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Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing

Resources & Preparation
Instructional Plan
Related Resources

Students will use scaffolding to research and organize information for writing a research paper. A research paper scaffold provides students with clear support for writing expository papers that include a question (problem), literature review, analysis, methodology for original research, results, conclusion, and references. Students examine informational text, use an inquiry-based approach, and practice genre-specific strategies for expository writing. Depending on the goals of the assignment, students may work collaboratively or as individuals. A student-written paper about color psychology provides an authentic model of a scaffold and the corresponding finished paper. The research paper scaffold is designed to be completed during seven or eight sessions over the course of four to six weeks.

Featured Resources

Research Paper Scaffold : This handout guides students in researching and organizing the information they need for writing their research paper.
Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection : Students use Internet search engines and Web analysis checklists to evaluate online resources then write annotations that explain how and why the resources will be valuable to the class.

From Theory to Practice

Research paper scaffolding provides a temporary linguistic tool to assist students as they organize their expository writing. Scaffolding assists students in moving to levels of language performance they might be unable to obtain without this support.
An instructional scaffold essentially changes the role of the teacher from that of giver of knowledge to leader in inquiry. This relationship encourages creative intelligence on the part of both teacher and student, which in turn may broaden the notion of literacy so as to include more learning styles.
An instructional scaffold is useful for expository writing because of its basis in problem solving, ownership, appropriateness, support, collaboration, and internalization. It allows students to start where they are comfortable, and provides a genre-based structure for organizing creative ideas.
In order for students to take ownership of knowledge, they must learn to rework raw information, use details and facts, and write.
Teaching writing should involve direct, explicit comprehension instruction, effective instructional principles embedded in content, motivation and self-directed learning, and text-based collaborative learning to improve middle school and high school literacy.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Computers with Internet access and printing capability

Research Paper Scaffold
Example Research Paper Scaffold
Example Student Research Paper
Internet Citation Checklist
Research Paper Scoring Rubric
Permission Form (optional)

Preparation

Student objectives.

Students will

Formulate a clear thesis that conveys a perspective on the subject of their research
Practice research skills, including evaluation of sources, paraphrasing and summarizing relevant information, and citation of sources used
Logically group and sequence ideas in expository writing
Organize and display information on charts, maps, and graphs

Session 1: Research Question

You should approve students’ final research questions before Session 2. You may also wish to send home the Permission Form with students, to make parents aware of their child’s research topic and the project due dates.

Session 2: Literature Review—Search

Prior to this session, you may want to introduce or review Internet search techniques using the lesson Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection . You may also wish to consult with the school librarian regarding subscription databases designed specifically for student research, which may be available through the school or public library. Using these types of resources will help to ensure that students find relevant and appropriate information. Using Internet search engines such as Google can be overwhelming to beginning researchers.

Session 3: Literature Review—Notes

Students need to bring their articles to this session. For large classes, have students highlight relevant information (as described below) and submit the articles for assessment before beginning the session.

Checking Literature Review entries on the same day is best practice, as it gives both you and the student time to plan and address any problems before proceeding. Note that in the finished product this literature review section will be about six paragraphs, so students need to gather enough facts to fit this format.

Session 4: Analysis

Session 5: original research.

Students should design some form of original research appropriate to their topics, but they do not necessarily have to conduct the experiments or surveys they propose. Depending on the appropriateness of the original research proposals, the time involved, and the resources available, you may prefer to omit the actual research or use it as an extension activity.

Session 6: Results (optional)

Session 7: conclusion, session 8: references and writing final draft, student assessment / reflections.

Observe students’ participation in the initial stages of the Research Paper Scaffold and promptly address any errors or misconceptions about the research process.
Observe students and provide feedback as they complete each section of the Research Paper Scaffold.
Provide a safe environment where students will want to take risks in exploring ideas. During collaborative work, offer feedback and guidance to those who need encouragement or require assistance in learning cooperation and tolerance.
Involve students in using the Research Paper Scoring Rubric for final evaluation of the research paper. Go over this rubric during Session 8, before they write their final drafts.
Strategy Guides

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Kindergarten K

Scaffolding a Research Project with JSTOR

Use JSTOR resources and this five-step process to help students learn how to complete a scholarly research project.

Young woman, a university student, studying online.

Most of the classes I teach are introductory United States History courses, and my students require a bit of scaffolding and support when it comes to writing their first research paper. They might be learning some of the skills required for this task in their English courses, but I don’t want to assume that their English teachers and professors are homing in on the same skills that I’d like them to know for historical thinking. After all, each discipline approaches critical thinking and questioning in a slightly different manner.

The purpose of this article isn’t to provide the singular way to set up a research paper, but to show the way I often scaffold the process for students in my own classes. It’s my hope that each person will take these resources and change them to fit their own course and student population needs.

An Example: Japanese American Reparations

Let’s dive into the five basic steps of my process. To provide a specific research item for our example, we’ll assume that our student is researching the redress/reparations movement for Japanese Americans that led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. In each step, I’ll provide an explanation of the activity, how it might be scored, and where it might fit in to a sixteen-week course.

Step 1: Historical Questioning

One of the foundational skills that I start with in my class is asking historical questions. That is, instead of asking why or how something happened, students are encouraged to ask questions that make connections and challenge assumptions.

For example:

If your students struggle with this concept, a great way to start them on the right track is with a simple JSTOR Daily assignment in the first weeks of class. I usually try to aim for using an activity like this in the second or third week.

If your students are already prepared with this skill, they’re ready for the first step of the research project—asking a historical question to research! Here are the instructions that I would provide to students for this activity: Asking Scholarly Questions with JSTOR Daily .

Step 2: Secondary Sources

Once students have been provided with feedback (by their teacher or peer review) on their historical question for research, it’s time to start reading some secondary sources. This is a great time to remind students of the difference between primary and secondary sources . JSTOR also has some amazing tutorials on how to search their database for exactly what you need!

For this portion of the project, students will demonstrate what they’ve learned from their secondary source research. Sometimes this can take the form of a formal annotated bibliography, but my assignment tends to be less formal.

Here is what I want to know from them:

What articles did you find?
What did you learn from them? (not a summary)
What questions did they lead you to ask?
What types of primary sources referenced in the article do you want to research yourself?

Below is how I would instruct students to complete this activity, as well as the rubric and an example for them to see:

Alternative text – include a link to the PDF!

Because secondary research involves a lot of reading and can take quite a while for some students, I usually recommend starting this phase of the process after the first quarter of the course has finished. By the end of the first four weeks, students are usually more comfortable with class expectations and the instructor’s teaching and assessment style. They’re ready to jump into a larger project. It’s also perfectly fine for students to still be finishing up their secondary reading while they begin the next phase of the project—primary source research.

Step 3: Primary Sources

The third step of the research paper project, establishing primary sources, is often the most difficult part for students (other than writing the paper). Before they begin this section, we do a quick reminder of the difference between primary and secondary sources. Since students are likely still dabbling in secondary research, this distinction is especially important in this phase. I usually want students to begin their primary source research by no later than the mid-point of the class so they have plenty of time to dive fully into and explore collections they find for a few weeks before writing.

For a larger research project, students will likely pull primary sources from a variety of places. Since the purpose of this assignment is to teach them the fundamentals, we can stick to the fantastic set of primary sources available from JSTOR and help them stay in one place. For my paper on redress for Japanese Americans, the secondary research pointed me in the direction of the Japanese American Citizens League. From there, we can type that into the search bar along with our other narrowing terms .

In this search, I narrowed the search “Japanese American Citizens League” AND (redress OR reparations) to primary sources by using the “primary source content” check boxes on the left-hand side of the screen. Since my secondary source assignment indicated that I would be interested in images and newspapers, I limited my primary search to Serials and Images for the first glance.

For this part of the research process, students will complete an assignment that looks very similar to that provided above under Step 2: Secondary Sources . The activity for primary sources is attached below, including the rubric and example.

Alternative text – include a link to the PDF!

Step 4: Refine and Write

Now that students have the bulk of their research completed, it’s time to put it all together! In this part of the research process, students should take the opportunity to refine their thinking. I always remind my students that the evidence should drive their research—it’s okay if assumptions they had at the start of the process turned out to be incorrect. Their job now is to refine those assumptions into evidence-backed arguments for their paper.

I ask students to write one paragraph of their paper to turn in for peer review. In my class, each body paragraph of their paper should start with a topic sentence that presents the argument for that paragraph, followed by the evidence to support it. This activity gives students the opportunity to “soft launch” one of their arguments and the evidence they have for peer review before they write the entire paper.

This is also a great time to point out to students the “citation” function in JSTOR.

In the image above, each article has three action buttons to the right of the bibliographical information: Download , Save , and Cite .

When students click on the Cite button, JSTOR provides them with the information necessary for the three major citation styles. However, it’s important to note that if a student needs an in-text citation, they’ll need to refer to their citation guide for that information.

In my class, the peer review paragraph assignment is optional. I usually ask students to submit the assignment no later than two weeks prior to the final due date so they’ll have time to receive feedback and edit their paper. If a student feels confident in their writing and their research, they aren’t required to submit one. But for the students who choose to (which tends to be most), I’ve included the instructions below.

Step 5: The Final Product

The last step of this process is obviously for students to submit their final paper. While I usually ask students to submit this in the final week of class, other instructors may choose to ask for it earlier to allow for more grading time.

Because I teach college, I have a lot of flexibility over my own grading policies. As such, I make the entire research paper project a single graded component of my class worth about 20 percent of the course grade and make each portion of the project worth a sub-divided part of that percentage. Steps 1–4 above are usually worth an extremely small amount of the grade since their purpose is to track overall progress and provide feedback. This means that even if a student doesn’t do particularly well on one of the parts, the grade is low stakes. My syllabus also dictates that if a student wants to qualify for grade rounding (ex: a 79 to 80), they must complete every single graded assignment. This encourages students to do these low-stakes activities, even if they don’t contribute a large amount to the overall grade.

Since not everyone has the same flexibility over their grading schema, I’ve provided a rubric below for the entire research paper that incorporates Steps 1–5 into one singular grade.

Alternative text – include a link to the PDF!

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Designing Research Assignments: Scaffolding Research Assignments

Student Research Needs
Assignment Guidelines
Assignment Ideas
Scaffolding Research Assignments
BEAM Method

What is scaffolding?

Educational scaffolding refers to the process of providing temporary supports for learners to guide them towards achieving a goal or completing a complex task.

Scaffolding can take many forms. One type of scaffolding is called process scaffolding, where a complex task, such as a research paper is broken down into smaller, more manageable parts.

Attribution

Portions of this page were modified from Lehigh University Libraries' Information Literacy in ENG2: An Instructor Guide and Modesto Junior College's Designing Research Assignments Guide .

Scaffolding a Research Assignment

Scaffolding suggestions.

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Next: BEAM Method >>
Last Updated: Jun 9, 2022 12:23 PM
URL: https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/designing_assignments

Scaffold the Argument Paper: Using This Guide

Using This Guide
What is an Argument?
Topics and Research Proposal
Choosing and Using Sources
Thesis Statements and Outlines

Content throughout this guide is helpfully color coded.

Best practices and guidelines are indicated with this red color. We include examples and handouts for your use here.

Suggested assignments are indicated by the yellow color. , critical thinking activities are indicated with this green color. these are workshops or other in-class activities designed to get students to think critically about the research process. some of these activities are librarian led. , getting started, welcome to the argument paper toolkit.

The purpose of the toolkit is for faculty and librarians to work together to design a scaffolded argument paper that will help guide students through the research process. That means dividing the large paper into smaller chunks and sequencing them into a logical order. You can also provide scaffolds, or supports, to students by designing critical thinking activities and assignments that help them learn and apply complex aspects of research like how to develop a topic, how to read an article, and how to synthesize information. Students need multiple opportunities to practice these skills.

The librarians are happy to consult with you on the design of your argument paper assignment. Email [email protected] to schedule your consultation.

Next: What is an Argument? >>
Last Updated: Mar 1, 2022 11:28 AM
URL: https://belmont.libguides.com/scaffold

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

How to write a research paper
Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
Stage 2 : Structure & outline
Stage 3 : Iterative writing
Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Don’t fixate on an article’s citation count in isolation - relevance (to your research question) and recency are also very important.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

You need to have a rough outline in place before you start writing your paper - or you’ll end up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

Introduction
Literature review
Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail.

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

To choose a research question and review the literature
To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

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What is Assignment Scaffolding?

Assignment scaffolding is a way to systematically structure assignments (and course material) to support student learning. Scaffolding breaks down large ideas or tasks into smaller ideas or tasks that build on each other.

For example, writing a research paper involves many different tasks and skills, as well as development of ideas and knowledge. Your learners might need to develop those skills and relevant knowledge over time. Breaking down the assignment into smaller (and perhaps lower-order) tasks allows your learners to gain the skills and knowledge that are required to write the final paper. It also allows faculty the chance to periodically review the student's progress to see if they need more assistance with a particular skill, or whether they need support in developing their knowledge.

Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in scaffolding or revising an assignment. Librarians are happy to help faculty use this rewarding strategy to revise or design research assignments!

Scaffolded Assignment Ideas & Options

Below are some ideas that can be used to scaffold or revise assignments. There are many other strategies and assignments out there but this list can provide a starting place for those interested in using scaffolded assignments.

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Home » Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Research Paper

Definition:

Research Paper is a written document that presents the author’s original research, analysis, and interpretation of a specific topic or issue.

It is typically based on Empirical Evidence, and may involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or a combination of both. The purpose of a research paper is to contribute new knowledge or insights to a particular field of study, and to demonstrate the author’s understanding of the existing literature and theories related to the topic.

Structure of Research Paper

The structure of a research paper typically follows a standard format, consisting of several sections that convey specific information about the research study. The following is a detailed explanation of the structure of a research paper:

The title page contains the title of the paper, the name(s) of the author(s), and the affiliation(s) of the author(s). It also includes the date of submission and possibly, the name of the journal or conference where the paper is to be published.

The abstract is a brief summary of the research paper, typically ranging from 100 to 250 words. It should include the research question, the methods used, the key findings, and the implications of the results. The abstract should be written in a concise and clear manner to allow readers to quickly grasp the essence of the research.

Introduction

The introduction section of a research paper provides background information about the research problem, the research question, and the research objectives. It also outlines the significance of the research, the research gap that it aims to fill, and the approach taken to address the research question. Finally, the introduction section ends with a clear statement of the research hypothesis or research question.

Literature Review

The literature review section of a research paper provides an overview of the existing literature on the topic of study. It includes a critical analysis and synthesis of the literature, highlighting the key concepts, themes, and debates. The literature review should also demonstrate the research gap and how the current study seeks to address it.

The methods section of a research paper describes the research design, the sample selection, the data collection and analysis procedures, and the statistical methods used to analyze the data. This section should provide sufficient detail for other researchers to replicate the study.

