Current and immediate development. Lev Vygotsky: zone of proximal development and other values. Application of the concepts of ZAP and ZPD in teaching a child
Elena Trusova
The relevance of creating a zone of proximal development (ZPD) for young children.
(ZBR)
For young children.
Trusova E. S.
Senior teacher
MADOU "CRR - Kindergarten No. 378"
Zone immediate development(ZBR)- level development "zone immediate development» development and educational psychology.
To define a zone immediate development need to know the zone current development.
Zone current development fast current development current development development development development.
components:
- Components current level of development expanded current level children is different.
development
– promising zone development - then, which will end up in the ZBR c.
stages:
first "dose"- suggest how to do it;
Individual sessions.
(1 year and 11 months)
- Educator: .
- Emil: "Yes, beautiful".
- Educator: .
- Educator: .
zones of proximal development immediate development zones of proximal development immediate development, became a zone current development
However, the concept zones of proximal development development "fashionable" parents' attempts today « develop» their preschool children foreign languages age.
shows interest development child and his abilities.
The relevance of creating a zone of proximal development(ZBR)
For young children.
Trusova E. S.
Senior teacher
MADOU "CRR - Kindergarten No. 378"
Zone immediate development(ZBR)- level development, achieved by a child in the process of his interaction with an adult, in the course of joint activities with him, but not manifested within the framework of individual activities. Concept "zone immediate development» was first discovered by L. S. Vygotsky in the early 1930s and is considered as one of the most important in psychology development and educational psychology.
To define a zone immediate development need to know the zone current development.
Zone current development- these are the child’s mental functions, abilities and skills that have already been formed and matured, and the child performs tasks related to these abilities and skills without the help of adults. Children grow up very fast: what required help today will be done independently tomorrow. In the zone immediate development tasks are solved which the child does on his own and is not yet confident and needs help. Those tasks that children do today with the help of an adult will be done by themselves tomorrow, and this will already become current development. In other words, when the skill enters the zone current development, it opens up new opportunities for the baby, since the actions mastered are the basis for further development. Conversely, every action for which the child has to strain mentally or physically spurs him on. development. And this is very important to understand! This is where the mystery happens development.
The results of research by Belopolskaya, Kravtsova, Buastamante, Zak, Vardanyan, Ivanova and others formed the basis for the development of a structural model of the ZPD, consisting of the following components:
- Components current level of development(learning ability + ability to transition from expanded performance of an action to its abbreviated form + level of execution of actions + minimum competence). Each child has its own structure current level, therefore, everyone will have the same central part of the ZBR children is different.
– the central part of the ZPD – what is currently in process development. The help of an adult contributes to the successful completion of the action; the child accepts the help and can use the proposed methods of action independently.
– the peripheral part of the ZPD – what is currently being carried out with great help from an adult.
– promising zone development - then, which will end up in the ZBR c.
Help from an adult to a child can be divided into several stages:
first "dose"- suggest how to do it;
the second is to show a clear example in the same picture (simulator, how to do it, or show an intermediate version of the implementation;
the third is to show the child in the picture; in the case of a letter, move the child’s hand, i.e., show the method of action.
Individual sessions.
According to psychological standards, a child 2.5-3 years old should be able to unfasten three buttons. The teacher noticed that Emil (1 year and 11 months) became interested in the buttons on my clothes.
- Educator: “Emil, what beautiful multicolored buttons you have”.
- Emil: "Yes, beautiful".
- Educator: “Now, it’s time to sleep and the buttons need to be unbuttoned”.
Emil looks at the buttons, tugs at them, trying to push them through the loops.
- Educator: “Come on, I’ll help you, see how you need it”.
The teacher carefully takes the button and slowly unfastens it. When the teacher took hold of the second button, Emil expressed a desire to unbutton it together with the teacher. The same thing happened with the third button. For four days, the teacher and Emil unbuttoned the buttons. On the fifth day, when the teacher approached Emil to unbutton his clothes again, Emil removed her hand and unbuttoned the button himself.
