Emotional Scaffolding

The practical knowledge that enables good teaching has emerged over the past decade as an area of critical interest to educational researchers. This article reports on insights gathered during a series of teacher practical knowledge research projects that took place over a 10-year period with more than 40 teacher interns and experienced teachers. The groups were convened for the purpose of critiquing and refining the concept of pedagogical content knowledge. One practice that became a focus of inquiry in these groups was the tailoring of pedagogical representations to influence students’ emotional response to some specific aspect of the subject matter being taught. This practice was named emotional scaffolding. Several examples of emotional scaffolding are provided and a typology of approaches to emotional scaffolding is offered. Possible implications for teacher knowledge theory and teacher education curriculum are explored.