Scaffolding in conceptual science

Abstract

Scaffolding is a technique developed to improve learning activity. The technique was designed to help students noticing their goals and to provide support for the students’ needs. It is important to realize that each student has their own development tempo or Zone Proximal Development (ZPD). Therefore, every teacher is required to be able to provide teaching in accordance with each student’s ZPD. This individual difference will affect student’s method of learning and its result. In this case, this study employed a descriptive-qualitative method in order to describe the implementation of scaffolding in Situation-Based Learning (SBL). The respondents of this study were the fifth-grade elementary school students (10-12 years old) who studied the concept of Force. It was found that scaffolding technique that was optimally provided by teacher could improve students learning activity in understanding the concept. To conclude, it was revealed that learning activity using scaffolding could improve students’ learning result.