From these activities you can determine the boundaries zones of proximal development: Emil has formed a zone immediate development, when he showed interest in the buttons, trying to undo them. The teacher provided measured assistance, suggesting how to do this. Emil carried out joint activities with the teacher, willingly accepting her help until he felt that he could carry out this activity himself. Here is the second border zones of proximal development. When Emil began to unbutton the buttons on his own immediate development, became a zone current development, that is, he acquired a certain skill and no longer needed the help of a teacher.
However, the concept zones of proximal development has been criticized by a number of scientists (E. Erickson et al., who note that one of the dangers directly related to the zone immediate development in the interpretation of L. S. Vygotsky, is that “... that you cannot try to push the child forward before he develops the abilities corresponding to that stage development, on which he is currently located. This is especially important from the point of view of the epigenetic principle formulated by E. Erikson. As shown in the works of E. Erikson himself and his followers, ignoring current development needs leads to serious personal deformations and, moreover, mental disorders. As practice demonstrates, it is extremely "fashionable" parents' attempts today « develop» their preschool children by teaching them to count and write, foreign languages, music, etc. often not only cause damage to physical and mental health, but also rarely reduce the child’s motivation to learn once he reaches preschool age.
However, the idea itself zone of proximal development is, undoubtedly fruitful, about which shows interest, shown to her not only in our country, but also abroad. The main idea of this theory is aimed at the most adequate assessment of prospects development child and his abilities.
The concept of "zone of proximal development"
The concept of the relationship between learning and mental development of a child, developed in Russian developmental and pedagogical psychology, is based on the provisions on zones of actual development (ZAD) and zone of proximal development (ZPD). These levels of mental development were identified by L.S. Vygotsky (see Fig. 4).
L.S. Vygotsky showed that the real relationship between mental development and learning capabilities can be revealed by determining the level of actual development of the child and his zone of proximal development. Learning, creating the latter, leads to development; and only that learning is effective which comes ahead of development. Zone of proximal development - these are discrepancies between the level of actual development (it is determined by the degree of difficulty of problems solved by the child independently) and the level of potential development (which the child can achieve by solving problems under the guidance of an adult and in collaboration with peers). The scientist believed that ZBR determines mental functions that are in the process of maturation. It is associated with such fundamental problems of child and educational psychology as the emergence and development of higher mental functions, the relationship between learning and mental development, the driving forces and mechanisms of the child’s mental development. The zone of proximal development is a consequence of the formation of higher mental functions, which are formed first in joint activity, in cooperation with other people, and gradually become internal mental processes subject . The zone of proximal development indicates the leading role of learning in the mental development of children. “Teaching is only good,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky, “when it goes ahead of development.” Then it awakens and brings to life many other functions that lie in the zone of proximal development. Training can focus on already completed development cycles - this is the lowest threshold of learning, but it can focus on functions that have not yet matured, on the ZPD - this is the highest threshold of learning; Between these thresholds lies the optimal learning period. The ZPD gives an idea of the internal state and potential development possibilities of the child and, on this basis, allows us to give a reasonable forecast and practical recommendations about the optimal timing of education both for the mass of children and for each individual child. Determining the actual and potential levels of development, as well as the ZPD, is what L.S. Vygotsky called normative age diagnosis, in contrast to symptomatic diagnosis, which is based only on external signs of development. In this aspect zone of proximal development can be used as an indicator of individual differences in children. In domestic and foreign psychology, research is being conducted to develop methods that make it possible to qualitatively describe and quantitatively evaluate the ZPD. ZPD can also be identified by studying the child’s personality, and not just his cognitive processes. At the same time, the difference is clarified between personal characteristics that spontaneously develop in the process of socialization and those shifts in personality development that occur as a result of targeted educational influences. Optimal conditions for identifying an individual’s ZPD are created by its integration in a team ( http://liber.rsuh.ru/Conf/Psyh_razvitie/kravcova.htm- see article by Kravtsova E.E. "Cultural and historical foundations of the zone of proximal development").