The results section presents the findings of the research, using tables, graphs, and figures to illustrate the data. The findings should be presented in a clear and concise manner, with reference to the research question and hypothesis.

The discussion section of a research paper interprets the findings and discusses their implications for the research question, the literature review, and the field of study. It should also address the limitations of the study and suggest future research directions.

The conclusion section summarizes the main findings of the study, restates the research question and hypothesis, and provides a final reflection on the significance of the research.

The references section provides a list of all the sources cited in the paper, following a specific citation style such as APA, MLA or Chicago.

How to Write Research Paper

You can write Research Paper by the following guide:

Choose a Topic: The first step is to select a topic that interests you and is relevant to your field of study. Brainstorm ideas and narrow down to a research question that is specific and researchable.
Conduct a Literature Review: The literature review helps you identify the gap in the existing research and provides a basis for your research question. It also helps you to develop a theoretical framework and research hypothesis.
Develop a Thesis Statement : The thesis statement is the main argument of your research paper. It should be clear, concise and specific to your research question.
Plan your Research: Develop a research plan that outlines the methods, data sources, and data analysis procedures. This will help you to collect and analyze data effectively.
Collect and Analyze Data: Collect data using various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments. Analyze data using statistical tools or other qualitative methods.
Organize your Paper : Organize your paper into sections such as Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Ensure that each section is coherent and follows a logical flow.
Write your Paper : Start by writing the introduction, followed by the literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and follows the required formatting and citation styles.
Edit and Proofread your Paper: Review your paper for grammar and spelling errors, and ensure that it is well-structured and easy to read. Ask someone else to review your paper to get feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Cite your Sources: Ensure that you properly cite all sources used in your research paper. This is essential for giving credit to the original authors and avoiding plagiarism.

Research Paper Example

Note : The below example research paper is for illustrative purposes only and is not an actual research paper. Actual research papers may have different structures, contents, and formats depending on the field of study, research question, data collection and analysis methods, and other factors. Students should always consult with their professors or supervisors for specific guidelines and expectations for their research papers.

Research Paper Example sample for Students:

Title: The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health among Young Adults

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults. A literature review was conducted to examine the existing research on the topic. A survey was then administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Introduction: Social media has become an integral part of modern life, particularly among young adults. While social media has many benefits, including increased communication and social connectivity, it has also been associated with negative outcomes, such as addiction, cyberbullying, and mental health problems. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults.

Literature Review: The literature review highlights the existing research on the impact of social media use on mental health. The review shows that social media use is associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health problems. The review also identifies the factors that contribute to the negative impact of social media, including social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Methods : A survey was administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The survey included questions on social media use, mental health status (measured using the DASS-21), and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis.

Results : The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Discussion : The study’s findings suggest that social media use has a negative impact on the mental health of young adults. The study highlights the need for interventions that address the factors contributing to the negative impact of social media, such as social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Conclusion : In conclusion, social media use has a significant impact on the mental health of young adults. The study’s findings underscore the need for interventions that promote healthy social media use and address the negative outcomes associated with social media use. Future research can explore the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health. Additionally, longitudinal studies can investigate the long-term effects of social media use on mental health.

Limitations : The study has some limitations, including the use of self-report measures and a cross-sectional design. The use of self-report measures may result in biased responses, and a cross-sectional design limits the ability to establish causality.

Implications: The study’s findings have implications for mental health professionals, educators, and policymakers. Mental health professionals can use the findings to develop interventions that address the negative impact of social media use on mental health. Educators can incorporate social media literacy into their curriculum to promote healthy social media use among young adults. Policymakers can use the findings to develop policies that protect young adults from the negative outcomes associated with social media use.

References :

Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2019). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive medicine reports, 15, 100918.
Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., … & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among US young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.
Van der Meer, T. G., & Verhoeven, J. W. (2017). Social media and its impact on academic performance of students. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 16, 383-398.

Appendix : The survey used in this study is provided below.

Social Media and Mental Health Survey

How often do you use social media per day?
Less than 30 minutes
30 minutes to 1 hour
1 to 2 hours
2 to 4 hours
More than 4 hours
Which social media platforms do you use?
Others (Please specify)
How often do you experience the following on social media?
Social comparison (comparing yourself to others)
Cyberbullying
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Have you ever experienced any of the following mental health problems in the past month?
Do you think social media use has a positive or negative impact on your mental health?
Very positive
Somewhat positive
Somewhat negative
Very negative
In your opinion, which factors contribute to the negative impact of social media on mental health?
Social comparison
In your opinion, what interventions could be effective in reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health?
Education on healthy social media use
Counseling for mental health problems caused by social media
Social media detox programs
Regulation of social media use

Thank you for your participation!

Applications of Research Paper

Research papers have several applications in various fields, including:

Advancing knowledge: Research papers contribute to the advancement of knowledge by generating new insights, theories, and findings that can inform future research and practice. They help to answer important questions, clarify existing knowledge, and identify areas that require further investigation.
Informing policy: Research papers can inform policy decisions by providing evidence-based recommendations for policymakers. They can help to identify gaps in current policies, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and inform the development of new policies and regulations.
Improving practice: Research papers can improve practice by providing evidence-based guidance for professionals in various fields, including medicine, education, business, and psychology. They can inform the development of best practices, guidelines, and standards of care that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
Educating students : Research papers are often used as teaching tools in universities and colleges to educate students about research methods, data analysis, and academic writing. They help students to develop critical thinking skills, research skills, and communication skills that are essential for success in many careers.
Fostering collaboration: Research papers can foster collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers by providing a platform for sharing knowledge and ideas. They can facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships that can lead to innovative solutions to complex problems.

When to Write Research Paper

Research papers are typically written when a person has completed a research project or when they have conducted a study and have obtained data or findings that they want to share with the academic or professional community. Research papers are usually written in academic settings, such as universities, but they can also be written in professional settings, such as research organizations, government agencies, or private companies.

Here are some common situations where a person might need to write a research paper:

For academic purposes: Students in universities and colleges are often required to write research papers as part of their coursework, particularly in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. Writing research papers helps students to develop research skills, critical thinking skills, and academic writing skills.
For publication: Researchers often write research papers to publish their findings in academic journals or to present their work at academic conferences. Publishing research papers is an important way to disseminate research findings to the academic community and to establish oneself as an expert in a particular field.
To inform policy or practice : Researchers may write research papers to inform policy decisions or to improve practice in various fields. Research findings can be used to inform the development of policies, guidelines, and best practices that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
To share new insights or ideas: Researchers may write research papers to share new insights or ideas with the academic or professional community. They may present new theories, propose new research methods, or challenge existing paradigms in their field.

Purpose of Research Paper

The purpose of a research paper is to present the results of a study or investigation in a clear, concise, and structured manner. Research papers are written to communicate new knowledge, ideas, or findings to a specific audience, such as researchers, scholars, practitioners, or policymakers. The primary purposes of a research paper are:

To contribute to the body of knowledge : Research papers aim to add new knowledge or insights to a particular field or discipline. They do this by reporting the results of empirical studies, reviewing and synthesizing existing literature, proposing new theories, or providing new perspectives on a topic.
To inform or persuade: Research papers are written to inform or persuade the reader about a particular issue, topic, or phenomenon. They present evidence and arguments to support their claims and seek to persuade the reader of the validity of their findings or recommendations.
To advance the field: Research papers seek to advance the field or discipline by identifying gaps in knowledge, proposing new research questions or approaches, or challenging existing assumptions or paradigms. They aim to contribute to ongoing debates and discussions within a field and to stimulate further research and inquiry.
To demonstrate research skills: Research papers demonstrate the author’s research skills, including their ability to design and conduct a study, collect and analyze data, and interpret and communicate findings. They also demonstrate the author’s ability to critically evaluate existing literature, synthesize information from multiple sources, and write in a clear and structured manner.

Characteristics of Research Paper

Research papers have several characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of academic or professional writing. Here are some common characteristics of research papers:

Evidence-based: Research papers are based on empirical evidence, which is collected through rigorous research methods such as experiments, surveys, observations, or interviews. They rely on objective data and facts to support their claims and conclusions.
Structured and organized: Research papers have a clear and logical structure, with sections such as introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. They are organized in a way that helps the reader to follow the argument and understand the findings.
Formal and objective: Research papers are written in a formal and objective tone, with an emphasis on clarity, precision, and accuracy. They avoid subjective language or personal opinions and instead rely on objective data and analysis to support their arguments.
Citations and references: Research papers include citations and references to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas used in the paper. They use a specific citation style, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago, to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Peer-reviewed: Research papers are often peer-reviewed, which means they are evaluated by other experts in the field before they are published. Peer-review ensures that the research is of high quality, meets ethical standards, and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field.
Objective and unbiased: Research papers strive to be objective and unbiased in their presentation of the findings. They avoid personal biases or preconceptions and instead rely on the data and analysis to draw conclusions.

Advantages of Research Paper

Research papers have many advantages, both for the individual researcher and for the broader academic and professional community. Here are some advantages of research papers:

Contribution to knowledge: Research papers contribute to the body of knowledge in a particular field or discipline. They add new information, insights, and perspectives to existing literature and help advance the understanding of a particular phenomenon or issue.
Opportunity for intellectual growth: Research papers provide an opportunity for intellectual growth for the researcher. They require critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which can help develop the researcher’s skills and knowledge.
Career advancement: Research papers can help advance the researcher’s career by demonstrating their expertise and contributions to the field. They can also lead to new research opportunities, collaborations, and funding.
Academic recognition: Research papers can lead to academic recognition in the form of awards, grants, or invitations to speak at conferences or events. They can also contribute to the researcher’s reputation and standing in the field.
Impact on policy and practice: Research papers can have a significant impact on policy and practice. They can inform policy decisions, guide practice, and lead to changes in laws, regulations, or procedures.
Advancement of society: Research papers can contribute to the advancement of society by addressing important issues, identifying solutions to problems, and promoting social justice and equality.

Limitations of Research Paper

Research papers also have some limitations that should be considered when interpreting their findings or implications. Here are some common limitations of research papers:

Limited generalizability: Research findings may not be generalizable to other populations, settings, or contexts. Studies often use specific samples or conditions that may not reflect the broader population or real-world situations.
Potential for bias : Research papers may be biased due to factors such as sample selection, measurement errors, or researcher biases. It is important to evaluate the quality of the research design and methods used to ensure that the findings are valid and reliable.
Ethical concerns: Research papers may raise ethical concerns, such as the use of vulnerable populations or invasive procedures. Researchers must adhere to ethical guidelines and obtain informed consent from participants to ensure that the research is conducted in a responsible and respectful manner.
Limitations of methodology: Research papers may be limited by the methodology used to collect and analyze data. For example, certain research methods may not capture the complexity or nuance of a particular phenomenon, or may not be appropriate for certain research questions.
Publication bias: Research papers may be subject to publication bias, where positive or significant findings are more likely to be published than negative or non-significant findings. This can skew the overall findings of a particular area of research.
Time and resource constraints: Research papers may be limited by time and resource constraints, which can affect the quality and scope of the research. Researchers may not have access to certain data or resources, or may be unable to conduct long-term studies due to practical limitations.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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The Scaffolded Research Paper

Annie Dell'Aria

June 4, 2016

One response to “The Scaffolded Research Paper”

I love this idea. I also suggest that faculty consider asking students for a thesis statement with the annotated bibliography.

Toward that end, I really like this blog post on writing a good thesis statement by Connie Griffin at UMass: http://blogs.umass.edu/honors291g-cdg/how-to-write-a-paper-topic-proposal-thesis-statement/

Great post! Dana

The effects of scaffolding in the classroom: support contingency and student independent working time in relation to student achievement, task effort and appreciation of support

Open access
Published: 05 June 2015
Volume 43 , pages 615–641, ( 2015 )

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Janneke van de Pol 1 , 2 ,
Monique Volman 1 ,
Frans Oort 1 &
Jos Beishuizen 3

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Teacher scaffolding, in which teachers support students adaptively or contingently , is assumed to be effective. Yet, hardly any evidence from classroom studies exists. With the current experimental classroom study we investigated whether scaffolding affects students’ achievement, task effort, and appreciation of teacher support, when students work in small groups. We investigated both the effects of support quality (i.e., contingency) and the duration of the independent working time of the groups. Thirty social studies teachers of pre-vocational education and 768 students (age 12–15) participated. All teachers taught a five-lesson project on the European Union and the teachers in the scaffolding condition additionally took part in a scaffolding intervention. Low contingent support was more effective in promoting students’ achievement and task effort than high contingent support in situations where independent working time was low (i.e. help was frequent). In situations where independent working time was high (i.e., help was less frequent), high contingent support was more effective than low contingent support in fostering students’ achievement (when correcting for students’ task effort). In addition, higher levels of contingent support resulted in a higher appreciation of support. Scaffolding, thus, is not unequivocally effective; its effectiveness depends, among other things, on the independent working time of the groups and students’ task effort. The present study is one of the first experimental study on scaffolding in an authentic classroom context, including factors that appear to matter in such an authentic context.

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Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

The metaphor of scaffolding is derived from construction work where it represents a temporary structure that is used to erect a building. In education, scaffolding refers to support that is tailored to students’ needs. This metaphor is alluring to practice as it appeals to teachers’ imagination (Saban et al. 2007 ). The metaphor, moreover, also appeals to educational scientists: an abundance of research has been performed on scaffolding in the last decade (Van de Pol et al. 2010 ).

Scaffolding is claimed to be effective (e.g., Roehler and Cantlon 1997 ). However, most research on scaffolding in the classroom has been correlational until now. The main question of the current experimental study is: What is the effect of teacher scaffolding on students’ achievement, task effort, and appreciation of support in a classroom setting?

Scaffolding

Scaffolding represents high quality support (e.g., Seidel and Shavelson 2007 ). The metaphor of scaffolding is derived from mother–child observations and has been applied to many other contexts, such as computer environments (Azevedo and Hadwin 2005 ; Cuevas et al. 2002 ; Feyzi-Behnagh et al. 2013 ; Rasku-Puttonen et al. 2003 ; Simons and Klein 2007 ), tutoring settings (e.g., Chi et al. 2001 ) and classroom settings (e.g., Mercer and Fisher 1992 ; Roll et al. 2012 ). Scaffolding is closely related to the socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky ( 1978 ) and especially to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is constructed through collaborative interaction, mediated by verbal interaction. Student’s current or actual understanding is developed in these interactions towards their potential understanding. Scaffolding can be seen as the support a teacher offers to move the student toward his/her potential understanding (Wood et al. 1976 ).

