I had a conversation with my school teacher today about the idea of provocation, scaffolding, and the difference between them. With her explanations, I observed to see where I could find some evidence of provocation and scaffolding in the classroom.
From the beginning of the school year, my school teacher had natural materials out as invitations for the students to talk about and think about nature. Then, with some nature-themed picture books, she provoked the students’ thinking by asking them questions, such as “What does nature mean?”, “what does it mean to be living”, and “what is nature?”. By demonstrating an activity or thinking process, the teacher also helps the students to scaffold their learning.
Last week, one of the students came up with the realization that “oh everything is in a cycle. The life has a cycle. Seasons are in a cycle”. This idea was shared with the class, and we had more discussion around this idea. The students shared their ideas or examples of cycles and the nature. Students had a quick debate on whether a rock is nature. The teacher followed up with some more questions to guide the student’s thinking: “Does nature have to be alive?” “what is not nature? What is opposite of nature?”
There were some interesting conversations around whether a rock was nature:
One conversation between two of the students and me
One of the student “Rocks are not nature because it’s underneath the earth”
Me “is the earth nature?”
The student “Yes”
Me “if the earth is nature, and rocks are underneath the earth. Should rock also be part of the nature?”
The other student joined “ahhh (realizing something)… but lava is not nature because they do not grow”
The student “no it does! because… (I lost track of their conversation there)”
Conversation between one of the girls and me
“Rock is nature because it helps the nature”
“Why is that”
“Because rock helps trees to grow so they don’t fall (using hand gestures to show that rocks are stabilizing the roots)”
Conversation between one of the girls and me
“It depends. Some rocks are nature but some are not”
“What do you mean”
“Some rocks have dirt in them and some don’t. If they have dirt in them then they are nature”
“How do you know if they have dirt in them?”
“Some rocks you can easily smash them into small pieces, and they are basically just soil”
“Okay. are you saying that if the soil gets dried and becomes a big chunk, then it becomes a rock and that is nature?”
“Yes.”
…
“Do you think that the cement is different from the rocks that we found from the forest?”
“Yes”
“Are they both nature”
“Again, If you can smash them into smaller pieces then they are nature”
I found these conversations really interesting, and I really enjoyed challenging the students to think further. These conversations are worth investigating and can lead to further conversation about the landform, which is part of learning content in BC’s New Curriculum competencies.
Thanks for sharing these conversations, Nina. They are indeed fascinating! I can see through these dialogues that you already have a good sense of how to pose questions that push students’ thinking deeper, which is wonderful to see.
Questions are absolutely one way to scaffold the learning process – your class is very focused on inquiry, so this makes perfect sense. Other strategies might include teacher modeling, guided practice as a class, graphic organizers or other visual tools, or simply chunking a larger task or expectation into small pieces to make it more manageable.
This is probably the best reflection I have seen from you so far and I enjoyed reading it. Keep sharing your own thoughts related to what you see and do in the classroom, as I know there is lots going on in that head of yours! 😉