Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
An interesting aspect in educational psychology which I learnt while researching on educational psychology is ‘Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)’. This concept was introduced by Lev Vygotsky before his death in the year 1934.
He tells that a learn can do some tasks unaided. Then there are tasks which a learner cannot do even with help from someone. In the middle there are tasks which a learner can do with the help of guidance.
What I was seeing with my son (more in previous post) was the zone of proximal development in action. Without me, my son could not do the seemingly impossible tasks for a 6 year old boy but I was also not doing much with him. I was just guiding him a little bit and was providing him some electronic parts to use. I was not teaching him. On the contrary he was teaching me on many occasions. For example he taught me how to join a plastic car body we had ordered from Amazon and which came without any formal documentation.
Basically the ZPD concept tells that a learner needs scaffolding to learn. Scaffolding is used in constructions to support the building structure till the concrete solidifies. Similarly in learning a learner needs support which acts like scaffolding till he or she cannot himself do things autonomously. Although Vygotsky himself never mentioned the term, scaffolding was first developed by Jerome Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross, while applying Vygotsky’s concept of ZPD to various educational contexts.
Thus I was providing the scaffolding and guidance and raising my son’s zone of development.
I have founded an open education project called Fun2Do Labs. To know more about it visit : http://fun2dolabs.org . Subscribe to me on Medium to read my posts on education and technology.
