Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Kristen's ZPD

My understanding of Zone of Proximal Development is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. It was developed by Lev Vygotsky and Belarusian. Vygotsky thought that the role of teachers/educators was to provide children with experiences which are in THEIR ZPD, which would encourage and further children’s understandings and learning. One important part about ZPD is that it is not a set chart of understandings that children are at. ZPD is based upon children’s own learning abilities and understandings. Meaning that no children will have the same ZPD.
I have had my fair share of ZPD. It is a very big topic when it comes to psychology and education. In my first psychology at IU we talked a lot about ZPD and what it is and isn't. We also had to find out how the teacher in the classroom that we where in used it and if she did what did she do. Did it work for the students? This assignment that we had to do, allowed us to see just how important it is in a school setting. Children themselves will try and do things that they are unaware off and this shows that even they are aware of what they need to do to learn about new things. Children are always learning new things. ZPD is something that even as adults we do. Especially when we are trying to do new things that we may know little about.

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