Abstract
The current paper examines the instructional implications of Vygotsky's (1978) seminal notion of Zone of Proximal Development, originally developed to account for the learning potential of children, and investigates ZPD applications to the concept of teacher professional development. Specific attempt has been made to see how a number of assets at the teacher's disposal namely diary writing, peer and mentor collaboration, action research, practicum and TESOL discourse can serve as scaffolders to affect the progression of ZPD in language teachers. The contributions of ZPD to the concepts of scaffolding and dynamic assessment (DA) are explored extensively and the controversial issues are addressed. There is a consensus that the notion of the zone of proximal development and socio-cultural theory of mind based on Vygotsky’s ideas are at the heart of the notion of scaffolding .This study highlights the limitations of the metaphor of scaffolding in interpreting the zone of proximal development. The concept of ZPD, as seen through the approach of DA, offers an operational view of the learners’ actual level of development and a measure of emerging and imminent development. Utilizing the concept of ZPD, DA unites traditional assessment, instruction, intervention, and remediation. Though the concept of ZPD provides an attractive metaphor for designing instruction and analyzing learning, it poses a real challenge when put into practice. The present research highlights a procedure to provide a more tangible account of ZPD, but research on this area is scanty and further explorations and investigations are needed to reflect the implications of ZPD in instructional context.
Highlights
Vygotsky is perhaps best known for his general genetic law of cultural development
Kozulin (1990) indicates that Vygotsky's primary objective ‘was to identify human aspects of behavior and cognition’ (p. 4) via genetic analysis methodology. He focused on several different domains of development: human evolution, development of human cultures, individual development and development which occurs during the course of a learning session or activity or very rapid change in one psychological function (Wertsch, 1991)
In the zone of proximal development, we look at the way that a learner’s performance is mediated socially, that is, how shared understanding or intersubjectivity has been achieved through moving the learners from current capabilities to a higher, culturally mediated level of development
Summary
We can formulate the general genetic law of cultural development as follows: every function in the cultural development of the child appears on the stage twice, first on the social plane and on the psychological plane i.e. first between people as an inter-mental category and within the child as an intramental category. This pertains to voluntary attention, to logical memory, to the formation of concepts, and to the development of will. In the zone of proximal development, we look at the way that a learner’s performance is mediated socially, that is, how shared understanding or intersubjectivity has been achieved through moving the learners from current capabilities to a higher, culturally mediated level of development
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