Literature Review Using Zone of Proximal Development to Support Students

Running head: USING ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT TO SUPPORT STUDENTS







Using Zone of Proximal Development to Support Students
Jolyn Redden
University of Texas at Arlington
Texas Bluebonnet Writing Project
 

Abstract
Using ZPD or Zone of Proximal Development to support students as they learn is an integral teaching strategy. Much research has been completed involving different age ranges of students and in different subject matter. Students benefit as the breadth of the zone is discovered and utilized.
Introduction
He had the most beautiful, piercing, catlike eyes. He struggled valiantly with words. His stilted vocabulary shrank to infinitesimal proportions, and I believed him to have few words with which to express himself, especially when I asked him a question during class. He was quiet and respectful with a stillness about him which made me wonder what he was thinking. Charles was in my sophomore English class. With great effort he struggled to pass and I really didn’t know why. He did not appear lazy, but he didn’t do well on assignments. The only thing about him which caught my attention were his eyes.
In the spring my students created Power Point presentations for their research projects about assassinations in preparation for reading The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Each time our class went to the library to work on their papers, Charles appeared to be working, but when he turned in portions of his assignment, he had little or nothing written. As the due date drew nearer and he still had nothing competed, I stopped him one day and I asked, “Charles will you meet me for lunch in my classroom today? You have some needs for your research, and I want to talk to you about it. Bring your lunch. See you later.” He smiled and left for his next class. At lunch that day, I gathered my things for lunch and in walked Charles. He looked a little uncomfortable, so I situated my lunch on a student desk. He sat his things down on another desk next to mine. We ate our lunch together –I shared my chips because I said I didn’t want them, but I really wanted to make friends with him. Finally, I asked him what did he think was the real problem with his research? He shyly whispered, “I don’t know.”
I replied, “I don’t know is not really an answer. Will you try to put into words a feeling about your lack of work?” He just shrugged and his beautiful eyes mirrored his internal pain.
A feeling of panic coursed through my body. I thought to myself, “How do I get his attention? How do I show him?” I prayed a small prayer of deep supplication – Lord please give me wisdom. I don’t know anything about the needs of this child, yet he’s waiting on an answer. I thought to myself. What would I do if I wanted to know something about a topic about which I have no prior knowledge? I could send him to the library then I could eat what was left of my lunch in peace. I could suggest he get on the internet at home and then I could feel satisfied he was responsible for his own work. Wait, I don’t know if he has a computer. I could ask for the advice of another teacher and get back to Charles in a couple of days when I had a better answer. All of these things were options, but Charles was waiting on an answer now – not in a couple of days. I looked behind Charles at my bookshelf of garage sale purchased reference books which I hoped one day would come in handy. Today seemed like the day. I went to my shelf and selected The 20th Century: an Illustrated History of Our Lives and Times As I hefted the huge book from the shelf, I had immediate doubts about its ability to help, but I had to start somewhere. I asked him, “Charles, do you know anything about your topic?”
He replied with more force than I had ever heard from him, “I don’t even know where to look!” I was astonished. I thought I had taught and shown and modeled methods of research. Somehow it had not connected. How could I have worked so hard with such poor results? My professors in college said that kids do not fail; teachers fail students because they do not meet the students’ needs. With this belief in my mind, I sat beside him and we looked in the index of the book for his topic. Suddenly, he jerked his head around, looked me straight in the eye, and grinned the biggest grin I have ever seen. His eyes gleamed! He said is that all there is to it?
I said, “Is that all there is to what? To research? Well, that’s not all, but it’s the beginning.” We had simply looked in the index. At that moment, a memory from my sophomore year of high school hit me like a ton of bricks. I remembered being in his shoes and my English teacher saying, “just take notes from the source. Don’t write everything down. Then write your research paper.” I remembered how helpless and lost I felt. If she would have sat with me for a few minutes, when it was obvious I did not understand, I think I would have comprehended more about what I was supposed to do. However, twenty-five years after my experience, Charles’ synapses fired; his dendrites connected, and he knew what he needed to do. He matured before my eyes!
