Zone Of Development Research Articles

Exploring the ‘Invisible’ in GTAs: Reflections on Intuition and Post-Graduate Mentoring

Postgraduate researchers who teach (Graduate Teaching Assistants) always navigate their academic spaces among several psychological factors in their routines from both inside and outside. They can often be observed attending to students, advising them on their problems and sometimes even relying on their seniors for various topics. In such situations, practitioner intuition remains a well-known and relied-upon source of GTA's decision-making skills but also an underexplored area of investigation, especially in mentoring and language teaching literature (Ushioda, 2023; Burns & Williams, 2023 & Kumar, 2024). Based on this premise, this reflective paper aims to simplify and understand the GTA's pedagogic intuition towards success and failures in PG thesis writing contexts from peer-mentoring perspectives. The initial sections of the paper, imagining GTA's as mentors and their learners as mentees, establish what GTA intuition can be thought of, how it is related to Vygotsky's ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) and the potential operations based on an intuitive decision-making model. The latter part of the paper offers detailed practical insights about these theoretical connections through my own workings of intuition while scaffolding the PG mentees to plan, execute and write their theses. Detailed reflections of both the GTA/mentor and the mentees elicited through think-aloud and discursive puzzling measures are reported extensively. Lastly, the paper advocates for more work towards exploring GTA's intuition in mentoring scenarios (and otherwise), getting more awareness from their cognitions and becoming more intuitive practitioners.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF WEB-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING (WBLL) THROUGH WRITE & IMPROVE ON WRITING SKILLS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

This study examines the impact of Web-Based Language Learning (WBLL) using the program Write & Improve on secondary school students' writing skills at SM St. Michael, Penampang, using the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). The study sought to investigate students' perspectives and impact in writing through guided practice and feedback. The technique used a two-cycle action research design that included both writing activities and open-ended surveys to collect information about students' writing performance and perceptions. Initial studies revealed that students struggled with the tool's UI and feedback mechanisms, restricting their development throughout the first cycle. However, significant increases were seen in the second cycle, with students obtaining higher CEFR bands and showing a greater grasp of feedback. Surveys revealed high satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of Write & Improve, despite some technical issues and occasional inaccuracies in feedback. The study emphasizes the significance of teacher participation, as SCT and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) indicate that directed learning and feedback can improve student outcomes. Researchers should conduct longitudinal investigations and perform different demographic testing. For educators, the findings emphasize optimal practices for incorporating WBLL technologies into instruction. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge about digital learning aids as well as providing ideas for better writing teaching through technology.

Conferencing: A Catalyst for Developing Children’s Writing

AbstractThe writing process approach is recognized as an effective instructional practice for engaging children in the writing process and developing emerging writing skills. The writing conference is an integral component of the writing process. One-on-one conferencing sessions create differentiated instructional spaces for teachers to respond to the individual needs of learners. Understanding how teachers leverage conferencing sessions to effectively engage and support young learners’ writing remains a limited area of research. This case study documents one experienced teacher’s conferencing practices with 19 first-grade writers. Findings show conferencing conversations worked in an integrated, multidimensional way to support young writers. Conferencing dimensions leveraged children’s funds of knowledge, questioning and affirming statements, and writers’ craft components to nurture relationships and offer feedback aligned with children’s zone of proximal development.

MyFeedback: an online writing feedback service with students as partners

MyFeedback is an online feedback service run by the academic tutoring team at the University of East London (UEL). The service provides a formative type of feedback on the academic writing of students based on drafts they upload to a digital inbox. The service is a differentiating support mechanism that complements the one-to-one guidance provided by the academic writing tutors. This is possible by training and supervising students (online feedback initiators) to provide reviews of assignment drafts. In this ALDCon24 workshop, we discussed how the development and operation of the service has thrived through a partnership between learning developers and students, and thus establishing a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) of shared learning and vision. We provided insights into the working model and the ways in which students become partners and occasionally co-creators. We highlighted the opportunities and benefits that are shared among all those involved and the roles they assume. Student users of the service engage in a self-regulated learning experience (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) enacted by their repeated exposure to peer feedback interactions that is underpinned by pedagogical principles, such as the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) and differentiation, for example in Tomlinson (2001). Tutors and student partners collaborate to consolidate their feedback mechanisms by bringing together teaching expertise, fresh enthusiasm, first-hand student experiences, and a sense of belonging, inclusivity and collaboration. At the same time, tutors direct their capacity efficiently to students who can benefit more from a live dialogue based on their assessment at hand.

