Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development

L.S.Vygotksy 

I am a member of Vygotsky group. L.S.Vygotsky was a psychologist, born in 1896, Orsha, Russia, a town which is now part of Belarus. He is most known for his concept called Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Vygotsky wrote: " We propose that an essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of proximal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is interacting with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers. Once these process are internalized, they become part of the child's independent developmental achievement ". ( Vygotsky, 1978, p.90)

 Vygotsky expressed a dialectical relationship between the individual and society. In one of the essays on Imagination and Creativity in Childhood, he wrote, " every inventor, even a genius, is always the outgrowth of his time and environment. His creativity stems from those needs that were created before him, and rests upon those possibilities that, again, exist outside of him". ( Connery, Steiner, Marjanovic-Shane, 2010, p 13) 

Also he emphasizes that creative work is social : "Art is the social within us, and even if it's action Is performed by a single individual it does not mean that its essence is individual... Art is the social technique of emotion, a tool of society which brings the most intimate and personal aspects of our being into the circle of social life ... It would be more correct to say that emotion becomes personal when everyone of us experiences a work of art: It becomes personal without ceasing to be social ..." ( Connery, Steiner, Marjanovic-Shane, 2010, p 14) 

Here is also an interesting video that gives a good overview of Vygostky's work : 'The Theory Of Social Development.'

 




References: 

Vygotsky, L.S., ( 1978), Mind in Society : The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. 

Connery, M.C., Steiner, V.P.J, Marjanovic-Shane, A., (2010), Vygotsky and Creativity: A Cultural-historical Approach to Play, Meaning Making, and the Arts. New York, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.