Scaffolding

Cognitive theorist Jerome Bruner came up with the idea of scaffolding: learners being supported simply by giving them encouragement, confidence, demonstrations of tasks and asking/answering questions. He valued the idea of learners hanging around people who were knowledgeable as a means of generally stimulating the learner’s brain.

Bruner found that as we mature we find ways of organising and processing knowledge, such as comparing, classifying, choosing and problem-solving. Even something as simple as how to read a book was learned at some point in our lives.