The Design of Scaffolding Process: Effects of Question Prompts and Its Fading

• In Event: Designing to Improve Engagement and Problem Solving

Abstract

Although question prompts have proven to be effective in scaffolding students problem solving, little research has been conducted to understand the effects of fading out the scaffold of question prompts. In this study, we used the lens of argumentation to examine the effects of question prompts fading on students’ ill-structured problem-solving skills, specifically in argumentation. The results suggested that the quality of students’ arguments differed in three facets of argumentation: initial, counter, and rebuttal. However, students who received faded question prompts did not perform significantly different from the students who received continuous question prompts. The results offer some implications for designing effective scaffolds and fading using question prompts.

Authors

• Andrew Tawfik, Northern Illinois University

• Victor Law, University of New Mexico

• Xun Ge, University of Oklahoma