this study examined the effect of the zpd-based discourse scaffolding on efl learners' co-construction of l2 metadiscourse performing collaborative writing tasks and explored the discourse scaffolding dynamics. the participants were 160 efl students that were assigned to four different treatment conditions: (i) formal teaching, (ii) input enhancement, (iii) non-zpd interaction, and (iv) zpd-bas...

Instruction often employs visual representations to support deep understanding. However, students‟ prior misconceptions may override the meaning in these scaffolds. We investigate fraction bars, a common representation intended to promote sense-making. Our prior work found that students often did not use the fraction bars effectively. This difficulty factors assessment compares four scaffold ty...

The M-Ecolab was developed to provide motivational scaffolding via an on-screen character whose demeanour defended on modelling the learner’s motivational state at interaction time. Motivational modelling was based on three variables: effort, independence and the confidence. A classroom evaluation was conducted to illustrate the effects of motivational scaffolding. Students had an eighty minute...

The study proposes an approach to support students' debugging exercise named scaffolding online peer assessment built upon the scaffolding theory. The scaffolding mechanism in this approach includes two aspects. One is that the system provides error tips to aid students in finding errors in their assignments. The other mechanism is the peer’s comment itself which is viewed as a kind of scaffold...

Teaching database engineers involves a variety of learning activities. A strong focus is on practical problems that go beyond the acquisition of knowledge. Skills and experience are equally important. We propose a virtual apprenticeship model for the knowledgeand skillsoriented Web-based education of database students. We adapt the classical cognitive apprenticeship theory to the Web context ut...

Homer’s Iliad is an epic story about human character, which predates the Aristotelian lectures by some four hundred years. While classical scholars have always valued Aristotle’s notion of ethos as a primary factor in persuasion, few have traced this concept to this earlier period. Following a close analysis of speeches in the Iliad, this examination attempts to reconstruct what Homer’s theory ...

Narrative writing is a skill that all primary (elementary) school pupils in Singapore are required to develop in their learning of the English language. However, this is an area in which not all pupils excel. This study investigates if the use of blogging and scaffolding can improve pupils’ narrative writing. Data were gathered from 36 primary five (grade five) pupils through pre-post writing t...

this investigation postulatesvygotsky’s (1978) concept of zone of proximal development (zpd) and his related “scaffolding” metaphor as well as norton’s (2006) principles of sociocultural identity as its theoretical foundation.thisresearchintends to scrutinizethe socioculturally-oriented mediationalmechanisms utilized in student-student and student-teacher collaborationsin an iranian efl writing...

The gap between known benefits of socio-constructivist pedagogies to online instruction, and schoolteacher practices has been widely documented. To better understand the gap this research characterizes the range of schoolteachers’ online practices and the relation between their pedagogical perceptions and these practices. Two groups of teachers were studied: Novices and leaders in online instru...