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Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the conceptual and historical genesis of the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) which has become one of the most commonly used instructional frameworks for research and professional development in the field of reading and literacy.

Design/Methodology/Approach – This chapter uses a narrative, historical approach to describe the emergence of the model in the work taking place in the late 1970s and early 1980s in reading research and educational theory, particularly at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana as carried out by David Pearson, Meg Gallagher, and their colleagues.

Findings – The GRR Model began, in part, in response to the startling findings of Dolores Durkin’s (1978/1979) study of reading comprehension instruction in classrooms which found that little instruction was occurring even while students were completing numerous assignments and question-response activities. Pearson and Gallagher were among those researchers who took seriously the task of developing an instructional model and approach for comprehension strategy instruction that included explicit instruction. They recognized a need for teachers to be responsible for leading and scaffolding instruction, even as they supported learners in moving toward independent application of strategies and independence in reading. Based in the current research in the reading field and the rediscovery of the work of Vygotsky (1978) and the descriptions of scaffolding as coined by Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976), Pearson and Gallagher developed the model of gradual release. Over time, the model has been adapted by many literacy scholars, applied to curriculum planning, used with teachers for professional development, reprinted numerous times, and with the advent of the Internet, proliferated even further as teachers and educators share their own versions of the model. This chapter introduces readers to the original model and multiple additional representations/iterations of the model that emerged over the past few decades. This chapter also attends to important nuances in the model and to some misconceptions of the instructional model.

Research Limitations/Implications – Despite the popularity of the original GRR model developed by Pearson and Gallagher and the many adaptations of the model by many collaborators and colleagues in literacy – and even beyond – there have been very few publications that have explored the historical and conceptual origins of the model and its staying power.

Practical Implications – This chapter will speak to researchers, teachers, and other educators who use the GRR model to help guide thinking about instruction in reading, writing, and other content areas with children, youth, pre-service teachers, and in-service teachers. This chapter provides a thoughtful discussion of multiple representations of the gradual release process and the nuances of the model in ways that will help to dispel misuse of the model while recognizing its long-standing and sound foundation on established socio-cognitive principles and instructional theories such as those espoused by Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, Anne Brown, and others.

Originality/Value of Paper – This chapter makes an original contribution to the field in explaining the historical development and theoretical origins of the GRR model by Pearson and Gallagher (1983) and in presenting multiple iterations of the model developed by Pearson and his colleagues in the field.

This study was intended to ensure learner-centred pedagogy in an open and distance learning environment by applying scaffolding and positive reinforcement techniques.

This study critically analysed the context and current instructional practice of Bangladesh Open University (BOU) via document analysis and literature review. The conceptual framework of this study was adapted from the ADDIE model, i.e. the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation model.

The study explored that the instructional practice of BOU was dominated by teacher-centred pedagogy. Hence, to ensure learner-centred pedagogy, the researchers developed three model lesson plans. These lesson plans infused the theoretical directives of scaffolding and positive reinforcement as well as several assessment tasks which can assess the learners’ lower-order and higher-order thinking skills. The researchers also presented possible challenges for the sound implementation of these model lesson plans and suggested pragmatic solutions accordingly.

This study recommended that the combined application of scaffolding and positive reinforcement would effectively ensure learner-centred pedagogy.

This paper aims to lay out the goals and challenges in using information for ambitious learning practices.

Through a review of the literature, the authors integrate across learning, information sciences and instructional design to identify challenges and possibilities for information searching and sense-making in ambitious learning practices (ALPs).

Learners face a number of challenges in using information in ALPs such as a problem-based learning. These include searching and sourcing, selecting information and sense-making. Although ALPs can be effective, providing appropriate scaffolding, supports and resources is essential.

To make complex ALPs available to a wide range of learners requires considering the information literacy demands and how these can be supported. This requires deep understanding and integration across different research literature areas to move toward solutions.

November 10, 1969 Building — Safety regulations — Applicability — Safe means of access and egress — Building site occupied by main contractor — Unusually encumbered by plant and machinery — Suspended cable left by employee of main contractor — Injury to workman employed by independent scaffolding contractors — Liability of main contractor as occupier — Liability of independent contractor to own workman — Whether bound by safety regulations — Indemnity — Independent contractors to indemnify main contractors for “any liability… arising… in respect of personal injuries by reason of any act, default, or omission on our part…” — Construction (Working Places) Regulations, 1966 (S.I. 1966, No. 94), regs. 2(1), 3(1), 6(1).

One major aspect of T.D. Wilson’s research has been his insistence on situating the investigation of information behaviour within the context of its occurrence Ö within the everyday world of work. The significance of this approach is reviewed in light of the notion of embodied cognition that characterises the evolving theoretical episteme in cognitive science research. Embodied cognition employs complex external props such as stigmergic structures and cognitive scaffoldings to reduce the cognitive burden on the individual and to augment human problem‐solving activities. The cognitive function of the classification scheme is described as exemplifying both stigmergic structures and cognitive scaffoldings. Two different but complementary approaches to the investigation of situated cognition are presented: cognition‐as‐scaffolding and cognition‐as‐infrastructure. Classification‐as‐scaffolding views the classification scheme as a knowledge storage device supporting and promoting cognitive economy. Classification‐as‐infrastructure views the classification system as a social convention that, when integrated with technological structures and organisational practices, supports knowledge management work. Both approaches are shown to build upon and extend Wilson’s contention that research is most productive when it attends to the social and organisational contexts of cognitive activity by focusing on the everyday world of work.

