Lev Vygotsky's notion of zone of proximal development (зона ближайшего развития), often abbreviated ZPD, is the gap between a learner's current or actual development level determined by independent problem-solving and the learner's emerging or potential level of development. Vygotsky's often quoted definition of zone of proximal development presents it as Lev Vygotsky Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (Лев Семенович Выготский) (November 17 (November 5 Old Style), 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet developmental psychologist and the founder of the Cultural-historical psychology. ... The actual development level refers to how much the child can achieve independently without the assistnace of a parent, teacher, or peer. ... Potential development level is the level a child is able to reach with the assistance of parents, teachers, peers or experts. ...

the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86, [1] )

Vygotsky's ZPD falls under the theory of Social Constructivism. Social Constructivism in education and learning theory is a theory of human learning in light of learners social situation / community. ...

The notion of ZPD implies that a child's development is determined by the social interaction and collaborative problem-solving. Development is understood by Vygotsky as the process mediated by various cultural mediators (e.g., word, sign, symbol, etc.) acquired (or internalized) in the course of human development that turn from being external social phenomena into psychological tools that are used individually and independently. A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... Look up sign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The notion of the zone of proximal development clearly reflects Vygotsky's view on the nature of human development and interrelation between learning and development. Learning, which is distinct from development, may lead development and ZPD is the abstraction that describes the mechanism and potential effect of learning on development. In education in North American settings this idea was largely interpreted in a more top-down and controlled fashion. Thus, a significant adult's guidance is believed to be needed for a child's development within the ZPD and is known as scaffolding. This concept has been further developed by A.L. Brown, among others. Several instructional programs were developed on the basis of the notion of ZPD interpreted this way, the most well-known of them are Reciprocal teaching and Fostering communities of learners. The concept was also instrumental in the research and educational implementation of Dynamic assessment (Lidz, Brown, Campione, etc.). Instructional Scaffolding is the provision of sufficient supports to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students. ... Ann Leslie Brown (1943-1999) was an educational psychologist who developed methods for teaching children to be better learners. ... Reciprocal Teaching is a remedial reading instructional technique which applies a problem-solving heuristic to the process of reading comprehension, thereby promoting thinking while reading (Alfassi, 2004). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

References

• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Chaiklin, S. (2003) The Zone of Proximal Development in Vygotsky's Analysis of Learning and Instruction. In Kozulin, A., Gindis, B., Ageyev, V. & Miller, S. (Eds.) Vygotsky's Educational Theory and Practice in Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

See also

• Education
• Lev Vygotsky
• Constructivism (learning theory)
• Social Constructivism (Learning Theory)