Concept “Zone of Proximal
Development” in Psychotherapy
and Pedagogic
V. Zaretskii, A.Kholmogorova
Moscow State University
of Psychology and Education
The main idea of the report
• The concept
“development” may be used both to
pedagogics and psychotherapy.
•So concept “Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)” may
be used also in both these kinds of psychological help.
This concept (ZPD) can be rather heuristic for
understanding what is common in pedagogics and
psychotherapy (Kholmogorova, Zaretskii, 2010).
The closeness of psychologo-pedagogical help in
learning and psychotherapeutic help is illustrated with the
“multivectoral model of ZPD (Zaretskii, 2006).
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
The boundary between the zone of actual
development (i.e. the actually available, the
individually doable) and ZPD is the first
complex task, which the child is unable to
accomplish alone, where he or she needs
adult assistance (irrelevant of whether it
happens: in natural conditions or within a
specially arranged procedure of evaluation
child development level).
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
• If the child is unable to accomplish a
certain task (problem, activity, etc.), he or
she encounters a problem situation,
unable to do alone what needs to be done.
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
• Cooperation of the child and adult when
determining the ZPD (or when learning
within ZPD) is regarded as very important
form of their interaction, that can initiate
inner resources of the child and lead to his
development.
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
Development from this point of view is a
process of transition from joint
accomplishment of complex but attainable
tasks to individual accomplishment (no adult
assistance). This is also the measure of
efficiency of adult assistance: help was
successful, if the child can do something on
his own, that he was able to do only with adult
assistance “yesterday”. Otherwise, the adult
should review the methods of assistance.
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
• Obviously, the maturing process zone has
an opposite boundary, beyond which lies
the actually unattainable, i.e. that, which a
child cannot accomplish even with adult
assistance. So, ZPD is a field with two
opposite boundaries: one of them lies
where the child is capable of individual
successful activity, while the other lies
where the child is unable to successfully act
even in cooperation with an adult.
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
• ZPD consists of actions, which the child
is capable of understanding, but
incapable of performing. That is the zone,
where the child acts sensibly and
intelligently with adult assistance. When
unable to interact sensibly, the cooperation
fails.
What did Lev Vygotsky write about
ZPD
The final thesis by Lev Vygotsky we want to
indicate is, that the notion ZPD can be
extended to other facets of personality
(not only intellectual development).
Initial understanding of Zone of Proximal Development.
The child is the subject of experience appropriation
(mastering of learning material).
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Object field of activity
Point of challenge
Addition of the challenge-overcoming activity vector to the
view of ZPD. The child is not only the subject of mastering
the learning material, but also a subject of overcoming
learning challenges.
Plane of ability to overcome learning
challenges
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Object field of activity
Point of challenge
Aspects of possible child’s cognitive and personality
changes, defined by the child and adult’s intentions, in the
framework of his interaction with an adult in the ZPD.
Aspect of personality, cognitive and
other changes.
Aspect of the ability to overcome
learning difficulties
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Object field of activity
Point of challenge
“One step in learning may to mean one
hundred steps in development” (L. Vygotsky)
In the framework of self-reflective-activity
approach to assisting children who experience
learning difficulties it is possible to point such
vectors: self-determination, self-reflection, design
elaboration, goal creation, control, interaction
(cooperation) standards, self-regulation
(conceptual, reflexive, emotional), ability to
overcome difficulties, understanding error as a
source for overcoming the difficulties, use an
error as a reflection subject, understanding the
relation between means and results, etc.
Multivectoral Model of ZPD
In Self-Reflective-Activity
Approach
Vector of subjectness
(agency) development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficulties.
……… another
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Field of work on difficulties
in academic subject.
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Point of challenge the epicenter of the problem
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficultis.
……… another
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Field of work on difficulties in
academic subject.
The epicenter of the problem: the
symptom of learned helplessness is
blocking progress in the educational
subject.
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficultis.
………
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Field of work on difficulties in
academic subject.
The epicenter of the problem: the
symptom of learned helplessness is
blocking progress in the educational
subject.
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of the ability to overcome the
difficulties.
Vector of development of activity means in
the field of academic subject
Field of work on
difficulties in academic
subject.
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Field of work on overcoming the
learned helplessness
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
The epicenter of the problem
Psychologo-pedagogical help
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficulties.
……… another
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Field of work on difficulties
in academic subject.
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
The epicenter of the problem
Psychologo-pedagogical help
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficulties.
Vector of overcoming internal
obstacles blocking the ways to
realize activities.
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Field of work on difficulties in
academic subject.
The epicenter of the problem: internal
obstacles are blocking the ways to
realize activities - the symptoms of
developmental disorder.
Psychotherapeutic help (counceling)
Vector of subjectness
development
Vector of self-trust, selfconfidence development
Vector of the ability to overcome
the difficulty.
Vector of the ability to overcome
learning difficulties.
Vector of self-reflection
development
Zone of actual development
Zone of proximal development
Zone of unattainable challenge
Field of psychotherapeutic work
on internal obstacles blocking
the ways to realize activities.
The epicenter of the problem
ZPD in Psychotherapy and
Pedagogic
One of the general rules of rendering of the
psychotherapeutic help which it has entered
on the basis of the empirical researches of
factors of efficiency of psychotherapy, says:
not to make active a problem, yet resources
for its decision until t they aren't made active
(Grave, 2006).
This thesis can be interpreted in terms of ZPD
in pedagogics.
ZPD in Psychotherapy and
Pedagogic
It is represented to us that both mentioned
rules - «activization of resources» (K.Grave)
and «work in ZPD» (L.S.Vygotsky) - are
closely connected between themselves.
Moreover, the second contains important
heuristic potential for specification of
conditions of realization the first.
ZPD in Psychotherapy and
Pedagogic
It According to L.S.Vygotsky training
conducts behind itself development and one
step to training, under certain conditions, can
mean hundred steps to development
(Vygotsky, 1984). From this point of view,
concept «zone of the proximal development»
is a theoretical key to understanding what are
these conditions - what help the child needs,
what helping actions of the adult will be useful
to the child, what are useless and what can
harm to development.
ZPD in Psychotherapy and
Pedagogic
Using of concept ZPD in scientific
researches and practical work, will allow
specialists to focus the attention to conditions
at which the zone of difficulty of an actualized
problem corresponds to resources of the
patient, strengthened by support of the
psychotherapist.
Practice of psychologo-pedagogical
help
Practice of psychologo-pedagogical help
based on the self-reflective-activity
approach is realized in the work with:
•children with learning difficulties (since1998);
• students of primary school in the Project “Chess for
development” (since 2004);
•children with disabilities (since 2007);
•students-invalids of our University (since 2010);
•orphans-invalids with complicated structure of defect
(since 2012).