New Perspectives on Collective Collaboration Within and Between Change Laboratory Sessions

This article contributes new knowledge on collaboration within and between Change Laboratory sessions and how it offers the potential to support the zone of proximal development and the expansive learning of participants. The Change Laboratory is a formative intervention method that helps participants transform their practices. This qualitative study examines how six educators participating in a Change Laboratory intervention dealt with problems that arise when implementing digital artifacts in teaching mathematics. We collected data through participant observation between sessions and video recordings during sessions. We conducted the data analysis abductively, using the seven expansive learning actions as an analytical framework. The findings highlight how collaboration between the researcher and the participants, both during and between Change Laboratory sessions, helped support the participants’ zone of proximal development and expansive learning. This close collaboration enabled the educators to collectively reflect on and transform their teaching practices, specifically by incorporating digital artifacts into their educational routines. The study provides important insights into how digital artifacts can be successfully implemented in practice using Change Laboratories, emphasizing the importance of supporting educators in their zone of proximal development. Using a theoretical perspective grounded in cultural-historical activity theory, the study contributes to understanding how change occurs in the educational field.

Physician development through interprofessional workplace interactions: A critical review.

Increasingly, medical training aims to develop physicians who are competent collaborators. Although interprofessional interactions are inevitable elements of medical trainees' workplace learning experiences, the existing literature lacks a cohesive model to conceptualise the learning potential residing in these interactions. We conducted a critical review of the health professions and related educational literatures to generate an empirically and theoretically informed description of medical trainees' workplace interactions with other health professionals, including learning mechanisms and outcomes. Informed by Teunissen's conceptualisation of workplace learning, we highlight the individual, social and situated dimensions of learning from interprofessional workplace interactions. Workplace interactions between medical trainees and other health professionals tend to be brief, spontaneous, informal and often implicit without the predefined educational goals and roles that structure trainees' relationships with physician supervisors. Yet they hold potential for developing trainees' knowledge and skills germane to the work of a physician as well as building their capacity for collaboration. Our review identified a spectrum of learning theories helpful for examining what and how trainees learn from these interactions. Self-regulated learning theories focus attention on how learning depends on trainees interpreting and judging the cues offered by other health professionals. Sociocultural frameworks including the zone of proximal development and legitimate peripheral participation emphasise the ways other health professionals support trainees in performing tasks at the border of their abilities and facilitate trainees' participation in clinical work. Both the landscapes of practice theory and cultural historical activity theory highlight the influence of surrounding social, cultural and material environments. These theories are unified into cohesive model and demonstrated through an illustrative example. Interprofessional workplace interactions harbour a range of learning opportunities for medical trainees. Capitalising on their potential can contribute to training collaborative practice-ready physicians alongside traditional intra-professional interactions between physicians and merits future research.

Exploring the impact of integrating AI tools in higher education using the Zone of Proximal Development

Exploring the impact of integrating AI tools in higher education using the Zone of Proximal Development

PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC “BẮC GIÀN GIÁO” VÀ VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG VÀO GIẢNG DẠY MÔN KHẨU NGỮ TIẾNG TRUNG QUỐC Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI

The “scaffolding” teaching method is a teaching model originating from Constructivist Theory and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) developed by Vygotsky. It offers new insights into dealing with the relationship between “teaching” and “learning”. The changing roles of teachers and students, promoting students' collaborative learning and exploration abilities, and cultivating students' independent problem-solving abilities of this teaching model have helped teachers improve their skills and enhance their educational and teaching abilities. In the process of implementing “scaffolding” teaching, we need to grasp the following key points: teachers need to clarify their roles, arrange a reasonable conceptual framework according to students’ levels, and check control interactive teaching in the student's “ZPD” and gradually reduce the role of the “scaffolder”. In this article, we would like to analyze the birth of the concept of “scaffolding”, its basic characteristics, and teaching steps. Finally, we applied it to teaching Chinese oral courses for students majoring in Chinese language at HNUE.

