Scaffolds that Support Learning

Scaffolds are the supports that enable novices to carry out tasks successfully.

In my designs, the scaffolds I utilized met different needs for my learners. Each time, I was careful to consider how to provide these supports in a way that felt authentic, didn't detract from or disrupt the learning experience, and felt like a holistic system.

Scaffolds can be used to communicate a process, presenting key points of a specific stage and establishing expectations for what comes next.

In Artful Analytics, I continuously referred to the same image to describe the four-stage data-art process (see images on right). These images were printed and provided to the learners each week. The first few activities focused on one sequential stage of the process at a time.

I used a visual cue to call out what specific stage they were focusing on but always included what was to come. When facilitating the activity, I made sure to refer to each stage by the name on the sheet: collect, sort, plan, and create. These labels then became naming conventions, offering us a shared language and helping the learners connect our model to the actions of real-world data communicators.

Scaffolds that communicate a process like this can act as checklist, helping learners keep track of what they've done so far and what still needs to happen. Once the learners had experienced success at each stage individually, they then put it all together. Hypothetically, learners who kept even one of these data-art process print-outs could refer to it and complete a data-artwork on their own. This type of scaffold takes a complex task, creating a creative data visualization, and breaks it up into manageable pieces.

Scaffolds can also provide examples and contrasting cases that have affordances for helping novice learners get started building and add to their existing mental models.

In the final version of the symmetry dot grid, I suggested including a simple, image-based explanation of symmetry that packs a big punch (see image on right).

This image integrates several correct and erroneous examples of symmetry by overlaying the lines of symmetry onto the objects and including a symbol that marks "yes" or "no" for symmetry. These examples serve as contrasting cases that the learner can use to develop their own explanation for what symmetry is.

Although the image doesn't include the technical terms or a written definition of symmetry, the learner has enough visual information to see that an object is symmetrical if it can be made into at least two matched halves AND that these halves can be made around an axis (i.e., line) at any orientation that goes through the middle of the object (i.e., vertical, horizontal, radial).

Including an image-based explanation rather than a text-based one is more accessible to young learners who are still developing readers. The image is also accessible to English Language Learners as learners can still look for patterns across the examples, thereby making sense of symmetry, without understanding the three words on top.

Learners can make use of this scaffold in a number of ways:

They can immediately interact with the grid and reference this support as needed if they get stuck,
They can reference this image first and then use their interpretation of it to address the prompts, and/or
They can completely ignore it if they already know what symmetry is or there is someone with them who can explain it.

This scaffold provides a starting point so that all learners have access to the minimum amount of information needed to successfully engage with the installation.

Scaffolds can also provide specific feedback on a learner's problem solving approach so that they know how to improve.

When designing Bookmarkd, I imagined integrating a very basic intelligent tutoring system into the technology. For learners who want to improve their comprehension skills, the system would look at their reading progress and select a comprehension question that they should be able to address given what they've read so far.

The system would compare the learner's response to an "expert" and then provide feedback on their comprehension abilities demonstrated in their response (see image carousel on right).

If I were to develop this design further, the system would infer the learner's knowledge and areas of difficulty to offer personalized guidance on how to improve their skills. This type of scaffold provides coaching to the learner, helping them stick to their specified goal and prescribing a path to help them get there.