More specifically, scaffolding refers to support that is contingent , faded , and aimed at the transfer of responsibility for a task or learning (Van de Pol et al. 2010 ). Contingent support (Wood et al. 1978 ) represents support that is tailored to a student’s understanding. Via fading, i.e., decreasing support, the responsibility for learning can be transferred which is the aim of scaffolding. However, this transfer is probably more effective when implemented contingently. Because contingency is a necessary condition for scaffolding, we focus on this crucial aspect.

Wood et al. ( 1978 ) further specified the concept of contingency by focusing on the degree of control that support exerts. They labelled support as ‘contingent’ when either the tutor increased the degree of control in reaction to student failure or decreased the degree of control in reaction to student success. This is called the contingent shift principle . This specification of contingency shows that the degree of control per se does not determine whether contingent teaching or scaffolding takes place or not. It is the tailored adaptation to a student’s understanding that determines contingency. Most studies on scaffolding did not use such a dynamic operationalization of scaffolding but merely focused on the teachers’ behaviour only.

Scaffolding and achievement

The way teachers interact with students affects students’ achievement (Praetorius et al. 2012 ). Scaffolding and more specifically contingent support represents intervening in such a way that the learner can succeed at the task (Mattanah et al. 2005 ). Contingent support continually provides learners with problems of controlled complexity; it makes the task manageable at any time (Wood and Wood 1996 ).

Stone noted that it is unclear how or why contingent support may work (Stone 1998a , b ). And until now the question ‘What are the mechanisms of contingent support?’ has still not been answered (Van de Pol et al. 2010 ). However, some suggestions have been made in the literature and three elements seem to play a role: (1) the level of cognitive processing; deep versus superficial processing of information, (2) making connections to existing mental models in long term memory, and (3) available cognitive resources. If the level of control is too high for a student (i.e., the support is non-contingent as too much help is given), superficial processing of the information is assumed. The student is not challenged to actively process the information and therefore does not actively make connections with existing knowledge or an existing mental model in the long term memory (e.g., Wittwer and Renkl 2008 ; Wittwer et al. 2010 ). In addition, it is assumed that attending to redundant information (information that is already known) “might prevent learners from processing more elaborate information and, thus, from engaging in more meaningful activities that directly foster learning cf. Kalyuga 2007 ; McNamara and Kintsch 1996 ; Wittwer and Renkl 2008 ; Wannarka and Ruhl 2008 ).” (Wittwer et al. 2010 , p. 74).

If the level of control is too low for a student (i.e., the support is non-contingent as too little help is given) deep processing cannot take place. The student cannot make connections with his/her existing knowledge. The cognitive load of processing the information is too high (Wittwer et al. 2010 ).

If the level of control fits the students’ understanding, the student has sufficient cognitive resources to actively process the information provided and is able to make connections between the new information and the existing knowledge in the long-term memory. “If explanations are tailored to a particular learner, they are more likely to contribute to a deep understanding, because then they facilitate the construction of a coherent mental representation of the information conveyed (a so-called situation model; see, e.g., Otero and Graesser 2001 )” (Wittwer et al. 2010 , p. 74). Only when support is adapted to a student’s understanding, connections between new information and information already stored in long-term memory are fostered (Webb and Mastergeorge 2003 ).

A body of research showed that parental scaffolding was associated with success on different sorts of outcomes such as self-regulated learning (Mattanah et al. 2005 ), block-building and puzzle construction tasks (Fidalgo and Pereira 2005 ; Wood and Middleton 1975 ) and long-division math homework (Pino-Pasternak et al. 2010 ). Pino-Pasternak et al. ( 2010 ) stressed that contingency was found to uniquely predict the children’s performance, also when taking into account pre-test measurements and other characteristics such as parenting style.

Yet, in the current study we focused on teacher scaffolding, in contrast to parental scaffolding. An essential difference between teacher scaffolding and parental scaffolding is that in the latter case, the parent knows his/her child better than a teacher knows his/her students which might facilitate the adaptation of the support. Additionally, the studies of parental scaffolding mentioned above took place in one-to-one situations which are not comparable to classroom situations where one teacher has to deal with about 30 students at a time (Davis and Miyake 2004 ).

Experimental studies on the effects of teacher scaffolding in a classroom setting are rare (cf. Kim and Hannafin 2011 ; Van de Pol et al. 2010 ). The only face-to-face, nonparental scaffolding studies using an experimental design are (one-to-one) tutoring studies with structured and/or hands-on tasks (e.g., Murphy and Messer 2000 ). The results of these tutoring studies are similar to the results of the parental scaffolding studies; contingent support generally leads to improved student performances. A non-experimental micro-level study that investigated the relation between different patterns of contingency (e.g., increased control upon poor student understanding and decreased control upon good student understanding) in a classroom setting is the study of Van de Pol and Elbers ( 2013 ). They found that contingent support was mainly related to increased student understanding when the initial student understanding was poor. Previous research—albeit mostly in out of classroom contexts—shows contingent support is related to students’ improved student achievement.

Scaffolding, task effort and appreciation of support

Most studies on contingent support have used students’ achievement as an outcome measure. Yet, other outcomes are important for students’ learning and well-being as well. One important factor in students’ success is task effort. Numerous studies have demonstrated that students’ task effort affects their achievement (Fredricks et al. 2004 ). Task effort refers to students’ effort, attention and persistence in the classroom (Fredricks et al. 2004 ; Hughes et al. 2008 ). Task effort is malleable and context-specific and the quality of teacher support, e.g., in terms of contingency, can affect task effort (Fredricks et al. 2004 ). If the contingent shift principle is applied, a tutor’s support is always responsive to the student’s understanding which in turn is hypothesized to stimulate student’s task effort; the tutor keeps the task challenging but manageable: “The child never succeeds too easily nor fails too often” (Wood et al. 1978 , p. 144). When support is contingent, the student knows which steps to take and how to proceed independently. When support is non-contingent, students often withdraw from the task as it is beyond or beneath their reach causing respectively frustration or boredom (Wertsch 1979 ). Hardly any empirical research exists on whether and how contingent support affects task effort. The only study that we encountered was the study of Chiu ( 2004 ) in which a positive relation was found between support in which the teacher first evaluated students’ understanding (assuming that this promoted contingency) and student’s task effort.

Another important factor in students’ success is students’ appreciation of support. Students’ appreciation of support provided (e.g., because they feel that they are being taken seriously or because they feel the support was enjoyable or pleasant) may have long-term implications as support that is appreciated might encourage students to engage in further learning (Pratt and Savoy-Levine 1998 ). Wood ( 1988 ), using informal observations, reports that students who experienced contingent support seemed more positive towards their tutors. Pratt and Savoy-Levine ( 1998 ) were the first (and, to our knowledge, only) researchers who tested this hypothesis more systematically. They investigated the effects of contingent support on students’ mathematical skills by conducting an experiment with several conditions: a full contingent (all control levels), moderate contingent (several but not all control levels) and non-contingent condition (only high-control levels) tutoring condition. Students in the full and moderate contingent conditions reported less negative feelings than students in the non-contingent condition about the tutoring session. Summarising, little is known about the effects of contingent support on students’ task effort and appreciation of support.

Support contingency and independent working time in scaffolding small-group work

Quite some research exists on small-group work but the teacher’s role is still receiving relatively little attention (Webb 2009 ; Webb et al. 2006 ). Studies that focused on the teacher’s role mainly studied how collaborative group work could be stimulated. Mercer and Littleton ( 2007 ) for example focused on how teachers could stimulate high-quality discussions in small groups (called exploratory talk). Little attention has been paid to how teachers can provide high quality contingent support to students—who work in groups—with regard to the subject-matter.

Some studies investigated effects of support types (e.g., process support versus content support) on students’ learning (e.g., Dekker and Elshout-Mohr 2004 ). However, it may not be the type of support that matters, but the quality of the support (e.g., in terms of contingency). Diagnosing or evaluating students’ understanding enables contingency and this is effective. Chiu ( 2004 ) for example found that when supporting small groups with the subject-matter, evaluating students’ understanding before giving support was the key factor in how effective the support was. Although evaluation is not necessarily the same as contingency, it most probably facilitates contingency. To be able to be contingent, a teacher needs to evaluate or diagnose students’ understanding first. The present study is one of the first study in an authentic classroom context studying small-group learning that measures the actual contingency of support.

In such an authentic classroom context, not only the support quality (here, in terms of contingency) is relevant; the duration of the groups’ independent working time, should also be taken into account. It seems reasonable to assume that scaffolded or contingent support takes more time than non-scaffolded support, given that diagnosing students’ understanding first before providing support is necessary to be able to give contingent support. This makes the scaffolding process time-consuming which may result in longer periods of independent small-group work. Constructivist learning theories assume that active and independent knowledge construction promotes students’ learning (e.g., Duffy and Cunningham 1996 ). In line with this assumption some authors suggest that groups of students should be left alone working for considerable amounts of time as frequent intervention might disturb the learning process (e.g., Cohen 1994 ). Other studies, however, found that students benefit in classrooms with a lot of individual attention (Blatchford et al. 2007 ; Brühwiler and Blatchford 2007 ). Although it is not known to what extent students should work independently, it is now generally agreed that students at least need some support and guidance during the learning process and that minimal guidance does not work (e.g., Kirschner et al. 2006 ). Guidance might not only be needed to help students with the task at hand, it might also help students to stay on-task. Wannarka and Ruhl ( 2008 ) for example found that, compared to an individual seating arrangement, students who are seated in small-groups are more easily distracted. Taking both the support quality and the independent working time into account enables us to investigate the separate and joint effects of these factors. It is vital to, in addition to contingency, also include independent working time, as the positive effects of contingency might be cancelled out by (possible) negative effects of independent working time in an authentic context as ours.

The present study

In the present study we investigated the effects of scaffolding on pre-vocational students’ achievement, task effort, and appreciation of support. As opposed to previous studies, we used open-ended tasks, a real-life classroom situation and a relatively large sample size. Thirty social studies teachers and 768 students participated in this study. Seventeen teachers participated in a scaffolding intervention programme (the scaffolding condition) and 13 teachers did not (the nonscaffolding condition). We investigated the separate and joint effects of support contingency and independent working time on students’ achievement, task effort and appreciation of support using a premeasurement and a postmeasurement.

In a manipulation check, we first checked whether the increase in contingency from premeasurement to postmeasurement was higher in the scaffolding condition than in the nonscaffolding condition. Footnote 1 In addition, we tested whether the increase in independent working time per group was higher in the scaffolding condition than in the nonscaffolding condition.

With regard to students’ achievement , we hypothesized that: students’ achievement (measured with a multiple choice test and a knowledge assignment) increases more with high levels of contingent support compared to low levels of contingent support. Because the positive effects of contingency might be ruled out by the (negative) effects of independent working time, we added the latter variable in the analyses and explored whether the effect of contingency depended on the amount of independent working time. In addition, as the relation between task effort and achievement is established (as students’ task effort is known to affect achievement, Fredricks et al. 2004 ), we additionally investigated to what extent contingency, in combination with independent working time, affected students’ achievement when controlling for task effort.

Based on the lack of previous research with regard to students’ task effort and appreciation of support, we did not formulate hypotheses regarding these outcome variables. The effects of contingency and independent working time on students’ task effort and appreciation of support was explored.

Participants

The participating schools were recruited by distributing a call in the researchers’ network and in online teacher communities. The teachers were informed that the study encompassed the conduction of a five-lesson project on the European Union (EU) and that the researchers would focus on students´ learning in small groups. To arrive at random allocation to conditions, each school was alternately allocated to the scaffolding or nonscaffolding condition based on the moment of confirmation. That is, the first school that confirmed participation was allocated to the scaffolding condition, the second school to the non-scaffolding condition, the third school to the scaffolding condition etcetera. Each school only had teachers from one condition; this was to prevent teachers from different conditions to talk to each other and influence each other.

Thirty teachers from 20 Dutch schools participated in this study; 17 teachers of 11 schools were in the scaffolding condition and 13 teachers of nine schools were in the nonscaffolding condition (never more than three teachers per school). Of the participating teachers, 20 were men and 10 were women. The teachers taught social studies in the 8th grade of pre-vocational education. The average teaching experience of the teachers was 10.4 years. Each teacher participated with one class, so a total of 30 classes participated.

During the project lessons that all teachers taught during the experiment, students worked in small groups. The total number of groups was 184 and the average number of students per group was 4.15. A total of 768 students participated in this study, 455 students in the scaffolding condition and 313 students in the nonscaffolding condition. Of the 768 students, 385 were boys and 383 were girls.

T tests for independent samples showed that the schools and teachers of the scaffolding and nonscaffolding condition were comparable with regard to teachers’ years of experience ( t (28): .90, p = .38), teachers’ gender ( t (28): .51, p = .10), teachers’ subject knowledge ( t (24): 1.16, p = .26), the degree to which the classes were used to doing small-group work ( t (23): −.87, p = .39), the track of the class ( t (28): .08, p = .94), class size ( t (28): −1.32, p = .20), duration of the lessons in minutes ( t (28): −1.18, p = .25), students’ age ( t (728): −.34, p = .74), and students’ gender ( t (748): −1.65, p = .10) (see Table 1 ).

Research design

For this experimental study, we used a between-subjects design. In Table 2 , the timeline of the study can be found.

Project lessons

All teachers taught the same project on the EU for which they received instructions. This project consisted of five lessons in which the students made several open-ended assignments in groups of four (e.g., a poster, a letter about (dis)advantages of the EU etcetera). The teachers taught one project lesson per week. Teachers composed groups while mixing student gender and ability. We used the first and last project lessons for analyses (respectively premeasurement and postmeasurement). In the premeasurement lesson, the students made a brochure about the meaning of the EU for young people in their everyday lives. In the postmeasurement lesson, the students worked on an assignment called ‘Which Word Out’ (Leat 1998 ). Three concepts of a list of concepts on the EU that have much in common had to be selected and thereafter, one concept had to be left out using two reasons. The students were stimulated to collaborate by the nature of the tasks (the students needed each other) and by rules for collaboration that were introduced in all classes (such as make sure everybody understands it, help each other first before you ask the teacher etcetera).

Scaffolding intervention programme

We developed and piloted the scaffolding intervention programme in a previous study (Van de Pol et al. 2012 ) and began after we filmed the first project lesson. The programme consisted successively of: (1) video observation of project lesson 1, (2) one two-hour theoretical session (taught per school), and (3) video observations of project lessons 2–4 each followed by a reflection session of 45 min with the first author in which video fragments of the teachers’ own lessons were watched and reflected upon. Finally, all teachers taught project lesson 5 that was videotaped. This fifth lesson was not part of the scaffolding intervention programme; it served as a postmeasurement.

