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The present study was conducted to answer questions regarding the amount and types of scaffolding early childhood teachers use in their classrooms, as well as changes that may occur in their use of such strategies throughout the school year. Additionally, the present research explored the relationship between children’s vocabulary gain and teachers’ use of scaffolding strategies. In order to address these aims, this study examined the scaffolding strategies employed by 37 early childhood teachers and the vocabulary skills of 173 children in their classrooms. Specifically, this research looked at videotaped observations of teachers’ use of scaffolding at three time points throughout the school year and assessed these observations for amount and type of scaffolding use. Descriptive analyses provided information regarding amount and types of scaffolding that occurred in these classrooms, while growth curve analyses was conducted to characterize changes in teachers’ use of scaffolding types across the school year. Finally, hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to examine the relationship between teachers’ use of scaffolding and children’s vocabulary gains.Results indicated that teachers utilized scaffolding strategies at relatively low rates and that they utilized strategies that could be characterized as low support (i.e., those strategies that encourage children’s higher-order understandings about the lesson and help them generalize their learning beyond the lesson itself) more frequently than high-support scaffolding strategies (i.e., those strategies that enable children to successfully participate in activities and move gradually toward independence over time). Growth curve analyses demonstrated that teachers’ use of high-support strategies declined over the year, whereas the use of low-support strategies increased. Finally, HLM models revealed that teachers’ use of low-support scaffolding strategies at the beginning of the year was associated with children’s vocabulary gains. Overall, the results of this study suggest that teachers’ are not making frequent use of a variety of scaffolding strategies, which may be attributable to the complex and challenging nature of effective scaffolding use. Further, results suggest that teachers’ are more readily utilizing strategies that serve to challenge children with comments that are more inferential in nature (i.e., low-support scaffolding strategies) and that children may not be receiving exposure to strategies that serve to provide higher levels of support with comments that are more literal in nature. Thus, children who are having difficulty completing tasks independently may not be receiving the type of scaffolding they require to be successful. Therefore, results relevant to frequency and changes of scaffolding strategy use suggest that teachers would benefit from educational opportunities and professional development focusing on the use of a wide range of strategies in the early childhood classroom. Additionally, results demonstrate that teachers’ use of low-support strategies increases over the school year and is influenced by children’s initial vocabulary skill level, suggesting that teachers may be adjusting their use of this type of strategy to meet children’s needs. Finally, study findings are promising, in that they suggest that the use of certain types of scaffolding strategies may be beneficial for children’s development of vocabulary skills. |
