Zone of Proximal Development

Working Within the Zone of Proximal Development

During joint activities within a child’s ZPD, the advanced partner provides assistance through scaffolding, or behavior that assists the child in completing the task. Scaffolding behavior can include adapting an activity to a child’s level (i.e., simplifying), asking a child questions, demonstrating strategies to complete the activity, providing tools or guidelines on how to complete the task, and providing feedback on performance. The goal of the more advanced partner should be to structure the task in a way that allows the child to participate in the activity and, as the child becomes more competent, be able to gradually transfer responsibility over to the child to encourage learning. The range of a child’s ZPD is constantly changing. Therefore, the more advanced partner must frequently reassess the child’s level of functioning and adapt scaffolding techniques accordingly.

In order for activities within a child’s ZPD to be effective for learning, the child and the partner must have a shared understanding of a task in which both participants agree on the final goal, as well as the necessary steps to reach the goal. This requires an effort on both parts; the partner must provide assistance in such a way as to advance the child’s understanding and the child, in turn, must adapt his or her understanding to match that of the partner.

Applying ZPD to the Classroom

ZPD has many implications for educational settings. Below are five applications of the concept of ZPD for teaching and structuring classroom activities.

One application is to take children’s ZPD into consideration when assessing their knowledge and skill level. This alternative to traditional testing is known as dynamic assessment and incorporates evaluation of children’s learning potential into the test, rather than strictly assessing children’s current level of knowledge. The benefit to dynamic assessment is that it not only provides a baseline of present functioning; it also offers [Page 886]information regarding the level of progress that can be expected with particular forms of guidance.

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