The first author, who was experienced, taught the programme. The reflection sessions took place individually (teacher + 1st author) and always on the same day as the observation of the project lesson. In the theoretical session, the first author and the teachers: (a) discussed scaffolding theory and the steps of contingent teaching (Van de Pol et al. 2011 ), i.e., diagnostic strategies (step 1), checking the diagnosis (step 2), intervention strategies, (step 3), and checking students’ learning (step 4), (b) watched and analysed video examples of scaffolding, and (c) discussed and prepared the project lessons. In the subsequent four project lessons, the teachers implemented the steps of contingent teaching cumulatively.

Support quality: contingent teaching

We selected all interactions a teacher had with a small group of students about the subject-matter for analyses (i.e., interaction fragments). An interaction fragment started when the teacher approached a group and ended when the teacher left. Each interaction fragment thus consisted of a variable number of teacher and student turns, Footnote 2 depending on how long the teacher stayed with a certain group. In the premeasurement and postmeasurement respectively, the teachers in the scaffolding condition had 454 and 251 fragments and the teachers in the nonscaffolding condition had 368 and 295 fragments. We used a random selection of two interaction fragments Footnote 3 of the premeasurement and two interaction fragments of the postmeasurement per teacher for analyses and we transcribed these interaction fragments. Because we selected the interaction fragments randomly, two interaction fragments of a certain teacher’s lesson could, but must not be with the same group of students. This selection resulted in 108 interaction fragments consisting of 4073 turns (teacher + student turns).

The unit of analyses for measuring contingency was a teacher turn, a student turn, and the subsequent teacher turn (i.e., a three-turn-sequence, for coded examples see Tables 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 ). To establish the contingency of each of unit, we used the contingent shift framework (Van de Pol et al. 2012 ; based on Wood et al. 1978 ). If a teacher used more control after a student’s demonstration of poor understanding and less control after a student’s demonstration of good understanding, we labelled the support contingent. To be able to apply this framework we first coded all teacher turns and all student turns as follows.

First, we coded all teacher turns in terms of the degree of control ranging from zero to five. See Tables 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 for coded examples. Zero represented no control (i.e., the teacher is not with the group), one represented the lowest level of control (i.e., the teacher provides no new lesson content, elicits an elaborate response, and asks a broad and open question), two represented low control (i.e., the teacher provides no new content, elicits an elaborate response, mostly an elaboration or explanation of something by asking open questions that are slightly more detailed than level one questions), three represented medium control (i.e., the teacher provides no new content and elicits a short response, e.g., yes/no), four represented a high level of control (i.e., the teacher provides new content, elicits a response, and gives a hint or asks a suggestive question), and five represented high control (e.g., providing the answer). Control refers to the degree of regulation a teacher exercises in his/her support. Two researchers coded twenty percent of the data and the interrater reliability was substantial (Krippendorff’s Alpha = .71; Krippendorff 2004 ).

Second, we coded the student’s understanding demonstrated in each turn into one of the following categories: miscellaneous, no understanding can be determined, poor/no understanding, partial understanding, and good understanding (cf. Nathan and Kim 2009 ; Pino-Pasternak et al. 2010 ; see Tables 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 for an example). Two researchers coded twenty percent of the data and the interrater reliability was satisfactory (Krippendorff’s Alpha = .69). The contingency score was the percentage contingent three-turn-sequences relative to the total number of three-turn sequences per teacher per measurement occasion. This means that each class had a certain contingency score; that is, the contingency score for all students of a particular class was the same. The first author, who knew which teacher was in which condition, coded the data. We prevented bias by coding in separate rounds: first, we coded all teacher turns with regard to the degree of control; second, we coded all student turns with regard to their understanding. And only then we applied the predetermined contingency rules to all three-turn-sequences.

Independent working time

We determined the average duration (in seconds) of independent working time per group per measurement occasion (T0 and T1). We did not take short whole-class instructions (≤2 min) into account and we included this in the independent working time for each group. If the teacher provided whole-class instructions that were longer than 2 min, we started counting again after that instruction had finished and the duration of the whole-class instruction was thus not included in the independent working time for each group.

Task effort

We measured students’ task effort in class with a questionnaire consisting of 5 items (cf. Boersma et al. 2009 ; De Bruijn et al. 2005 ). We used a five-point likert scale ranging from ‘I don’t agree at all’ to ‘I totally agree’. The internal consistency was high: the value of Cronbach’s α (Cronbach 1951 ) was .92. Kline ( 1999 ) indicated a cut-off point of .70/.80). An example item of this questionnaire is: “I worked hard on this task”.

Appreciation of support

We measured students’ appreciation of the support received with a questionnaire consisting of 3 items (cf. Boersma et al. 2009 ; De Bruijn et al. 2005 ). We used a five-point likert scale ranging from ‘I don’t agree at all’ to ‘I totally agree’. The internal consistency was high: the value of Cronbach’s α was .90. An example item of this questionnaire is: “I liked the way the teacher helped me and my group”.

Achievement: multiple choice test

We measured students’ achievement with a test that consisted of 17 multiple choice questions (each with four possible answers). We constructed the questions. An example of a question is: “The main reason for the collaboration between countries after World War II was: (a) to be able to compete more with other countries, (b) to be able to transport goods, people and services across borders freely, (c) to collaborate with regard to economic and trade matters, or (d) to be able to monitor the weapons industry. The item difficulty was sufficient as all p-values (i.e., the percentage of students that correctly answered the item) of the items were between .31 and .87 (Haladyna 1999 ). Additionally, the items were good in terms of the item discrimination (correlation between the item score and the total test score) as the mean item correlation was .33. The lowest correlation was not lower than .21; the threshold is .20 (Haladyna 1999 ). We used the number of questions answered correctly as a score in the analyses with a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 17. The internal consistency was high: the value of Cronbach’s α was .79.

Achievement: knowledge assignment

We additionally measured students’ achievement with a knowledge assignment. The knowledge assignment consisted of three series of three concepts (e.g., EU, European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and European Economic Community (ECC)). The students were asked to leave out one concept and give one reason for leaving this concept out. We developed a coding scheme to code the accuracy and quality of the reasons. Each reason was awarded zero, one, or two points. We awarded zero points when the reason was inaccurate or based only on linguistic properties of the concepts (e.g., two of the three concepts contain the word ‘European’). We awarded one point when the reason was accurate but used only peripheral characteristics of the concepts (e.g., one concept is left out because the other two concepts are each other’s opposites). We awarded two points when the reason was accurate and focused on the meaning of the concepts (e.g., ECSC can be left out because they only focused on regulating the coal and steel production and the other two (EU and ECC) had broader goals that related to the economy in general). The minimum score of the knowledge assignment was 0 and the maximum score was 6. Two researchers coded over 10 % of the data and the interrater reliability was substantial (Krippendorff’s Alpha = .83).

For our analyses, we used IBM’s Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.

Data screening

In our predictor variables, we only found seven missing values which we handled through the expectation–maximization algorithm. For the knowledge assignment and multiple choice test we coded missing questions as zero which meant that the answer was considered false, which is the usual procedure in school as well (this was per case never more than eight percent). For the task effort and appreciation of support questionnaire, we computed the mean scores per measurement occasion and per subscale only over the number of questions that was filled out. If a student missed all measurement occasions or if a student only completed the questionnaire or one of the knowledge tests at one single measurement occasion, we removed the case (N = 18) which made the total number of students 750 (445 in the scaffolding condition; 305 in the nonscaffolding condition).

Manipulation check

We used a repeated-measures ANOVA with condition as between groups variable, measurement occasion as within groups variable and contingency or mean independent working time as dependent variable to check the effect of the intervention on teachers’ contingency and the independent working time per group. If both the level of contingency and the independent working time appear to differ systematically between conditions over measurement occasions, we will not use ‘condition’ as an independent variable in subsequent analyses because there is more than one systematic difference between conditions. Instead, we will use the variables ‘contingency’ and ‘independent working time’ to be able to investigate the separate effects of these variables on students’ achievement, task effort, and appreciation of support.

Effects of scaffolding

To test our hypothesis about the effect of contingency on achievement and explore the effects of contingency on students’ task effort and appreciation of support, we used multilevel modelling, as the data had a nested structure (measurement occasions within students, within groups, within classes, within schools). To facilitate the interpretation of the regression coefficients, we transformed the scores of all continuous variables into z-scores (mean of zero and standard deviation of 1). We treated measurement occasions (level 1) as nested within students (level 2), students as nested within groups (level 3), groups as nested within teachers/classes (level 4) and teachers/classes as nested within schools (level 5). In comparing null models (with no predictor variables) with a variable number of levels for all dependent variables, we found that the school level (level 5) was not contributing significantly to the variance found and we therefore omitted it as a level. For the multiple choice test only, the group-level was not contributing significantly to the variance found and we therefore omitted it as a level.

We fitted four-level models fitted for each of the dependent variables separately. The independent variables in the analyses were measurement occasion (premeasurement = 0; postmeasurement = 1), contingency, and mean independent working time. We included task effort as a covariate in a separate analyses regarding achievement (multiple-choice test and knowledge assignment) as task effort is known to affect achievement (Fredricks et al. 2004 ). For each dependent variable, the model in which the intercept, and effects for teachers/classes and groups were considered random, with unrestricted covariance structure, gave the best fit and was thus used. We included the main effects of each of the independent variables and all interactions (i.e., the two-way interactions between measurement occasion and contingency, measurement occasion and independent working time, and contingency and independent working time and the three-way interaction between measurement occasion, contingency and independent working time). To test our hypothesis regarding achievement, we were specifically interested in the interaction between occasion and contingency. To check whether differences in independent working time played a role in whether contingency affected achievement, we were additionally interested in the three-way interaction between occasion, contingency, and independent working time. Finally, as we wanted to control for task effort, we included task effort as a covariate in a separate analysis.

To explore the effects of contingency on students’ task effort and appreciation of support, we were also firstly interested in the interaction effect between occasion and contingency. Secondly, we also checked the role of independent working time by looking at the three-way interaction between occasion, contingency, and independent working time.

As an indication of effect size, we reported the partial squared eta (ηp 2 ) for the manipulation check of contingency and independent working time and the explained variance the multilevel analyses (squared correlation between the students’ true scores and the estimated scores). We report only effect sizes for significant effects.

First, we verified whether the degree of the teachers’ contingency increased more from premeasurement to postmeasurement in the scaffolding condition than in the nonscaffolding condition (see Table 7 ).

The results of the repeated-measures ANOVA showed that there was a significant interaction effect of condition and measurement occasion on teachers’ contingency ( F (1,28) = 17.72, p = .00) (Fig. 1 ). The effect size can be considered large; ηp 2 was .39 (Cohen 1992 ). The degree of contingency almost doubled in the scaffolding condition (from about 50 % to about 80 %) whereas this was not the case for the nonscaffolding condition where the degree of contingency stayed between 30 and 40 %.

Average percentage contingency for the teachers of each condition compared between measurement occasions

Second, we verified whether the intervention also resulted in longer periods of independent working time for small groups, an effect that was not necessarily aimed for with the intervention (see Table 7 ). The results of the repeated-measures ANOVA showed that there was a significant interaction effect of condition and measurement occasion on the average independent working time for small groups ( F (1,22) = 11.78, p = .00) (Fig. 2 ). The effect size can be considered large; ηp 2 was .35.

Average independent working time for the groups of students of each condition compared between measurement occasions

The independent group working time almost doubled in the experimental condition from premeasurement to postmeasurement. In the scaffolding condition, each group worked independently for about 5 min on average at the premeasurement before the teacher came for support. At the postmeasurement, the duration increased to about 10 min. The average independent group working time stayed stable in the nonscaffolding condition, around 3.7 min on average.

Students’ achievement

Multiple choice test.

Only the main effect of occasion on students’ score on the multiple choice test was significant (Table 8 ). Students’ scores on the test were higher at the postmeasurement than at the premeasurement. The interaction between occasion and contingency was not significant. Our hypothesis could therefore not be confirmed based on the outcomes of the multiple choice test.

We additionally investigated whether differences in independent working time played a role in whether contingency affected achievement by looking at the three-way interaction between occasion, contingency and independent working time. This three-way interaction, however, was not significant (Table 8 ).

Finally, we additionally investigated to what extent contingency, in combination with independent working time affected students’ achievement when controlling for task effort. When taking task effort into account, the three-way interaction between occasion, contingency and independent working time was significant; medium effect size of R 2 = .30; Cohen, 1992. (Table 8 ; Fig. 3 ).

Visual representation of the three-way interaction effect of occasion, contingency, and independent working time (IWT) on the scores of the multiple choice test when controlling for task effort

When the independent working time was short, low levels of contingency resulted in an increase in scores on the multiple choice test whereas when the independent working time was long, high levels of contingency resulted in an increase in scores.

Knowledge assignment

Again, only the main effect of occasion on students’ score on the knowledge assignment was significant (Table 9 ). Students’ scores on the knowledge assignment were higher at the postmeasurement than at the premeasurement. The interaction between occasion and contingency was not significant. Our hypothesis could therefore not be confirmed based on the outcomes of the knowledge assignment.

Students’ task effort

The main effect of occasion on students’ task effort was significant (Table 10 ); students were less on-task at the postmeasurement than at the premeasurement.

The two-way interaction between occasion and contingency was not significant, but the three-way interaction of occasion, contingency, and independent working time on students’ task effort was significant (small effect size of R 2 = .04; Cohen 1992 ). The effects of contingency were found to be different for short and long periods of independent working time (see Table 10 ; Fig. 4 ).

Visual representation of the three-way interaction effect of occasion, contingency, and independent working time on task effort

When the independent working time was short, low levels of contingency resulted in an increase in task effort. When the independent working time was long, both high levels and low levels of contingency resulted in a decrease of task effort. In this case (i.e., high levels of independent working time), the decrease in task effort was smaller with high levels of contingency than with low levels of contingency.

Students’ appreciation of support

For students’ appreciation of support, only the main effect of contingency was significant (small effect size of R 2 = .04; Cohen 1992 ). Regardless of the measurement occasion or the independent working time, higher levels of contingency were related to higher appreciation of support (Table 11 ).

With the current study, we sought to advance our understanding of the effects of scaffolding on students’ achievement, task effort, and appreciation of support. We took both the support contingency and the independent working time into account to identify the effects of scaffolding in an authentic classroom situation. This study is one of few studies on classroom scaffolding with an experimental design. With this study, we made four contributions to the current knowledge base of classroom scaffolding.

First, our manipulation check showed that teachers were able to increase the degree of contingency in their support. This increase was accompanied by an increase of the independent working time for the groups.

Third, low contingent support resulted in an increase of task effort when students worked for short periods of time only; high contingent support never resulted in an increase of task effort but slightly prevented loss in task effort when students worked independently for long periods of time.

Fourth, appreciation of support was related to higher levels of contingency. These four contributions are elaborated below.

