Social Scaffolding Research Articles

Crossing the border between postcolonial reality and the ‘outer world’: Translation and representation of the third space into a fourth space

Stemming from poststructuralist interpretations of space and following Bhabha’s third space enunciation, in this paper we have coined the term fourth space and used this concept as a heuristic tool to address the need to establish a coherent standpoint for the analysis of postcolonial literature reception within a society with no immediate relation to the specific decolonisation process of the author’s country. We explore this concept through the case of the Spanish reception of African postcolonial literature. In Spain, this perspective has remained under-theorised in an era when representation of hybridity is at a vital point, since such representation will provide the social scaffolding for each person’s identity construction. Under these circumstances, literature can be transformative and the role of translation as a decolonising tool can help to create unbiased knowledge through an ethical interpretation of the original texts. We will analyse how those differentiating elements affect the translational process.

Visual Constancies Amidst Changes in Handled Objects for 5- to 24-Month-Old Infants.

Manual skills slowly develop throughout infancy and have been shown to create clear views of objects that provide better support for visually sustained attention, recognition, memory, and learning. These clear views may coincide with the development of manual skills, or that social scaffolding supports clear viewing experiences like those generated by toddlers during active object exploration. This study used a head-mounted eye tracker to record 5- to 24-month-olds' object views during repeated mother-infant play sessions (Ns=18). Results show an early beginning of scaffolding in which parents generate views similar to those of older infants and toddlers, resulting in increased fixations to objects. The finding implicates parents as early scaffolders of object attention and learning.

Metacognitive scaffolding boosts cognitive and neural benefits following executive attention training in children.

Interventions including social scaffolding and metacognitive strategies have been used in educational settings to promote cognition. In addition, increasing evidence shows that computerized process-based training enhances cognitive skills. However, no prior studies have examined the effect of combining these two training strategies. The goal of this study was to test the combined effect of metacognitive scaffolding and computer-based training of executive attention in a sample of typically developing preschoolers at the cognitive and brain levels. Compared to children in the regular training protocol and an untrained active control group, children in the metacognitive group showed larger gains on intelligence and significant increases on an electrophysiological index associated with conflict processing. Moreover, changes in the conflict-related brain activity predicted gains in intelligence in the metacognitive scaffolding group. These results suggest that metacognitive scaffolding boosts the influence of process-based training on cognitive efficiency and brain plasticity related to executive attention.

How self-generated labelling shapes transfer of learning during early childhood: The role of individual differences.

Multiple factors influence imitation during toddlerhood, including task complexity, social contingency, and individual differences. We conducted a secondary data analysis of individual differences in self-generated labelling using data collected from a complex puzzle imitation task with 355 2- to 3-year-olds. This analysis indicated that toddlers' ability to label the completed puzzle (fish or boat) was associated with better imitation performance. Labelling occurs during social interactions; therefore, our second analysis tested how labelling differed as a function of the level of social scaffolding in each condition. This analysis revealed that self-generated labelling was lower when the social demonstrator was removed and the task was presented on a touchscreen. This study is one of the first to examine self-generated labelling during a complex imitation task in toddlers and increases our understanding of the complexity of memory processing needed for imitation learning. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Toddlers exhibit a transfer of learning deficit from 2D media, including books, TV, and tablets. Self-generated labelling enhances children's learning, through attentional and cognitive mechanisms. Children are sensitive to reduced social cues in screen media contributing to the transfer deficit. What does this study add? Self-generated labelling is associated with better goal imitation performance. Self-generated labelling occurs more frequently under social conditions.

Using tablets in free play: The implementation of the digital play framework in Greece

AbstractThe use of tablets in a Greek kindergarten class (16 children aged 4–5) under the digital play framework (Bird & Edwards, 2015) is explored in this study. The Vygotskian framework was adapted with permission in the Greek language and socio‐cultural context. The aim was to understand children's use of new, touchscreen technologies, but also to identify a useful way to observe the progression of that engagement. The project lasted for 4 months and children were observed ten times (written and video recorded observations). Children were observed in pairs or small groups during their free play with the tablets. Findings suggest that the adapted framework was particularly helpful, when observing children, but could benefit from more flexibility and a less linear structure. Children went through the different stages of the framework using social scaffolding as their most dynamic strategy. This study is significant as it reports on an underexplored context going through a range of social and political transformations (Greece), but also because it provides further insights on how to more efficiently document and assess children's play with technology.

