Functional Scaffolding and Self Scaffolding

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Functional Scaffolding and Self Scaffolding

• Mark H. Bickhard
• Lehigh University
• mark_at_lehigh.edu
• http//bickhard.ws/

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Cognition and Action

• Representation and cognition emerge in action
  systems
• Not from passive input processing
• Therefore representation cannot be created by
  signet rings pressing into the wax of the mind,
  or transduction, or induction, or any other
  passive mode

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Construction and Epistemology

• Representation and cognition must be constructed
• Without prescience, these constructions must be
  tentative and selected out if in error
• That is, an action base for representation and
  cognition forces an evolutionary epistemology

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Recursive Constructivism

• In complex organisms, constructions are in the
  context of and make use of prior constructions as
  resources
• New constructions can involve variants on or
  compounds of prior constructions
• They are recursive
• The organism can get better at learning in some
  domain in which it has prior experience

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Complex Task Requirements

• Some tasks may require complex constructions to
  be able to solve them
• Constructive complexity makes it unlikely that
  non-foresighted constructions will happen to hit
  on the competent construction
• Constructive tries will be selected out
• And the task may not be solved

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Functional Scaffolding

• If some of the task selection pressures could be
  blocked, however, that may make some intermediate
  constructions viable that would not otherwise
  have survived
• Those intermediate constructions, in turn, may
  make it possible to traverse a trajectory of
  constructions that ends up with a fully task
  competent construction
• The scaffolding blocking of those selection
  pressures can then be removed

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Modes of Scaffolding

• Selection pressures can be blocked by providing
  knowledge that the child, for example, does not
  yet have
• This is the canonical case in which scaffolding
  is thought of in terms of providing external
  coordination, for example, that can then be
  internalized

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Further Modes

• But selection pressures can also be blocked by
• Choosing simple cases
• Moving to idealizations
• Breaking problems down into subproblems
• Making use of a resource that may not always be
  available
• Etc.

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Self Scaffolding

• And all of these modes of functional scaffolding
  can be done by the individual him- or her-self
• Self Scaffolding
• Which is in internal contradiction on the
  internalization account
• You cannot provide information to yourself that
  you do not already have

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A Field of Development

• Self scaffolding is a crucial range of skills to
  acquire
• It is involved in knowing how to approach
  problems in essentially all domains
• Though it can differ from one domain to another
• The scaffolding of self scaffolding should be a
  primary goal of education
• But standard ways of thinking about education and
  scaffolding inhibit the recognition of this

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Conclusion

• An action base for cognition forces an
  evolutionary epistemology
• Which yields the strong usefulness of functional
  scaffolding to aid the construction process
• Which yields the possibility of self scaffolding,
  an important field of development
• A field, not itself a domain, because it varies
  from one domain to another - it is not one
  unified set of skills