First, teachers who participated in the scaffolding programme increased the contingency of their support more than teachers who did not participate in this programme. In previous research, this has not always been the case. In a study of Bliss et al. ( 1996 ) for example, teachers—who participated in a professional development programme on scaffolding—kept struggling with the application of scaffolding in their classrooms. An unintended effect of our programme (that is, we did not focus on this aspect in our programme) was that in the classrooms of teachers who learned to scaffold, the independent working time for small groups also increased. This is probably due to the fact that high contingent support—for which diagnosing students’ understanding first before providing support is necessary—takes longer than low contingent support. As transferring the responsibility for a task to the learner is a main goal of scaffolding, this unintended result may actually fit well with the idea of scaffolding. However, this is only the case when responsibility for the task is gradually transferred to the students and fading of help is a gradual process. A study design with more than two time points should be used to establish whether teachers transfer responsibility and fade their help gradually and how this is related to student outcome variables.

Second, when controlling for task effort, low contingent support only resulted in improved achievement when students worked independently for short periods of time whereas high contingent support only resulted in improved achievement when students worked independently for long periods of time. Different from what we expected, high contingent support was not more effective than low contingent support in all situations. Low contingent support was more effective than high contingent support when given frequently (i.e., with short independent working time). This might be explained by the fact that non-contingent support results in superficial processing and hampers constructing a coherent mental model (e.g., Wannarka and Ruhl 2008 ). Therefore, students do not have a deep understanding of the subject-matter and keep needing help. High contingent support was more effective than low contingent support when it was given less frequently (i.e., with long periods of independent working time). It might be the case that, as suggested by several authors, with high contingent support students have sufficient resources to actively process the information provided and can make connections between the new information and existing knowledge in the long-term memory (e.g., Wittwer et al. 2010 ). This leads to a deeper understanding and a more coherent mental model which might be represented by the higher increase in achievement scores.

We would like to stress that this finding was only true when students’ task effort was controlled for. When task effort was not included as a covariate, the three-way-interaction (between occasion, contingency, and independent working time) was not significant. This means that students’ task effort partly determines whether contingent support is effective or not. This is supported by previous research that shows that task effort affects achievement (Fredricks et al. 2004 ). It might be interesting for future research to further investigate the mutual relationships between contingency, independent working time, task effort and achievement. Previous studies showed more straightforward positive effects of scaffolding on students’ achievement (Murphy and Messer 2000 ; Pino-Pasternak et al. 2010 ). Yet, these studies were conducted in lab-settings in which the independent working time and task effort are less crucial. Our findings provide less straightforward but more ecologically valid effects of scaffolding. Yet, more research in authentic settings is needed to further determine the effects of scaffolding in the classroom.

Third, in most cases, students’ task effort decreased from premeasurement to postmeasurement which is congruent with what is found in other studies (e.g., Gottfried et al. 2001 ; Stoel et al. 2003 ). Students’ task effort, however, increased when low contingent support was given frequently. In those situations, students’ task effort may have increased because of constant teacher reinforcements, which is known to foster students’ task effort (Axelrod and Zank 2012 ; Bicard et al. 2012 ). Yet, it is also important that students learn to put effort in working on tasks without frequent teacher reinforcements as teachers do not always have time to constantly reinforce students. Although high contingent support generally resulted in a decrease of task effort, high contingent support resulted in a smaller loss in task effort than low contingent support, when the independent working time was long. A possible explanation for the smaller decrease in task effort with infrequent high contingent support might be that when support is contingent, students know better what steps to take in subsequent independent working. Because they know better what to do, they may be less easily distracted than students who received low contingent support. Yet, when the aim is to increase student task effort, frequent low contingent support seemed most beneficial.

Fourth, contingency was positively related to students’ appreciation of support. This finding is in line with the informal observations of Wood ( 1988 ) and the findings of Pratt and Savoy-Levine ( 1998 ). Contingent support involves diagnosing students’ understanding and building upon that understanding. Students might therefore appreciate contingent support more because they may feel taken seriously and feel that their ideas are respected. Yet, future, more qualitative research is needed to further explore this hypothesis.

Limitations

A first limitation of the study is that the intervention can be considered relatively short; about 8 weeks whereas for example Slavin ( 2008 ) advised interventions to be at least 12 weeks. Both teachers and students might need more time to adjust to changes in interaction. Future research could investigate whether conducting scaffolding for a longer time span has different effects on students’ behaviour, appreciation and achievement.

Furthermore, we only investigated the effects of support of the subject-matter, that is, cognitive scaffolding. Yet, metacognitive activities play an important role in group work as well and these metacognitive skills might need explicit scaffolding as well (cf. Askell-Williams et al. 2012 ; Molenaar et al. 2011 ). Future classroom research should therefore jointly investigate the scaffolding of students’ cognitive and metacognitive activities.

Finally, we only investigated the linear effects of contingency and independent working time on students’ achievement, task effort and appreciation of support. Yet, it would be interesting to test for non-linear effects in future research. That is, especially regarding independent working time, there might be an optimum in promoting students’ achievement, task effort and perhaps appreciation of support. Very short periods of independent working might disturb the students’ learning process whereas chances of getting stuck may increase with very lengthy periods of independent working time.

Implications

The current study has several practical and scientific implications. First, the scaffolding intervention seemed to have promoted teachers’ degree of contingent support; this intervention could thus facilitate future scaffolding research. Although scaffolding appeals to teachers’ imagination (Saban et al. 2007 ), it is not something most teachers naturally do (Van de Pol et al. 2011 ). Therefore, finding effective ways of promoting teachers’ scaffolding is crucial in order to be able to study effects of scaffolding.

Second, the scaffolding intervention programme is also useful for teacher education or professional development programs. The intervention programme provides a step by step model on how to learn to scaffold, i.e., the model of contingent teaching.

Third, this study contributed to our understanding of the circumstances in which low or high contingent support is beneficial. If teachers have the opportunity to provide frequent support, low contingent support appeared more effective in promoting students’ achievement and task effort than high contingent support. Yet, if teachers do not have the opportunity to provide support often, e.g., due to a full classroom, high contingent support appeared more effective than low contingent support in fostering students’ achievement (when correcting for task effort). The exact role of students’ task effort in this process needs to be considered more carefully in future research.

To increase the efficiency of scaffolding support, students could for example be stimulated to, before they ask for help, think first about their own understanding. What is it they do not understand and what do they already know about the topic? When students are better able to reflect on their own understanding, they might be able to explain their understanding better to the teacher so less time needs to be spent on the diagnostic phase. Yet, a certain degree of diagnostic activities might still be crucial as it may convey a message of interest to the students. In addition, because students have difficulties at gauging their own understanding (Dunning et al. 2004 ), teachers’ active diagnostic behaviour is needed.

The current large-scaled classroom study revealed some important theoretical and practical issues. When teachers are taught how to scaffold, their degree of contingency increased but the independent working time for students increased as well. Scaffolding was not unequivocally effective; its effectiveness depends, among other things, on the independent working time and students’ task effort. This study shows that such factors are important to include in scaffolding studies that take place in authentic classroom settings.

This was a check on the implementation fidelity only. A more elaborate investigation into the effects of the intervention on teachers’ classroom practices is reported elsewhere (Van de Pol et al. 2014 ).

We use the term turn to indicate a complete utterance by a student or a teacher until another student or the teacher says something.

We did not choose one but two interaction fragments per teacher get a more representative impression of the degree of contingency the teacher exhibited. Given that coding contingency is so time-consuming, it was not feasible to choose more than two interaction fragments per teacher per measurement occasion.

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van de Pol, J., Volman, M., Oort, F. et al. The effects of scaffolding in the classroom: support contingency and student independent working time in relation to student achievement, task effort and appreciation of support. Instr Sci 43 , 615–641 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-015-9351-z

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Development of Scaffolds from Bio-Based Natural Materials for Tissue Regeneration Applications: A Review

Murugiah krishani.

1 Faculty of Integrated Technologies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link, Gadong BE1410, Brunei

Wong Yen Shin

Hazwani suhaimi, nonni soraya sambudi.

2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitas Pertamina, Simprug, Jakarta 12220, Indonesia

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No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

Tissue damage and organ failure are major problems that many people face worldwide. Most of them benefit from treatment related to modern technology’s tissue regeneration process. Tissue engineering is one of the booming fields widely used to replace damaged tissue. Scaffold is a base material in which cells and growth factors are embedded to construct a substitute tissue. Various materials have been used to develop scaffolds. Bio-based natural materials are biocompatible, safe, and do not release toxic compounds during biodegradation. Therefore, it is highly recommendable to fabricate scaffolds using such materials. To date, there have been no singular materials that fulfill all the features of the scaffold. Hence, combining two or more materials is encouraged to obtain the desired characteristics. To design a reliable scaffold by combining different materials, there is a need to choose a good fabrication technique. In this review article, the bio-based natural materials and fine fabrication techniques that are currently used in developing scaffolds for tissue regeneration applications, along with the number of articles published on each material, are briefly discussed. It is envisaged to gain explicit knowledge of developing scaffolds from bio-based natural materials for tissue regeneration applications.

1. Introduction

Tissue regeneration is a dynamic process in which the cells and their surrounding matrix interplay. Further, this process is encouraged by designing biomaterials that adapt to the local cellular signals [ 1 ]. Transplantation is the conventional method for tissue regeneration, but donor availability, pain, and risks related to graft rejection and infectious disease are some concerns [ 2 ]. Tissue engineering is a modern field that promotes tissue replacement and regeneration substitutes. It is a multidisciplinary field in which a biomaterial such as a scaffold, cells, and growth factors are combined to form a new tissue [ 3 , 4 ]. It also helps to overcome the problems faced during autologous and allogeneic tissue repair, such as inadequacy, donor site dejection, and unbidden immune responses [ 5 ]. The scaffold acts as a template in which cells and growth factors are implanted to imitate the extracellular matrix to maintain and restore tissue function. High porosity, pore interconnectivity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties are indispensable properties that must be considered when designing the scaffold [ 6 ]. Besides blood cells, most tissue cells reside in a solid matrix known as the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM is an anchor for maintaining a proper structure and providing the tissue with mechanical properties and signaling molecules. Hence, the scaffold selected for engineered tissue should mimic the ECM of that specific tissue [ 7 ]. Selecting appropriate cells, isolating and expanding targeted cells, and selecting suitable biomaterial for scaffold designing are factors that thrive in tissue engineering [ 8 ]. However, a solitary polymer cannot achieve every single property of a scaffold, so the desired property can be attained by mixing it with a variety of polymers [ 9 ]. Along with the selection of material, process technique or fabrication method also provide a more significant impact on the features of the resultant scaffold [ 10 ]. This paper provides detailed information on bio-based natural materials and the fabrication techniques currently used to develop scaffolds for tissue regeneration applications.

2. Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering (TE) is a relatively new, unique, multidisciplinary field. It offers new hope to patients by integrating clinical medicine, materials science, cell biology and genetics, and mechanical engineering to design bio-artificial tissues or biological substitutes that restore or regenerate, preserve, and improve damaged tissue or organs [ 3 ]. The three essential parameters in tissue engineering, biomaterial scaffolds, cells, and growth-stimulating signals, are known as the “tissue-engineering triad,” as mentioned in Figure 1 .

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Vital elements of tissue engineering (simplified diagrammatic representation of the basic concept of tissue engineering, i.e., scaffold, cells, and growth-stimulating factors are the three essential parameters responsible in tissue engineering for forming new functional tissue).

The bioreactor uses this triad to imitate a natural environment to reproduce and grow new functional tissues or cellular components. Figure 2 shows an illustration of the basic principle of TE.

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An illustration of the basic principle of TE, which includes cell isolation, cell culture, cell expansion, and tissue grafting into the patient’s body.

Firstly, cells are isolated from a biopsy (allogenic, syngeneic, xenogeneic, or autologous source) and allowed to grow and expand in vitro, in a cell culture system, or in a bioreactor. The expanded cells are then seeded onto a nutrient and growth factors-rich matrix or carrier (scaffold) for structural support. Here, the cells grow, differentiate, and proliferate to form new tissues, then migrate to the carrier to replace the old tissues. Lastly, this TE product will be grafted into the patient to replace the damaged tissues [ 11 ].

2.1. Key Elements of Tissue Engineering

2.1.1. cells.

The cell is a structural and functional unit of life in all living organisms. Cells performing the same function are grouped to form tissues and create a body system. While designing a TE product, especially for clinical applications, cell source selection becomes a crucial issue, as it determines the success of the tissue generation step. Essentially, the cells isolated for TE applications should fulfill the essential requirement of combining themselves with the selected tissue with different growth factors and cytokines that activate the endogenous tissue regeneration program. However, natural cells have difficulty reproducing the same particular cell type in large quantities. A promising cell source called stem cells is then developed as an alternative. Stem cells can be categorized into embryonic (ESCs), adult (ASCs), and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). ESCs are pluripotent cells that can differentiate into any desired lineage, but are ethically controversial and have a shortage in teratoma production [ 12 ]. ASCs are multipotent cells and are considered more appropriate for TE applications than ESCs. Though ASCs have more limitations in cell differentiation, they are believed to be less prone to rejections after transplantations. Therefore, ASCs are commonly used to isolate tissues such as bone marrow, muscle, adipose tissue, and umbilical cord [ 13 ]. iPSCs, on the other hand, are somatic cells in the pluripotent state that exhibit autologous characteristics and fulfill differentiation capacity [ 12 ]. Nevertheless, iPSCs are yet to be extensively used due to the need for precise characterizations of reprogramming the somatic cells before clinical applications [ 14 ].

2.1.2. Growth Factors

Growth-stimulating signals include growth factors (GFs), which are a heterogeneous group of polypeptides bonded to specific receptors on the cell surface that regulates a heterogeneous group of polypeptides bonded to specific receptors on the cell surface that regulate cellular responses such as cell proliferation and cell survival, as well as the growth of targeted tissues [ 15 ]. Some GFs that have been used in TE applications include bone morphogenetic proteins, vascular epithelial growth factor (VEGF), and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) [ 16 ].

2.1.3. Scaffolds

Scaffolds play an important role in TE applications, serving as a temporary platform or template for providing guidance and structural support to develop new tissues [ 17 ]. Scaffolds refer to a three-dimensional (3D) porous biomaterial that provides a favorable environment for cells to repair and regenerate tissues and organs [ 3 ]. It serves as a template for tissue defect reconstruction while promoting cell attachment, proliferation, extracellular matrix regeneration, and restoration of nerves, muscles, and bones. In addition, scaffolds can transport bioactive materials such as drugs, inhibitors, and cytokines as a mechanical barrier against the infiltrating native tissues, which may disturb tissue restoration and regeneration [ 11 ].

2.2. Requirements of Scaffold

2.2.1. microarchitecture.