Experiences of a Chinese English Learner in the Framework of Sociocultural Theory: An Autoethnography

This study explores the process of second language acquisition (SLA) among Chinese learners within the framework of sociocultural theory, particularly focusing on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Through an autoethnographic methodology, the author reflects on personal experiences of learning English in both China and abroad, aiming to fill a gap in SLA research by emphasizing localized Chinese contexts. The findings suggest that access to guidance from more capable individuals, whether teachers, peers, or others—plays a critical role in helping learners navigate their ZPD, thus enhancing their language acquisition. However, the study identifies that many Chinese learners underutilize their surrounding sociocultural environment, limiting their learning potential. This research not only underscores the role of ZPD in language learning but also offers practical insights for both students and educators, advocating for greater student agency in seeking help and for teachers to actively engage in fostering students' ZPD development. Despite its contributions, the study’s autoethnographic approach introduces limitations in terms of subjectivity and sample size, highlighting the need for future research to incorporate diverse perspectives and larger datasets. This research offers a valuable perspective on how sociocultural theory can inform SLA practices in Chinese educational settings, contributing to improved pedagogical strategies.

Modelling School Zone Border as Rich Modelling Problem for Secondary School Students

This article explores the potential of using the school zoning problem in Indonesia as a vehicle for teaching mathematical modeling to secondary school students. This problem is highly suitable for students as a modeling challenge because it is (i) contextual, (ii) rich, (iii) challenging, and (iv) within students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). School zoning involves a concept called Voronoi, essentially a partitioning problem. For simpler or special-case problems, these partitions can be created using concepts already taught in secondary schools, such as perpendicular bisectors and radical axes. However, for more complex problems with multiple sites, an algorithm is required, which involves advanced mathematical concepts beyond the typical secondary curriculum. Yet, with the rise of visual programming languages like Scratch, Snap!, StarLogo, and TurboWarp, it becomes possible to tackle these partitioning challenges using coding and only basic mathematical principles. This approach not only enhances students' understanding of foundational mathematical concepts but also fosters the integration of computational thinking and coding within mathematics. In summary, the school zoning problem serves as an ideal topic for mathematical modeling for secondary school students, promoting the integration of mathematical concepts, computational thinking, and coding skills. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-05-019 Full Text: PDF

Integration of AI Technology and ZPD: Pinpointing the Zone of Student Development to Promote Educational Innovation and Efficiency Improvement

In the era of rapid technological advancement, AI has profoundly penetrated various sectors of society, including education. This paper explores the positive impact of AI on students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), aiming to assist teachers in making more accurate judgments regarding multiple students' ZPDs and thereby enhancing educational teaching. The findings reveal that AI technology, through its application in ZPD, can provide personalized learning resources and assistance to students, as well as offer teachers appropriate teaching content and strategies tailored to students' needs. However, in the actual teaching process, the application of ZPD to teaching still faces difficulties related to students' individualization, sensitive emotions, and trust crises. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following suggestions. Teachers need to be actively trained in AI to overcome potential resistance from older educators. At the same time, teachers should focus on identifying further technological advances in ZPD and related areas to maximize the benefits of AI in education.

The "Kumon method" as a means of mastering the initial subject knowledge in children

Introduction. The problem of activating educational activities has always been in the center of attention of teachers, however, the changes taking place at the present time have given it special relevance. New socio-economic conditions dictate the need to study new forms and methods of education aimed at intensifying the process of acquiring knowledge. The purpose of this study is to study the effectiveness of the Kumon method in relation to the development of initial subject concepts by children of preschool and primary school age from the point of view of the theory of meaningful learning. Materials and methods. The article provides an analysis of the content of the key provisions of the Kumon method based on methods of systematization and classification, as well as general scientific methods of analysis, generalization and synthesis. The support of the idea of L. S. Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development" makes it possible to use rich theoretical material on self-learning as a child's ability to identify and search for information, distinguish and assign it, taking into account the relationship with previously acquired information. Results. The purpose of the study was to study the key characteristics of the organization of training in the Kumon system. The principles, neuropsychological foundations of the method under consideration, and the possibilities of this technology from the perspective of the multidimensionaldevelopment of a child's personality are analyzed. The authors concluded that in modern pedagogical practice, the use of the Kumon method can be effective for children who need to master the procedural aspects of mathematics and reading. Discussion and conclusions. As a research perspective, the authors see the study of the possibilities of the Kumon method as an individual method.

