The zone of proximal development

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Vygotsky's ZPD: a zone for the 'next development'

A topic in Learners' conceptions and thinking

A concept that has been much used in educational discourse, deriving from the work of Lev Vygotsky *, is the Z.P.D.: the Zone of proximal development. As with the related term 'scaffolding', often the usage is somewhat vague. Here is an attempt to offer an overview.

"The 'zone' is not an actual physical space but an activity space – a 'space' relating to behaviours or competencies (or potential problems)" (Taber, 2018: 8).

The origin of the idea of a ZPD – as a basis for formative assessment

"Vygotsky introduced the idea in the context of assessment, and in particular diagnostic assessment.Vygotsky pointed out that children were normally assessed by being set a task for which they would get no external support.We might think of the term sometimes used in schools:'exam conditions'.This mode of assessment targets what the student can succeed at unaided.

Vygotsky considered that such assessments had limited value in informing teaching – they can show what a student has mastered (their zone of actual development, ZAD) but offer the teacher limited guidance on how to proceed in facilitating further development of thinking or skills.Vygotsky argued that two students who demonstrated similar performance on such an assessment – two students with similar ZAD in terms of the skills or knowledge being tested – might have very different potentials for moving on in their learning (very different ZPD). Instead Vygotsky suggested assessing the learner as they worked with an adult or more advanced peer to assess what they could achieve with support – what lay within their ZPD.Vygotsky argued that knowing about the ZPD gave much more useful information to the teacher in planning teaching."

Taber, 2018: 8

The most productive learning activities take place in the ZPD (After Taber, 2020, figure 19.2)

One of three zones of development

"Vygotsky imagined a kind of 'phase space' relating to the potential competencies of a learner. At any moment in time a learner's current level of development would encompass a wide range of competencies, a zone of actual development (ZAD), outside of which lie all those things they cannot yet do (techniques they have not mastered, problems they could not solve, etc.). … the zone around the ZAD which reflected what the learner could not yet do autonomously, but was ready to do with suitable support (i.e., the ZPD) .This zone of next, or proximal, development would (like the ZAD) vary from student to student, and indicated what the student was ready to learn."

(Taber, 2020)

The ZPD is located between two other zones, one reflecting what has already been mastered, and the other what is too far form current capability to be accessible yet – even with structured support.

"The spatial metaphor divides the activity (or achievement) space into three zones (see figure 1). One zone consists of the skills and competencies that a learner has already acquired (the ZAD). Tasks that are set in the ZAD are able to be successfully completed (assuming the learner can be motivated to engage with these tasks) at a high standard – with few errors and high accuracy….

Outside the ZAD are two further zones that represent competencies not yet attained (see figure 1). Some of these competencies can be considered close to the ZAD (i.e., proximal, within the ZPD). Others are further from existing competence: in a zone of distal development (ZDD) – some 'distance' from the current level of development….

Activities are considered to fall within the ZPD when a learner who is unable to successfully complete them unaided, is however able to succeed in them with a level of structured support that allows the learner to incrementally master the activity. An activity in the ZDD is (in terms of the spatial metaphor of zones) however 'too far away from' the current level of development to allow the learner to benefit from being supported in the task.The degree of support needed for success on a task that falls within the ZDD is so great that the learner's engagement in the shared activity would be peripheral and not educative."

Taber, 2018: 10-12

The zones are not fixed

Note the arrow for 'development' in the figure. As a learner develops the ZAD grows to encompass new mastery, the ZPD shifts accordingly, and although it may not make sense to sat the ZDD shrinks (as there are surely infinite capacities beyond any learner) the border between the ZPD and ZDD moves as more capabilities move into the ZPD.

Educational significance of the ZPD

"Carrying out tasks with competence offers limited scope for development.There may be some gains in accuracy and efficiency (working faster), or a widening of the range of application of previous learning, but a person does not usually develop new skills or substantially novel conceptual schemes simply by repeatedly applying existing ones. If education is about developing learners further (as it should be) then working in the ZAD is insufficient.We do not usually want the learner to simply practise within the ZAD…."

Taber, 2018: 10-12

So the ZPD is the construction site for substantive development of learners.

However, the ZPD is also where the learner is not yet ready to succeed readily without guidance – thus the value of teaching, and in particular what is called 'scaffolding'.

(Read about 'Scaffolding learning')

*" Lev Vygotsky worked in the Soviet Union …in the first third of the twentieth century, before dying of tuberculosis at 37 years of age. Considering his early death, and considerable political censure (at one point some of his work could only be read by those to whom the KGB, the CCCP 'secret police', issued a special library pass),Vygotsky's influence on education internationally today is noteworthy."