Scaffolding

Description
Personal Reflection | 15 minutes

This reflection activity goes more in-depth about Scaffolding, an approach to math tutoring that focuses on this important boundary between a student's comfort and discomfort with learning. Too much comfort, and learning may not happen. Too much discomfort, and students can shut down. As tutors provide the right Scaffolding, they help students enter the “learning zone,” their growing edge as they lean into the challenge of learning new skills and ideas. Click here to download this page as a PDF. This reflection activity can:

Externalize the learning experience of math students in a memorable framework.
Help tutors more accurately plan math problems that support students as they learn.

Three concentric circles showing the zone of proximal development: the comfort zone, the discomfort zone, and the learning zone.

Instructions

1. The Comfort Zone

Students are in the “comfort zone” when they can correctly complete a math problem without support. When students are given too many problems and tasks like this, learning is not optimized due to boredom and disengagement.

Reflect: When you repeat math problems from previous sessions, how did students react? When can you tell that the problems are too easy?

2. The Discomfort Zone

Students are in the “discomfort zone” when a math problem is beyond their reasonable reach regardless of support. When students are given too many problems and tasks like this, learning doesn't occur as students may feel anxious and shut down.

Reflect: Think back to a time when you introduced a math concept too early. How did students react? How did it impact their math learning? What are non-verbal signs a student may be in the Discomfort Zone?

3. The Learning Zone

Students are in the “learning zone” when an appropriately challenging math problem is paired with support from a more experienced peer or educator. When students are given problems and tasks like this, the support of tutors bridges previous learning and the present math learning challenge.

Reflect: Think of a time when a student experienced a moment of insight (‘ah ha!’). How did previous sessions build a foundation for that skill? How can you repeat this learning zone again?

Tips and Tricks

Plan a range of math problems. The “learning zone” is unique for every student. What might be too easy for one student might cause another student to struggle too much. Having a range of problems at various difficulty levels can help tutors respond in the moment to student needs and learning ability.

Learning zones are not static. When students are learning optimally, they're experiencing flow, a state where students are fully immersed, concentrated, and engaged in learning the task. Flow is maximized when students' current skill level matches the difficulty of the task given. Knowing each student's math skill level and providing the right support can help students reach this state of flow as they push toward learning new ideas and solving new math problems.

Going Deeper. Scaffolding is also known in research literature as the “zone of proximal development.” Click here to learn more insights and the history of this learning practice.

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