January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

This paper reports only the early evaluation of the tool. It is not within the scope of this paper to provide the details
of the summative evaluation.
Scaffolding
The concept of scaffolding is grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of assisted learning and learning potential as
described by the zone of proximal development. The term scaffolding however, was introduced by Wood, Bruner,
and Ross (1976) to mean tutoring or other assistance provided in a learning setting to assist students with attaining
levels of understanding impossible for them to achieve without assistance. The idea of scaffolding is similar to
having structures erected alongside buildings to support construction workers and later removed when the building is
completed. Scaffolding involves providing learners with more structure during the early stages of a new learning
venture and gradually turning responsibility over to them as they internalize and master the skills needed to engage
in higher cognitive functioning (Palincsar, 1986 as cited in Ludwig-Hartman &Dunlap, 2003).Scaffolding is
necessary to motivate learners and to aid them through the process of task attainment (Oliver & Herrington, 2001;
Norton, 2005). Furthermore, scaffolded learning should eventually result in self-regulated learning (Winnips &
McLoughlin, 2001). Scaffolding as a form of incremental support for learners aids them in organizing and
monitoring their learning, as they complete different stages in the inquiry process. The learners can then be
empowered to take control of their own learning.
The amount and type of scaffolding depends on the learners, the task, and the learning environment. It is the
contention of the research that an online learner would benefit from scaffolding before he or she could take on the
online learning environment on his or her own. Scaffolding may employ technology as in the case of an electronic
performance support system (EPSS), or it can be strategies such as diagnostic pre-assessment, one-to-one advising or
orientation to an online program (Ludwig-Hartman & Dunlap, 2003). As suggested by Oliver and Herrington (2001),
scaffolding is essentially a teaching strategy that involves social interaction, discussion, and collaboration. The web
has been identified as an excellent scaffolding tool due to its ability to provide devices such as email, threaded
computer conferencing, chat rooms, hyperlinked resources, and collaborative workspaces (McLoughlin, Winnips, &
Oliver, 2000). Winnips (2001) for instance, successfully constructed and evaluated the scaffolding-by-design model
that was aimed at supporting student learning via web-based learning environments. The model was based on four
aspects (task support, regulation, granularity, and management), which he termed as decision aspects. Three
categories of scaffolds are inherent in the literature: (1) cognitive, (2) meta-cognitive, and (3) affective or
motivational scaffolds. Cognitive and meta-cognitive scaffolds provide assistance, support, hints, prompts, and
suggestions regarding the content, resources, and strategies relevant to problem solving and learning management,
while motivational scaffolds involve techniques designed to maintain or improve the learner’s motivational state,
such as attribution or encouragement (Azevedo, Cromley, Thomas, Seibert, & Tron, 2003).
Motivational scaffolding in the design of the Learning console
The majority of research in the area of scaffolding involves cognitive and meta-cognitive scaffolding (El Saadawi et
al., 2010; Azevedo & Hadwin, 2005; McMahon, 2002; McLoughlin & Marshall, 2000; Cho & Jonassen, 2002;
Cicognani, 2000). Research on motivational or affective scaffolding in the online learning environment is relatively
scarce. There exist, however, notable efforts in the provision of this type of scaffolding in the work of Kim et al.
(2006); Tuckman (2007); Boyer and Maher (2004); and Boyer, Phillips, Wallis, Vouk, and Lester (2008). Kim,
Hamilton, Zheng, and Baylor. (2006), for instance, worked on a virtual peer while Boyer and Maher (2004) designed
scaffolds to facilitate online adult learners’ social, self-directed learning. Tuckman (2007), on the other hand, studied
the effect of scaffolding on the effectiveness of distance learning. Using chat rooms to run study skills support and
instructor office hours, he found procrastinating students to perform better in a motivationally scaffolded
environment. Tuckman’s scaffolding strategies are aimed at increasing the quality and frequency of learnerinstructor
and learner-learner interaction, with attention to feedback mechanisms, motivational meetings, and
personal accountability. Balancing cognitive and motivational scaffolding by choosing a corrective tutorial strategy
was found by Boyer, Phillips et al. (2008) to influence both student learning outcomes and self-efficacy gains.
It is imperative at this juncture to point out that this paper reports research that took an eclectic approach by
employing cognitive-motivational scaffolds. Some aspects of Tuckman’s research were emulated in the design of a
138