Functional Scaffolding and Self Scaffolding

1. Functional Scaffolding and Self Scaffolding Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University mark@lehigh.edu http://bickhard.ws/

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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