THE METAPHOR OF SCAFFOLDING - ITS UTILITY FOR THE FIELD OF LEARNING-DISABILITIES

Over the past 20 years, an increasing number of psychologists and educ ators have used the notion of scaffolding as a metaphor for the proces s by which adults land more knowledgeable peers) guide children's lear ning and development. The purpose of the present article is to provide a critical analysis of the scaffolding metaphor, with particular emph asis on its applications to the case of atypical learners. In the init ial sections of the article, the origins and early applications of the metaphor are sketched. With this as background, criticisms of the met aphor raised by others are reviewed, and a proposal for an enriched ve rsion of the metaphor is presented. At the heart of the proposed revis ion is an emphasis on the communicational dynamics and conceptual reor ganization involved in adult-child interactions. With an enriched meta phor as a frame, the next section reviews applications of the scaffold ing metaphor to the study of parent-child interactions and teacher-stu dent instructional activities involving children with learning disabil ities. The strengths and limitations of this work are evaluated, and p roposals are made for how to reap further benefits from applications o f the scaffolding metaphor to analyses of the development and instruct ion of children with learning disabilities.