The variety of ways in which teachers help or support learners to move beyond their current level of understanding, by giving cues, suggestions or direct guidance at appropriate moments, is known as

The graded cues, hints and guidance a teacher gives to help learners move just beyond their present level is scaffolding.

Such support is temporary and is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes able to work independently.

Cognition names the mental processes of knowing and is not this form of supportive help.

Reinforcement strengthens a response through its consequences, a behaviourist idea distinct from guided assistance.

The none option fails because a precise term, scaffolding, names exactly this support.

Scaffolding rests on Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and was named by Wood, Bruner and Ross in 1976.