Meeting Educational Objectives in the Affective and Cognitive Domains: Personal and Social Constructivist Perspectives on Enjoyment, Motivation and Learning Chemistry - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 16

Fig. 3 Constructivist teaching involves scaffolding learning
overwhelming, even when the learner might be perfectly capable of each individual
step in the process. The teacher can scaffold such activities by initially setting
practical work that is pre-organised into small, clearly manageable steps, each of
which is straightforward for students, highlighting which previously met concepts
and skills are needed for that step and complementing this with classroom discus-
sion of the logic of the overall process. Over time, students can be asked to
undertake incrementally less structured versions of the activity, until they are able
to handle the full procedure with minimal guidance. For most students, this
transition will be partially about building up confidence, as well as about
familiarisation with the type of activity and range of component steps, preparing
them to be able to successfully complete the full process with limited teacher input.
4.6 Optimal Levels of Challenge
Judging the level of scaffolding initially needed, and the rate at which that scaf-
folding can be effectively faded, is critical to effective teaching. Oversimplifying a