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In Search of the Architect of Learning

A Commentary on Scaffolding as a Metaphor for Instructional Interactions

Deborah L. Butler, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia. Her current research focuses on learning disabilities in adolescence and adulthood, and instructional strategies for promoting self-regulated and strategic learning. Address: Deborah L. Butler, Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC., Canada V6T 1Z4.

In this article, I accept Stone's invitation to reevaluate the metaphor of scaffolding, building on his helpful analysis. Specifically, I identify what has been appealing about the scaffolding metaphor by describing how, as an intervention researcher working with students with learning disabilities, I have used the metaphor to describe a specific instructional approach in my own research. Then, I revisit and critique scaffolding as an instructional metaphor. I also comment on Stone's assertion that a more explicit description of communicative interchanges is required to more clearly describe instructional scaffolding. Finally, I conclude that the scaffolding metaphor is fundamentally flawed and advance an alternative view that may more successfully promote correspondence between instructional activities and our emerging vision of the dynamics of teaching and learning.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 31, No. 4, 374-385 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/002221949803100407


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