Promoting Social Scaffolding Behaviors in Staff Members and Peer‐Directed Behaviors Among Persons With Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities: An Intervention Study

AbstractPersons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) present limited peer‐directed behaviors toward their peers with PIMD. It is not clear how staff can facilitate and promote the mutual peer‐directed behaviors between persons with PIMD. In this study, we explored if peer‐directed behaviors among persons with PIMD can be increased by an intervention that is focused on training the staff in providing social scaffolding behaviors toward their clients. An A‐B‐B′‐C design was used in this study. A baseline condition was followed by two intervention conditions and a follow‐up. Four staff members participated in a training in which they were informed about peer interactions in persons with PIMD and learned how to promote these interactions. They developed a peer interaction supportive activity. This activity was provided to two persons with PIMD for 10 weeks. Social scaffolding behaviors of staff as well as peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD were coded during videotaped observations. A significant increase of social scaffolding behaviors of staff members was observed during the intervention with a significant decrease at follow‐up. Significantly, more singular and fewer multiple peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD were observed during the intervention. Both singular and multiple peer‐directed behaviors decreased again at follow‐up. A short training of staff members already positively affects their social scaffolding behaviors and increases the amount of peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD. However, the amount of both behaviors decreased again at follow‐up. This argues to broadly apply this training in services and schools for persons with PIMD and to complement it with continuing staff coaching on this topic.

Examining the role of teacher presence and scaffolding in preschoolers’ peer interactions

ABSTRACTThe current study aimed to examine the associations between teacher presence and social scaffolding and preschool children’s peer interactions. Using a time sampling method, peer interactions of 22 four- and five-year-old preschoolers (12 girls; Mage = 52.95 months) and teacher behavior were observed on two different days during various classroom activities in seven public preschool classrooms. Eco-behavioral analyses revealed that (a) teacher presence was negatively associated with positive peer interactions; (b) teacher absence was positively associated with negative peer interactions; (c) positive change of peer interactions was more likely to occur when the teacher was present; (d) children showed more positive peer interactions during child-directed activities than during adult-directed activities or daily routines and transitions; and (e) teacher’s social scaffolding was positively associated with children’s positive peer interactions although it occurred only for 3.61% of the intervals during which the teacher was in close proximity to children. In addition, although the likelihood for children’s positive interaction was over 2 times higher in child-directed activities in comparison to adult-directed activities, teacher presence still seems very important for inhibiting negative peer interactions.

How pre-service teachers internalize the link between research literacy and pedagogy

ABSTRACTEnabling pre-service teachers to develop a critical view of their practice and to acquire the higher order inquiry skills necessary for pedagogic research has been and continues to be a challenge. The present study presents a unique intervention in the training of pre-service teachers in research literacy (RL) skills using a Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach. The intervention is implemented in two different Learning Communities (LC), one online and the other blended. Both immediate and long-term effects of PBL are investigated as are the effects of social and direct scaffolding within the LCs. The study focuses on transmitting the following RL skills: identifying and defining a problem, formulating a research question, and designing a research method. The findings indicate an immediate effect upon all RL skills in both LCs. The long-term effect appears only in the online LC and only for two RL skills: identifying and defining problems. Additionally, there is greater use of social scaffolding in formulating and designing a research study in the online LC than in the blended learning community. Those findings are then interpreted in terms of retention capacity and scaffolding in blended and online LCs.

Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Fin-de-siècle Spanish Literature and Culture eds. by Jennifer Smith y Lisa Nalbone