Развитие принципов культурно-исторической теории в специальной педагогике и психологии

<p>The article analyzes the importance of research in the field of special education and psychology for the development of cultural-historical theory. In this article we show that the development of the principles of cultural-historical psychology should be analyzed, and problematic areas of special education are identified. We have analyzed an importance of researches on special education and psychology to better understand a correlation between learning and development, the cultural development of a child as "growing into culture", the development of the regulatory function of speech, the content of the category "development" in psychology, the role of the collective in the development of children with disabilities. For the first time in cultural-historical psychology were shown the role of interaction with a peer without disabilities in the development of higher mental functions of a child with disabilities, the importance and conditions of interaction of a special child with an adult for making a step in development, the ratio between disability and its compensation, ideas about the zone of proximal development and the patterns of abnormal development. We showed how L.S.Vygotsky's ideas on the diagnosis of abnormal development in modern special psychology work, and importnt modern studies are for better understanding of normal development. It is shown that many problems of special education (including the problems of inclusive education) pose a challenge to cultural-historical theory and can be solved using it. The article shows prospects for the development of the analyzed problem area.</p>

The Zone of Proximal Development in Pre-service Teacher Training A Case Study on ZPTD in Lesson Plan Design

This study explores the application of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development in pre-service teacher training by investigating the effectiveness of ZPTD in lesson plan design. A qualitative research approach has been utilized to gather and analyze both versions of a lesson plan designed by a pre-service teacher (the researcher). The revised lesson plan, with appropriate scaffolding from the instructor and suitable advice from peers, is more balanced and better developed when compared to the original version that created by the pre-service teacher alone. In comparison to effects of microteaching, students show increased engagement and motivation in the modified lesson plan implementation, indicating that the pre-service teacher has reached the potential level in lesson plan design with the help of the instructor’s scaffolding. By bridging the gap between the pre-service teacher’s current and potential level of designing a lesson plan, this study shows that ZPTD can be applied in pre-service teacher training on lesson plan design.

PEDAGOGICAL MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE SKILLS OF STUDENTS BASED ON A MULTI-VECTOR APPROACH

The possibility of using a multi-vector model of the zone of proximal development for a qualitative analysis of the cognitive-personal dynamics of a child's development in the process of overcoming learning difficulties is described. The model was developed within the framework of a reflexive-activity approach to providing advisory assistance. The use of this model in the analysis of the dynamics of a child's cognitive-personal development makes it possible to establish "steps in development" recorded as new formations in the child's cognitive abilities and to determine personal characteristics caused by primary cognitive changes or arising as a result of qualitative changes in the learning process itself.

Skills and Roles of Teachers in 21st Century Teaching: Basis for Professional Development Plan

Enhancing teachers' and students' 21st-century skills is a valuable goal. This study explores the skills and roles of teachers in 21st-century education across three community colleges: Opol, Tagoloan, and Salay, during the 2023-2024 academic year. The research investigates the relationship between teachers' skills and their roles in modern education and examines differences based on the respondents' profiles. The study involved 255 teachers from local government-run colleges in Misamis Oriental, using a validated questionnaire and a mixed-methods descriptive approach. Statistical analyses included mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and correlation tests. The results revealed that most participants held units in master's degrees, with communication skills rated highest. The role of facilitator emerged as the most prominent in 21st-century teaching. Notably, creative thinking, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills significantly correlated with teachers' roles. Characteristics such as age and position also influenced their skills and roles. The study emphasized Deci and Ryan’s theory, Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, and ICT integration to address the complexity of modern teaching. In conclusion, community college teachers are eager to adopt 21st-century teaching skills. It is recommended to encourage faculty to complete graduate studies, model critical thinking, recognize teachers' efforts, create engaging environments, retrain senior teachers, and support their well-being through seminars and workshops.

Approximating the ZPD? Young children's judgements of appropriate task level for learning.

