’ confusion. Avoiding the confusion can support the effort to achieve
success in teaching learning process.
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2 Clarify purpose A teacher explains the learning purpose and keeps students’ motivation
during the lesson. By using scaffolding, the teacher helps students to understand the meaning and the worth of the lesson. Students are led to consider about why
they are doing the work and why it is important. With understanding the purpose of the lesson clearly, the students can be motivated to do the process as they keep
in mind about where they will go and what they will achieve. 3 Keep students on task
According to McKenzie 2000, scaffolding is “somewhat like the guard rail of a mountain highway.” Scaffolding provides pathway for the learners to
keep on track. When the teacher provides clear directions, they are more than just directions, but also structure and guidance, which provide steps to keep students
on the designated task. There will be more than one step to choose, but students will not be lost because they are controlled while the activities are in progress.
Along the process of the scaffolding, the presence of the teacher is essential to guide the students, until there is a right time to let students learn without the
teacher assistance, but the teacher keep watching them ever since. 4 Offer assessment to clarify expectations
Assessment is one important aspect in teaching learning process. From the very beginning, the teacher has given examples of work quality done by others.
The examples given are the way the teacher offers the assessment. The teacher shows standards that define expectations. Students accept the standards so they
are able to identify the process that they must carry out to meet the expectations
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clarified. In the end of the teaching learning process, the expectations are fulfilled by students, as well as by the teacher.
5 Point students to worthy sources In order to complete a task, a teacher provides sources to avoid students
from being confused and frustrated. The sources are also useful to shorten the time in carrying out the task given. Provided by sources, students are about to
decide which sources they will use. 6 Reduce uncertainty, surprise and disappointment
A teacher examines every step taken by students during the lesson to see what possibly goes wrong. It is to reduce frustrations within students so the
learning process can be effective and efficient. Then, the teacher refines the lesson to eliminate the difficulties that might happen. The teacher hereby watches the
students to carry out the activities, in which they gain new insights of what they have carried out.
7 Deliver efficiency Since scaffolding used in the lesson shows focus, clarity, and time on task,
scaffolding offers efficiency because students are channeled to their task in such good ways. “Scaffolding lesson still require hard work, but the work is so well-
centered on the inquiry”. Scaffolding encourages students to create work effort in order to do tasks and activities given in the class.
8 Create momentum “The channeling achieved through scaffolding concentrates and directs
energy in ways that actually build into momentum.” It is a moment when students
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are provoked and inspired to have thoughts in their mind and to accumulate insight and understanding.
2. English Conversation Class
