ABSTRACT
Shepherding is the opposite side of the scaffolding coin. The concept of scaffolding or creating appropriate structures implicitly includes the idea of adequate support. While the cognitive steps constructed by Helen stretched the learners to the point of destabilizing their conceptual frameworks, her conversational style provided a positive, supportive, nurturing environment which facilitated risk-taking that also possessed potential for social development and enhanced self-esteem. Kutnick discusses social development in a more general sense and he identifies common agreement among developmental psychologists that:
…the child moves from an initial state of non-effectiveness or autism towards a state of autonomy, self-knowledge and self-assurance. Not all individuals reach the higher stages, but they all have the opportunity of exposure to relationships of dependence upon adults and involvement with peers. (1988, p. 52)
It is obvious from Kutnick’s comments that structure and support are essential requirements for social as well as cognitive development: that scaffolding and shepherding focus attention on different aspects of a single process. This unity in practice becomes more obvious when the distinction which Kutnick (1988, p. 166) makes between ‘academic and social self-concept’ is elaborated further. He indicates that the former ‘has to do with one’s self-image in relation to school success’, while social self-confidence ‘has to do with one’s self-image in relation to interpersonal relationship’. Similarly, he argues that the relationship between the academic and social self is not a symmetrical one because ‘…a good self-concept will not necessarily mean academic success for the child: but poor self-concept will stop the child from performing to the best of his/her ability’ (1988, p. 167).
