The zone of proximal development is a concept in educational theory that emphasizes childhood learning under the supervision of a teacher or other capable adult. This theory divides all knowledge into three categories: what a student already knows and can do on his or her own, tasks and information that are far beyond the scope of what the student can do, and what a student could do or learn with the help of a teacher. This third area is the zone of proximal development, which contains information and tasks that a student can complete with the assistance of a teacher or knowledgeable adult.
The zone of proximal development was first proposed and championed as an educational concept by a Russian psychologist named Lev Vygotsky. He created this concept in an effort to shift the focus away from standardized, goal-oriented testing and toward problem-solving testing, which includes both problems that students can complete on their own and those that require teacher assistance. The zone of proximal development can be used successfully in a variety of teaching styles and pedagogies. It usually relies on a teacher to act as a learning facilitator, working with a student to help them understand increasingly complex tasks.
The type of math problem a child could solve at a certain level is a simple example of the zone of proximal development in relation to how children learn. If a student understands basic mathematical functions like addition and multiplication, he or she should be able to solve a simple problem without the need for help from a teacher. Problems that involve these functions in multiple steps or a simple problem that replaces numbers with variables may fall within the zone of proximal development. Complex problems involving trigonometry and other mathematical concepts that the student has not yet learned lie beyond this zone.
Teachers can use the zone of proximal development to better understand how to challenge students and what types of assistance to provide. Once a student has solved a sufficient number of problems with the assistance of a teacher, those problems should progress to tasks that the student can complete without assistance. The zone of proximal development expands at this point, and some previously inaccessible tasks or information become accessible to the student with the assistance of a teacher. Scaffolding is the process of building a student’s learning by removing support for easier problems as they become easier and adding new support for harder problems.