4.3.2. The student’s training, education, development, their indicators and levels
A.K. Markova identified the main “layers” of development and their indicators in accordance with the levels of mental development ( Markova A.K., 1992; annotation). Among the main “layers” of the level of actual development, she singled out training, development and education, and in the zone of proximal development - learning ability, developability, educability (see Fig. 5). Training. First of all, it is necessary to identify the current level of what has already developed in the child’s experience, what was the result of all previous learning (systematic and spontaneous, the influence of teachers, parents, peers on the child) and what can be relied upon in further work. Each student has a certain amount of knowledge and a certain level of learning ability. This is usually called training. After all, teaching is aimed at transitioning the student from a state of untrainedness to a state of learning. Training - this, on the one hand, is the result of past experience, and on the other, the goal of the upcoming training. The degree of training depends on the degree of implementation of the learning goal. Therefore, the task of education is to create conditions for the realization of learning ability and the child’s transition to a new level of learning.
the stock of knowledge available today;
established learning activities, abilities and skills, fragments of the ability to learn (see Fig. 6).
Training includes:
Knowledge is very heterogeneous; it has different psychological significance. It is possible to distinguish between types of knowledge, stages and levels of their assimilation. Types of knowledge: knowledge of facts, concepts and terms, laws and theories, knowledge of methods of activity and methods of cognition. It is obvious that laws and theories and knowledge about activities are more significant for mental development, although knowledge about facts prepares shifts in development ( http://www.socspb.ru/edu/spetialist/publication/doc4721/print.phtml; Dormidonova T.I. Diagnostics of training). Development. Every student today has one or another level of development (development). This is the current level of development, which does not coincide with training. B.G. Ananyev wrote: “In the process of a certain type of activity, not only a certain apparatus of actions, knowledge and skills , but also the potential for human development. This characteristic of human development in the form learning ability , good manners , abilities to development is no less important for pedagogy than the training, upbringing, and education of a person at a certain moment of upbringing" (Ananyev B.G., 1980. Vol. 2. P. 18). A student may have a high level of development (he has good abilities), but low training; and, on the contrary, a child may have a low level of development, not very good abilities, but he is trained and educated. Development is a set of development characteristics.Development - this is acting in the mind, acting with abstract relationships, cognitive initiative, etc. (http://dubinsky.nm.ru/pub/00x2/00x2.htm; Dubinsky A.G. Intelligence: definition of the concept (thesis)). Next, we move on to diagnosing mental development itself. Neither knowledge nor educational activity is the end in itself of learning. The ultimate goal is to contribute to mental development, qualitative positive changes in it. Therefore, the definition of development in a schoolchild includes:
characteristics of abstract abstract thinking;
operating with key concepts, principles, laws in a given academic subject;
cognitive initiative as going beyond the given limits;
independent discovery of new patterns and hidden possibilities of a task (productive thinking, creativity);
reflection as awareness of activity;
arbitrariness and deliberate organization of cognitive activity (see Fig. 7).
Identifying these parameters brings us closer to understanding the essence of mental development. The relationship between various indicators of mental development needs further study. Good manners. At any given moment the student is on a certain level of personal development(certainly related to the mental). It's called good manners . An important step in determining the development of schoolchildren is identifying the student’s personal characteristics during the learning process. Mental development cannot be separated from the personal development, from the upbringing of the student. Good manners cannot be reduced to external rules of etiquette of behavior (let the elder through the door, greeted the elder first). Good manners is not a sum, a conglomerate of many qualities of a student (from sincerity to internationalism).
moral knowledge (knowledge about the attitude towards work, society, towards another person, towards oneself);
moral beliefs and motives , goals , relationships, meanings - that which is accepted by the student as a standard from moral knowledge;
moral actions and moral behavior in teaching (see Fig. 8).
