Sometimes, learners will really struggle to implement your targets.

They may not understand them, may find the process of change difficult, or may find it hard to visualise how their work can be different from its current form.

In these situations, modelling and scaffolding are tools we can use to make life easier for learners.

Modelling target implementation can take many forms.

These include:

• Physically showing a learner how to implement a target. For example, an art teacher might show a learner how they are currently applying colour and how they will apply colour in the future, if they successfully implement their target.
• Creating a piece of exemplar work. For example, a French teacher might create a piece of writing illustrating successful implementation of the learner’s target.
• Talking learners through a new process. For example, a maths teacher might talk a learner through the current (incorrect) way of thinking under which they are labouring before talking them through the correct way – which they will achieve upon implementing their target.

In each case, we see the teacher modelling successful target implementation for the learner.

This makes life easier for them.

They now know what they are aiming for – and they have a model they can use to help themselves as they go.

Scaffolding target implementation can also take many forms.

These include:

• Prompting the learner to think about a particular approach. For example, a biology teacher might prompt a learner to think about previous methods they have used to successfully implement targets.
• Giving clues about how successful target implementation might work. For example, a PE teacher might point to a learner in the class who can already do what the learner is trying to achieve and invite them to observe and question their peer for clues about successful target implementation.
• Suggesting some different things for learners to think about. For example, an English teacher might suggest that a learner thinks about how they want their speech to look, sound and feel for a variety of audiences. These suggestions would tie directly to the target the learner is trying to implement.

In each of these examples, the teacher gives learners a little bit of support – a piece of scaffolding.

This does some of the work for them, shuttling them gently in the right direction, before leaving the main effort up to them.