ABSTRACT

In Chapter 2, we discuss Wood, Bruner, and Ross’s notion of scaffolding and Vygotsky’s concept of the ZPD and more contemporary treatments of each. We also discuss Mehan’s classroom research and research in linguistics that informed our definition of topic episodes (talk on a single topic). Then we examine prior research on instruction, cognitive scaffolding, and motivational scaffolding in order to situate our study. This research investigates one-to-one tutoring in problem-solving domains as well as tutor–student talk in writing centers.