This week's screencast poses the question "What is the difference between a job aid and scaffolding?" I think that job aids can serve as particular method of scaffolding. Yet, job aids don't always function as scaffolding; it just depends on the job aid and how it is used. For example, a cookbook can function as strictly a job aid and it can also be used for scaffolding. When a recipe in a cookbook is followed step by step, adhering to the directions, then it is being used as a job aid. If a recipe is followed enough times eventually it will be almost automatic - the user will have memorized the steps. While this is similar to the strategy of fading in scaffolding, this is not truly scaffolding, in my opinion. All the learning was explicitly directed, without any discovery or self directed learning elements in this process.
However, when someone becomes familiar with the steps of a given recipe and begins to apply the learned information in different ways by introducing new ingredients, changing procedures slightly - then the recipe is more like a guide. Here the cookbook has served as scaffolding. I have used checklists and job aids in this way in the Coast Guard. Initially, they served to ensure I was executing the minimally required steps in a task. After using them for awhile, I not only developed a better understanding of why the steps were completed but was able to develop additional measures of my own to improve the process. For example, there's a checklist used for receiving reports of a person in the water. After using the checklist for months I soon memorized it and was able to expand on the basic steps by making them more detailed and explicit. This included tailoring it to the specific region where I was located (the job aid is a generic checklist distributed to all Coast Guard units around the country) by listing specific partner agencies and other resources in our area. Additionally, I also added steps to the process.
Hopefully, this makes sense. Let me know if I'm way off!
John
The monday class was the first time for me to hear the term of job aid. Yet, now I understand that the term will be translated in three Japanese:
ReplyDelete取り扱い説明書：manual
レシピ：recipe
ステップガイド：step guide
Job aid is something comprise all of them above, right?
I would rather wonder what is the definition of scaffolding when I'm thinking the answer for the question of "what is the difference between a job aid and scaffolding?"
Both job aid and scaffolding seem to be huge and general term and I do not feel either one would be one type of another. They would overlap each other like a Venn diagram but either one of them cannot comprise full of another.
I think your way of describing the terms and examples of them is really brilliant :)