Students with learning disabilities are often not actively engaged in the learning process when being taught a new skill. It is important to remember, however, that even when students have learned the purpose of a strategy and have memorized its steps, they may still not be ready to use the strategy independently. Many teachers do this naturally when teaching a new task or strategy, whereas others need to purposefully incorporate scaffolding into their teaching styles. Likewise, scaffolding is a critical element in the teaching of instructional strategies (see the IRIS Module SRSD: Using Learning Strategies to Enhance Student Learning). Providing support, or scaffolding, is a critical component in teaching new tasks with multiple steps. Gradually, when the students are ready, support is withdrawn until the students are able to stand on their own. Like the parents in this example, teachers teaching new tasks initially have complete control and support their students fully. Soon enough, the child is walking-and running-on his own. Finally, the child is ready to take steps, though his parent’s hand might still be just inches away. Next, he might support himself by holding on to an object like a coffee table while his parents watch.
Slowly, the child is allowed to support more and more of his own weight. His feet barely touch the floor as he mimics walking. To gain a better understanding of scaffolding, consider the analogy of a child learning to walk.
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