The impact of problem-based learning (PBL) in improving academic achievement compared with other forms of teaching is equivocal. This paper argues that poor tutorial preparation and vague reporting of the brainstorming stage of PBL are major contributing factors. To address these issues this study incorporated a scaffolding mechanism into the pre-tutorial brainstorming stage of the PBL process ...

Complex, ill-structured problem solving is not a linear, straightforward process. Rather it is an iterative and cyclical process and involves ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Therefore, metacognition is critical for successful problem solving. Although there is no question about the importance of scaffolding in complex, ill-structured problem solving, relatively little attention has been give...

Prior research has shown that parents help children to develop the requisite skills to construct an autobiographical self in past event conversations, yet research in adolescence is lacking. Further, friendships increase in importance during adolescence, and these new relationships may play a role in narrative identity development. The current study examined past event conversations between ado...

A socio-cultural theory of learning places importance on the social and cultural context of the learning as well as the interaction between a more expert other and the learner. Scaffolding at the level of interaction may be defined as micro-scaffolding, and support which can be found in the context of the learning can be referred to as macroscaffolding. This paper reports on research carried ou...

Narrative-centered learning environments tightly integrate educational subject matter and interactive stories, where students serve as active participants in story-centric problem-solving scenarios. Embedding scaffolding within the storyline of a narrative-centered learning environment is a discreet approach to supporting studentsÕ learning processes without diminishing the motivational benefit...

Assembly of the hundreds of subunits required to form an icosahedral virus must proceed with exquisite fidelity, and is a paradigm for the self-organization of complex macromolecular structures. However, the mechanism for capsid assembly is not completely understood for any virus. Here we have investigated the in vitro assembly of phage P22 procapsids using a quantitative model specifically dev...

We explore in this paper if automated scaffolding delivered via a pedagogical agent within a simulation can help students acquire data collection inquiry skills. Our initial analyses revealed that such scaffolding was effective for helping students who initially did not know two specific skills, designing controlled experiments and testing stated hypotheses, acquire those skills. These results ...

Purpose Statistics show that the construction sector has second-highest number of accident cases in Malaysia. A total 100, 000 workers suffer from work-related bad health each year. Scaffolding accidents are second cause on sites. Therefore, this present research provided answers to following questions: (1) what causes scaffolding and (2) possible measures reduce accidents? Design/methodology/a...

Scaffolding is considered a salient part of EFL education for developing different language skills, especially better communication, and its inevitable impact on learners' psychological processes. The present experimental study primarily investigates the Piagetian symmetrical vs. Vygotskyan asymmetrical scaffolding pragmatic competence. To this end, researcher chose approximately 77 intermediat...

This study seeks to investigate the impact of symmetrical (S) and Asymmetrical (AS) scaffolding, which are two types of scaffolding, on students' reading comprehension achievement of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study was done in two phases: In the first phase after administering a Pre-test, 52 homogeneous intermediate students were selected, and they were divided into two experimen...