Do we need help

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What is the Zone of Proximal Development and
What Are Its Implications for Learning and
Teaching? Violeta Skevas, Peer Leader, City
College of The City University of New York.
Who needs assistance?
Do we need help? There are things which we are
capable of doing. We need no help for those
things. There are things that we are incapable of
doing no matter how much help is given to us.
There is a set of things which we cant do on our
own, but which we can do with some assistance
and/or guidance. Obviously, this is a crucial
important point for us as workshop leaders,
because our job is to provide the assistance and
guidance to the students depending on what kind
of help they need.
What was the purpose of the test? The aim of
this test was the diagnosis of the student's
ability to cope with the specific task and of
the nature of the difficulties that he or she is
experiencing so that, when the peer leader
intervenes, the intervention is tailored to the
student's actual needs rather than to the assumed
needs of students in general at grade level.   
How To Teach And Communicate To Students 1.
Learn the fine art of metaphor. You will discover
that to convey ideas and concepts you will have
to explain those ideas many times and in many
different ways. 2. Be energetic! You must convey
your interest in the material and the best way is
to be dynamic, lively, and involved while you are
teaching. 3. Questions! Students never ever ask
stupid questions about the material. There is no
such thing as a stupid question. Search for ways
to effectively answer all questions. 4. If you
make a mistake - admit it. Don't let pride, ego,
or embarrassment prevent you from transferring
knowledge. Plus, students know when you try to
get away with being incorrect. 5. Be friendly
and in charge. It is perfectly OK to be loved by
your students, BUT also make sure they know you
are the boss. 6. Learn your students names.
This is hard to do in large classes, but I think
it helps a great deal. The students will
appreciate the effort to know who they are. 7.
Don't fall into a rut. If something does not
work, then get rid of it. Try new things in
class, different ways to explain things. This
helps you discover more effective ways to teach
and will be fun for you too! 8. Never forget
that you are still learning. You will be
astonished that as you teach that you are
learning an in-depth understanding of the
material as well. OK, there is a number 9. You
need to teach not only the facts, theories,
ideas, and concepts ..., but also UNDERSTANDING!
Characteristics of an Expanded Conception of the
ZPD 1. The ZPD may apply in any situation in
which, while participating in an activity, 
individuals are in the process of developing
mastery of a practice or understanding of a
topic. 2. The ZPD is not a context-independent
attribute of an individual rather it is
constructed in the interaction between
participants in the course of their joint
engagement in a particular activity. 3. To
teach in the ZPD is to be responsive to the
learner's current goals and stage of
development and to provide guidance and
assistance that enables him/her to achieve those
goals and, at the same time to increase his/her
potential for future participation 4. To learn
in the ZPD does not require that there be a
designated teacher whenever people collaborate
in an activity, each can assist the others, and
each can learn from the contributions of the
others. 5. Learning in the ZPD involves all
aspects of the learner and leads to the
development of identity as well as of skills and
knowledge.  For this reason, the effective
quality of the interaction between the
participants is critical. Learning will be most
successful when it is mediated by interaction
that expresses mutual respect, trust and
concern.
Literature review Lev Semanovich Vygotsky
(1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who
concluded that intellectual development is
dependent on social interaction between students
and teachers and among the students peers
(1987). Vygotsky conceptualized the
constructivist concept of assisted learning.
According to Vygotsky, "higher mental functions"
such as the ability to focus attention or memory,
or to think in terms of symbols is unique to
humans and is passed down by teaching.
Furthermore, the development of these functions
is tied to social context and culture. In
assisted learning the teacher guides instruction
so that students will internalize these higher
functions. Then once these are acquired, the
student will have the tools necessary for
self-guided learning. This practice of supported
and guided learning is also known as scaffolding.
The most important application of Vigotskys
theory to education is in his concept of a zone
of proximal development (ZPD). This is the
distance between the actual development level as
determined by independent problem solving and the
level of potential development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance or
in collaboration with more capable peers. The
ZPD describes new concepts that the students can
learn. The lower end of the ZPD is defined by
concepts that the student can learn without help
no real growth is involved. Beyond the higher
end of the ZPD are tasks that the students cant
learn even with assistance.
Test Different ability learners Some students
are gifted at memorization of facts and
equations. However, they are not able to use
the information to set up meaningful solution to
problems they are seeing for the first time. (The
concrete thinkers) Some students are not strong
in memorization. They, in order to solve the
problem, have to know not the questions but the
concepts that are behind them. They are the ones
who are asking the questions how and why.
(The abstract thinkers)
Classroom strategies cooperative learning The
students (n3) who are concrete thinker were
separated into one group, and the other group was
constituted with the abstract thinking students
(n5). They were given the same problem to
solve.
References 1.Vygotsky, L.S. (1935). Mental
development of children during education.
Moscow-Leningrad 2.Vygotsky, L.S. (1978).  Mind
in society The development of higher
psychological processes. (M.Cole, V.J.Steiner,
S.Scribner, E. Souberman, Eds.)  Cambridge 3.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1934/1987). Thinking and speech.
In R.W. Rieber and A.S. Carton (Eds.), The
collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, Volume 1
Problems of general psychology, (Trans. N.
Minick). New York Plenum. 4. Wells G. (1999).
Dialogic inquiry Towards a sociocultural
practice and theory of education. New York
Cambridge University Press
The role of the workshop leader during the
experiment The peer leader was a bystander,
observing how students were tackling particular
tasks and, on that basis, attempted to intervene
in a manner that was both responsive to the
students needs and intended to assist them to
achieve mastery of the task.
Results The students who attempted to memorize
formulas needed assistance more than the
students who liked to ask questions.