A Close Look at Scaffolding vs. Differentiation

Teachers are all too familiar with the challenge of adapting to the needs of every student in the classroom, and ensuring that all learners get the instruction they require. Knowing when and how to use differentiation vs. scaffolding in instruction can help. 

The Difference Between Differentiation and Scaffolding 

Both differentiated instruction and scaffolding strategies can be used to address the diverse needs of learners in any classroom, but they do so in distinctive ways. Differentiation involves adapting or modifying the lesson for individual learning needs, so every student can access instruction. This also means providing enrichment opportunities for those who are ready for more advanced challenges. Scaffolding focuses on how much information is delivered and when, offering a gradual release of support to facilitate student understanding and skill acquisition.

Differentiated Instruction Definition 

Differentiation is about customizing instruction to meet each student's unique learning needs, while also providing opportunities for those who are ready for more advanced challenges. This approach recognizes the diverse needs of students in a classroom.

To address this diversity, teachers should make modifications or adaptations in one or more of four key areas:

• Product What students create to show their learning
• Process How students progress toward the learning goal
• Content The instruction or materials used
• Environment The physical setup of the classroom

To effectively implement differentiated instruction, teachers can use various techniques, such as including content that resonates with students' diverse backgrounds, grouping students with shared language skills to facilitate learning, and giving students the freedom to choose how they demonstrate understanding.

Scaffolding Definition 

Scaffolding encompasses various techniques to provide additional support, bridge learning gaps, and enable students to grasp concepts. These techniques provide teachers with a flexible toolbox to choose those that best align with instruction, all with the goal of guiding students toward improved understanding. Scaffolding is essentially the support provided to students to help them achieve specific learning objectives. Each support is offered as students require it, ensuring they receive necessary guidance without compromising rigor. Aída Walqui's 2006 description of scaffolding highlights various functions that play a crucial role in assisting learners. These scaffolding functions include:

• Modeling To guide students by providing clear examples of the final product
• Bridging To make connections prior to learning
• Contextualizing Using visual or relevant contexts to help students construct meaning
• Schema Building To develop knowledge and personal experiences and store and retrieve them based on a relevant topic or theme
• Representing Text To provide opportunities for students to assess their language proficiency
• Developing Metacognition To promote student understanding of how they learn

Scaffolding instruction often involves a structured approach to transferring responsibility from the teacher to the student, taking into account the student's readiness. Ultimately, the effective use of scaffolding instruction is about providing the right support at the right time, ensuring that students can engage in challenging tasks independently and receive assistance when they encounter difficulties, typically through teacher-guided questioning or collaboration with peers.

Is Scaffolding a Type of Differentiated Instruction?

You may have noticed that some of the functions of scaffolding can be used as strategies to differentiate. Scaffolding does have a place in differentiated instruction, but it does not encompass the entire scope of differentiated instruction. Providing just-in-time instruction can happen on a whole-class level, on a group level, and on an individual level. So, when we differentiate instruction, we want to ensure that we target the scaffolding needs of the students we are working with in the moment and meeting them at their zone of proximal development.

Scaffolding often takes place at the whole-class level, whether it involves the gradual-release structure of an entire lesson, guided questioning, or the chunking of learning in a backwards design unit planning for the entire class. Teachers can employ scaffolding techniques when differentiating instruction. For instance, the "I Do, We Do, You Do" lesson structure can be adapted on a smaller scale in a small-group setting. When we differentiate instruction for our students, essentially, we are scaffolding their learning by equipping them with the information and tools they need to access the material.

Differentiation vs. Scaffolding Comparison Chart 

The chart below highlights key differences between differentiation and scaffolding.

Differentiation and Scaffolding Strategies

Differentiation and scaffolding are complementary approaches that can be used to support and enrich students’ learning experiences. Let’s explore some strategies for both differentiation and scaffolding.

Try These Differentiated Instruction Strategies 

First, we’ll look at strategies for differentiated instruction that we can use to meet the diverse needs of our students:

1. Integrate Low Floor, High Ceiling Tasks These tasks have a low barrier to entry to be accessible to all (low floor), but they also offer opportunities for deeper exploration and advanced challenges (high ceiling). This strategy ensures that every student can engage with the material while also allowing those ready for more complexity to thrive.

Most math tasks can be revised to have a low floor, high ceiling by removing numbers, allowing students to use their own models rather than dictating which methods to use, or providing alternative directions for existing assessments.

2. Introduce Manipulatives They’re not just for elementary students! Using hands-on tools can also help older students understand abstract concepts. Manipulatives can increase engagement and allow students to explore ideas and grasp subjects like math and science more effectively. Think rotating a physical object before graphing, using algebra tiles to solve for x, or placing an unknown number of objects in a box to make connections with variables. Our Math 180 program for Grades 5–12 includes access to virtual manipulatives that help students build conceptual understanding.  

3. Assemble Small Groups Breaking the class into smaller groups allows for more targeted instruction. Educators can address specific needs, answer questions, and provide targeted assistance to students based on their progress and needs. Check out these small-group instructional strategies for math and reading. 

4. Provide Student Choice Offering students choice in their learning empowers them. Students can choose topics, projects, or assignments that align with their interests, making the learning experience more engaging and relevant. Choice boards, for example, provide students with activity and assessment options and can be used across subject areas. Try these math choice boards for elementary students. 

5. Use Graphic Organizers Not only are graphic organizers useful visual tools for organizing complex information, but they can also assist students in understanding the information. Organizers can be used for learning a range of subjects. 

Try These Scaffolding Strategies 

Now let’s look at some scaffolding strategies that we can incorporate into any lesson to support all students:

1. Pre-Teach Vocabulary Pre-teaching vocabulary sets the stage for comprehension. By teaching critical vocabulary before a lesson, we ensure that our students have the foundational knowledge needed to actively engage with and grasp the topics being discussed.

2. Activate Prior Knowledge Students’ personal experiences and knowledge are the foundations upon which they build understanding. By activating prior knowledge, we provide a bridge to new learning and can increase engagement. Activities that can be used to activate prior knowledge include K-W-L charts, anticipation guides, and Quickwrites.

3. Use the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model You may have heard of this as “I Do, We Do, You Do,” but its ultimate purpose is to move the work of the lesson from the teacher to the student through modeling and think-alouds, guided practice or active engagement, followed by independent practice.

4. Display Sentence Frames Sentence frames can be used to differentiate or scaffold instruction. Sentence frames can scaffold whole-class and peer discussions to keep them focused and provide structure. Sentence frames can reduce the cognitive load for ELLs and students with learning disabilities, but they also provide a model for accountable talk.

5. Encourage Collaboration Sometimes it just takes hearing the thought process of another student for a concept to sink in. Collaboration is a powerful strategy because it involves students learning from each other. Collaboration can take on many forms, such as think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, problem solving, and group projects.

Scaffolding and Differentiation Example Lesson 

Wondering how to build a lesson that incorporates scaffolding and differentiation throughout? We’ve got you covered. Check out this scaffolding and differentiation example lesson on equivalent fractions for fourth graders.

Fostering a Positive Learning Environment

Now that you’ve mastered the difference between differentiation and scaffolding, you can be sure you’re providing inclusive learning opportunities for all students. Keep in mind that scaffolding provides a supportive framework, structures the learning process, and offers students the assistance they need to navigate challenging concepts. In contrast, differentiation takes a comprehensive approach by embracing the diversity within a single classroom, and making modifications in content, process, and product to meet the unique needs and preferences of individual learners. Using these strategies in tandem contributes to a positive learning environment where every student can access and engage with classroom material.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.

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