ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors present an analytic framework that they believe can guide and systematize these new uses of the scaffolding metaphor. In this new framework, "scaffolds" are not features of artifacts or situations, nor is "scaffolding" something that may be occurring in a given situation. The authors present a theoretical argument for their proposed framework and illustrate the definition by applying it to two software environments. The scaffolding metaphor was originally developed to describe the support given by a more expert individual in a one-on-one interaction. Since then, the notion of scaffolding has been applied more broadly, and it has been transformed and generalized. The authors propose analytic framework and describe some prototypical applications of the framework. They discuss how their framework might be extended to address issues of learning and fading. The explicit construction of a framework clarified many aspects of the scaffolding analysis that might otherwise be puzzling.
