Identifying the dimensions of scaffolding in nature schools of Mazandaran province

The overall purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of scaffolding in nature schools of Mazandaran province. This research is applied in terms of purpose, using a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) with an exploratory design. In the qualitative phase, the Delphi method was used, and descriptive survey method was adopted in the quantitative phase. The statistical population in the qualitative phase included 20 professors of Islamic Azad universities of Mazandaran province and 20 principals and education experts, and in the quantitative phase, it included 75 principals, deputies and teachers of nature schools in Mazandaran province. In the qualitative phase, using purposive sampling method and considering data saturation, 10 people were selected, while in the quantitative phase, 63 people were selected based on the Cochran's formula and using a simple random sampling method. A researcher-made questionnaire including 60 questions was used to collect the data. The face and content validity of the instruments were confirmed by experts, and their composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha were calculated to be above 0.7. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the data. According to the results, scaffolding has 5 dimensions, namely cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, procedural, and structural. The emotional dimension with a factor load of 0.971 is in the first rank, and the procedural dimension with a factor load of 0.917 is in the last rank.