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learning process. Similar with the use in construction site, scaffolding will be reduced gradually or removed when the learners no longer need the assistance
because they can do the task independently. McKenzie gives another example of scaffolding as a physic structure in a
deep metaphor, “the workers cleaning the face of the Washington Monument do not confuse the scaffolding with the monument itself. The scaffolding is
secondary. The building is primary.” The concept of scaffolding is adopted as a metaphor. It has meaning that scaffolding is addressed secondary, while the
learners are the primary in the teaching learning process.
b. Scaffolding Defined
After knowing scaffolding as a metaphor, it is important to know the definition of scaffolding as a teaching technique since scaffolding is the main
topic to discuss in this study. According to Bruner 2006, the nature of tutorial process is “the means whereby an adult or ‘expert’ helps somebody who is less
adult or less expert” p. 198. The statement explains that teaching learning process happens when someone or adult who is more knowledgeable and skillful
is present to assist somebody who is less knowledgeable and less skillful. It can happen anywhere and anytime where there is a process of teaching and learning
happens, both formal and informal. What comes to teaching and learning process is a problem to be solved. The function of tutoring itself then directs to an effort
of problem solving. The issue of problem solving in achieving skill acquisition is preconditioned by an assumption that a learner is unassisted. In this condition, the
role of teacher is crucial. The teacher treats more than just an occurrence of
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modeling or imitation. Wood, Bruner, and Ross emphasize the statement that is stated:
“Discussion of problem solving or skill acquisition are usually premised on the assumption that the learner is alone and unassisted. If the social
context is taken into account, it is usually treated as an instance of modeling and imitation. But the intervention of a tutor may involve much
more than this” 199. According to them, in learning situation, more often than not, it involves a
kind of scaffolding process that support a learner to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be more effective than his unassisted efforts.
The concept of the study is brought into the use of the term of scaffolding in educational field that was introduced for the first time. The scaffolding “consists
essentially of the adult ‘controlling’ those elements of the task that are initially beyond the learner’s capacity, thus permitting him to concentrate upon and
complete only those elements that are within his range of competence” p. 199. By using scaffolding in the process, they believe that it can bring much more
benefit for the learners than undertaking a complete assistance of the task. Thus, the goal is to be successful. “The task thus proceeds to a successful conclusion.
We assume, however, that the process can potentially achieve much more eventually, in development of task competence by the learner at a pace that would
far outstrip his unassisted efforts” p. 199. The term of scaffolding as a technique in educational field has not been
popular enough in the group of teachers, but some academic researchers have studied it for years, including Graves and Braaten. They define scaffolding as the
temporary supporting process that is presented by an expert to assist learners to
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associate the existence space between the area that they have known and can do and the area they must achieve and accomplish so that they can be successful in
the learning process. It means to relate the previous learning with the new information that the learners get during the learning process, to bring them to
succeed in obtaining the goal of the learning process. Gaskins, et al. also support the idea of scaffolding for education field.
According to Rogoff, in relation with the intelligent behavior, scaffolding refers to supportive situations where adults help children or learners extending their current
skills and knowledge to a higher level of competence as cited in Gaskins, et al., 1997, 45. Gaskins, et al. 1997 quoted the significance of scaffolding by Pearson
and Fielding that, in school setting, scaffolding is whatever teachers say or do to enable children to complete the tasks they could not complete without assistance
p. 45. Scaffolding is employed not only to encourage the development of contents and strategies, but also to help students modify aspects of their personal
style that interfere within the learning p. 63. Ideally, scaffolding should take place in a friendly, lively, and enjoyable atmosphere and also collaborative
environment where children feel free and motivated to contribute ideas. It is because they are accepted as worthy consideration and their understandings are
frequently assessed. The situation, where there is an adult assistance, gives an opportunity for children to internalize knowledge of content, strategies, and
dispositions. It is expected that in the future, they will use this knowledge to guide their intelligent behavior to do similar tasks. While their competences grow, the
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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
