Abstract:

The paper presents empirical findings regarding the use of printed and electronic study materials to aid the students’ learning process. It follows up on the authors’ previous research which analyzed textbooks used by upper primary school students in order to identify and describe the learning elements they contain, focusing on text and visual elements with scaffolding potential. Those elements were then classified with regard to their type, purpose and means. However, the question is whether teachers are aware of the scaffolding potential of the textbooks. The qualitative study uses half-structured in-depth interviews to determine how teachers use study materials to aid their students’ learning process, i.e. how they use and modify the learning elements that can be found in textbooks. Socio-cultural approaches, the scaffolding concept and the framework for analyzing scaffolding strategies (van de Pol, Volman & Beishuizen, 2010; van de Pol et al., 2012) are the theoretical and methodological bases for the study.

Keywords:

Study materials, learning aids, scaffolding.