Scaffolding in Computing

Scaffolding provides support when concepts are unfamiliar. These concepts can be basic, or advanced. All children benefit from scaffolding in computing lessons, which can gradually be withdrawn as children's confidence with a concept increases and reinstated when confidence decreases.

Often, it is the teacher who provides children with scaffolding. However, children should also have the agency and opportunity to select their own scaffolding when they need it, as well the agency to remove scaffolding when they are ready to try working without it.

Examples of scaffolding in non-computing subjects include:

• Writing frames, or cloze activities in English

• 'fill in the gaps' calculation activities in Maths, where parts of the calculation are given to the children

• Vocabulary banks in English or foreign language teaching, offering children words or phrases to select from

• Experiment write up frames in Science, helping children to structure their predictions and other aspects of scientific investigation

• Drills in sports lessons, enabling children to practise aspects of a sport before applying them

• Step-by-step drawing instructions in art, teaching children the patterns and conventions of a drawing or painting style

The benefits of scaffolding include:

• Giving children confidence by allowing them to succeed

• Reducing cognitive load by allowing children to fully focus on developing one aspect of a subject

• Focusing children's attention and learning on a desired skill or discipline

• Giving children the chance to repeat activities, something they can sometimes be reluctant to do

Providing effective scaffolding depends on teachers being clear about the skills being developed in the lesson. The teacher will provide scaffolds which develop these skills, without the need to focus on all other skills associated with work in that subject.

Scaffolding in Computing lessons

Scaffolding in Computing lessons is just as important as in other subjects. Although computers assist users with many aspects of digital creation, many children find computer use challenging, both in terms of physical and cognitive requirements. Additionally, we should have high standards for the skills and work that children produce using computers, whether they are programming, creating media work or building systems. Scaffolds are therefore as necessary in Computing as in other subjects.

Fortunately, due to the digital nature of computing work, it is often possible to quickly produce and distribute effective scaffolds for children's computing work. Here are some effective ways to scaffold work in Computing lessons.

1) Sharing partially-completed projects with children in Scratch, CoSpaces, Tinkercad or other online environments

Teachers with an account in Scratch or other online coding environments can create projects for children to use as a basis for their work. These projects let teachers provide as much, or as little scaffolding to children as needed. Teachers could provide children with a Scratch project where the code is in the wrong order, or where sections are incorrect and need debugging. The teacher could also set activities for children to practise adding loops to make code more efficient, organising work using conditional blocks etc.

This is one of the most effective ways that platforms like Scratch can be used. Providing children with a pre-started project allows them to develop their skills in particular areas, rather than always starting from a blank screen. Even providing children with the backgrounds and sprites for a project, with some initial coding lets them experience immediate success in a project, building confidence far more than if they were starting from a blank screen.

2) Cloze activities as forms, documents

As in other subjects, in Computing, children will sometimes be required to explain concepts or their ideas using words and sentences. This may be to make a prediction about how an algorithm will run, explain aspects of some code, such as why a variable has been used, explain a concept such as how a network operates, or explain an idea such as E-safety.

Just as in English or other written subjects, providing children with writing frames and vocabulary helps manage their cognitive load and enables them to focus on the area of learning. The aim in any written activity is usually to explain a specific concept and children should be able to focus on this, so that by the end of the task they have met the objective in this regard.

Using a virtual learning environment (VLE) such as Google Classroom, it is possible to share documents with groups of children or individuals according to their needs. In the same way, quizzes can be created using forms or equivalent technologies that match to learners' needs.

3) Partially completed multimedia activities

As with all forms of written or digital work, starting from nothing in a media project can be daunting for children, and risks them spending all of the lesson time on the basics, rather than having time to practise the desired skills.

Fortunately, most digital projects can be set up by the teacher, enabling children to succeed and to practised the required skills. An example of this is when working in Minecraft on a collaborative project, where the teacher can make a partially built world or buildings for the children to work on. This approach lets all children allows all children to experience success and also guides them with expectations and the scale of the buildings in the project.

Video making and editing is another skill that children might learn in Computing lessons. Using Google Drive, the teacher can upload videos, which the children can then download to their device. This lets the children all experience and practise video editing, without being dependent on them first filming their own clips.

Conclusion

Providing scaffolding in Computing lessons can often be the difference between a good and an outstanding lesson. Appropriate scaffolding focuses children on precise learning goals, enables all children to experience success and helps all children develop theirs skills, not matter their starting point.