After that day, his grades increased. He passed sophomore English. He never failed another high school class. Recently, he graduated from college. I see him from time-to-time. His eyes are still catlike and piercing, but now instead of being a timid non-speaker, he is a quiet, articulate young man with a future before him. It was nothing I did. I just happened to see the miracle unfold in front of me. I am glad I paid attention to his needs.
Zone of Proximal Development: A Student’s and Teacher’s Dilemma
ZPD or Zone of Proximal Development is a term developed by Lev Vigotsky (1978) to exemplify the range of challenge in which a learner progresses because the task is neither too neither hard nor too easy. When a teacher thinks about this term as she assesses and implements instruction for a student, the student is more likely to be successful in the assigned task. I believe if I had had a better understanding of the situation I just described, I would have more readily met my student’s educational needs and he would have been more successful from the beginning.
At the time a child enters school, his teachers and parents set goals for him to be an independent person when he becomes an adult. By the time the child graduates from high school, he should be able to read for information, to read for understanding, and to read for development of critical thinking beyond the text. A child does not come to school already exceeding every educational expectation. He needs to be supported and instructed. Tasks which do not challenge a student and tasks which do challenge a student lead to frustration. A basic level of learning should be discovered when a teacher meets her student. According to Brenda Power (1999) a professor at the University of Main in Toronto, “learning to look for compelling details or anecdotes” assists the teacher in her endeavor to discover the instructional levels of her student. Based on average levels of children in the same age group, a teacher places a child at a particular instructional level. Then through careful observation the teacher, using her professional judgment, establishes a baseline. Within this educational level, a child’s frustration level should not be too easy or “go beyond his or her ‘language ceiling’ or limit to language capacity” (Bodrova & Leong, 1998; The Institute for Academic Excellence, 1998). Once a student learns the basics of the task, he must move to the next level. If it is within a research project, the student should learn how to reading for information in order to synthesize and produce a new thought. Within this level, a teacher utilizing The Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD, seeks to find the appropriate instructional level. The appropriate instructional level should fall between the student’s independent level and the student’s frustrational level based on decoding comprehension (Ediger, 1999). For instance, studied subjects are chosen which develop a love of learning and sustain a student in his quest to move beyond basic skills according to his specific needs. A teacher wants a student to grow and learn through development skills to connect in a meaningful ways to his experiences.
In the same way, once a child masters this level of skill building, he must be moved to the next level. Each time the child achieves a new level, his level of ease and frustration change as well. At times during a course of instruction, a teacher should move the child’s level of challenge down in order to be on his instructional level. Often “peers, teachers, and home” (Institute, 1998) have different expectations of a student and his level of ease or frustration changes. If a teacher finds a particular interest of a student and suggests a topic in his interest range, a student may choose a work through the research, but, for instance, if there is a problem at home, a student’s motivation may decrease in such a manner that his level of study may regress for a short time. Because a teacher has more knowledge, if the student is encouraged to more bravely participate in challenging activities when the teacher supports her student and when the teacher finds the proper balance, a child feels successful. Success breeds a positive self-concept in a child which leads to further gains academically and emotionally (Englert, 1992, Goos, 2002)
All of these scenarios lead to the development of an independent learner based on his experiences as a developing student. Zone’s change as a student progresses, and teachers should continually monitor a child’s ZPD to assess his needs. Although scaffolding is temporary, the strategies of a student as an "apprentice” and following through to become an independent learner, come about because of his mastery of “self-talk” (Englert, 1992). As an independent student, his academic success increases after the scaffolding has been in place for a period of time. The student must learn the language of his studies, no matter what it is he is studying. It does not matter if it is Physics or Literature (Englert, 1992).
