Differentiation and Scaffolding Analysis Paper

According to Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory， learning is based on interaction among people. Parents， peers， and cultural beliefs will influence individual learning （as cited in Mitchell， Myles & Marsden， 2013）. Mediational learning， which means higher forms of human mental activity including learning are mediated and people respond directly to tools and labor activity instead of physical world is a central concept of Sociocultural Theory （Mitchell， Myles & Marsden， 2013）. In mediational learning， differentiation is a teaching strategy which means teachers use different instructions to teach different students in students’ learning content， process and product （Borja， Soto & Sanchez， 2015）. While scaffolding is a process which teachers use some instructions to make students understand new knowledge and learn by themselves finally （Walqui， 2006）. However， Sociocultural Theory demonstrates that successful learning almost completely depends on varying factors or individuals， and it ignores the cognitive process in brain or some genetic components. Furthermore， some teachers may not want to develop differentiation and scaffolding teaching because it need a lot of effort and it’s new to them.

There are four ways to differentiate instructions in classroom. They are content differentiation， process differentiation， product differentiation and learning environment （Borja， Soto & Sanchez， 2015）. Process differentiation which means teachers use different ways or activities to teach students is demonstrated by mini talk show activity in video （Borja， Soto & Sanchez， 2015）. For instance， teacher in video asked two students to play hosts who were in charge of direction of this talk show program， five students to play famous people such as singer， psychologist and nutritionist. The rest students were divided into two parts. One part was in favor of television and the other was against it. Students worked in pairs or in small groups according to their readiness level， interests， and profiles. Such grouping configuration made students work in different situations， and this activity was conducted at different difficulties levels （Borja， Soto & Sanchez， 2015）.

There are also six types of instructional scaffolding to use with English learners. They are modelling， bridging， contextualizing， scheme building， re-presenting text and developing metacognition （Walqui， 2006）. Re-presenting text means students learn new knowledge by transforming it from one genre to another （Walqui， 2006）. For example， students were asked to act academic passages about television out by groups in video. In this process， students could understand content presented in a difficult genre by transforming it to an easily produced genre. Take one group in video as an example， one student read their passage for all group members first， and another more proficient student explained main idea of this passage， planned their acting and assigned work to help other group members. The rest students in this group also gave some suggestions for their acting. Especially， there was a male student who was very opening acting most of their group work excellently. By way of re-presenting text， all students were engaged in communication and group work by performing at the limit of their ability， and the less proficient students were assisted by their more capable peers （Walqui， 2006）.

In conclusion， learning is the process and product of meaningful activities and interaction （Mitchell， Myles & Marsden， 2013）. Differentiation and scaffolding are two important teaching strategies focusing on difference among learners， and activities and procedures used to teach. According to differentiation and scaffolding instruction theories， the ways of language teaching and learning should be different according to different personalities， ability and needs of learners （Borja， Soto & Sanchez， 2015）. In addition， classroom practice can be various， interactive and stimulating （Walqui， 2006）.

References：

[1]Borja，L.A.，Soto，S.T.，&Sanchez，T.X.（2015）.Differentiating instruction for EFL learners.International Journal of Humanities and Social Society，5（8），30-36.

[2]Mitchell，R.，Myles，F.，&Marsden，E.（2013）.Second language learning theories.New York，NY：Routledge.

[3]Walqui，A.（2006）.Scaffolding instruction for English language learners：A conceptual framework.The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism，9（2），159-180.

【作者簡介】张晶，南加州大学。