The core of all excellent teaching is to help students grow and eventually become independent learners. Scaffolding—supporting students through successive levels of understanding and skill acquisition—is widely regarded as the best way to achieve this goal.

Teachers are turning to technology more than ever to support the scaffolding needs of learners. Victoria Thompson, the STEM Integration Transformation Coach, is dedicated to facilitating their efforts.

Thompson started his career as a fifth-grade math and science teacher, and is now an instructional designer at EduSpark, a learning expert at NCCE, ITE ambassador, and EdTech Magazine's Top 30 K-12 IT influencers in 2021. Here, she shared her views on the importance of scaffolding and showed her first choice for scaffolding.

EdSurge: What role does scaffolding play in effective teaching?

Thompson: For me, scaffolding is the core competence of teaching. We are here to support our learners, maximize their success and help them enjoy learning. As a teacher, now a teaching coach, I think all learners need support and scaffolding.

If learners need support, teachers should try to figure out how to promote their best success. Of course, this must first ensure that one has all the right resources and tools. However, this is also related to human support. The newer the learner's stuff, the more scaffolding they may need.

I want learners to improve their independence, but I don't want them to get into trouble. You can do too much, but you can also do too little. This is about finding a middle ground. This also means that I will not treat everyone equally; I provide personalized support based on individual needs.

Which scaffolding strategies do you use most often?

First of all, one must start by establishing a relationship. Fundamentally, it's about connecting with people and figuring out what their needs are. Whether it's a young learner or an adult, it's all about connecting-letting people know that you want to work with them and how you can help them.

Some of my common strategies are:

Well, let's talk about technology. Tell us your preferred teaching technology. How does it support scaffolding teaching?

I have used Pear Deck for many years. I really like the anonymous reply function because it can build confidence. If there is no additional name, learners are usually not afraid to share. Using the teacher dashboard, I can see all the responses and measure the situation in most classes-what they understand and where they are struggling. By not leaving them alone on site, we are supporting their learning. We can point out common mistakes and successes.

Once we start collecting this type of feedback, we can see where and how to design future learning. Feedback from learners will continue to determine our teaching initiatives. Pear Deck also provides an excellent opportunity to speak authentically and participate, while giving us the opportunity to reflect, engage in more in-depth discussions, and build mastery.

What other features of the platform do you find helpful?

There are many resources for getting started on their website. They have Pear Deck Orchard, which is a course created and shared by teachers on the website. It always helps to see what others have done first. I took full advantage of all of them. This is an addition to the Pear Deck template.

I think SEL and critical thinking templates are ideal. They can allow people to see the thoughts of other people in the room, understand different perspectives and help solve problems. There are also great templates for subject areas. I also recommend that you review the beginning, middle, and end templates of the course. They do support continuous inquiry and promote continuous reflection by learners.

When I use Pear Deck during my professional development, I am also helping teachers understand how they use it with students. I want to use Pear Deck more with teaching coaches and managers to understand how we can make our staff meetings and staff development more meaningful and attractive.

Let's talk about the integration of Pear Deck and Microsoft's Immersive Reader technology. How do you use this feature?

I have used it a lot. We often consider using tools like immersive readers for English language learning or special education. This is great for those people. However, take the math class as an example. Often, the challenges there are related to whether students understand what they are being asked to do. For English learners, the challenge is even greater.

We can now put math problems in a tool like Immersive Reader and listen to them in the native language first, then in English. Then, we can even use a picture dictionary. This is a good example of scaffolding. I have even seen adults successfully use it when learning a new or second language.

Regardless of the grade or topic, what other benefits does Pear Deck offer?

You can use it for outbound tickets, entrance tickets, continuous inquiries and professional development. It also works well whether it is self-paced, asynchronous or synchronous. I can see dozens of ways to apply it to any subject field, including music and sports. Elective courses are often excluded. Many templates of Pear Deck are good for all subjects and grades.

Pear Deck also provides excellent customer service. When I have questions, they always answer. When I have questions, I will talk to people. For me, Pear Deck is truly compassionate educational technology.

This article is sponsored by Pear Deck and produced by the Solutions Studio team.

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