Scaffolding
A few days ago I was trying to remember a word and, being a lazy Gen X-er, used ChatGPT like a glorified Google to try and prompt my failing memory. The word I was reaching for described the style of teaching that I've always followed - building a solid base and then slowly adding to that so that students not only learn sequentially but also feel confident after seeing progress at every step.
I never actually figured out what the word I'd lost was, in no small part due to finding a more appropriate one - "scaffolding" and learning about that. Obviously I'm well aware of the stuff that builders use to get to high places but this one's specifically in relation to education.
It essentially means breaking up tasks into manageable chunks, providing examples, using student’s prior knowledge to explain concepts and supporting them throughout their learning. It's been described by researchers as "support from experts enabling learners to accomplish what is beyond their current ability" (Wood et al. in Doo, Bonk and Heo, 2020) – a simple description that sums up an essential element of any educational professionals work. It's particularly used in relation to learners just starting out, which is why I think it's so relevant to us.
Teaching computer skills can be a very complex task. If you're young and have grown up with computers then they’re no big deal - that whirring box on your desk or keeping your lap warm is friend, not foe. You know how to make it do what you want and you've had many, many great experiences with it, from sharing your life with friends to playing games and watching TV to getting through your education with its help. Many of us, myself included, can't get through life without a laptop nearby.
For some people though, this isn't the case - even now there are still so many jobs that don't require the use of computers, and to find yourself suddenly be faced with owning a highly complex piece of technology can be incredibly daunting, nevermind the software you need to put on it.
When I first started teaching Vectorworks over a decade ago, this was one of my biggest lessons to learn - not only are you teaching practical skills but you're teaching people to love computers, to see the value they add to their lives and ideally to bond with them like they have their faithful pet dog! One of my early students, Simon, was an ex-professional ballet dancer. When you dance for a living you save money into a "pension" of sorts, which is then given to you to facilitate a change of career once you literally hang your dancing shoes up. Simon as an absolute superstar - he had a fantastic "can-do" attitude and managed to reach a really good level of competency in Vectorworks despite never having to use a computer in his fifty years prior, and was one of the people that really helped me to see how important these “extra curricular” elements are.
Making sure that students are happy and confident is incredibly important - it's why our introductory courses start basic and build on that knowledge. We want people to do the first few modules and think to themselves "hey, this isn't that hard!" or "why did I put this off for so long?!". This means setting tasks that are not only easy to achieve but also lead very clearly on to more complex ones, so that when it's time to, say, draw a construction detail of a retaining wall, the student can cast their mind back and remember that it's the exact same process as when they drew some rectangles and a polyline and applied a hatch. It’s also why we support you during and afterwards, keeping our Zoom classes to six people and making sure we’re available to answer your questions so you’re not left feeling stuck.
You can see our upcoming courses on our calendar page and if you have any questions about anything we do then just get in touch.