Zpd Quotes

sociocultural theory views speaking and thinking as tightly interwoven. Speaking (and writing) mediates thinking, which means that people can gain control over their mental processes as a consequence of internalizing what others say to them and what they say to others. This internalizing is thought to occur when an individual interacts with an interlocutor within his or her zone of proximal development (ZPD)—that is, in a situation in which the learner can perform at a higher level because of the support (scaffolding) offered by an interlocutor.

Whether we consider stages or ZPD, students profit from experiences that are within their reach cognitively. When teachers design tasks that are moderately challenging, students will be operating in their ZPD—or, in Piagetian terms, they will experience disequilibrium.

Describe intersubjectivity, internalization, and scaffolding within the zone of proximal development. In the ZPD, a child and an older individual engage in intersubjectivity, an active coconstruction of knowledge. As the adult provides scaffolding, the child gradually gains more skill and takes over more responsibility for the task. Cognitive processes that initially were shared between the adult and the child and were scaffolded by the adult gradually become internalized by the child, and the adult slowly removes the scaffolding.