The effectiveness of scaffolding in a blended learning course from students’ perspective

Abstract

Instructional approach has been shifted from teacher-centered instruction to learner-centered instruction because of the evolution in educational paradigms. Teachers, instead of being merely knowledge transmitters, become facilitators who guide learning processes and provide scaffolding to help learners construct knowledge and achieve learning goals. The considerable development of technology recent decades allows the emergence of blended learning as a combination of traditional face to face and technology-mediated learning delivery methods. This leads to benefits and challenges for teachers in providing effective scaffolding in blended-learning environments. Recent findings from research in the effectiveness of scaffolding suggest that scaffolding can be seen as an effective instructional method in various educational settings such as online and blended learning.

Using a case study, this research aims to explore how scaffolding is considered successful based on students’ perspective. In the case study setting, 20 young students (age ranging from 18 to 27) participated in a blended training course aimed at promoting their understanding about nature conservation. The 6-day training course considered as a non-formal learning activity was given under instruction of the three educators of GreenViet, a local NGO in Danang, Vietnam. The empirical data consists of students’ feedback in a questionnaire form, text-based documents generated by students and instructors during the learning process. Data collected and analyzed focuses on examining different types of scaffolding recognized and interpreted by students that have impacts on their learning. Besides, the scaffolding’s effectiveness is investigated through students’ evaluation.

The results shown the recognition of four types of provided scaffolding in a blended learning environment from students’ perspective. Besides, the students positively evaluated the effectiveness of the scaffolding and such scaffolding confirmed in the actual scaffolding manifested during the training course. That is to say, students are able to be aware of the availability of scaffolding delivered by instructors and scaffolding matters for them. However, the alignment between students’ interpretation of the instructors’ scaffolding and the actual scaffolding was not completely consistent. Furthermore, despite of the high evaluation given for the scaffolding, this is not statistically associated with what students interpreted about such scaffolding in their feedback. These findings contributed to deepen understanding of scaffolding, especially from students’ perspective on its effectiveness. Practical suggestions are provided through implications for educators/ instructors to take into consideration when designing and implementing scaffolding in blended learning environments. Possible directions for the future research are also discussed.