The Efficacy of Vygotskian's Notion of the Zone of Proximal Development in Teaching and Learning - Essay Example

Student’s Name: Professor’s Name: Subject: The Efficacy of Vygоtskiаn’s notion of the Zоnе of Prохimаl Dеvеlорmеnt in teaching and learning. Date: The Vygоtskiаn notion of the Zоnе of Prохimаl Dеvеlорmеnt Introduction Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is a term or notion developed by a psychologist known as Lev Vygotsky. Basically, the concept examines the difference between the learner’s ability to accomplish a task independently and if such a person is guided by other people in the same learning environment (McLeod 2010). Vygotsky (1978) examined that although learning is not development, properly organized learning leads to mental. However, the author creates a motion by which he identifies different developmental processes that he considers are likely not to occur without involving in the process of learning. He argues that learning is a crucial and universal aspect as far as the process of developing culturally organized human psychological functions is concerned. Vygotsky (1978, p.85) states that school learning is a process that inculcates something new into the development of a child. He defines the zone of proximal development as a key concept that provides a detailed view of the dimensions of school learning. Voygotsky emphasizes that what a child can attain through the assistance of others or commonly referred to as social interaction may tend to be exceedingly indicative of their mental development as compared to what he or she can do as an individual. As a result, he assumes that the existing tension between the learning-development relationships will not be resolved without the zone of the proximal development. Effective learning can be achieved only where engagement in a cognitive apprenticeship is encouraged and under the guidance of a teacher or mentor (Vygotsky 1978). The effiсасy of an аррrоасh to tеасhing and lеаrning which inсоrроrаtеs Vygоtskiаn notion of the Zоnе of Prохimаl Dеvеlорmеnt To a larger extent, the work of Vygotsky about the zone of the proximal development has had a great influence in the field of education where the concept is applied in developing age appropriate curriculum as well as teaching techniques. The ability to understand what children can achieve alone and what they can attain with assistance from an adult people enable educators to develop effective plans to teach skills. This gives students regular releases of responsibility to enable them perform tasks independently, a process known as scaffolding in which an adult enables the child learner to shift from inability to accomplish a given task to being in a position to do it through guidance, interaction and asking questions. Studies indicate that children participate in the socially structured activities of their community by engaging with adults and other children particularly through explicit collaboration as well as in routine and tacit situations. In this process of participation, a child is prepared or learns how to participate in the future events. Therefore, communities of learning play an integral role in fostering collaborating relationships between the child learning and the adult. Although an adult’s guidance can be explicit and clear or basically tacit and implied, it is significant in enhancing effective learning between an adult and the child. The spaces which can either be distant, close or proximal in which the learning takes place also matters a lot in the learning process (Rogoff 1998). According to Vygotsky (1978, p.90) learning provides a significant feature because it creates the zone of proximal development. It means that learning awakens different developmental processes that operate only when the child undergoing the learning process is interacting with other people within his environment as well as in cooperation with his or her peers. However, it should be noted that once such processes are internalized, they are considered as the child’s own developmental achievement (Vygotsky 1978). The idea of ZPD not only enables educators to consider the cycles and maturation processes already completed in learner’s life but also understand the processes that may be still under the process of formation. Therefore, educators are able to know the processes that begin to mature and develop. It is worthwhile to note that ZPD is vital in enabling us delineate the immediate future and the changing developmental state of a child. The entire process of learning the psychological development of a child is ideal in not allowing the educator to know what the child or learner already has achieved developmentally but also enables to discover what is still in the process of maturing. The content and meaning of each zone vary depending on a particular age period being analyzed. The zone can never be located solely in a child because the subjective zone is always considered as the child’s ability to fit into academic model of the age period (Chaiklin 2003). By considering the relationship between Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding, it is relevant to point out that successful application of the notion in a classroom not only involves understanding where a child is functioning now and will be tomorrow, but also means undertaking the necessary steps to assist that particular child in developing more advanced skills and ideas. In this case, therefore scaffolding exists to show us how aiming instruction in a child’s ZPD improves the child’s learning and development capabilities. In order to aim instruction at ZPD of the child, it calls for a teacher to understand not only what that particularly child’s developmental level is at a given time, but also know the type of skills and concepts that will develop next (McLeod 2010). This implies that the teacher must be conversant with the developmental trajectories for such skills and concepts. An instruction can be considered successful in the child’s ZPD only if the teacher ensures the final independent functioning of the child and at the same high level he or she happened to function with the assistance of an adult