The Cultural-Historical Foundations of the Zone of Proximal Development

Abstract

This theoretical article attempts to locate the concept of a zone of proximal development within the holistic context of cultural-historical theory. In order to analyze the psychological content of processes taking place within the zone of proximal development, special content of personality and mental development has been singled out. We propose methodologically correlating the concept "zone of proximal development" and personality development. It has been demonstrated that neoformations and leading activity, which serve as indicators of child development, also define the zone of proximal development at each specific psychological age. The article argues that only education that influences the zone of proximal development's boundaries is developmental education (as understood by L. S. Vygotsky).