In this chapter, we present a framework of inclusive pedagogy to foster education for global citizenship. We argue that certain conditions must be in place for students in higher education classrooms to engage critical issues, wrestle with difficult questions, and reflect on the ethical implication of their individual and collective action. We discuss how instructors can create these conditions, by focusing on three concrete aspects of instruction: Scaffolding, Interaction, and Noticing. While these aspects are prevalent in literature on effective pedagogy for international and/or multilingual students, we argue that they can benefit all students, preparing them for deep learning, toward the end goal of global citizenship. The pedagogical applications presented through this framework demonstrate the close relationship between Scaffolding, Interaction, and Noticing. Furthermore, we believe that the simplicity of this framework will serve as an accessible point of reference for instructors as they are planning for learning that centers student voices, values diversity in the classroom, and aims to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and values of global citizenship.

When using embedded, student-centered assessment tools for maker education, understanding the characteristics of a body of evidence can help teachers guide the assessment process. This study aims to examine assessment artifacts from a makerspace program and present a set of qualities that emerged, which researchers and maker educators can use to evaluate the quality of evidence before interpreting it and making claims about student learning.

This study used the interpretive analysis approach to identify salient qualities in a body of evidence of maker learning. Data sources included student assessment artifacts, researchers’ analytic memos, notes on the coding and analysis process, background stories and field observations.

The study found that the assessment artifacts generated by students aligned with the maker-related target skills. A set of qualities was produced that can be used to describe the strength of a body of evidence and help determine whether it is appropriate to be used in the meaning making phase.

The qualities identified in this study can be directly incorporated into the embedded assessment toolkit to provide feedback on the strength of evidence for learning in makerspaces.

Assessment methods for maker education are nascent, and ways to describe the quality of a student-generated body of evidence have not yet been established. This study applies existing knowledge of embedded assessment and reflective practice toward the creation of a new way of assessing skills that are difficult to measure.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to develop pre-service teachers’ problem solving ability, in particular, in the context of real-world complex problems.

To argue for the need to develop pre-service teachers’ problem solving skills, the authors describe a web-based problem representation system that is embedded with levels of scaffolding to support the claim.

The authors’ conceptualisation of this cloud-based environment is also very much aligned with the development of pre-service teachers’ systems thinking. Teacher learning itself is a complex system that involves many processes, mechanisms and interactions of elements, and the outcomes may be highly unpredictable (Opfer and Pedder, 2011). As a result of the complex nature of teacher learning, it would be meaningful to frame teacher learning as a complex system. An approach to enable pre-service teachers to be aware of this complexity is to situate them in a systems thinking context.

This paper discusses a system which was developed for problem solving. The levels of adaptive scaffoldings embedded within the system is an innovation which is not found in other similar research projects.

This paper aims to explore how an academic graduate from the cross field between the humanities and the social sciences and blue-collar workers learns to scaffold knowing in a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME).

A case study was conducted in an SME that employed the first academic graduate among the company’s blue-collar workers. The paper applies a practice-oriented theoretical framework to study scaffolding knowing among the workers.

An academic graduate does not necessarily apply subject-specific knowledge from his or her university education in the SME practice. Rather, general academic knowing and academic work practice is applied when scaffolding knowing in the SME. Further, this depends not only on the knowing of the academic graduate but also on his/her ability to apply knowing and the willingness to change in practice.

The study is a single case study gaining in-depth insights into one particular case. This calls for more research.

The study points at the importance for managers and academic graduates in SMEs to foster learning activities and to be aware of and develop ways to integrate the general academic knowing.

The case study provides new insights into the concept of scaffolding knowing in practice theory. Further, it gains unique insights into the practical possibility of employing graduates from higher education in SMEs.

Purpose – Our purpose in this chapter is to argue for the importance of integrating reading and writing in classrooms and to provide examples of what integration of this nature looks like in classrooms across content areas and grade levels.Design/methodology/approach – In this chapter we provide an overview of the argument for reading–writing integration, highlight four common tools (skill decomposition, skill decontextualization, scaffolding, and authenticity) that teachers use to cope with complexity in literacy classrooms, and describe four classrooms in which teachers strive to integrate reading and writing in support of learning.Findings – We provide detailed examples and analyses of what the integration of reading and writing in the service of learning looks like in four different classroom contexts and focus particularly on how the four teachers use scaffolding and authenticity to cope with complexity and support their students’ literacy learning.Research limitations/implications – We intentionally highlight four noteworthy approaches to literacy instruction, but our examples are relevant to specific contexts and are not meant to encompass the range of promising practices in which teachers and students engage on a daily basis.Practical implications – In this chapter we provide classroom teachers with four concrete tools for coping with the complexities of literacy instruction in classroom settings and highlight what instruction of this nature – with an emphasis on scaffolding and authenticity – looks like in four different classroom contexts.Originality/value of chapter – Teachers and other educational stakeholders must acknowledge and embrace the complexities of learning to read and write, so that students have opportunities to engage in rich and authentic literacy practices in their classrooms.