In this section, we would like to draw together many of the themes already mentioned in the first three sections. We will draw from the idea of the learner’s present levels of understanding, as contributed to by the spontaneous concepts developed, and the scientific concepts learnt. We will also explore further the notions of ‘mediation’ and ‘activity’, and we will think about the ideas of internalising the speech which occurs first in a social context. Finally, we will draw together some of the guidelines for effective educators which a Vygotskian approach provides.

Vygotsky (1962) noticed that when working independently, learners are able to reach a certain level of problem solving. However, when learners receive assistance from someone with more expertise, learners are then able to solve problems at a higher level.

What is the ZPD?

The gap between what a learner can achieve alone, and what can be achieved with someone else’s help, is called the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD is “the discrepancy between a child’s actual mental age and the level he reaches in solving problems with assistance indicates the zone of proximal development” (p.103).

Vygotsky develops this idea by emphasising that all good teaching will take place in the ZPD of learners. He emphasises the importance of children imitating others (by copying others’ actions), and the role of giving guidelines in words to accompany activities (instructions), in order for children to learn.

Using the analogy of a baby eagle learning to fly, has proved to be a successful way of explaining the concept of ZPD:

It is a known fact that birds can fly. Their whole physical structure is designed for them to be able to fly. And yet, newly hatched birds cannot fly. They need to stay in the nest for a while and are still dependent on their parents feeding them, until they have grown stronger. As the baby bird gets stronger, it begins venturing further and further away from the nest. Until one day it is time for it to begin to learn how to fly. Note that we say learn. Even though it is an accepted fact that birds fly, young birds do not simply hatch and fly. They have to learn how to fly. At birth, they have the potential to fly (based on the premise that all birds fly) but that potential needs to be realised.

They learn how to fly with the help of a parent bird.

Eagles build their nests high up on mountain crags and cliffs. If a baby eagle tries to fly before its wings are strong enough and before it has mastered the technique of flying, it could fall to the ground and die.

The mother eagle mediates this learning experience for the baby eagle. And this is how she does it: When the baby eagle starts to fly, its wings are inevitably not strong enough, so when it starts to drop, the mother eagle swoops down underneath her baby, stopping it falling any further. She then carries it back to the nest, where the process begins over.

The act of coming underneath the baby eagle at just the moment that its strength and ability falters, to carry it safely back to the nest, where the process of learning to fly continues, is very similar to the role a teacher plays in the learners’ learning attempts.

The fact that a learner has not mastered a task yet does not mean s/he does not have the ability or the potential to master it. The potential is there, it just needs to be realised. The space between not being able to master a task and having the potential to master a task is what is referred to as the ZPD. It is in this ZPD that the teacher plays a vital role in mediating the task requirements, talking through the task requirements to the learner, explaining how to tackle and master the task, coming underneath the learner (just as the mother eagle does with her baby).

Another analogy which could help us understand the ZPD, is that of trying to find hidden treasure. Without a map with directions and pointers, we may follow random paths and dig at random places, and never actually find the hidden treasure. Having a map gives us a direction and a route, a step-by-step list of instructions to follow, and we are guaranteed of success in finding the hidden treasure. The teacher is seen as playing the role of a map, leading and guiding the learner to discover his/her full potential.

One of the answers which we hope you discovered in the activity above is that the expert provides words of instruction which help the learner to give words to the activity as it is done. Often these instructional words (which first occur between the expert and learner) are then copied by the learner, and these gradually become words that the learner uses for self-instruction. These words will gradually ‘disappear’ as the learner becomes better at the task - but these may have disappeared ‘inward’, becoming inner speech. In this way, a process of social regulation of activity (where the expert uses instructions) gradually becomes self-regulation. So the learner is first supported by someone else in the learning, and gradually learns to support himself.

In order to give this graded assistance a name, Bruner (1976, in Mercer, 1994), uses the term scaffolding. This term comes from the building trade, where a builder uses a scaffold (a collection of ladders and planks) to help him to get
higher up as he builds a wall.

This is a very useful image of the way in which someone with more understanding can help a learner move upwards in understanding and activity. As educators, we need to examine how we can assist our learners by providing different sorts of scaffolds, to enable the learners to progress.

Thus we need to ask ourselves: How can I best assist my learners by using techniques to help them to progress?

This is quite a different approach from the traditional “teacher tell” way of teaching. It is much more than giving instructions from the front of the classroom. It means that learners need to be involved in meaningful activities, and we need to judge how best to help them to improve. In such an approach the educator is described as “mediating” the learning experience for the learner.

Vygotsky (1962) identified a number of ways in which we can do this as educators: “the teacher, working with the pupil, has explained, supplied information, questioned, corrected, and made the pupil explain” (p.107). You might say that this is not very different from the way in which you have taught up to now.