Reviewed by: Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Fin-de-siècle Spanish Literature and Culture eds. by Jennifer Smith y Lisa Nalbone Óscar Iván Useche Jennifer Smith y Lisa Nalbone (Eds.). Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Fin-de-siècle Spanish Literature and Culture. Nueva York: Routledge, 2017. 214 pp. Jennifer Smith and Lisa Nalbone's edited volume is a timely and necessary addition to the current scholarship in peninsular studies. The nine essays included in the collection explore the intersection of race, class, gender, and nation as the point where many of the processes of identity formation in fin-de-siglo Spain converged. As the editors make clear, the unstable nature of Spanish identity was the result of complex dynamics of social exclusion that affected cultural production at all levels. This intricacy prompts a vast array of subjects of analysis that makes the overarching goals of the compilation at once ambitious and enlightening. To facilitate the dialogue among contributions, Smith and Nalbone grouped the essays around three thematic axes: transatlantic interactions, race, and national identities, an organization that also serves the purpose of highlighting the most urgent preoccupations that surfaced in the country after its demoralizing decline as imperial power at the turn of the twentieth century. Given the richness of topics and problems studied, the editors recognize that "there is no single conclusion to be drawn from the texts" (16); instead, Intersections constitutes a sort of reference volume in which Hispanists will find a collection of innovative and fresh approaches to the study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish cultural production. All the essays in the compilation acknowledge and draw from the most recent scholarship on race, gender, social class, and national identity in Spain. Authors such as Jesús Cruz, Joshua Goode, Susan Martin-Márquez, Lisa Surwillo, or Akiko Tsuchiya are widely discussed throughout the different contributions. From those analytical perspectives, the studies explore the multiple symbolic mechanisms with which writers, intellectuals, and artists in fin-de-siglo Spain incorporated the racial and social other into their assessments of the country. The inclusion of Hommi Bhabha, Sander Gilman, Judith Butler or Edward Said's ideas in the theoretical framework proposed by the editors thus provides the conceptual guidelines to follow the essays' innovative take on social heterogeneity. These thinkers theorize our problematic fascination with the other from psychoanalytical and postcolonial perspectives, proposing that stereotyping and rejection are some of the social devices we develop to cope with the anxieties of confronting difference. One context where these mechanisms become particularly visible is the sometimes-overlooked relationship between Spain and its late colonies. The first section of the text focuses precisely on these exchanges, offering a gendered vision of colonialism that reframes the issue of purity and ultimately questions Eurocentrism. In chapter one, "Challenging Pasts, Exploring Futures: 'Race,' Gender, and Class in the Fin-de-siècle Essays of Rosario de Acuña, Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer, and Belén Sárraga," Christine Arkinstall contends that for these three authors belonging to the Spanish nation depended on an artificial social scaffold built upon racial and gender categories. To explain and justify this discriminatory structure, in their essays the writers focus on liminal subjects that underline the contrasts between the metropolis and its colonies, between the [End Page 115] working classes and the bourgeoisie, and between rural and urban spaces, divergences that in the end speak for the regulation of feminine desire as an organizational device (25). For Arkinstall, one of the most valuable aspects of these perspectives on colonialism is the fact that the writers were "themselves colonized within their patriarchal context" (39) and, at the same time, they were colonizers from the point of view of their social status and racial origin. This dual condition, however, boosted their deconstruction of colonial subjectivities and refined their assessment of the fears and hopes of a declining society. Arkinstall's essay works well as a critical framework to understand how the cultural production of the time contributed to the construction of transatlantic imaginaries. While Acuña, Gimeno de Flaquer, and Sárraga's non-fiction works present different perspectives on the colonial...

The Ghost in the Touchscreen: Social Scaffolds Promote Learning by Toddlers.

This study examined the effect of a "ghost" demonstration on toddlers' imitation. In the ghost condition, virtual pieces moved to make a fish or boat puzzle. Fifty-two 2.5- and 3-year-olds were tested on a touchscreen (no transfer) or with 3D pieces (transfer); children tested with 3D pieces scored above a no demonstration baseline, but children tested on the touchscreen did not. Practice on the touchscreen (n=23) by 2.5- and 3-year-olds prior to the ghost demonstration did not improve performance. Finally, children who learned the puzzle task via a social demonstration and were tested on the touchscreen (n=26) performed better than the ghost conditions. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that social demonstrations enhance learning from novel touchscreen tools during early childhood.

Teacher Adaptations to a Core Reading Program: Increasing Access to Curriculum for Elementary Students in Urban Classrooms

ABSTRACTThis article examines how three urban elementary school teachers adapted pedagogical strategies from a school district–adopted core reading program to increase their students’ access to the curriculum. Using teacher interviews and classroom observations to construct a descriptive case study of teacher adaptation, analysis reveals that the teachers: (a) provided social scaffolds that engaged students in a reading community, (b) repositioned students as active participants in constructing knowledge, and (c) embedded reading within authentic experiences. Results suggest that increased attention to when, how, and why teachers make adaptations to core curriculum programs is needed to ensure student access.