The microarchitecture of the scaffold includes the porosity and pore size and the interconnectivity between the pores. Firstly, the pore size must be adequate for cell migration and attachment onto scaffolds. This also ensures proper mass transfer of nutrients and waste materials into and out of the cells and tissue or vascularization and infiltration. As suggested by Perić Kačarević et al., a smaller pore size is favorable, between 75 and 100 μm in vitro, while the maximum pore size should lie between 200 and 500 μm in vivo to allow optimal tissue penetration and vascularization [ 18 , 19 ]. Moreover, an interconnecting porous system is required to provide a larger scaffold surface area for cell attachment. In addition, having a higher porosity helps to maximize cell-to-cell interactions, thereby promoting the integration of the engineered tissues with the native tissues [ 20 ]. Alonzo et al. suggested a pore network comprising more than 60 percent of pores with pore diameters ranging between 150 and 400 μm and at least 20 percent smaller than 20 μm [ 21 ].

2.2.2. Biodegradability

As scaffolds only act as a temporary platform for developing cells or tissues, they should be chemically or enzymatically broken down over time when grafted into living organisms. The rate at which the scaffold materials are broken down is known as biodegradability [ 3 ]. Ideally, the biodegradation rate of the scaffold should be proportional to the rate of new bone formation or tissue regeneration. When new tissues are successfully engineered and integrated with host bone, they will replace the biomaterial scaffolds via a “creeping substitution” step [ 22 ]. The non-toxic products of the scaffold will then be recycled as metabolites in other biochemical reactions or exit the body without interference with other organs and surrounding tissues [ 18 , 20 ].

2.2.3. Biocompatibility

Furthermore, the scaffold should be highly biocompatible for cell adhesion and proliferation. There should be negligible chronic immune responses to prevent severe inflammatory reactions that might affect healing or cause rejection in the body. Even when inflammatory reactions occur, they should be recovered in no more than two weeks [ 23 , 24 ].

2.2.4. Bioactivity

Scaffold bioactivity refers to its ability to interact with the surrounding cellular components of the engineered tissues. Unlike traditional passive biomaterials, which generally pose low or no interactions with the environment, bioactive scaffolds are designed to enhance proper cell migration or differentiation, tissue regeneration or neoformation, and integration in the host, thereby avoiding processes such as scarring [ 19 ]. Moreover, the scaffolds may be attached to cell-adhesive ligands to promote cell attachment, or to physical indicators such as topography to enhance cell morphology and alignment. In addition, bioactive scaffolds may serve as a transporter or reservoir for growth-stimulating signals such as GFs to enhance tissue regeneration [ 7 ].

2.2.5. Mechanical Properties

Furthermore, the scaffold materials should pose similar intrinsic mechanical properties as native bones or tissues in the anatomical site of implantation. The mechanical properties of tissue vary in nature, as listed in Table 1 . It provides structural support and shape stability and, at the same time, helps to minimize the risk of stress shielding, implant-related osteopenia, and subsequent re-fracture. Moreover, the scaffold should also be strong enough to allow surgical handling during transplantations. Some examples of mechanical properties include elastic modulus, tensile strength, fracture toughness, fatigue, and elongation percentage [ 7 , 18 , 19 , 25 ].

Young’s modulus of various tissues.

Tensile testing and compressive testing are the conventional methods used to characterize the mechanical properties of a scaffold. Compressive/tensile strength, toughness, and Young’s modulus are the important obtained parameters. No limitations for the geometrical structure of the specimen is the biggest advantage of compressive testing over tensile testing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), rheometry, and micro indentation are the alternative methods for the characterization of mechanical properties [ 25 ]. Elasticity (Young’s modulus), shear strength, and viscoelasticity measurement are some significant mechanical properties in cardiac tissue engineering. Due to its thin geometric structure (µm thickness), it is inadequate for DMA. Hence, viscoelasticity measurement for the cardiac scaffold is incorporated only in a few studies [ 35 ]. For the healing process, to endure osteogenic loads, adequate compressive strength is needed in bone tissue engineering [ 36 ]. Compared to other tissues, neural tissues have low mechanical stiffness with the range of 0.1KPa for Young’s modulus [ 37 ]. Mechanical properties play a crucial role in skin tissue engineering to resist physiological forces such as nerve bundles, vascular networks, and collagen deposition during the wound healing process [ 38 ]. Figure 3 depicts the requirements to be considered while developing the scaffold.

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The necessary ideal scaffold requirements include biocompatibility, biodegradability, mechanical properties, scaffold architecture, and manufacturing technology.

2.2.6. Manufacturing Technologies

As stated by Place et al., TE products must be both productive and cost-effective, introducing a potential dichotomy between the need for sophistication and ease of production [ 39 ]. While ensuring scaffold efficiency, it is also essential to consider the cost and availability, ensuring scale-up production of the scaffolds is feasible when required. Another key factor to consider is delivering and packaging the scaffolds to the clinicians. Even though clinicians usually prefer off-the-shelf availability to lessen waiting time before implantations, it may not be possible for some tissue types [ 40 ]. Therefore, this should be considered while implementing a TE strategy.

2.3. Materials Used for Developing Scaffold

The material source for scaffolds should depend on the patient’s status. For instance, patients with cancer or osteoporosis generally experience low bone metabolism; hence, the scaffold material should be non-resorbable. Nevertheless, the material source would come under biomaterials. According to the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), a biomaterial is a material meant to interface with biological systems to treat, evaluate, augment or replace any tissue, organ or function of the body [ 18 , 40 ]. The four major biomaterials typically used in the fabrication of scaffolds are polymers, bio-ceramics, metals, and carbon-based nanomaterials. As each group has specific advantages and disadvantages, scaffolds may comprise more than one of these biomaterial types [ 40 , 41 ]. Natural polymers, synthetic polymers, bio-ceramics, biodegradable metals, and carbon-based nanomaterials are currently used in scaffold development [ 1 ].

2.3.1. Polymer

A polymer is a long-chained macromolecule built up by repeated monomers, and polymer-based biomaterials are considered a good choice for fabricating a scaffold [ 42 ]. Polymers are a good candidate in TE applications for their great versatility and flexibility in providing a wide range of mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. They show good biocompatibility, are light in weight, and are resistant to biochemical attack. Moreover, polymers are highly available at a reasonable cost and quickly processed into desired shapes. In addition, the inertness of polymers towards host tissues makes them an eligible candidate for a drug delivery system. Some biomedical applications involving polymers include artificial organs and blood vessels, breast implants, contact lenses, coatings for pharmaceutical tablets and capsules, external and internal ear repairs, cardiac assist devices, and joint replacements [ 43 ]. Polymeric biomaterials have been obtained from natural and synthetic polymers, each having pros and cons [ 44 , 45 ]. Carbohydrates such as chitin, cellulose, starch, alginate, and hyaluronic acid and proteins such as collagen, elastin, keratin, gelatin, and fibrin fall under natural polymers, where polyesters such as poly ε-caprolactone (PCL), polylactic acid (PLA), and polyglycolic acid (PGA) and Polyurethanes come under synthetic polymers [ 44 ].

Natural polymers: Biopolymers are toxic-free, highly biocompatible, easily adhere to cells, and improve proliferation and differentiation. Nevertheless, they have poor mechanical strength and are highly sensitive to elevated temperatures [ 46 ]. Biopolymers are also known as natural polymers. Natural polymers are materials that can be obtained from natural sources. They can be categorized into protein-based biomaterials (naturally occurring polymers in the human body such as collagen, fibrin, and elastin) and polysaccharides-based biomaterials (such as silk, chitosan, alginate, and gelatin). They exhibit similar characteristics to soft tissues, showing bioactivity, excellent cell adhesion and growth, and fulfilling biodegradability and biocompatibility. Moreover, they are also known for their wide availability, ecological safety, and modifiability to suit different applications. However, natural sources indicate the requirement of a purification step to avoid foreign immunological responses after implantation. In addition, natural polymers typically show poor physical and mechanical stability, limiting their applications in the load-bearing orthopaedic field [ 17 , 43 ].
Synthetic polymers: In contrast to natural polymers, synthetic polymers have good mechanical properties. However, they also have a high risk of immune rejection, and toxic substances such as carbon dioxides are released during degradation, leading to cell damage [ 40 ]. Synthetic polymers serve as a more predictable biomaterial providing a wide range of mechanical and physical properties such as degradation rates. If they are synthesized under controlled conditions, they do not pose any immunological risks, and desired characteristics can be brought together. One common synthetic polymer used for BTE applications is aliphatic polyesters, including poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and polylactide (PLA). PCL is a semi-crystalline, biodegradable, and non-toxic polyester that shows hydrophobicity and slow degradation rates of more than 24 months. These problems can be addressed by blending with other polymers or producing composites. In contrast, the porous PLA exhibits high biocompatibility, but shows slow degradation rates of 3–5 years. Thus, PLA is combined with hydroxyapatite (HAp) to improve its mechanical and physical strength [ 18 , 43 ].

2.3.2. Bio-Ceramics

Ceramic materials obtained from natural products, termed bio-ceramics, have been widely used in dental and bone tissue engineering. Bio-ceramics are organic, non-metallic solids with good compatibility, bio-inertness, bioactivity, osteoconductivity, and mechanical strength [ 18 , 43 ]. In addition, bio-ceramics can promote new bone generation and the osteo-potential of scaffolds. However, bio-ceramics are low in elasticity with a brittle surface, limiting their use in implants. Thus, they are usually blended or coated with other materials to improve their elasticity and strength. Among the biomaterials, bio-ceramic scaffolds have been proven to be more successful in treating minor bone defects, such as orthopaedic implants and bone-filling applications. There are three main types of ceramics: bioinert, bioactive, and bioresorbable. Bioinert ceramics include alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), Zirconia (ZrO 2 ), and pyrolytic carbon; bioactive ceramics include bioglasses (BG) and glass ceramics, while bioresorbable ceramic contains calcium phosphates. Of all three types, the most commonly used ceramics in BTE applications are HAp, tricalcium phosphates (TCP), and their composites [ 3 ]. Human bone and teeth are composed of an inorganic compound known as hydroxyapatite, which constitutes calcium, phosphate, and OH radicals with high tensile strength and quickly adheres to host tissues. Many studies revealed that HAp is non-toxic and lacks inflammatory and pyrogenetic response [ 47 ].

HAp is a naturally occurring calcium phosphate-based mineral with the chemical formula Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 . It is structurally similar to a biological apatite in the human body, known as bone mineral, which makes up approximately 60–70% of human bone tissues on a dry weight basis. It shows similar chemical and physical properties to human bone and dental tissues [ 48 , 49 ]. Hence, some hydroxyapatite-rich natural products such as shells, corals, algae, fish scales, and animal bones are used to develop scaffolds [ 50 , 51 ]. HAp exhibits excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity, high osteoinductivity and osteoconductivity, non-toxicity, and non-inflammatory characteristics. Moreover, it vitalizes growth factors and promotes cell growth and proliferation. HAp is therefore considered a highly potential implant material and bone substitute. Nevertheless, HAp also shows poor mechanical properties, slow resorption and remodeling rates, and slow degradation rates in vivo, making it unsuitable for all BTE applications. Thus, HAp is usually synthesized with other natural or synthetic polymers to create more effective composite scaffolds [ 19 , 52 ].

HAp can be obtained through extractions from natural sources or chemical syntheses, divided into three categories: high-temperature methods, wet methods, and dry methods. Dry methods include mechanochemical methods and solid-state reactions. Here, dry precursors of calcium and phosphate are mixed without any precisely controlled conditions to synthesize HAp. According to Sadat-Shojai et al., this is to ease the mass production of HAp powders. Wet methods include sol-gel, chemical/wet/co-precipitation, hydrothermal, hydrolysis, sonochemical method, and emulsion method. With this method, the morphology and average powder size can be controlled. However, HAp yielded usually exhibits low crystallinity due to low operating temperatures. High-temperature processes include combustion and pyrolysis methods, where samples undergo thermal decompositions. These two methods are rarely used for HAp synthesis due to poor control over the operating conditions [ 53 ].

HAp can also be extracted from food wastes or biological sources such as aquatic or marine sources, mammalian bones shell sources, and plant sources [ 54 ]. This method is relatively safe, more sustainable, and economical to fabricate HAp, thereby contributing to the economy, environment, and general health. However, it is notable that natural HAp is non-stoichiometric, either calcium or phosphorus-deficient. Generally, calcium positions would be the vacancy, where cations such as Na + , Mg 2+ , and Al 3+ are substituted into the vacant space. Likewise, carbonate ions would replace phosphate or hydroxyl ions, and fluoride ions would substitute in place of hydroxyl ions. These trace elements present in the natural HAp resemble the apatite in human bone, which is crucial in accelerating bone formation and regeneration. For instance, blending 3–5 mol% silicon with synthetic HAp can boost cell growth density, enhancing osteoblast growth. Another example is adding 1–10% of strontium ions in synthetic HAp, which improves osteoblast activity and material differentiation [ 55 ]. Calcium carbonate is abundantly found in the exoskeleton of most marine organisms such as corals, sea urchins, and some algae. HAp produced from these exoskeletons are highly porous, have good vascularization and blood supply, and help to form new tissue [ 56 ]. Over the past 20 years, extensive research has been done to constantly improve the synthesis methods and introduce new technologies, aiming to develop an ideal HAp composite or scaffold that fulfills all the desired specifications.

2.3.3. Metals

Metals such as stainless steel, cobalt–chromium–molybdenum alloy, aluminium, lead, silver, and titanium alloys have been considered good load-bearing implants because of their excellent quality electrical and thermal conductivity, appropriate mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and reasonable cost. However, metals are non-biodegradable. Therefore, researchers introduced the use of biodegradable metals [ 18 ]. Biodegradable metals are metals having controlled corrosion properties. They can be grouped into pure biodegradable metals (Mg − - and Fe - -based), biodegradable alloys, and biodegradable metal matrix composites [ 43 ]. Pure biodegradable metal implants have similar mechanical properties to stainless steel and bone and are non-toxic. However, they show slow degradation rates and are incompatible with MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). These problems can be addressed through newly-developed fabrication methods such as casting, electroforming, powder metallurgy, and inkjet 3D printing. Moreover, it is essential to note that the patients implanted with biodegradable metals should not have an iron-related disease, and the patient’s intestines can absorb only Fe 2+ . Thus, any Fe 3+ released should be first reduced to Fe 2+ before being absorbed [ 43 ].

Biodegradable porous metal scaffolds have attracted researchers in scaffold development by their high compressive strength. Biodegradable metals overcome problems such as innate immune rejection and have good load-bearing capacity during bone healing. However, biodegradable metals such as Mg and their alloys have a high corrosion rate. Recently, scientists have concentrated on the Zn-based alloy system to produce biodegradable metal scaffolds [ 57 , 58 ].