person. Successful accomplishing of this task renders the teacher the ability to begin aiming instruction at the next ZPD. The fact that children have acquired new skills and competencies to enable them perform a task with the assistance of an adult person does not necessarily mean that tomorrow such individuals will be in apposition to perform independently. It is important to note that for a number of children, their transition from adult-assisted learning to independent learning is perceived to be a gradual process that involves shifting from the reliance on assistance to slowly practicing what has been taught to eventually no assistance provided or needed. However, this transition can be enhanced only if the teacher able to scaffold his or her student learning by initially designing and implementing a plan for offering and withdrawing the certain amounts of assistance though at appropriate times. Over and above, scaffolding can be provided to children by introducing them to special tools related to alphabet chart and behaviour assisted programs such as private speech or self-talk to help children master some new skills or concepts (Tools of the Mind 2015). Scaffolding involves much of the activity that takes place within the classroom teaching and the teacher-learner interaction. The metaphor has become more popular, and thus the term scaffolding has been widely adopted to describe all sorts of support and guidance particularly offered in the classroom. Therefore, Vygotsky’s development of zone of proximal development concept was as a result of his interest to show how higher mental functions can be developed. The author emphasized on the significance of a person’s ability for development in relation to which mental functions seen to be maturing. Vygotsky also intended to know the role of formal instruction in the process of a person’s psychological development. (Boblett 2012). From the communities of learners’ perspective, Brown (1997) examines distance education as a quite unfortunate substitute for classroom instruction because it does not provide spatial and social proximity. However, it is ironical to note that he also contends that communities should not be spatially close yet in a community either the master teacher or mentor directs students through techniques such as coaching, scaffolding, modelling and fading. Although instruction is guided by a teacher and communal behaviours, under the social constructivism the learning environment is still regarded as student-cantered. Such logic can be understood partly by the two key changing social constructivism referred to as ‘situated cognition in which mental construction is achieved from authentic tasks, free social interaction and collaboration in context. On the other hand, cognitive apprenticeship involves inducting an amateur into a work culture within a sequence of experiences that result in competence (Brown 1997). Since effective learning can be achieved only where engagement in a cognitive apprenticeship is encouraged and under the guidance of a teacher or mentor, social constructivist theory has spread the view that distance education is poor. It is worthwhile to note that effective learning is situated in a particular activity, context and culture as collaboration within a community of practice. In most cases, administrators and practitioners in charge of distance education face the challenge of defending the efficacy of their respective endeavours (Rogoff 1998). Conclusion Based on the above discussions, it can be concluded that the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) offers psychologists and educator with a valuable through which they can be able to understand the internal course of development in a person’s life. It is apparent that the method of ZPD not only enables educators to consider the cycles and maturation processes already completed in learner’s life but also understand the processes that may be still under the process of formation. Therefore, educators are able to know the processes that begin to mature and develop. It is worthwhile to note that ZPD is vital in enabling us delineate the immediate future and the changing developmental state of a child. The entire process of learning the psychological development of a child is ideal in not allowing the educator to know what the child or learner already has achieved developmentally but also enables to discover what is still in the process of maturing. Learning is a crucial and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized human psychological functions. Generally, the notion of zone of proximal development is meant to provide the view that instruction or teaching should be directed to maturing psychological functions, instead of focusing on the already existing functions. It is important to point out that maturing psychological functions are crucial for the general intellectual development of the learner to his or her next age period. However, the content and meaning of each zone vary depending on a particular age period being analyzed. The zone can never be located solely in a child because the subjective zone is always considered as the child’s ability to fit into academic model of the age period. Communities of learning play an integral role in fostering collaborating relationships between the child learning and the adult. List of references Boblett, N., 2012, ‘Scaffolding: Defining the Metaphor’, Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, Vol.12, No.2, pp.1-16. Brown, A. L., 1997, ‘Transforming schools into communities of thinking and learning about serious matters’, American Psychologist, Vol.52, pp.399-413. Chaiklin, S., 2003, The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction pp. 39-64, Cambridge University Press. McLeod, S.A, 2010, “Zone of Proximal Development”, Retrieved April 22, 2015 from, Rogoff, B., 1998, ‘Cognition as a collaborative process.’ In W. Damon (Ed-in-Chief) Handbook of Child Psychology (5th Ed) Vol 2. Tools of the Mind, 2015, “Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding”, Retrieved April 22, 2015 from, Vygotsky, L.S., 1978, Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Read More