[FRIAM] Instructional scaffolding - Wikipedia

[Eric Charles]

>
> That would be like saying of “affordance”, something you can do something
> with.


Damn it man, sometimes you can't be wrong for trying! An affordance *is*
that you can do something with something. Yes. That's what it is.
Etymologically, "affordance" is what you get when you noun the verb "to
afford". So, if that doorway affords your passing-through, then we can say
there is "an affordance" there.

You *should* be able to treat *all* such terminology as useful shorthand.
And if someone accuses you of trading in mysticism, you *should* be able to
just drop all the jargon, spend a bit longer saying whatever it is you have
to say, and make it obvious there is no mysticism.

When Gibson asserts that we can perceive affordances, he means that we
perceive opportunities to cause particular outcomes by means of our
actions. The interesting part of the assertion is *not* that we can do
different things under different circumstances. The interesting part of the
assertion is that we can perceive such things. And THAT is only really
interesting in the context of traditional theories of sensation-perception,
which would assert that only much "simpler" aspects of the world are
"perceived".

So far as I can tell from the Wikipedia article: If you are talking about
"Scaffolding the learning environment to keep the child within the zone of
proximate development", you could just as easily talk about "Giving the
child tasks they can't quite do on their own." The problem with the first
version isn't JUST that the first one is unnecessarily mysterious and
jargony, it is also a problem that the first one is somehow longer. If it
is longer, it can't even be considered a useful shorthand. Also, I am
familiar with many theories of learning, and all the theories I am familiar
with would agree that is a good strategy to moderate the difficulty of
tasks you give a learner, so I am not sure there is a context that makes
the claim interesting, once the jargon is taken out.

P.S. As for 'instruction' the Wikipedia article made a huge deal about
verbal stuff being crucial for "scaffolding"... but I agree with you that
seems pretty arbitrary... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
<echarles at american.edu>


On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 7:48 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, Eric;  there you go, shrugging again.
>
>
>
> That would be like saying of “affordance”, something you can do something
> with.
>
>
>
> Here, let me make “scaffolding” more palatable to you.
>
>
>
> To Scaffold a task, is to provide affordances for its successful
> completion.  Is that better?
>
>
>
> I don’t think providing instruction is an essential feature of
> scaffolding.  The wise parent keeps his effing mouth shut.  As a Famous
> Artist once said to me at a book signing when I asked her What could I do
> to help my prodigious artist grandson?, she said “Buy art materials!”
>
>
>
> Or as Kahil Gibran once famously said: “You are the bow from which your
> children as arrows fly; let you bending in the hands of The Archer be for
> joy.”
>
>
>
> N
>
>
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Eric Charles
> *Sent:* Saturday, April 10, 2021 2:45 PM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> friam at redfish.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Instructional scaffolding - Wikipedia
>
>
>
> This sounds like a lot of big fancy words for very simple things.
>
>
>
> From Wikipedia:
>
> Scaffolding is changing the level of support to suit the cognitive
> potential of the child. Over the course of a teaching session, one can
> adjust the amount of guidance to fit the child's potential level of
> performance. More support is offered when a child is having difficulty with
> a particular task and, over time, less support is provided as the child
> makes gains on the task.
>
>
>
> So, like.... yeah... If something is too hard for someone to do, and you
> make it easier, then he/she might be able to do it. That ain't rocket
> science. It also fits in perfectly well with operant conditioning
> approaches (i.e., shaping, chaining). There is a reason kindergarten art
> class doesn't declare you a failure if you cannot produce Raphael-esque
> realism. There is a reason someone who wants to compete a dog in a dog show
> doesn't start out expecting the dog to be able to do the whole routine.
>
>
>
> Later Wikipedia says:
>
> Vygotsky was convinced that a child could be taught any subject
> efficiently using scaffolding practices by implementing the scaffolds
> through the zone of proximal development.
>
>
>
> Is that different than *just *saying: "A child can be taught any subject
> if you give them easy bits at the start, and move to harder bits at a pace
> the child can keep up with." ??
>
>
>
> Maybe we need to add: "And if they get stuck, try giving them a bit more
> guidance." ??
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 7:08 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding#Theory_of_scaffolding
>
> Great meeting, today.  Sorry I overslept.  I promised last week to provide
> a definition of “scaffolding”,  as in to “scaffold” learning, or some other
> frail or undetermined process, so as to facilitate its success.  For me the
> clearest example of scaffolding I know is what the surgical nurse does for
> the surgeon when she (sorry) lays out his tools in order on the tray beside
> him.  It is also connected in my mind with a theory of how best to teach
> kids stuff.  Your strategy should always be somewhere in the middle ground
> between letting the kid figure it out for himself and just doing it for the
> kid. Scaffolding relates to the concept of the Zone of Proximal
> Development, which is the “space” between the tasks which the kid can do
> expertly and the tasks the kid has no idea how to do them.  So, for
> instance, in playing a game which involves say, putting blocks into
> appropriately shaped windows, the mother may do it once her self, then not
> do it herself, but hold the block in the right order in her hand near the
> child, then hold them in a scrambled order in her hand so the child has to
> select the order, and finally spill the blocks out and leave the child to
> find them himself.  So at each stage she designs her support the child’s
> idea  needs, withdrawing support as the child becomes more capable.   To me
> (and perhaps me, alone) the of scaffolding relates to the question of the
> origin of life debate because it contrasts with the idea of “self”
> organization, which I have never understood.  Instead of imagining that
> chemicals just lie about in cess pools until a miracle happens, the theory
> asserts that life was scaffolded by white smokers in the deep ocean.  White
> smokers are volcanic vents in the deep ocean floor that are constantly
> emitting a flow of very hot water laden with solutes.  As the water cools
> it forms intricate structures with minute cavities which mimic, in some
> regards, the properties of cells.  Thus the smokers (on this theory)
> scaffold life by making cell boundaries before there are cell walls to
> contain the somatoplasm .
>
> All the Erics will correct me, but that is the best I can do with my
> ambulator knowledge.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
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