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Stay Connected Subscribe to the E-Bulletin and receive regular updates on research, free resources, solutions, and job postings from WestEd. The potential development is simply what the student is capable of learning. To help learners achieve independence, Vygotsky outlined scaffolding as a tool for growth. Learners complete small, manageable steps in order to reach the goal. Working in collaboration with a skilled instructor or more knowledgeable peers help students make connections between concepts.
As learners grow within their zone of proximal development and become more confident, they practice new tasks with the social support that surrounds them.
Vygotsky maintains that learning occurs through purposeful, meaningful interactions with others. Many psychologists, including Piaget and Bandura , have assessed the cultural influences on learning, however, only Vygotsky claims that they are inherently woven together. He felt that studies should be analyzing the individual within the society and not the individual itself. Only then could you observe the level of growth, as it is social interaction itself that promotes mental development.
While morals, values, and thoughts are believed to be influenced by society, the process of learning is not seen as something that is mimicked. Vygotsky outlined that interactions with others created growth by making connections between concepts. Curriculum — Learning goals and curriculum outlines should be designed around social interaction between students and tasks.
Instruction — The idea of scaffolding is the basis of instruction. Students can achieve their learning potential with guided instruction from their teacher. The teacher constantly reassesses the levels of achievement of the student and creates the next task as a building block to the goal.
As an added benefit, the student also learns problem-solving skills from performing leveled tasks on their own. Assessment — Evaluations are catered to each student based on their zone of proximal development. If too much assistance is given, the child may learn only to parrot the teacher rather than mastering the concept independently. Scaffolding refers to the support given to the learner who is attempting to learn something new in the zone of proximal development.
That support might include tools, hands-on activities, or direct instruction. When the student first begins to learn the new concept, the teacher will offer a great deal of support. Over time, the support is gradually tapered off until the learner has fully mastered the new skill or activity. Just as a scaffold is removed from a building when construction is complete, the teacher's support is removed once the skill or concept has been learned. Learning to ride a bike offers an easy example of scaffolding.
At first, a child will ride a bike with training wheels to ensure that the bike stays upright. Next, the training wheels will come off and a parent or other adult may run alongside the bicycle helping the child to steer and balance. Finally, the adult will step aside once can ride independently. Scaffolding is typically discussed in conjunction with the zone of proximal development, but Vygotsky himself did not coin the term.
The concept of scaffolding was introduced in the s as an expansion of Vygotsky's ideas. The zone of proximal development is a useful concept for teachers. To ensure that students are learning in their zone of proximal development, teachers must provide new opportunities for students to work slightly beyond their current skills and provide ongoing, scaffolded support to all students. The zone of proximal development has been applied to the practice of reciprocal teaching, a form of reading instruction.
In this method, teachers lead students in executing four skills—summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting—when reading a passage of text. Activities, instructions, tools, and resources that are used to aid in this learning process are known as scaffolding. Examples of scaffolding that educators may use include:. Eventually, scaffolding can be removed and the student will be able to complete the task independently. While scaffolding is most often associated with the zone of proximal development, it is not a concept that was initially introduced by Vygotsky.
Instead, this term has been put forth by other researchers who have expanded on his original theories. For learning to take place, Vygotsky believed that social interaction between a more knowledgeable other and the learner was critical. While the expert may be an adult, Vygotsky also emphasized the power of peer learning. For instance, when kids are learning a new concept, social interaction between the adult expert and all of the children is initially crucial.
But, if some children grasp the concept, while others are still in their ZPD, peer interaction may create the most conducive environment for learning. The zone of proximal development is a moving target. By giving children tasks that they cannot quite do easily on their own and providing the guidance they need to accomplish them, educators can progressively advance the learning process.
Some examples of ZPD applications in the classroom:. While scaffolding can be incredibly helpful for students learning a new concept or skill, if the teacher is unaware of each student's unique ZPD, these learning techniques may not be effective. According to research, other difficulties educators may encounter include:.
The zone of proximal development is an important concept in the fields of both education and psychology. By understanding how the ZPD works, educators and experts can be better prepared to create instruction and learning programs that maximize the tools and resources available to students.
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