2.3.4. Carbon-Based Nanomaterials

Researchers developed carbon-based nanomaterial scaffolds by combining tissue engineering and nanotechnology to enhance the scaffold’s features. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene oxide (GO), carbon dots (CDs), fullerenes, and nanodiamonds are some carbon nanomaterials used as scaffolds in tissue engineering. Biocompatibility, mechanical stability, low cytotoxicity, facilitating cell communication, and nutrition delivery are advantages of carbon-based nanomaterials that pull down to use in scaffold development. However, limited biodegradability and potential cytotoxicity are significant drawbacks [ 59 ].

Carbon-based nanomaterials, including graphene oxide (GO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerenes, carbon dots (CDs), nanodiamonds (NDs), and their derivatives, are highly potential scaffold materials for bone restoration applications. They are biocompatible, mechanically stable, and commercially available. In addition to that, they show essential qualities such as good biodegradability, efficient cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiations, significant cell growth stimulations, proper mass transfer of nutrients in the scaffold microenvironment, improved cell distributions, and appropriate cell bioactivity. Yet, further studies regarding the low cytotoxicity and the adverse environmental effects of carbon-based nanomaterials are to be conducted before they can be clinically tested and brought into application [ 1 , 60 ]. The materials used for developing the scaffold are summarized in Figure 4 .

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Materials used for scaffold development. (Materials are divided into four broad categories such as polymers, bio-ceramics, metals, and carbon nanomaterials. Classification with a few examples is summarized.)

In recent years, some innovative synthetic scaffolds based on natural products have been developed by applying recombinant DNA technology and advanced genetic engineering. Elastin-like recombinant [ELR] and elastin-like peptides [ELP] are a few scaffolds developed by obtaining the principles of advanced genetic engineering techniques. The Arginine, Glycine, and Aspartic acid (RGD) sequence is an integrin-binding sequence in the ELP scaffolds, which helps in cell adhesion and proliferation. ELR scaffolds constitute a fibronectin domain that helps cell adhesion, particularly in vascular regeneration [ 61 , 62 ]. B. Gurumurthy et al. developed a collagen-based scaffold by incorporating it with an elastin-like polypeptide obtained from genetically modified Escherichia coli bacteria and bioglass to examine the osteogenic differentiation [ 63 ]. Repeated sequences of elastin and silk blocks are recombinantly combined to form silk-elastin-like protein polymers (SELPs). The hydrogels of SELPs play a vital role in wound healing [ 62 ].

On the whole, bio-based polymers have good features such as compatibility, versatility, and adaptability, and are also abundant in nature; they can be obtained from various agricultural resources and biodegradable waste materials. Hence, the processing and synthesis cost is low and environmentally friendly [ 50 , 64 ]. Many researchers have tried to produce scaffolds from natural polymers by keeping this in mind by modifying and enhancing their stability using various fabrication methods [ 65 ].

2.4. Common Natural Polymers Used in Tissue Regeneration Applications

2.4.1. cellulose.

Cellulose is a fundamental structural unit of the plant cell wall. It is also found in red, green, and brown algae, some fungi, and as an extracellular component in bacteria [ 66 ]. Cellulose is a homopolysaccharide composed of D-glucose units connected by β-(1→4) glycosidic bonds [ 67 ]. Cellulose is an ideal material for tissue growth. It has several features such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and cheap cost. It is already used as a scaffolding material in wound repair, cartilage tissue regeneration, differentiating endothelial cells, and bone tissue engineering [ 60 ]. Scaffolds developed based on bacterial cellulose are widely used in various biomedical applications [ 68 ]. Based on recent research, the performance of the material toward cell growth or biocompatibility is mentioned in Table 2 .

Recent research on the performance of the materials toward cell growth or biocompatibility.

2.4.2. Chitin and Chitosan

Chitin is the second most common polysaccharide globally, followed by cellulose. It exists in the exoskeleton of arthropods such as crabs, shrimps, lobsters, insects, prawns, and fungal cell walls. Chitin comprises repeated units of 2-(acetylamino)-2-deoxy-D-glucose. Chitin and chitosan are differentiated by a degree of deacetylation. Chitin has various biomedical applications in tissue engineering due to its outstanding properties such as non-toxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and chelating of metal ions. It also supports cell adhesion, differentiation, and migration. Chitin also has structural similarity with N-glycosaminoglycans, essential components of connective tissues; hence, it is a good option for skin tissue regeneration. Further, it is also used in dental, bone, and cartilage implants [ 3 , 114 , 115 ]. Mokhtari et al. have developed a scaffold hydrogel by combining chitosan with collagen and aldehyde-modified nanocrystalline cellulose loaded with gold nanoparticles, showing a potential application in tissue engineering [ 116 ].

2.4.3. Alginate

Alginate is a seaweed-derived polysaccharide extracted from Phaeophyceae-brown algae. Alginate comprises β-(1–4)-d-mannuronic acid and α-(1,4)-l-guluronic acid connected as repeated linear chains [ 66 , 117 ]. Alginate displays biocompatibility, biodegradability, a simple production process, and tunable mechanical properties, leaping to join in developing scaffolds in cartilage tissue engineering [ 118 ]. Moreover, alginate is hydrophilic, so it is used in wound dressing to absorb the pus and help it heal. It is also used in cell growth scaffolds, supporting blood vessels’ formation, healing bone injuries, cartilage regeneration, and drug delivery systems [ 119 ]. Alginate-based scaffolds are widely used in various tissues or organs, including skeletal muscles, pancreas, nerve, liver, and dental tissue engineering [ 117 ]. For cardiac repair, Rosellini. E. et al. produced a scaffold using alginate, elastin, and gelatin, which successfully attained the desired cellular response [ 103 ]. The molecular structure of some polysaccharides is shown in Figure 5 .

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Molecular structure of polysaccharides: ( a ) cellulose-microcrystalline [ 120 ]; ( b ) chitosan [ 121 ]; ( c ) alginate [ 122 ]; ( d ) hyaluronic acid [ 123 ].

2.4.4. Starch

Starch is a popular polysaccharide produced by plants for energy storage. It consists of amylose and amylopectin. Amylose (a linear polymer linked by α (1–4) linkages) is connected to amylopectin (highly branched polymer) by α (1–6) linkages. Starch is highly porous and allows cells to penetrate vascularization and tissue growth. Biocompatibility, biodegradation, osteoconduction, and osteo production are some characteristics that display starch to apply in tissue engineering [ 124 ].

A study revealed that starch membrane, collagen, and chitosan enhance epithelial tissue regeneration during wound healing, clearly showing that starch-based scaffolds have more significance in wound healing [ 125 ]. It also helps in cell adhesion, growth, proliferation, and differentiation. Starch generally shows poor mechanical properties in aqueous media and is easily dissolved. Starch was incorporated with bio-additives to attain good mechanical properties to overcome this problem. For instance, researchers combined starch-based scaffolds with bio-additives such as citric acid, cellulose nanofibers, and hydroxyapatite to obtain the desired result. Many in vivo and in vitro assessments certified that starch-based scaffolds are better for bone regeneration [ 86 ]. The molecular structure of starch is shown in Figure 6 .

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Molecular structure of starch soluble [ 126 ]. (Starch is a polysaccharide mainly found in plant cells.)

2.4.5. Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid is a glycosaminoglycan that deficits sulfate bonds commonly secreted by chondrocytes and fibroblasts. It comprises repeated β-1,4-D-glucuronic acid and β-1,3-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine disaccharide units. It is mainly present in the synovial fluid, connective tissues of the dermis, the vitreum, and the dental pulp matrix. It maintains the viscoelasticity of ECM by acting as a lubricant [ 127 ]. It plays a vital role in the cell’s structural maintenance, keeps tissue hydrated, and helps cell signaling and wound repair. It is highly biocompatible, biodegradable, and can be easily modified chemically. Therefore, it is widely used as scaffolds in various forms such as sponges, cryogels, hydrogels, and injectable hydrogels [ 128 , 129 , 130 ]. A combination of collagen and hyaluronic acid scaffold material was used in cartilage regeneration, which plays a significant role in tissue repair. Mohammadi et al. prepared a scaffold by combining hyaluronic acid and collagen loaded with prednisolone to make a proper dosage form for cartilage repair [ 130 ]. According to Sieni et al., scaffolds based on hyaluronic acid show several more valuable features than collagen scaffolds in breast cancer treatment [ 131 ]. The advantages, disadvantages, and applications of each polysaccharide are mentioned in Table 3 .

Advantages, disadvantages, and applications of polysaccharides in various tissue regeneration applications.

2.4.6. Guar Gum

Guar gum is a galactomannan gum, a polysaccharide obtained from the seed of a leguminous plant, namely, guar beans, commonly known as cluster beans ( Cyamopsis teteragonolobha ). Easy accessibility, biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity, and non-immunogenicity are attractive features that tempt many researchers to develop scaffolds from guar gum [ 159 ].

2.4.7. Pullulan

Pullulan is a polysaccharide made up of repeated maltotriose units connected by alpha (1–6) linkages obtained from fungi known as Aureobasidium . Pullulan plays a vital role in tissue engineering due to its adjustable property, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and adhesive nature. Oxidized pullulan was cross-linked with collagen, and scaffolds were produced for various biomedical applications [ 160 , 161 , 162 ].

2.4.8. Collagen

Collagen is the critical protein in the connective tissues of animals, mainly in mammals. It is a protein with high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Therefore, it is applied in the medical field in various forms, such as a scaffold, drug carrier, and wound dressing [ 163 ]. The latest research shows that collagen obtained from marine organisms is used in multiple biomedical applications [ 164 ]. Collagen-based scaffolds are widely used in myocardial tissue engineering [ 137 ], cartilage tissue engineering [ 165 ], neural tissue engineering [ 166 ], musculoskeletal tissue engineering [ 167 ], and bone tissue engineering [ 48 ]. Massimino et al. developed a collagen-based scaffold obtained from bovine tendon for dermal regeneration applications [ 49 ]. Pericardial bovine and porcine tissue underwent TRICOL decellularization (detergent-based treatment), and decellularized pericardial scaffold containing collagen and elastin was considered a potential biomaterial for tissue replacement [ 52 ].

2.4.9. Fibroin

Fibroin is protein silk produced by some larvae such as spiders, silkworms, mites, scorpions, and flies. The silk obtained from Bombyx mori (silkworm) and spiders such as Araneus diadematus and Nephila clavipes are widely used commercially [ 50 ]. Due to its excellent structural integrity and mechanical properties, silk fibroin-based biomaterial is used in musculoskeletal tissue engineering [ 168 ]. Hadisi et al. developed a silk fibroin-based scaffold composed of hardystonite loaded with gentamicin as an antibiotic agent to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo studies on bone tissue engineering applications [ 169 ]. According to Zakeri-Siavashani et al., fibroin-based scaffold containing keratin and vanillin particles acts as a potential antibacterial agent in skin tissue engineering [ 170 ].

2.4.10. Keratin

Keratin is a fibrous protein rich in cysteine and is widely present in hair, nails, wool, feathers, and horns [ 171 ]. The flexible transverse bonds in the keratin molecular chain provide suitable mechanical properties to its fibrous protein structure [ 172 ]. Keratin is insoluble, highly durable, chemically unreactive, and has binding factors that help cell adhesion and growth [ 173 ]. Keratin-based scaffolds are widely used in skin, bone, and nerve regeneration [ 100 ]. Wan et al. developed a biocomposite mat that constitutes poly (ε-caprolactone), keratin, heparin, and vascular endothelial growth factor, which acts as a well-suited scaffold in vascular tissue engineering [ 174 ]. The molecular structure of some protein molecules is shown in Figure 7 .

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Molecular structure of some protein molecules: ( a ) collagen I [ 175 ]; ( b ) keratin [ 176 ]; ( c ) fibrin [ 177 ]; ( d ) elastin [ 178 ].

2.4.11. Elastin

Elastin is a structural protein with elastic properties widely found in connective tissue and other load-bearing tissues. Elastin is in the collagen network in many organs, including the lungs, skin, and blood vessels [ 179 ]. In vascular tissue engineering, the successful development of elastin-based vascular graft materials helps to facilitate arterial regeneration and helps to understand the macrophage-mediated immune response created after implantation [ 180 ]. Rodrigues I. C. P. et al. stated that adding elastin and collagen to his polyurethane-based scaffold improves cellular response and wettability [ 181 ]. Matriderm and glyaderm are some dermal substitutes used in wound healing made up of elastin combined with collagen, whereas matriderm constitutes bovine collagen [ 60 ].

2.4.12. Fibrin

Fibrin is a protein molecule formed during blood clotting by polymerizing thrombin and fibrinogen in blood plasma. Easy fabrication, rapid biodegradability, and good biocompatibility are some properties that make fibrin used in tissue regeneration applications. It is mainly used in nerve tissue engineering, skin tissue engineering, musculoskeletal tissue engineering, and cardiac tissue engineering [ 182 , 183 ]. According to Bluteau et al., the low thrombin concentration increased the rate of osteoblastic marker expression. It brought out the increased angiogenic response of osteoblasts by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. Thus, fibrin also helps in bone tissue engineering [ 184 ].

2.4.13. Gelatin

Gelatin is a protein molecule obtained by the hydrolysis of collagen, and it constitutes the Arg–Gly–Asp (RGD) peptide sequence, which helps in cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation [ 185 ]. The primary source of gelatin production is extracted from mammals, especially bovine hides and porcine skin [ 186 ]. Scaffold coated with gelatin inhibits complement system and opsonization. Thus, it reduces their immunogenicity [ 187 ]. In vitro studies show that scaffolds based on gelatin can control cell differentiation and gene expression [ 188 ]. Dehghan M. et al. combined gelatin, polycaprolactone, and polydimethylsiloxane to produce a scaffold, and further investigations on tests regarding biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties gave a positive result [ 9 ].

Singh S. et al. used gelatin as a fabricating material for a cellulose-based scaffold produced from cotton to improve cell adhesion [ 189 ]. Goudarzi Z. M. et al. concluded that a poly (ε-caprolactone) and gelatin composite scaffold incorporated with acetylated cellulose nanofiber is an ideal scaffold for soft tissue engineering [ 190 ]. The list of advantages, disadvantages, and applications of each protein is mentioned in Table 4 .

Advantages, disadvantages, and applications of proteins in tissue regeneration applications.

Figure 8 and Figure 9 depict the number of publications on polysaccharides and proteins in tissue engineering applications. It can be seen from both figures that there is an apparent increase in terms of publications in research involving the usage of polysaccharides and proteins as a natural ingredient in developing suitable scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

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Publications on the usage of polysaccharides in tissue engineering. (The number of papers published on individual polysaccharides such as cellulose, chitin, alginate, starch, hyaluronic acid, and pullulan is drawn based on the year and the respective total number of papers published, using search engine: www.scopus.com , accessed on 15 January 2023.)

