Scaffolding Research Paper
Scaffolding
C. Justice Naccarato
Pennsylvania State University
HDFS 229, Section 1
Dr. Elizabeth Essel
December 4, 2013
Conrad is a, soon to be, 5 year old boy who is very active and advanced intellectually. He would be categorized in Piaget’s preoperational stage, which is characteristic of an increase in representational activity (Berk, 2012). This is evident in how Conrad is currently playing. For example, one of his favorite things to do when he is at our house is to play “race cars” with Papa (my husband). He has a scooter that is kept at our house and the first thing he does is go to our garage to get his “race car”. He will then “set the stage” for us by making up a story of how he is a world …show more content…
In Conrad’s case, he does not seem to require much scaffolding, and much prefers to be shown something in a minimalist fashion. I’ve noticed that other children prefer different levels of scaffolding, some needing much more than others. I feel, that as adults and caregivers, it is easy to want to step in and “do it all” for the child. This, however, can be detrimental to the child’s development in that the child will not learn how to do things on their own and possibly will not develop the desire to learn new tasks. I was pleasantly surprised to see how Conrad organized and executed the task with an equal amount of ease and effort, all while demonstrating excitement and responsibility for the puzzle. His excitement made it fun and exciting for me as well. It is amazing to me the ability children have to assimilate, imitate, and learn. This experience gave me much insight into how to gauge what kind of assistance to give and at what time. As parents and adults, taking cues from children is not always something we think to do when we are trying to teach them. We forget, or don’t notice, that they will tell us what kind, if any, help they need with certain
C. Justice Naccarato
Pennsylvania State University
HDFS 229, Section 1
Dr. Elizabeth Essel
December 4, 2013
Conrad is a, soon to be, 5 year old boy who is very active and advanced intellectually. He would be categorized in Piaget’s preoperational stage, which is characteristic of an increase in representational activity (Berk, 2012). This is evident in how Conrad is currently playing. For example, one of his favorite things to do when he is at our house is to play “race cars” with Papa (my husband). He has a scooter that is kept at our house and the first thing he does is go to our garage to get his “race car”. He will then “set the stage” for us by making up a story of how he is a world …show more content…
In Conrad’s case, he does not seem to require much scaffolding, and much prefers to be shown something in a minimalist fashion. I’ve noticed that other children prefer different levels of scaffolding, some needing much more than others. I feel, that as adults and caregivers, it is easy to want to step in and “do it all” for the child. This, however, can be detrimental to the child’s development in that the child will not learn how to do things on their own and possibly will not develop the desire to learn new tasks. I was pleasantly surprised to see how Conrad organized and executed the task with an equal amount of ease and effort, all while demonstrating excitement and responsibility for the puzzle. His excitement made it fun and exciting for me as well. It is amazing to me the ability children have to assimilate, imitate, and learn. This experience gave me much insight into how to gauge what kind of assistance to give and at what time. As parents and adults, taking cues from children is not always something we think to do when we are trying to teach them. We forget, or don’t notice, that they will tell us what kind, if any, help they need with certain