The Importance of Scaffolding in Child-Centered Education

10/31/2017

The Importance of Scaffolding in Child-Centered Education

Our species has demonstrated that we can walk on the moon if we put our minds to it. Now let’s turn to an even more crucial task, the creation of an earth full of people who are celebrating each other in conscious love.
Gay Hendricks and Kathlyn Hendricks, American psychologist/writer and body intelligence expert and w

"The emergence of Lev Vgotsky as a major influence on early childhood education has restored the appreciation of the importance of teaching to child-centered education. Children need a mixture of direction and freedom, direction that teachers provide by guiding children…and by providing the scaffolding (sequencing and steps) for their emerging ideas and skills. The teacher often has to present children with materials and experiences that allow them to move ahead, rather than simply allowing them to do anything in the hopes of discovery.” So wrote Jim Greenman in his very popular book, Caring Spaces, Learning Places now newly revised by Mike Lindstrom. Greenman also described the important role of teacher as listener:

"There is one truth about every educational setting: teachers talk too much and listen too little. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan describes a querulous old aunt, not as hard of hearing, but as hard of listening. Children need teachers who know that what motivates children is to have their questions answered, not the teacher’s. Teachers who stimulate more questions than they ask are truly teaching."

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