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Publications on the usage of proteins in tissue engineering. (The number of papers published on individual proteins such as collagen, fibrin, fibroin, keratin, elastin, and gelatin is drawn based on the year and the respective total number of papers published, using search engine: www.scopus.com , accessed on 15 January 2023.)

2.5. Scaffold Fabrication Techniques

Usually, the tissue comprises repeated 3D units such as islets that act as a base for coordinating multicellular processes, maintaining mechanical properties, and integrating various organs through the circulation process. Hence, while designing the scaffold for tissue repair, we must remember that tissue substitutes should have desired mechanical properties and facilities for transporting nutrients and wastes [ 2 ]. Fabrication techniques are needed to create a proper scaffold with good mechanical properties, interconnected pores, 3D porous structure, and uniform distribution [ 220 ]. The scaffold architectural design is characterized into three levels (nano, micro, and macro) to maintain scaffold parameters such as anatomical features, cell–matrix interactions, and nutritional transportation. The nano-level architecture includes surface modification, including attachment of signaling molecules for cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Micro-level architecture constitutes pore size, porosity, interconnected pores, and spatial arrangements. The anatomical features and organ and patient specificity include macro-level architecture [ 221 ].

Fabrication techniques are classified into two categories: conventional and rapid prototyping. Techniques such as freeze drying, solvent casting, particle leaching, electro-spinning, gas foaming, and thermal-induced phase separation come under conventional fabrication techniques. These techniques are suitable for constructing porous scaffolds, but the main limitation is the lack of tunable properties to control shapes and internal architecture. In other words, achieving complex micro- and macro-level architecture is difficult in conventional fabrication techniques. Rapid prototyping is developed to overcome the drawbacks caused by conventional fabrication techniques. Rapid prototyping is known as solid free-form fabrication (SFF) and additive manufacturing (AM). It is the fastest fabrication method for assembling the desired item by using computer generation tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computer tomography (CT). Nearly 30 rapid prototyping technologies were applied in various fields, of which 20 were used for biomedical applications [ 222 ]. Stereolithography, bioprinting, selective laser sintering, solvent-based extrusion-free forming, and fused deposition modeling are standard rapid prototyping methods used in tissue engineering for scaffold fabrication.

Usually, the primary protocol includes forming and slicing a virtual computer model ensured by layer-by-layer fabrication steps that are similar in all the various rapid prototyping techniques. Initially, a CAD model is captured or formulated from a physical unit by digital method, and then the obtained model is converted into a stereolithography file for virtual slicing. Further, it allows for digital slicing to gain cross-sectional layers. This process is termed pre-processing. Then, rapid prototyping starts to print the layer of the prototype. The post-processing steps, including surface treatment and hardening, are applied. It entirely depends on the purpose and manufacturing techniques. The desired complex micro- and macro-level architecture can also be achieved by using rapid prototyping [ 223 ].

2.5.1. Freeze Drying

The freeze-drying technique is otherwise known as lyophilization or ice templating. This technique includes three steps: dissolution, solidification or freezing, and sublimation. At first, the chosen polymer is dissolved in a solvent. Secondly, the solution is loaded into a mold and placed in the freezer for solidification or freezing. It is then allowed to cool down using chemicals such as dry ice in aqueous methanol, liquid nitrogen, or mechanical refrigeration. Care should be taken at this step to maintain temperature, or else it will result in the formation of large crystals, which may affect the properties of the scaffold later. Thirdly, the sublimation process is carried out to remove water and other solvent molecules in the frozen component. This technique is highly suitable for producing scaffolds with high porosity, which provides vascularization and helps in cell proliferation and differentiation. The lyophilization method can be combined with salt leaching, gas foaming, gel casting, and liquid dispensing practices to improve the scaffold’s properties. No involvement of heat is the primary advantage of this method, so heat-sensitive molecules such as proteins or growth factors can be incorporated into it without hesitation. However, it consumes a longer time and high energy, and the cost of a freeze dryer is expensive, which are some of the drawbacks [ 224 ]. C. M. Brougham et al. developed a heart valve-shaped tissue engineering scaffold using collagen and glycosaminoglycan copolymer and fabricated it using the freeze-drying method [ 225 ]. During electro-spinning, toxic substances from organic solvents may involve scaffold preparation. Moreover, it can cause damage to the biological activity of cells. To avoid this situation, A. Izadyari Aghmiuni et al. combined freeze-drying and electro-spinning methods to develop a scaffold for tissue engineering [ 226 ].

2.5.2. Solvent Casting and Particle Leaching

3D specimens with thin walls or membranes were produced using solvent casting and particle leaching methods. These thin membranes are prepared by adding salt particles to the solvent polymeric solution. Then, the solvent is allowed to evaporate, and the resulting membrane is washed with distilled water to leach out the salt. The main advantages of solvent casting and particle leaching methods are high porosity, cheapness, and straightforwardness. This technique’s usage of toxic solvents, poor interconnectivity, and irregularly shaped pores are limitations [ 227 , 228 ]. N. Thadavirul et al. developed a polycaprolactone porous scaffold using solvent casting and particle leaching techniques for bone tissue engineering [ 228 ]. To enhance the mechanical properties, researchers incorporate hydroxyapatite into blends of the biodegradable polymer [ 229 ].

2.5.3. Gas Foaming

The gas foaming technique was introduced to avoid using organic cytotoxic solvents and high temperatures. However, the resultant material obtained had closed pores, which limited its usage, especially in cell transplantation. In this method, chosen polymer was mixed with salt particles and molded to form solid disks. Then, disks were exposed to inert gas foaming agents such as nitrogen gas or carbon dioxide with high pressure for saturation. Then, gas was decreased to ambient pressure to create thermodynamic instability, resulting in nucleation and facilitating carbon dioxide pores between polymer matrices. Finally, the salt was removed by leaching the polymer using distilled water [ 2 , 230 ].

2.5.4. Electrospinning

It is a simple technique in which solutions produce fibers by applying high-voltage electricity. The main principle behind this technique is the interaction between electrostatic repulsion and surface tension of charging liquid that receives high voltage droplets. This machine consists of four major parts: a power supply unit, a syringe pump, a metallic needle, and a grounded collector [ 2 , 231 ], as shown in Figure 10 . Usually, this technique is widely used for producing nano-fibrous scaffolds. The liquid is injected into the capillary tube of the syringe pump. The muscle power of the electric field from a high-voltage power supply increases the surface tension of liquid extruding from the nozzle of the metallic needle.

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Simplified diagram of an electrospinning device, which consists of four main components such as power supply, syringe pump, metallic needle, and grounded collector. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [ 2 ]. Copyright 2019 Abdalla Eltom et al.

Further, the liquid jet is continuously whipped due to electrostatic repulsion and is collected in the form of fibers in the grounded collector. Electrospinning techniques help produce scaffolds with good porosity, patterned architecture, and aligned fibers, which further help cellular response and enhance tissue regeneration. Precise control over fiber formation, homogeneous cell distribution, and lack of cellular infiltration are drawbacks of the electrospinning method [ 231 ]. Cellulose nano fiber (CNF) scaffolds developed using potato peel waste promote the adhesion and proliferation of BALB-3T3 fibroblasts cells [ 232 ].

2.5.5. Thermal-Induced Phase Separation Method

This method is widely used to fabricate microcellular foams or microporous membranes. This technique de-mixes the homogenous polymer solution into polymer-rich and poor phases by applying variant temperatures. Further, lyophilization of phase-separated polymer solution helps produce microcellular structure [ 233 ]. Adjustment of pore size can be practically made possible in this method by allowing drugs and fillers. Moreover, these particles are also homogeneously distributed within the pore size. Inadequate resolution and usage of limited materials for fabrications are the main drawbacks of this method. The phase separation technique plays a vital role in fabricating a 3D nanofibrous scaffold, and it can be highly recommended to use along with another fabricating technique such as solid free form [ 2 ]. The advantages and disadvantages of various fabrication techniques are mentioned in Table 5 .

Advantages and disadvantages of various fabrication techniques.

2.5.6. Stereolithography

Stereolithography is considered the first rapid prototype technique commercially available in the fabrication process—an aqueous photo-curable polymer was used as a raw material. An ultraviolet laser beam was used as a light source to irradiate the material surface for solidification where the untreated region remains liquid. Once the solidification of one layer is completed, the lifting table starts to move to the next layer. Subsequently, the solidified layer is recoated with new liquid resin. This photo-polymerization process is repeated until the remaining layer is done. This technique’s scaffold material has enhanced cell growth and adhesion. High resolution and uniformity in pore interconnectivity are this method’s main advantages [ 234 ]. The process involved in stereolithography is shown in Figure 11 .

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Simplified diagram of stereolithography, which consists of a tank, lifting table, laser scanner, and a computer.

2.5.7. Selective Laser Sintering

It is an additive manufacturing technique in which a high-intensity laser beam fabricates a scaffold layer-wise using computer-aided design models. Usually, materials are used in powder, and this technique can be applied to produce various materials such as ceramic, polymer, and metals. The laser beam is used to heat powder particles to glass transition temperature (near their melting point). The material was sintered to form a solid model directly without permitting the melting phase. Then, the workstation moves down layer by layer. At the same time, fresh powder is spread on the sintered object with the help of a roller, and the process is repeated until the completion of a 3D material. The scaffolds from this method provide excellent compressive strength, fracture toughness, osteoconduction, and osteoinduction. However, the high operating temperature limits the resolution, and additional procedures such as removing injected powder after processing the phase spin are some drawbacks of this method [ 2 , 234 , 235 ]. The process involved in selective laser sintering is shown in Figure 12 .

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Simplified diagram of selective laser sintering, which consists of a reservoir platform, moving workstation, roller, and a scanner.

2.5.8. Fused Deposition Model

According to Xia et al., the fused deposition model is a filament-based additive manufacturing method. Plastic materials are used in the form of filament. They are inserted into a heating nozzle, where the filament is melted, extruded, and deposited into a plate to produce a 3D structure, layer-by-layer manner, with the help of computer-based devices. This technique is simple, cheap, versatile, and has wide applications. However, some significant deficiencies are there, too, such as difficulty in microporosity establishment, which results in a lack of cell growth and vascularization. The processing time is too long, and the heating process hinders the integration of biomolecules into the scaffold, resulting in a smooth surface unsuitable for cell adhesion, which needs further coating. Many experiments were carried out to overcome these problems, and some series were developed based on the fusion deposition model. Low-temperature deposition modeling is one of the series created, and it also gave positive responses such as better biocompatibility, biodegradability, and all required properties for bone tissue engineering [ 2 , 234 , 236 ].

2.5.9. Solvent-based Extrusion 3D Printing Method

The solvent-based extrusion 3D printing method keeps biomaterials in solvents to produce inks. Then, obtained inks are extruded from the nozzle in filament to create a scaffold structure in a layer-wise manner. Natural polymers, synthetic polymers, and ceramics are the biomaterials currently being used to produce ink. This technique was widely applied to fabricate scaffolds for cartilage tissue, bone tissue, blood vessel, heart valve tissue, and skin tissue. Difficulty in obtaining appropriate levels of filament uniformity, lack of ink feasibility, and poor fidelity between the structure of computer models and printed scaffold structures are some disadvantages [ 237 ].

2.5.10. Bioprinting Method

Bioprinting technology is a promising fabrication technique to develop highly mimicked tissue with digital control. A typical bioprinting method consists of pre-processing, processing, and post-processing phases. At first, in the pre-processing step, the tissue blueprint is created using computer-aided design (CAD). The vital information regarding histological structure and composition, anatomy, and human organ topology for the design can be extracted using imaging approaches. Moreover, parameters for biomaterials are also finalized during this stage. A suitable bioprinter prints the desired structure in the processing step. The bio-ink used for the bioprinter plays a crucial role in delivering the desired scaffold. Finally, post-processing steps are carried out to maturate the obtained scaffold before host implantation. Using an ideal bioreactor for the scale-up process is also under this category. Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) are used in all three phases and play a crucial role.

Bio-CAD mimics the 3D internal structure, differentiates heterogeneous tissue types, and creates desired models. Bio-CAM is used to predict the feasibility of the fabrication process. The combination of Bio-CAD and Bio-CAM helps accelerate the bioprinting process and enhance the quality of printed tissues. The biomaterials used in this process should be printable, non-toxic, and biodegradable in vivo. Inkjet bioprinting, extrusion bioprinting, laser-assisted bioprinting, and stereolithography are the widely applied bioprinting approaches. Due to their advantages, low cost, accuracy, and high speed, bioprinting technologies have already marked their footprints in cartilage, skin, aortic valve, bone, vascular, and kidney tissues. Dependence on existing cells is the main drawback of this method [ 238 ].

2.5.11. Aerosol Jet Printing

The focused airstream is used as ink instead of liquid droplets in aerosol jet printing. Either organic or inorganic materials can be used for this printing technique. A composite suspension is atomized into an aerosol using an ultrasonic or pneumatic atomizer. Then, it is transported to the deposition head by nitrogen gas, which acts as a carrier gas, and jets onto the substrate to form a 3D structure in a layer-wise manner. Polymer, ceramic, and metals can be used for aerosol jet printing. Scaffolds developed from aerosol jet printing show better cytocompatibility in in vitro studies, and it is a low-temperature process, so it is suitable for biomanufacturing too [ 239 ]. Some research on natural polymers used to fabricate scaffolds for various tissue regeneration applications is explained in Table 6 .

Natural polymers used to fabricate scaffolds for various tissue regeneration applications.

3. Conclusions

Scaffolds based on natural products have gained more importance than synthetic products. The research in developing scaffolds from natural-based biomaterials for tissue regeneration applications is rapidly growing due to their outstanding properties such as promoting cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, biocompatibility, biodegradability, porosity, ease of production, inexpensive, and non-toxic. However, natural-based biomaterials have poor mechanical properties. They can be fabricated with suitable materials and used in various biomedical applications, including tissue engineering. The selection of suitable materials is crucial in tissue engineering. In that way, this paper provides a clear idea about the natural-based materials that are currently used in tissue engineering applications. In addition to that, the applications of fabrication techniques in scaffold development have been illustrated. Each technique has its respective benefits and drawbacks, and, as mentioned, appropriate selection to satisfy the need for the tissue to be repaired plays a vital role.

Funding Statement

This research and the APC were funded by Universiti Brunei Darussalam Research Grant No: UBD/RSCH/1.3/FICBF(b)/2020/005.

Author Contributions

M.K. and W.Y.S. performed the review, analysis, and editing of the manuscript; H.S. and N.S.S. performed the structure conceptualization, review, and editing of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

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The effects of scaffolding in the classroom: support contingency and student independent working time in relation to student achievement, task effort and appreciation of support