Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DEVELOPMENT (ZPD)
21 January 2010
A SIMPLE HISTORY O F
THEORIES OF EDUCATION
Descartes 1641
Spinoza 1677 Locke 1685
Artifacts function like cultural genes; by mastering the cultural skills involved in
their use, the individual becomes a fully human member of a particular culture.
The zpd applies not only to experts working with novices, but also to
collaboration among peers, and to the influence of absent others by means of the
artifacts they created.
The Zone of Proximal Development
The zone of proximal development is the difference between what a child can
do alone and what s/he can do with help from a more expert other:
What a child can do today with help, tomorrow s/he will be able to do alone.
(All quotes are from Chap. 6 of Thinking and Speech (Vygotsky 1934/1987)
Any activity is situated in place and time; although there may be common
features across activities and settings, each activity is unique, since it involves
the coming together of particular individuals in a particular setting with particular
artifacts, all of which have their own histories which, in turn, affect the way in
which the activity is actually played out.
Curriculum is a Means not an End:
If the aim is to engage with particular students in productive activities that are
personally as well as socially significant, 'covering' the curriculum should not be
thought of as the ultimate goal of education. Instead, the specified knowledge
and skills that make up the prescribed curriculum should be seen as items in
the cultural tool-kit which are to be used as means of 'knowing in action' when
carrying out activities of personal and social significance.