The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues

✍ Scribed by James V. Wertsch

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 672 KB
• Volume: 1984
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1520-3247
• DOI: 10.1002/cd.23219842303

✦ Synopsis

As the work reported in this volume shows, Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development has recently spurred a great deal of interest among developmental and cognitive psychologists. His ideas have been incorporated into studies on a variety of issues, including intelligence testing (for example, Brown and Ferrara, in press; and the chapter by Campione, Brown, Ferrara, and Bryant in this volume), memory (for example, Rogoff and Gardner, in press), and problem solving (for example, Wertsch, 1979; Wertsch and others, 1980).

As we come to consider more and more psychological phenomena from the perspective of the zone of proximal development, it becomes increasingly important to explicate this theoretical construct. Failure to do so raises the risk that it will be used loosely and indiscriminately, thereby becoming so amorphous that it loses all explanatory power. In what follows, I shall identify some aspects of Vygotsky's account of the zone of proximal development that are in need of clarification, and I shall undertake this clarification by extending his ideas in light of contemporary theoretical and empirical research. This chapter is based on a presentation at the biennual meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Detroit, 1983. B. RngoI1. ,] V . Wertrch (Edr.) Chddrrni Lmrnin,c in rhr 'Zonc of R o x t m l &wlopmml "