This research examined how 3-6-year-olds judge appropriate levels of counting games based on a person's ability, desire for learning and degree of difficulty. Study 1 found that 3-year-olds did not consider a character's ability or desire, whereas older children gave high ability characters large number games and low ability characters small number games when the characters wanted to play a manageable game. However, older children gave large number games to characters who wanted to learn counting, regardless of their ability. In Study 2, in addition to a similar developmental change of jointly considering a character's ability and desire, it was found that 5-and 6-year-olds were more sensitive to the degree of difficulty. They were more careful than younger children to choose exceedingly large number games given the character's ability and desire. Implications for children's understanding of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and goal orientation are discussed.

Encouraging, empowering, and educating: Informal educators, caregivers, and children as partners in computational thinking activities

AbstractInformal learning environments, such as libraries and museums, are key areas for supporting computational thinking (CT) with young children and their families. Educators in these environments are working to offer CT‐related experiences and activities for families of young children, often incorporating aspects of sociocultural learning such as scaffolding and dialogic practices. Because the parent/caregiver is typically present with their young child in these environments, there is an opportunity to provide them with CT information and support so that they can then actively engage in and encourage their child's CT learning, thereby extending their child's capabilities in a zone of proximal development. Previous research by Ohland et al. offers an initial framework of parental roles in CT experiences that serves as a foundation for this study's analysis of interviews with 18 libraries and museums from across the United States. The goal was to understand informal educators' goals for caregiver participation in CT activities with young children and their strategies for enabling caregivers to embody these different roles. Findings reveal that educators want caregivers to play a variety of roles with their child(ren) in these CT experiences. Furthermore, educators are implementing a variety of methods that explicitly encourage interaction, collaboration, and more. The connections between these goals and methods begin to build a model of caregiver encouragement, empowerment, and education in CT experiences in informal learning environments.

Guidance-As-Progressive in Human Skill Training Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

To achieve psychological inclusion and skill development orientation in human skill training, this paper proposes a haptic-guided training strategy generation method with Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based agent as the core and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) tuning as the auxiliary. The information of the expert and trainee is stored first with a designed database that can be accessed in real-time, which establishes the data foundation. Then, under the DRL framework, a strategy generation agent is designed, which consists of an actor-network and two Q-networks. The former network generates the agent’s decision policy, while the other two Q-networks work to approximate the state-action value function, and the parameters of all of them are administrated by the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm. In addition, for the first time, the psychological ZPD evaluation method is integrated into the strategy generation of the DRL-based agent, which is utilized to describe the relationship between a trainees intrinsic skills and guidance. With it, the problem of transitional guidance or insufficient guidance can be handled well. Finally, simulation experiments validate the proposed method, demonstrating its efficiency in regulating the trainee under favorable training conditions.

Investigating EFL learners’ inferential listening comprehension skills through computerized dynamic assessment

Studies on listening comprehension have increasingly used Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA), a new strand of Vygotsky’s dynamic assessment. This study investigated whether English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ responsiveness to CDA mediation significantly enhanced their inferential skills in multiple-choice listening comprehension tests. Moreover, it examined the role of guess-checking items in reducing the guessing effect. A sample of 94 Iranian EFL university students of B2 proficiency level (38 male and 56 female) was recruited through purposeful sampling. The researchers designed and operated CDA software delivered through a dedicated website, www.lingeli.com, to assess EFL inferential listening comprehension skills. The quantitative data obtained from the participant’s performance in the pretest and the mediation stage were analyzed using SPSS. Two paired-sample T-tests were run to compare EFL learners’ mediated and actual scores to explore the development of their inferential listening and compare the actual scores of learners with and without calculating guessing effect scores, respectively. The results showed that learners’ responsiveness to mediation significantly changed their performance on the CDA of inferential listening skills. Additionally, adding guess-checking items significantly decreased the impact of guessing in the CDA multiple-choice tests, which provided the opportunity to obtain a more comprehensive picture of learners’ abilities. The findings offered more insights into the effective role of CDA in improving EFL learners’ inferential listening comprehension skills. They called for implementing CDA programs to diagnose learners’ deficiencies and strengths and uncover their zone of proximal development.