Additionally, students and teachers must approach their tasks through some common sense. Tony Harland, a researcher at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, spent three years studying and determining the need for a common sense approach to teaching and learning. He determined the need for three areas of focus for teachers and students
1. Developing diagnostic teaching strategies
2. The emphasis on authentic activities
3. Re-thinking the roles of teacher and learner (Harland, 2003).
His ideas mesh with those of researchers Cynthia Peterson and David Caverly in their studies of developing academic literacy through on-line discussions. In their studies they found that college students taking on-line classes need much of the same types of support as students in lower grades. They found the need for teachers to develop some core tactics as the students engaged in on-line discussions and learning and to think again about how teachers and learners interact. Through their study they concluded that working through these types of strategies assists students to move through the Zone of Proximal Development as they progressed and learned (Peterson, 2005). These basic ideas, although not dramatic, assist learners, no matter what their ages, to develop more effectively in their own Zone to achieve mastery. These approaches are down-to-earth and require a level of common sense often left out of the learning process.
Using the Zone of Proximal Development as a model, teachers assist students in developing invaluable life-long learning skills. Margareta Kjellin of the Malardaln University College (2005) indicates the need for structured teacher student interaction and the necessity for asking the correct questions. The quality of the instruction improves as this back and forth dialogue occurs between teacher and student. This conversation structure is not simply small talk; it is talk with a purpose. Such skills as self talk and subtle reminders of the required tasks, enhance and move a student toward his ZPD goals (Kjellin, 2005, Meijer, 2001). These actions take place when a level of rapport develops between teacher and learner. In the situation with my student, his learning needs were not being met. Yet, when I sat with him and asked the appropriate questions, after developing a congenial atmosphere, his Zone of Proximal Development emerged and I was able to determine the breadth of his knowledge (Meijer, 2001). Using scaffolding as a temporary support, works within the framework of ZPD. Teacher assistance at crucial junctures enables students to maintain a level of challenge without moving to the frustrational level. Often the teacher assistance occurs in the area of groups of students where one student is more self-sufficient or it can occur, as did my situation, in a teacher to student circumstance (Englert, 1992).
I believe students from pre-k to graduate students work within their individual Zone of Proximal Development. Students at the pre-k level begin to read for the first time and graduate students begin to work on literature review for the first time. Between those times, much learning and growing occur. At each level an astute teacher should be able to quantify, to a degree, her student’s abilities and push the student to his growth level. Developing a relationship with the student alleviates anxiety and supports the student as he strives for the knowledge he desires. Common sense should burst forth as educational levels increase. Educators can no longer rest on their laurels and hope for the best.
 
References
Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (1998). Scaffolding Emergent Writing in the Zone of Proximal Development. Literacy Teaching and Learning , 3 (2), 1-18.
Ediger, M. (1999, 10 22). Zone of Proximal Development in Reading. Washington, D.C., United States: EDRS.
Englert, C. S. (1992). Writing Instruction From a Sociocultural Perspective: The Holistic, dialogic, and Social Enterprise of Writing. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 25 (3), 153-172.
Goos, M. G. (2002). Socially Mediated Metacognition: Creating Collaborative Zones of Proximal Development in Small Group Problem Solving. Educational Studies in Mathematics , 49, 193-223.
Harland, T. (2003). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and Problem-based learning: linking a theoretical concept with practice through action research. Teaching in Higher Education , 8 (2), 263-272.
Kjellin, M. S. (2005). "Areas of Instruction" - A Tool for Assessing the Quality of Instructional Situations (Vol. 49). Eskilstuna, Sweden: Scandinavian Journal Of Educational Research.
Meijer, J. E. (2001). The Predictive and Discriminant Validity of the Zone of Proximal Development. British Journal of Educational Psychology , 71, 93-113.
Peterson, C. C. (2005). Techtalk: Building Academic Literacy through Online Discussion Forums. Journal of Developmental Education , 29 (2), 38-39.
Power, B., & Chandler, K. (1999). In the Zone: Writing Literacy Assessments. The New England Reading Association Journal , 35 (1), 3-6.
The Institute for Academic Excellence. (1998). ZPD Guidelines: Helping Students Achieve Optimum Reading Growth. Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Advantage Learning Systems, Inc.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: MIT Press.