It’s a challenge for teachers to keep track of all of their students’ exact levels of performance at all times. Still, it’s important information for teachers to have in order to deliver appropriate instruction. Knowing students’ levels helps teachers determine their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD refers to a student’s academic “sweet spot” in which a task is challenging enough, but not too challenging. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky coined the term to describe the difference between what students are able to do with independence, and what they cannot yet do at all. It is critical that students spend a significant amount of time in this zone each day in order to make academic prorgress.
Scaffolding within the Zone
In order to make sure students are working within their ZPD, teachers provide scaffolds. Scaffolds are activities, tools, or other measures put in place to ensure that a student is working toward a goal or performance task at an appropriate pace and with appropriate levels of guidance. Scaffolding for students allows them to take appropriately sized steps toward completing a task or reaching an objective.
Examples of scaffolding:
Math: Scaffolds in math provide students with smaller goals along their path to the larger goal. Young students learning fractions might need independent work scaffolded. For example, this might look like smaller, more manageable steps toward building a complex fraction. Other students may not need these scaffolds and go straight to building the complex fraction.
In middle school geometry, some students may need scaffolds as they are learning how to measure angles. Some students may quickly be able to use a protractor to measure the size of an angle. Others may need to spend a bit more time identifying 90-degree angles or visually determining whether the angle is acute or obtuse before measuring, etc.
ELA: Literacy scaffolds allow students to be successful with a text or task by providing them with extra steps or tools to support their learning. Some students will benefit from vocabulary definitions given ahead of time. Others may need to pause periodically to annotate, sketch, or otherwise process what they’ve read so far before moving on. Some may simply want to follow along in their text with an audiobook. All of these scaffolding strategies are likely to help some students in a class, but not all. It’s important for teachers to know individual needs and what will help each student be most successful.
Another common example of how ZPD can apply to reading is through guided reading groups. Students read books at their independent reading level that they are able to manage with virtually no teacher support. Guided reading groups should be facilitated using books that are slightly more challenging than those they can handle independently. This is usually one reading level above their independent level, but not always.
ZPD and Group Work
The guidance that students receive when working within their ZPD doesn’t always need to come from the teacher. One of the most effective ways of providing students with the support they need to progress is to partner them with a peer. Students have the most potential for growth when they have been properly coached in how to work productively with peers. It’s possible for students to learn even more from each other than from their teachers, and it benefits all parties involved. Student working in their ZPD benefits from working with a more capable peer. The more advanced students benefit from helping their classmate understand something in a different way. They get to practice their leadership skills, communication skills, and further solidify their own understanding. Plus, putting students together frees the teacher up to work with the students who need the most attention. It’s a win-win-win!
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