In every classroom, teachers walk a careful line between support and challenge. Too little help, and students flounder; too much, and they never learn to stand on their own. Scaffolding, the process of providing structured, temporary support, enables students to bridge the gap between current understanding and independent mastery. How can this be done?
1. Start with what students know
- Diagnose prior knowledge before introducing new material.
- Use quick quizzes or retrieval starters to check understanding of prerequisite concepts.
- Ask students to complete concept maps to visualise what they already know.
- Run think–pair–share discussions to surface misconceptions in a low-stakes way.
- Use self-marked multiple-choice tests so students get instant feedback and can self-assess readiness.
- Tailor teaching accordingly.
- Reinforce missing foundations through short, focused review activities.
- Challenge high-attaining students with extension questions or deeper applications.
- Make learning connections explicit.
- Use bridging language like “You’ll remember last term we learned…” or “This builds on what you did in…” to strengthen previous knowledge.
- Show how new content links with previous units or real-world examples to make learning meaningful.
2. Address misconceptions early
- Treat misconceptions as part of learning, not failure.
- When a misconception surfaces, respond with probing questions (“What makes you think that?” or “Could there be another way to see this?”) rather than simply giving the right answer. This helps students develop metacognitive awareness.
- Display past student work (with permission or anonymised) that includes misconceptions and show how it was improved. This demonstrates that refining understanding is an expected part of progress.
- Invite students to analyse why an error occurred and what it reveals about their understanding. For example, have pairs compare two answers, one correct, one containing a common misconception, and identify the reasoning behind each.
- Identify likely misconceptions in advance.
- Keep a ‘bank’ of common misconceptions in your subject, e.g., “photosynthesis produces energy” in science, or “a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction” in maths.
- Use diagnostic questions (as developed by Dylan Wiliam who promoted the idea that questions should either cause thinking or provide us with useful information that helps us teach better) to quickly reveal misunderstandings.
- Address them explicitly.
- Use worked examples that include and then correct a common error, discussing why it happens.
- Offer targeted feedback that names the misconception rather than just the mistake (“You’re assuming X, but in this case Y is true”).
- Revisit and reinforce corrections.
- Integrate quick retrieval checks in lessons to ensure that misconceptions have been replaced by accurate understanding.
3. Model and guide thinking
- Make your thought process visible.
- Use ‘think-alouds’ to verbalise how you approach a problem, e.g., narrating how you interpret a question or select key information.
- Break down complex tasks into manageable steps using checklists, or flow diagrams.
- Provide clear frameworks.
- In writing tasks, use sentence starters, paragraph frames, or exemplars to demonstrate structure.
- In problem-solving, provide partially completed examples for students to finish, promoting guided practice.
- Encourage active engagement.
- Ask students to narrate their own thinking (“Talk me through how you decided that”).
- Use co-construction where you invite students to contribute to a model answer before revealing your version.
- Promote productive struggle.
- Avoid over-explaining. Give students time to attempt, reflect, and revise.
- Offer hints or prompts instead of direct answers to nudge thinking forward.
4. Support strategically, then step back
- Offer support where it’s most impactful.
- Circulate during independent work to give targeted feedback or question prompts.
- Use visual scaffolds (e.g., success criteria on the board, graphic organisers) that students can refer to independently.
- Use formative assessment to guide decisions.
- Observe how confidently students can apply skills before reducing support.
- Collect exit tickets or short reflection tasks to gauge readiness for independence.
- Fade scaffolds gradually.
- Move from teacher-led modelling → joint construction → independent application.
- Encourage self-regulation.
- Teach students to plan their approach, monitor their progress, and evaluate outcomes.
- Use reflective prompts such as, “What helped you today?” or “What will you try differently next time?”
- Avoid over-scaffolding.
- Constant help can create dependency and reduce motivation.
- Aim for learners to stand on their own scaffold by being able to use strategies you’ve taught, but applying them independently.
