The Role of Affordances and Motives in Explaining How and Why Students Use Computer-based Scaffolds

Scaffolds can be defined as tools that help students meaningfully participate in and gain skill at tasks that are beyond their unassisted abilities. However, the term scaffold is often used a theoretically, resulting in poor understanding of how and why students use computer-based scaffolds. In this paper, we reconnect the term scaffold to the socio-cultural theory that undergirds it and use that theory to explain how students use computer-based scaffolds. In particular, we examine the idea that affordances and motives drive student use of scaffolds. This framework has important implications for instructional design and scaffold research.