The core of good manners, according to A.K. Markova, is the consistency of three components:
a wide supply of moral knowledge acquired at a conscious level;
understanding of others;
moral beliefs;
motives and goals, manifested in interest in various methods of activity, in the voluntary performance of optional educational tasks, in “strong” goal setting - completing monotonous activities, resistance to interference, and the absence of destruction of educational activities in the event of difficulties or mistakes; real repeated moral actions of a schoolchild in learning.
Therefore, the psychological indicators of good manners are:
At the same time, each stage of a child’s life corresponds to a certain zone of his potential capabilities, prospects, zone of proximal development (L.S. Vygotsky). B.G. Ananyev, noting that studying in primary school may not lead to development, wrote: “The progress of children’s learning does not directly entail an increase in learning ability” (Ananyev B.G., 1962. P. 24).
4.3.3. Learning ability, development ability, educational ability as indicators of the zone of proximal development
ability, opportunity for further development;
readiness to move to new levels of development;
manifestation of dynamics in mental development itself, in the formation of intelligence, thinking, activity, initiative, etc.
Along with the child's perspective in the field of learning ( learning ability ) there are potential opportunities in the field of development (see Fig. 9). A.K. Markova calls this phenomenon development (see Fig. 10). This is determined by:
There are different approaches to developing abilities.
responsiveness to educational influences from the outside;
readiness to move to new levels of personal development.
In a similar way, the prospect of personal development can be outlined - educational ability (see Fig. 11), which is determined by:
Properly organized learning is based on the child’s ZPD, not mental processes that begin to develop in him in joint work with adults, and then function in his activities. The ZPD helps to characterize the opportunities and development prospects. Its definition is important for diagnosis mental development (http://www.pirao.ru/strukt/lab_gr/l-odar.html; see laboratory of psychology of giftedness PI RAO).
Zone of proximal development
A concept introduced by L. S. Vygotsky to determine the specifics of human development in ontogenesis. According to Vygotsky, child development (as opposed to other types of development) occurs through the appropriation of human experience in cooperation. In any activity of a child, two levels of performance of the same task can be distinguished - independent performance and performance in collaboration with an adult. The level of the first execution is called actual, the second level, higher, represents the Z. b. R. - the area of immature but maturing processes, and according to Vygotsky Z. b. R. Concept of Z. b. R. based on the idea of the primacy of learning (in all its various forms) in human development and has great practical significance. Since traditional diagnostics is focused on determining the current level of development, its prognosis, based on such methods, is not reliable enough. To determine the prospects for development, it is necessary to know “tomorrow’s development,” and it is determined precisely by measuring the future. R. For example, measuring school readiness based on a child’s already developed abilities turns out to be insufficient. It is necessary to determine how a child can cooperate with an adult, that is, what his Z. b. R. Methods developed on this principle for determining readiness for school turn out to be more reliable.
Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: “PHOENIX”. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .
Specificity.Characterizes the process of enhancing mental development following learning. This zone is determined by the content of tasks that the child can solve only with the help of an adult, but after gaining experience in joint activities, he becomes capable of independently solving similar problems.
Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
(English) zone of proximal development) - a concept introduced in the beginning. 1930s L.WITH.Vygotsky to characterize the connection training and development. Z. b. R. is determined by the content of those tasks that the child cannot yet solve on his own, but is already solving with the help of an adult (in joint activities): what is initially done by the child under the guidance of adults then becomes his own property ( abilities,skills,skills). Its presence indicates the leading role of the adult in the mental development of the child.
Properly organized training is based on the child’s existing knowledge. r., on those mental processes that begin to take shape in him joint activities with adults, and then function in his independent activities. Z. b. R. allows you to characterize the opportunities and prospects for development. Its definition is important for mental development diagnostics child. Cm. , ,And.
Large psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .
See what the “zone of proximal development” is in other dictionaries:
Zone of Proximal Development- concept introduced by L.S. Vygotsky. Characterizes the process of enhancing mental development following training. This zone is determined by the content of tasks that a child can solve only with the help of an adult, but after gaining experience... ... Psychological Dictionary
Zone of proximal development- term L.S. Vygotsky, means a conceptual space that the child is ready to master with someone’s help. * * * level of development achieved by a child in the process of his interaction with an adult, realized by a developing personality in the course of... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy
Zone of proximal development- potentially existing, but not realized mental abilities of the child, amenable to development with the help of a teacher in the near future. It is determined by the child’s readiness and ability to solve mental problems with the help of an adult - a teacher... Fundamentals of spiritual culture (teacher's encyclopedic dictionary)
zone of proximal development- Let’s agree to call the child’s zone of proximal development those processes that have not yet matured, but are in the stage of maturation. ... by examining what a child is able to do independently, we are exploring the development of yesterday.... ... Dictionary L.S. Vygotsky
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT- discrepancies between the level of actual development (it is determined by the degree of difficulty of problems solved by the child independently) and the level of potential development (which the child can achieve by solving problems under the guidance of an adult and in... ... Russian Pedagogical Encyclopedia
Zone of proximal development- this is an area of \u200b\u200bnot yet mature, but maturing mental processes. The zone of proximal development determines the child's development prospects... Human psychology: dictionary of terms
zone of proximal development- artimiausioji vystymosi zona statusas T sritis švietimas apibrėžtis Žinių, mokėjimų, galimybių ir gabumų sritis, kurios moksleivis negali savarankiškai pasiekti, bet gali tai padaryti mokytojo ar kito pagalbininko padedamas. atitikmenys: engl.… … Enciklopedinis edukologijos žodynas
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT- ZONE (from the Greek zone - belt, space) OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT. The concept was introduced by L. S. Vygotsky (1999; 2000) to designate the discrepancy between the level of actual development of the child (determined by the degree of difficulty of the tasks solved by the child... ... New dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT- discrepancy in the level of difficulty of tasks solved by the child independently (current level of development) and under the guidance of an adult; the provision on the zone of proximal development formed the basis of the concept of the relationship between learning and mental development of the child... Dictionary of career guidance and psychological support
Zone of proximal development- the discrepancy between the level of actual development (determined by the degree of difficulty of the tasks that the child solves independently) and the level of potential development (which the child can achieve under the guidance of an adult). The concept was introduced by L.S.... ... Pedagogical terminological dictionary
Books
- The role of social programming and technologization in the design and modernization of cities. No. 8, Rozin V.M.. The book by Russian philosopher and methodologist Vadim Rozin examines the stages of creating an urban environment in the USSR and Russia and the typology of architectural and construction objects, as well as the need for…
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, 40 years after his death, made a lot of noise in America and Western Europe. In the 1970s, his work on child development made Vygotsky a true icon of foreign psychology. Some experts seriously talk about the “cult” of Vygotsky in the West.
His ideas underlie Soviet psychology, which rapidly lost popularity with the opening of the Iron Curtain: “forbidden” theories became available for study and professionals eagerly began to master them: humanistic and cognitive psychology, art and family therapy, neuro-linguistic programming and psychoanalysis - there was a use for everything.
Vygotsky himself, by the way, during his lifetime was a member of the Russian Psychoanalytic Society (almost until its closure in 1930), and his closest colleague Alexander Romanovich Luria, the future creator of neuropsychology, corresponded with the then fashionable professor Freud.
However, the ideas of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, then much more radical than now, were completely incompatible with Soviet ideology. Being determines consciousness, and not vice versa, wrote Marx. In addition, Vygotsky was more interested in the emergence and development of thinking, the role of speech in the formation of consciousness.
This is how the cultural-historical approach emerged, in line with which it is assumed that culture and society play a huge role in human cognitive development. This idea has proven to be extremely popular among specialists who work with children. After all, now it was possible to rely on the achievements of culture, and not rely on “bad genes.”
By the way, epigenetics, which is now promising and in demand, studies how the same gene is implemented differently depending on the external conditions of development.
In the USSR, unique methods of helping children with special needs and innovative approaches to teaching schoolchildren were developed. Unfortunately, most of these ideas never found their place outside laboratories and experimental schools.
