Scaffolding Techniques in the Flipped Classroom

The "Flipped Classroom" provides avenues for teachers to become facilitators of learning and move away from the sage on a stage approach to teaching. One of the greatest differences of the flipped classroom to traditional practices is how scaffolding techniques are use to support reasoning and the development of problem solving skills. In this first part of a two part article on scaffolding, author Mike King will explain the differences in meta-cognitive scaffolding and student support scaffolding in traditional classrooms.

Instructional content support plays an important role in designing and delivering developmental schemas within the flipped classroom. Through a technique known as scaffolding the flipped classroom teacher can provide the necessary strategies to ensure exactness of knowledge for content development. Scaffolding instruction within the flipped the facilitator of knowledge scaffolds or supports the learner’s development. The activities designed within the flipped classroom ( group work, questioning, or synchronous instruction) should provide the scaffolding of instruction that is set for the learner at the correct level of complexity and difficulty. The facilitator provides the scaffolds (learning structures needed) so that the learner can accomplish (with assistance) the tasks that he or she could otherwise not complete, thus helping the learner through the Zone of Proximal Development. 

The Flipped Classroom on Prezi

“The Zone of Proximal Development is the distance between what the learner understands within an assigned task (can do by themselves without assistance) and the next level of learning that they can complete independently through a higher conceptual level of understanding . The term "Zone of Proximal Development" was originally created by Vygotsky who defined scaffolding instruction as the “role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s development and providing support structures to get to that next stage or level. This type of learning strategy implies that the role of the facilitator in the flipped classroom must ensure both the exactness of learning and provide  support  for the student to become an independent and self-regulating learner and problem solver. The key to a successful learning experience is not at the stand alone knowledge level which in many cases classrooms of today formulate through mastery of concepts and to a lesser degree on the idea of scaffolding for reasoning.  In accordance to  Vygotsky the external supporting scaffolds can be removed once the learner has developed a more sophisticated cognitive system. Related to fields of learning (levels of knowledge) Vygotsky definition of scaffolding may not have equated the conceptual levels needed by the learner in becoming an independent problem solver.  This may mean that scaffolding within the flipped classroom always exist in some form of questioning to check for student understanding or levels of reasoning.

This becomes our first paradigm shift in comparison of today's classrooms to that of the flipped classroom. Conceptual levels of understanding content or knowledge level assessment in today's classrooms may totally rely on the students ability to master chunked levels of content. These chunked levels of learner expectations known as standards of learning may not facilitate the learners ability to reason within the content. This method of learning becomes problematic in the 21st Century since content can be generated instantaneously. With content so readily available, being published by the ePub generation may not in some cases be exact.  What is needed is the reasoning processes that helps the learner to determine the exactness of knowledge as it is filtered through multiple resources. In other words what skills will the student have to ensure that the knowledge they are obtaining through multiple resources is true and factual. This is where scaffolding becomes essential within the 21 Century learning environment. 

To access more information on "Scaffolding for Reasoning"