Advancing Teaching Professionalism with Instructional Scaffolding to Support Academic Achievement of Learners with Disabilities
Keywords:
Teaching professionalism, Instructional scaffolding, Learners with disabilities, academic achievementAbstract
In recent past, teachers and psychologists have researched to identify several merits of instructional scaffolding to guide all learner’s development and learning in the classroom and specifically learners with special learning needs. Learners with disabilities require every support that can assist them to learn and improve their self-concept and academic achievement in school. Instructional scaffolds are temporal support structures teachers use to assist learners while new lessons are going on in the classroom so they can accomplish new tasks and learn concepts they would not have been able to learn on their own. The theory is based on the understanding that when learners are given needed support while learning something new, they develop the ability to use the knowledge learnt independently. This paper exposed instructional scaffolding strategies and benefits of its usage, present the findings of research studies that used instructional scaffolding to support teaching and learning in the classroom and described different types of instructional scaffolds and scaffolding strategies teachers used to support academic achievement of all learners, especially, learners with disabilities. It is therefore recommended that teachers should endeavour to use different strategies of scaffolding that suit their learners to advance teaching profession in the classroom in effective teaching that provide the needed support learners with disabilities greatly need to navigate learning and achieve the skills and knowledge they require for personal development and to contribute their quota to national development.
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