But in the 1970s, Vygotsky’s approach found itself in demand in the West, where his ideas began to be actively introduced into teaching practice.
Higher mental functions
(perception, memory, thinking and speech)
According to Vygotsky, the emergence of these functions is a product of human cultural development. They are not given to us from birth and are formed first as external, given by society, ways of mastering the environment. Gradually, these external methods become internal, a person appropriates them in the process of learning and cultural development or, as Vygotsky said, internalizes them. Signs and, first of all, words play a huge role in the transmission of cultural experience.
Higher mental functions are voluntary; a person can independently control them. People differ not only biologically (features of the functioning of the brain and nervous system) - a person with the same “biological basis” can achieve fundamentally different results in his mental development, depending on the environment and environment in which he lives and develops.
On practice:
You can often hear adults or children complaining about their memory. However, special methods of memorization are available to humans that do not require phenomenal memory from birth.
For example, if a child has difficulty remembering a poem by ear, you can work with him to make pictograms for each line of text. At first, this will require even more time than simple cramming, but gradually the skill of using pictograms will be internalized, and the memorization process will accelerate. Thus, pictogram drawings will become a “cultural tool” for improving the functioning of the biologically determined memory function.
If you feel that you need support in finding such ways and means, it makes sense to contact a child neuropsychologist: simple exercises will help your child develop memory, perception, thinking and speech.
The study of children with atypical development inevitably leads to the question of how the learning process and assimilation of sociocultural experience occur under conditions of atypical development, and what their mechanisms are.
L. S. Vygotsky’s idea of the current level of development and the zone of proximal development has both conceptual and constructive significance for special psychology.
The concept of “zone of proximal development” took shape in the theory of L. S. Vygotsky in discussions about the relationship between learning and development in connection with the justification of the scientific approach to the diagnosis of mental development. He returned to this issue several times in his publications.
In the article “The Problem of Learning and Mental Development at School Age” (1996, p. 321), L. S. Vygotsky reveals the essence of the processes of development and learning and their interaction. Here he turns to the analysis of various types of theories about the relationship between learning and development, based on the obvious and recognized fact by all researchers that a child’s learning in its simplest form begins long before school. In fact, notes L. S. Vygotsky, learning and development are interconnected from the first day of a child’s life. And although schooling is fundamentally different from early education, it always has its own background. In particular, in preschool age the child acquires some practical experience and the beginnings of learning, which include familiarity with the elements of future school knowledge. The accumulated facts allow, according to L. S. Vygotsky, to come to the following conclusion: the child’s preschool experience is the basis for acquiring school knowledge; school education is always based on a certain level of development, but is not a direct continuation of the line of preschool education.
An analysis of the relationship between learning and development in general and its specifics at school age allowed L. S. Vygotsky to identify different levels of child development, which he details and clarifies in his publications.
In “Lectures on Pedology” (1928), L. S. Vygotsky first introduced the concept of “level of proximal development.” He draws attention here to the fact that when clarifying the real relationship of mental development to learning opportunities, one cannot limit oneself to one definition of the level of development. “We must determine,” says L. S. Vygotsky, “at least two levels development of the child, without knowledge of which we will not be able to find the correct relationship between the course of child development and the possibilities of his learning in each specific case. Let's call the first is the current level of development. We mean the level of development of the child’s mental functions that has developed as a result of certain, already completed cycles of his development.” (Vygotsky L. S. 1996, p. 330). The current level of development, according to L. S. Vygotsky, is measured by the difficulty of tasks that the child solves independently, without the help of adults. This level reflects the path already traversed by the child in development; to measure it means to gain “knowledge of the results of yesterday.” Finding the zone of proximal development is the identification of processes that have not matured today, but are in the period of maturation. L. S. Vygotsky bases his arguments on an analysis of how children of the same age perform tests. (When determining a child’s mental age using tests, the researcher always deals with the level of actual development.) Some children are limited to completing tests appropriate to their age, while others can easily cope with tasks for older children (1-2 years older). This indicates the different development potential of children of the same age.
