Improving early education through high-quality interactions
Published
Introducing the STAIRS approach to scaffolding
The aim of the STAIRS approach is to provide educators with a simple and memorable set of strategies to embed research evidence into everyday practice.
| Sharing attention |
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| Thriving together |
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| Avoiding frustration |
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| Important features need highlighting |
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| Reviewing progress |
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| Self-motivation |
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The STAIRS approach in action: helping Jasmin complete a jigsaw.
| Sharing attention | Jasmin is three years old. She has half-finished a 20-piece jigsaw of a farm scene. She has a pile of pieces on the table. She is getting frustrated. The piece she thinks should fit into the top corner just won’t go in, however hard she hammers at it with the palm of her right hand. Her key person Valentina sits next to her and gently shows an interest in what she’s doing. |
| Thriving together | Valentina waits a few moments and then says something encouraging: ‘gosh, I can see you’re about halfway done?’ She asks gently if Jasmin would like some help, and Jasmin agrees. |
| Avoiding frustration | Valentina can see that there are still lots of unplaced jigsaw pieces and this is overwhelming Jasmin. She says, ‘I can see you need to finish the top, the sky, clouds and trees. Shall I help you by putting all the blue pieces in a pile, just the sky?’ Valentina waits for a few moments so Jasmin has time to think about this. Jasmin seems relieved. She sighs and agrees. Together, Valentina and Jasmin sort out the pieces. They end up with a pile of three blue pieces, the sky. Valentina says, ‘I knew you could do that!’ |
| Important features need highlighting | They look at the picture on the puzzle box together. Jasmin says ‘I can see where the cloud piece goes’. Valentina builds on this: ‘That piece there has a bit of cloud. Try fitting that on.’ Jasmin does this and now she is on the way to completing the sky. Valentina suggests which piece Jasmin could try next. Jasmin tries to put it on, without success. Valentina pauses to see if Jasmin will try again, but she doesn’t. So Valentina suggests ‘try turning the piece when it won’t fit the first time’ and shows her what she means. Jasmin tries again, rotating the piece until it fits in. |
| Reviewing progress | Jasmin can see where another sky piece fits, and puts it there. As a result, she can see where the next piece will fit in, and the one after. She uses the strategy of rotating the piece to fit it in. Valentina gives her more feedback. She highlights the strategy which helped Jasmin to succeed: ‘You looked carefully at the sky pieces and you turned the pieces around when they didn’t fit. That helped you!’ Jasmin smiles and says ‘let’s do the tree pieces’ |
| Self-motivation | Valentina holds back now so she can see if Jasmin can use the two strategies: sorting pieces, and rotating pieces if they don’t fit at her first attempt. She is ready to step in and help if necessary. Jasmin puts the tree pieces in a pile and carefully places each piece correctly, completing the jigsaw. She smiles with pleasure. Valentina gently says ‘you did that so well’ but holds back on giving too much praise, because Jasmin already looks pleased. She wants Jasmin to feel confident about tackling challenging learning for her own satisfaction. |
Scaffolding involves giving a child just enough help so that they can succeed. Then you gradually reduce your support, so the child becomes more independent. Without this gradual, sensitive reduction, children can become dependent on others and struggle to become independent learners.
Once children can tackle something independently, they can practise more and become even better. At this stage, the adult might adjust the level of challenge, making the task more complex to advance the child’s thinking. This starts the process of scaffolding all over again. For example, once the child can solve a jigsaw easily and quickly, it is time to encourage them to try a harder one.