The nature of peer-directed behaviours in children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and its relationship with social scaffolding behaviours of the direct support worker.

The multiple and complex disabilities of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) form a barrier for peer interactions and peer-directed behaviours. In this study, we further explore the nature of peer-directed behaviours in persons with PIMD and its relationship with social scaffolding behaviour of direct support workers (DSWs). Fourteen dyads of children with PIMD, who knew each other for at least 12 months, participated. They were sitting in close proximity while they were filmed with and without the presence of the DSW. Video recordings were coded continuously making use of observation schemes for the peer-directed behaviours of the children and the peer interaction influencing behaviours of the DSW. Significantly more singular peer-directed behaviour (without DSW: 18.00%; with DSW: 3.81%) was observed than multiple peer-directed behaviour (without DSW: 4.01%; with DSW: 0.52%). The amount of time the singular and multiple peer-directed behaviours were observed was significantly lower in the presence of a DSW. When the DSW shows peer interaction influencing behaviour, it was mostly social scaffolding behaviour (2.17%). The conditional probability of observing social scaffolding behaviour in the 10 s following on singular peer-directed behaviour was 0.02 with a Yule's Q of 0.04 and following on multiple peer-directed behaviour 0.04 with a Yule's Q of 0.33. The way in which peer interactions in children with PIMD are defined could have an impact on the amount of observed peer-directed behaviours and on the effect of the social scaffolding behaviours presented by DSW.

How Media Literacy Supports Civic Engagement in a Digital Age

Young people are making active use of the Internet in ways that may or may not contribute to civic engagement. Whereas some scholars believe that civic engagement arises naturally from digital media use, others believe that media literacy education is needed to provide the cognitive and social scaffolding that systematically supports civic engagement. Research with a sample of 400 American high school students explores the relationship between participation in a media literacy program, academic ability, frequency of Internet use, information-gathering motives, news and advertising analysis skills, and the intention toward civic engagement. Findings show that students in a selective-admission media literacy program have substantially higher levels of media knowledge and news and advertising analysis skills than other students. Participation in a media literacy program was positively associated with information-seeking motives, media knowledge, and news analysis skills. Moreover, information-seeking motives, media knowledge, and news analysis skills independently contributed to adolescents' intent toward civic engagement.

Teachers’ and Students’ Negotiation Moves When Teachers Scaffold Group Work

Group work has been a main activity recommended by mathematics education reform. We aim at describing the patterns of interaction between teachers and students during group work. We ask: How do teachers scaffold group work during a problem-based lesson? We use data from a problem-based lesson taught in six geometry class periods by two teachers who did not routinely implement problem-based small group work. We applied systemic functional linguistics to examine teacher and student moves when the teachers assisted the groups. We found that the teachers’ scaffolding moves exemplified analytic and social scaffolding because the teachers made the content needed for solving the problem explicit, and, also, encouraged students. The students’ performance of moves showed how they controlled the timeliness and the content of the scaffolds. The findings support prior research on classroom norms that increase student opportunities for conceptual agency and illustrate how those opportunities emerge.

Neighborhood Planning of Technology: Physical Meets Digital City from the Bottom-Up with Aging Payphones

What does it mean to “plan” a technology? Designs with a footprint in public space are important hybrids, including wired bus stops and rebuilt payphones. Our goal is to shift from designing technology for a neighborhood by planning technology as part of the neighborhood. Aging phone booths were purchased in LA’s historic Leimert Park. For six months, residents joined with technologists to tackle a planning issue (gentrification). We developed a method of “deep engagement” to sustain grassroots planning in socio-technical systems, especially around the digital divide. The method resists “solving” the payphone problem, and instead theorizes engagement as four social scaffolds to bring technology literacy into the planning process.

