The use of scaffolding in helping students complete tasks that require critical thinking skills

The teaching of critical thinking skills often fails due to inadequate instructions. One solution employed by many instructors is by teaching cognitive strategies. Students may be taught to use strategies such as generating questions to aid in reading comprehension or to use self talk prompts to help organize their writings. One way to teach the cognitive strategies is by using scaffolding. Scaffolding which is a form of support provided by teachers or instructors may help students to bridge the gap between their current abilities and their intended goals. It is particularly useful in teaching critical thinking skills. This paper discuss the use of scaffolding in helping students write critical evaluation of contemporary articles. It will look at how the scaffolding was used and how the lessons using scaffolding were conducted. It is hoped that findings from this discussion will be helpful for instructors in planning their lessons on the teaching of critical thinking skills.