Las Competencias profesionales.

learning as self-relevant and applicable to life outside of school. Mentors played an extremely important role in this phase of E.B.C.E.

Scaffolding

Through resource-based learning, such as the one used in E.B.C.E., students can fully demonstrate their independence from the teacher. The role of scaffolding in resource-based learning environments usually involve students solving complex, real world problems that can be approached in different ways and have multiple solutions. These learning environments require self-regulation and sophisticated forms of cognitive processing (such as application, analysis, and synthesis) that are often problematic for novices who, by definition, do not possess the knowledge necessary to solve problems in a new content area (Brown, et al, 1986; Butler, 1998; Palinscar, 1986; Palinscar and Brown, 1984). From its inception, the scaffolding metaphor was intended to refer to a situation in which a more capable other (usually an adult) helps a child to accomplish a task in which the child shares at least an interest. Can collaborative student groups also be used to “scaffold” student learning?

In the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, use of the metaphor scaffolding

Development (ZPD) (Doolittle, 1997), defined as the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving, under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers, provided new tools to enhance the influence of adult-child interactions on children’s development (Stone, 1998). Moving the learner into the ZPD and supporting the learner to move beyond it is an essential part of scaffolding. The ZPD, one of the most used and least understood educational constructs, helps frame the negotiated nature of teaching (Stone, 1998; Wertsch, 1985).

Scaffolding is consistent with a constructivist view of teaching and learning. From the constructivist perspective, mistakes provide valuable

information about what the child understands and how he or she understands. The skilled teacher can use such information to generate prompts and hints that stimulate student reconstructive activity, such as rethinking of a situation,

resulting in a different understanding. One key component is that the teacher’s involvement in the instructional process changes as students gain competence in strategy use. The second key component is the role of dialogue (Palinscar,

1986). Through talking with teachers and more knowledgeable peers, learners are encouraged to expand and to internalize new understanding.

The most important source of scaffolding in the classroom is the teacher, (Flick, 1998) even though there is enormous diversity in the ways in which teachers provide scaffolding (Palincsar, 1986; Palincsar, Brown, & Campione, 1993). Usually, educational programs stress skill acquisition but not task

construction and transfer. To be effective, scaffolded instruction must address both skill acquisition and task construction using acquired skills while assisting learners to direct themselves successfully and create responsible leadership roles while transferring responsibility to the learner (Biemiller & Meichenbaum (1998). The key notion captured by most discussions of the scaffolding metaphor is that a joint but necessarily unequal engagement in a valued activity, with a gradual shift in responsibility. In an exploratory phenomenological study of the teacher and student roles in, and reactions to, a student-centered instructional geometry program, pairs that were more homogeneous tended to form more collaborative relationships (Hannafin, et al., 2001). The presentation of a solution up front in collaborative learning is completely opposite to the function that

Bruner (1985) assigns to the role of the adult in assisted learning.

When the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is above the cognitive ZPD, the individual is not yet able to learn. If the learning situation is above the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learning situation is beyond the capabilities of the learner. If the learning situation is within the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learner is able to learn with mediation. If the learning situation is below the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learner has already learned what is expected to be learned but the potential learning goal is beyond the current cognitive capabilities of the learner, even with mediation. If the learning situation is within the cognitive ZPD, the learner is able to learn with mediation. If the learning situation is above the motivational and cognitive ZPD, mediation could

limitations. If the learning situation is within the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learner is able to learn with mediation. If the learning situation is below the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learner has already learned from this

learning situation. If the learning situation is below the cognitive ZPD, the learner has already learned what is expected to be learned from this situation. If the learning situation is above the motivational and cognitive ZPD, learners already appreciate the value of the domain but attainment of the potential learning goal is beyond the current cognitive capabilities of the learner, even with mediation. If the learning situation is within the motivational and cognitive ZPD, the learner is able to learn with mediation.

Studies of scaffolding have shown mixed results. Some of this may be caused by inconsistent implementation of scaffolding in the classroom. For example, in a study by Dickinson and Flick (1997), there was no consistency in approaches utilized by teachers in implementing scaffolding in the classroom. Teachers who had high achieving students used scaffolding techniques extensively according to the findings of a study by Wharton-McDonald, et al., (1998). Teachers of high achieving students used scaffolding techniques

extensively to enhance the teaching practices of early elementary (K-2) teachers, according to the findings of a study by Wharton-McDonald, et al., (1998). The purpose of the study was to understand how teachers attempt to help students develop conceptual understanding of science. There was no consistency in approaches utilized by teachers in implementing scaffolding in the classroom. The kindergarten teacher used students’ ideas in each lesson, yet did not always

allow students to draw their own conclusion. One teacher focused on students’ expression of ideas, and drew the conclusions for the students because she was very concerned that students would draw erroneous conclusions if allowed to make conclusions on their own. Knowing the importance of student ideas did not guarantee recognition of all ideas according to the findings in a study of

elementary school science teachers (Dickinson & Flick, 1997). In a study of the implementation of scaffolding model in a college computer-based instruction program, students were divided into three groups (full support, scaffolded support, and the least support), the students in the full support condition did not perform significantly better than the control group. A 3-D contingent scaffolding model systematically varied the instructor’s support in response to the learner’s performance in a learning task consisting of a sequence of steps/sub-tasks. The scaffolded group got significantly higher average scores than the other two groups. (Kao, et al.,1996)

When scaffolding is implemented on a consistent basis, the results are more positive. In a Flick (1998) study of two experienced middle school science teachers, instructional scaffolding was focused on using inquiry skills and not on learning the skills themselves nor how and when to employ those skills in

scientific problems. Both teachers were active in creating scaffolds for instruction that supported learning in science in general and learning through inquiry in particular. They created learning environments and procedures that allowed students to do what they would otherwise be unable to do if unaided. The project

redesign classrooms to enable children to learn how to learn. The children were engaged in research activities in which they pursued a particular theme. Using an artful combination of benchmark lessons in which key ideas were introduced; small-group activities in which children collaboratively pursued specific topics through reading, writing, discussing, and interviewing experts; and other activities through which children developed individual expertise that they then could

contribute to the class, children were enculturated into the community practice of scholars (Palincsar, 1998).

Scaffolding can assist teachers in developing a child-centered curriculum in the classroom. The teacher and dialogue are the two most important

components in the successful implementation of scaffolding. Scaffolding can be embedded, particularly within computer programs. Two studies of embedded scaffolding within computer programming led to two completely different findings. These studies show the value of scaffolding. However, it is unclear from the findings that embedded computer programs aid scaffolding more than the

important scaffolding component, the teacher. When teachers design scaffolding strategies in the classroom, the culture of the students must be a primary

concern in the design. Students should understand that there are good reasons for what they are learning. Modeling, coaching, and scaffolding were all used as teaching strategies throughout the process of teaching E.B.C.E. Scaffolding was utilized in E.B.C.E. to assist students in achieving the ultimate goal of fading and removing a scaffold as the student takes on the full responsibility of completing the task (Meyer, 1992).

Views of Learners and Learning Related to E.B.C.E.