The Social Scaffolding of Online Communities

Online communities have become cornerstones of how work gets done in the 21st century. While being considered as a way to access a global workforce and often praised for their resources and open collaboration, there is not much consensus on how knowledge-intensive online communities actually “work”. In this paper, we develop a theory of the “social scaffolding” of online communities. We advance prior research by arguing that online communities can feature one of four possible combinations of high and low degrees of fluidity and stability. We then theorize about the influence of these combinations on three “shades” of reciprocity as core mechanisms in online communities. Finally, we discuss the implications of our research and present an agenda for future research in which we call for increased attention to theoretical approaches toward online communities. Organizations will be able to use our framework in order to develop a strategic fit with – and thus, more effectively utilize the potential of – online communities.

Third Parties and the Social Scaffolding of Forgiveness

AbstractIt is widely accepted that only the victim of a wrong can forgive that wrong. Several philosophers have recently defended “third‐party forgiveness,” the scenario in which A, who is not the victim of a wrong in any sense, forgives B for a wrong B did to C. Focusing on Glen Pettigrove's argument for third‐party forgiveness, I will defend the victim's unique standing to forgive, by appealing to the fact that in forgiving, victims must absorb severe and inescapable costs of distinctive kinds, a plight that third parties do not share. There are, nonetheless, significant, even essential, roles played by third parties in making forgiveness possible, reasonable, or valuable for victims of serious wrongs. I take a closer look at the links between victims, wrongdoers, resentment, and forgiveness in showing why the victim alone can forgive.

Scaffolding in Connectivist Mobile Learning Environment.

Social networks and mobile technologies are transforming learning ecology. In this changing learning environment, we find a variety of new learner needs. The aim of this study is to investigate how to provide scaffolding to the learners in connectivist mobile learning environment:  to learn in a networked environment,  to manage their networked learning process,  to interact in a networked society, and  to use the tools belonging to the network society. The researcher described how Vygotsky's “scaffolding” concept, Berge’s “learner support” strategies, and Siemens’ “connectivism” approach can be used together to satisfy mobile learners’ needs. A connectivist mobile learning environment was designed for the research, and the research was executed as a mixed-method study. Data collection tools were Facebook wall entries, personal messages, chat records; Twitter, Diigo, blog entries; emails, mobile learning management system statistics, perceived learning survey and demographic information survey. Results showed that there were four major aspects of scaffolding in connectivist mobile learning environment as type of it, provider of it, and timing of it and strategies of it. Participants preferred mostly social scaffolding, and then preferred respectively, managerial, instructional and technical scaffolding. Social scaffolding was mostly provided by peers, and managerial scaffolding was mostly provided by instructor. Use of mobile devices increased the learner motivation and interest. Some participants stated that learning was more permanent by using mobile technologies. Social networks and mobile technologies made it easier to manage the learning process and expressed a positive impact on perceived learning.

Conceptual issues in neurodevelopmental disorders

Current revision of the two major psychiatric classification systems has elicited particular comment on neurodevelopmental disorders, which have seen increased provision of specialist clinical services, user group activity, fictional and biographical accounts, and research. Philosophical scrutiny of autism research and literature provides an additional perspective. Neurodevelopmental disorders show considerable overlap neuropsychologically, physiologically and genetically. They overlap diagnostically with schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety and depression. Of the two main diagnostic groups, there is more evidence of change with maturation in autism spectrum disorder than attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Interventions should combine cognitive, affective and embodied aspects of these disorders, and encompass the individual and their social environment. There is considerable evidence of the toll that caring for people with neurodevelopmental disorders exerts on parents. Neurodevelopmental disorders are multifaceted: research addressed to connection rather than further Balkanization is more likely to be fruitful. Clinicians should consider which facets are displayed symptomatically to enable people to grow through rather than surrender to their impairments. Social scaffolding optimizes functional well being. Future research should take into account the tensions in the relationship between research and user groups, and examine the experiences of adults and of the spouses and partners of those affected.

Are numbers gendered?

We examined the possibility that nonsocial, highly generic concepts are gendered. Specifically, we investigated the gender connotations of Arabic numerals. Across several experiments, we show that the number 1 and other odd numbers are associated with masculinity, whereas the number 2 and other even numbers are associated with femininity, in ways that influence judgments of stimuli arbitrarily paired with numerical cues; specifically, babies' faces and foreign names were more likely to be judged as "male" when paired with odd versus even numbers. The power of logically irrelevant numerical stimuli to connote masculinity or femininity reflects the pervasiveness of gender as a social scaffolding for generating understandings of abstract concepts.