A number of researchers have spent time in classrooms watching effective teaching, and they have noticed that too many teachers use mainly instructing and questioning, but that other forms of mediation are neglected. The forms of effective mediation neglected in many schools are: modelling activities (doing a demonstration of something so that learners can imitate the educator), giving encouragement and praise for small gains, involving the learners actively and encouraging learners to speak about their activities.

Other theorists have suggested the following ways of scaffolding activities for learners:

Articulation. This involves verbalizing or putting into words. Articulation encourages learners to put their conclusions, their descriptions, the principles they have discovered, into words. Deliberate verbalization forces learners to think more clearly about their cognitive processes, and is frequently an important technique in programmes designed to foster the development of cognitive strategies.

Reflection. Closely related to articulation, reflection also requires that the learner think about and verbalize the way they have undertaken tasks and the results of these. But when reflecting, learners are encouraged to think more abstractly, and perhaps to compare their cognitive activity with a conceptual model, or even a physical model.

Exploration. Exploration is the final step. It involves generalizing what has been learned or accomplished, to other circumstances or situations.

Edwards and Mercer (1987) criticise many educators whose instructions and questions are used to maintain control, and do not probe learners’ actual understandings. They have noticed that when educators ask a question, they have often prepared an answer in their own minds which they want to hear from the learners - such questions are called ‘closed-ended’ questions. A better sort of question is an ‘open-ended’ question where the educator is keen to hear what the learner thinks, and does not have a ready-prepared answer in mind. ‘Open-ended’ questions would be phrased something like “What do you think about …?” or “How do you think that impacts on …?”. Open-ended questions give the learner a lot more space and freedom to elaborate on a response to a question.

In most classrooms where the teacher uses predominantly closed-ended questions, the focus is on getting answers right and not making mistakes or deviating from the answers the teacher wants to hear. Those learners who do not get things right and make mistakes, may develop a real sense of failure. We need to create classrooms that take away the sense of failure that learners experience. Instead, we need to create an atmosphere of security and freedom in our classrooms – freedom to learn, and freedom to learn means freedom to express ourselves, take a chance or a risk on giving certain answers, and freedom even to make mistakes.

A further feature of many classrooms which has been noticed is that educators are too quick to criticise and identify what is wrong, and do not use praise, and give comments which encourage the learners enough.

We as educators, are challenged to develop alternative and more positive strategies that create a classroom climate that is positive and encouraging, one that promotes healthy learning. Healthy learning takes place in classroom environments where learners feel safe, secure and free enough to speak their minds. We need to practice praising and encouraging our learners with positive feedback. More effective teaching and learning takes place in a warm, friendly, encouraging environment where the teacher is always ready with a smile, a word of encouragement, and a word of praise. Encouraging learners to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings and views by asking open-ended questions, is making a statement to learners that we, their teachers, value their thoughts, ideas and views. This is the ultimate vote of confidence that we can give our learners.

How do outcomes-based education principles fit in with Vygotsky’s theory?

Optional: This is probably only of real interest if your curriculum is based on outcomes-based education principles.

The key principles of having an outcomes-based system are:
• Developing a clear set of learning outcomes, and
• Establishing the conditions and opportunities that enable and encourage learners to achieve those essential outcomes.

Firstly, OBE focuses on having a clear picture of what is important for learners to be able to do successfully at the end of a learning experience. This leads to the development of clear learning outcomes. Outcomes are clear learning results that we want learners to demonstrate at the end of learning experiences. The potential level of functioning, that area which lies beyond the zone of proximal development through which the teacher will help the learner, could be equated with the learning outcomes which we have set for our learners to achieve. Equating these outcomes with potential levels of functioning in our learners, reinforces the belief that all learners can learn and succeed.

Secondly, OBE focuses on creating the conditions that directly affect successful learning for all learners. Successful learning is promoted in learning environments which actively create the conditions and opportunities necessary for learners to achieve their outcomes and their full potential. A teacher’s responsibility is to actively and directly structure learning environments and learning experiences that promote and encourage successful learning. A teacher’s responsibility is to mediate between the learner’s present level of functioning and the learner’s potential level of functioning. Everything a teacher does, every strategy a teacher employs, (whether its explaining, unpacking, deconstructing, encouraging, motivating, modeling or any other teaching method), should be aimed at assisting the learner to reach the outcomes and his/her potential levels of functioning.

It is critical that good teaching, careful organisation, mediating, and scaffolding take place in the space between where the learner is (what the learner is able to achieve on his/her own) and where the learner has the potential to be (with the assistance of a skilled mediator/teacher).

The conditions that are created, and opportunities that are provided by the teacher, should all assist the learner through his/her zone of proximal development.