If a child watches other children or is helped by an adult, then such a child is capable of great achievements. Achievements also increase with collective activities.
The discrepancy in the difficulty of tasks that a child solves independently and with the help of an adult characterizes the zone of proximal development.
L. S. Vygotsky, therefore, considers the zone of proximal development as a space for realizing the child’s potential. In this space, the child demonstrates the achievements that he is capable of with the help of an adult. The zone of proximal development is the zone of functions “that are now in their infancy; they can be called not the fruits of development, but the buds of development, the flowers of development, i.e., what is just ripening” (Vygotsky L. S. 1996, p. 345). If the current level of development characterizes the successes of development, the results of development as of yesterday, then the zone of proximal development is an indicator of development prospects for tomorrow.
These provisions of L. S. Vygotsky are of fundamental importance and radically change ideas about the relationship between learning and development, as well as the approach to diagnosing development. He writes: “It seems to me that if we move from the traditional formulation of the question of whether or not a child is ripe for learning at a given age, to a more in-depth analysis of the child’s mental development in school education, then all questions of pedology in both normal and auxiliary schools will become different" (Vygotsky L. S. 1996, p. 355).
Studying the zone of proximal development allows a psychologist to understand the child’s development process from the inside and predict the dynamics of mental development. It is the zone of proximal development that is most important for determining the dynamics of a child’s mental development and success. What is significant is not how mature certain mental functions of the child are by now, but which of them are at the stage of maturation. It is the maturing functions - engine mental development, in contrast to formed functions, which are only prerequisite development.
Thus, the zone of proximal development is a fruitful area of psychological research; identifying this zone significantly increases the significance of diagnosing mental development in relation to the requirements imposed by the school. After all, for school, what a child is able to learn is more important than the knowledge he already has.
The zone of proximal development indicates the child’s capabilities in terms of mastering knowledge under the guidance of an adult, in cooperation with him. This zone should, therefore, determine the optimal learning conditions for the child. You need to teach him what he can master.
L. S. Vygotsky’s ideas about two aspects of the analysis of a child’s mental development are very significant for special psychology in the sense that they set a very clear direction for the organization of psychodiagnostics and indicate the need for a qualitative analysis of its results. It becomes clear that in order to determine the essence of the child’s difficulties or developmental disorders, it is important to assess both the actual and potential levels of his development.
For rate current level development of the child, his knowledge, skills and abilities should be established at the time of the examination. In addition, the child’s ability to carry out various types of activities in the unity of their components (mnemonic, mental, speech, educational/game) is assessed.
The zone of proximal development is determined by learning ability: activity of orientation in new conditions, ability to assimilate knowledge, receptivity to the help of others, transfer of skills to new conditions, speed of formation of new concepts and methods of action, switching from one method of action to another, pace and rhythm of work. The identification of learning ability as the main criterion for the range (size of the zone) of proximal development presupposes the use of this criterion when mastering methods of interpersonal interaction.
By analogy with the stages of formation of mental actions, several stages of learning can be distinguished as readiness for transition to the next stage of knowledge acquisition based on less adult help. This means that the initially deployed assistance is gradually reduced and, finally, the stage of one’s own initiative begins in the transition to a new stage of training and development. Learning ability is manifested, as already indicated, in the child’s activity of orientation in new conditions, his intellectual initiative, receptivity to the help of another person when performing a difficult task, the ability to independently solve similar problems, and the pace of activity.
The development of his cognitive, motivational-volitional and emotional spheres, as well as the components of play/learning activity derived from them, is considered essential for a child’s learning ability. It depends on these components whether the child will understand the content of the material and whether he will use the knowledge gained.
Focusing on the zone of proximal development, its scale and meaningful characteristics, including the child’s learning ability, should help to identify the main factors of developmental disorders and understand the dynamics of development. In addition, it seems important to focus on the scale of this zone when developing preventive, correctional and developmental programs for working with children, as well as when determining the conditions, ways and methods of their education.
Loading...