ZPD led to the educational theory of “scaffolding.” In an educational sense, scaffolding offers guidance through focused questions and is tapered off as a student becomes competent in a specific academic discipline. Scaffolding derives from the idea of supports that are gradually removed as a building is constructed. Other education theorists have jumped into the fray to build on Vygotsky’s theory, for instance, through the concept of “scaffolding,” a term never used by Lev Vygotsky. Perhaps the saddest part of Vygotsky’s theory is that it remained in its own embryonic stage of development, due to the fact of his untimely death at age 37 of tuberculosis, just two years after he developed his theory of the zone of proximal development. “The zone of proximal development defines functions that have not matured yet, but are in a process of maturing, that will mature tomorrow, that are currently in an embryonic state these functions could be called the buds of development, the flowers of development, rather than the fruits of development, that is, what is only just maturing.” Vygotsky saw a child’s knowledge as being in a constant state of maturation. Here, the zone of proximal development is clear: move from knowing the names of the numbers to the act of counting through a demonstration of what counting is in practice. The boy moves to the next level through the guidance of the teacher who shows him what to do with his finger, the blocks, and the sound names of the numbers he has already learned. Vygotsky: “These functions could be called the buds of development.” He has moved from rote memorization of number names to actual counting. By pointing at blocks, one for each number name, he comes to understand that the names signify specific numbers. He doesn’t yet understand what those names signify. The boy has memorized the names of the numbers. In the following clip, we see a demonstration of how the zone of proximal development works. This is where the child can get to with a nudge from a teacher that sees the child as he or she really is at a given moment in time, rather than where he or she is supposed to be according to external guidelines set by say, the Board of Education. The idea is that wherever a child is in his or her learning, there is a range of learning that is within reach, but not yet attained. Vygotsky’s term: “zone of proximal development” is marvelously descriptive. ZPD is about moving a child from point A to point B. It’s about learning potential and about getting a child from point A to point B. The zone of proximal development is about assessing a child’s academic achievements and spotting the natural forward thrust of a child’s learning direction: where that child could be in his learning with a bit of guidance. ZPD is defined as the distance between the child’s actual developmental level as determined through problem solving under adult guidance and in collaboration with more capable peers.Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, or ZPD for short, describes a way to maximize a child’s learning. Thus, when a child learns with an adult or a more capable peer, the learning occurs within the child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). He never used the term scaffolding but emphasised the role of social interaction as being crucial to cognitive development, learning first occurs at the social or interindividual level. The notion of scaffolding has been linked to the work of Soviet psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. Scaffolding has been defined by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) as an adult controlling those elements of the task that are essentially beyond the learner’s capacity thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence. It is often used to bridge learning gaps, the difference between what students have learned and what they are expected to know and be able to do at a certain point in their education. Scaffolding is widely considered to be an essential element of effective teaching and teachers certainly use various forms of instructional scaffolding in their teaching. The supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student. Teachers provide successive levels of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance. In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively towards stronger understanding and ultimately greater independence in the learning process.
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