If the educator is too far behind the child Trying to jump from level 2 to level 10 is just too much of a leap. Remember, you cannot skip the process of building upon the next level. Since you can only move up one level of the scaffolding at a time, you must adjust your support to help the child move from level 2 to level 3. In this scenario, you as the educator would be on the 10 th level of the scaffold, while the child might be at the 2 nd level. So, what happens when you haven’t provided the right level of scaffolding for a child? Let’s take a look! If the educator is far ahead of the childĪttempting to teach a preschooler complex mathematical problems would be extremely challenging – they’re simply not ready for that. In other words, children require a certain level of support in order to move on to the next level developmentally. Each level of the scaffold is supported by the level beneath it. To further understand the idea of scaffolding in early childhood education, picture a real-life scaffold. (Vygotsky called this the zone of proximal development.) Ultimately, scaffolding means matching your level of assistance to the needs of each child so they can achieve success in an activity that they would have otherwise not been able to perform by themselves. Should the child start to struggle, more specific instructions or demonstrations should be provided so the child can again make progress towards the goal. Instead, parents and early childhood educators are most successful in helping children when they vary their strategy according to the progress the child is making.įor example, if a child is on the right track to completing the task, support should be less specific and more encouraging. While there are many ways to offer support to a child, such as giving specific instructions, providing demonstrations, or offering general encouragement, no single strategy has proven to be superior. The idea was coined by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who emphasized the importance of apprenticeship and instruction in early cognitive development. In early childhood education, scaffolding involves providing the right kind of assistance when a child is working to accomplish a task. Understanding scaffolding in early childhood education Most people who spend time with young children are using a form of scaffolding every day without knowing it, just by supporting them in learning new ideas and skills. Scaffolding is the act of an educator or caregiver adjusting their support techniques to suit an individual child at a developmentally appropriate level.
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