I was asked to say what scaffolding was, not to evaluate it. UT admits all students from the top10percent of their highschool classes no matter how lousy the highschools are. So, what then to do with the kids from lousy highschools. One approach is not to give them remedial courses but to main stream them, but give them eceptional levels of support in those classes, so they are learning the same material as the regular students, but getting extra help in doing it. Apparently, a lot of this extra help consists in helping a student to understand what the task is, in effect undoing BAD habits learned in impoverished learning situations. Once the kid is up to speed, the scaffold is removed.
That’s the concept. Apply whatever values you chose to it.
n
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2021 5:18 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Instructional scaffolding - Wikipedia
Regarding engaging minorities in the workforce, I have heard this claim “It is important to have someone that looks like you and has similar shared experiences in the workplace.” Isn’t this just more tribalism, as it doesn’t actually maximize diversity? If it is true, I imagine it has something to with scaffolding. This makes me wonder if scaffolding is really a good thing, or if it is an expected outcome of a struggle for power. The hypothesis is that you can’t really be you unless you build your own scaffolding.
It also reminds me of the focus of some activists for marriage equality. Essentially, the “born this way” claim. It seems to take the short-term goal by way of an assertion rather than asking the more expansive question of why would society would dare to have expectations about sexual preference in the first place?
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2021 4:08 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Instructional scaffolding - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding#Theory_of_scaffolding
Great meeting, today. Sorry I overslept. I promised last week to provide a definition of “scaffolding”, as in to “scaffold” learning, or some other frail or undetermined process, so as to facilitate its success. For me the clearest example of scaffolding I know is what the surgical nurse does for the surgeon when she (sorry) lays out his tools in order on the tray beside him. It is also connected in my mind with a theory of how best to teach kids stuff. Your strategy should always be somewhere in the middle ground between letting the kid figure it out for himself and just doing it for the kid. Scaffolding relates to the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, which is the “space” between the tasks which the kid can do expertly and the tasks the kid has no idea how to do them. So, for instance, in playing a game which involves say, putting blocks into appropriately shaped windows, the mother may do it once her self, then not do it herself, but hold the block in the right order in her hand near the child, then hold them in a scrambled order in her hand so the child has to select the order, and finally spill the blocks out and leave the child to find them himself. So at each stage she designs her support the child’s idea needs, withdrawing support as the child becomes more capable. To me (and perhaps me, alone) the of scaffolding relates to the question of the origin of life debate because it contrasts with the idea of “self” organization, which I have never understood. Instead of imagining that chemicals just lie about in cess pools until a miracle happens, the theory asserts that life was scaffolded by white smokers in the deep ocean. White smokers are volcanic vents in the deep ocean floor that are constantly emitting a flow of very hot water laden with solutes. As the water cools it forms intricate structures with minute cavities which mimic, in some regards, the properties of cells. Thus the smokers (on this theory) scaffold life by making cell boundaries before there are cell walls to contain the somatoplasm .
All the Erics will correct me, but that is the best I can do with my ambulator knowledge.
Nick
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