This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field concludes that the scaffolding metaphor is fundamentally flawed. The author proposes an alternative model, Strategic Content Learning, which is seen as more successfully promoting correspondence between instructional activities and the…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field identifies issues in the metaphor's use and concludes that effective special education has been inhibited by isolation of interventions from theory and by the way teacher education is structured. Use of the scaffolding metaphor to refocus…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for learning disabilities first suggests the flying buttress, which becomes integrated into a new structure, as a better metaphor. It suggests that scaffolded instruction depends on sophisticated shared assumptions about the conversational process. Evidence that some children…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field urges that all available literature, rather than a particular metaphor, should be used to evaluate the efficacy of instructional procedures in interpreting findings of instructional research. (Author/DB)

This response by the original author to six commentaries on his paper concerning the scaffolding metaphor for learning disabilities highlights common themes (such as the basic dynamics of meaningful learning) and revisits arguments for and against the utility of the metaphor. Suggestions for broadening the metaphor to address related issues such…

This commentary on C. Addison's Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field suggests: (1) repositioning the metaphor in its theoretical frame; (2) considering the ways in which contexts and activities, as well as individuals, scaffold learning; and (3) examining the relationship between scaffolding and effective…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on scaffolding for the learning disabilities field suggests that many current applications prevent rather than encourage transfer of responsibility to students for learning and task accomplishment and that current practices in many schools may result in "reverse-scaffolding". (DB)