Role of assessment according to Vygotsky’s ZPD

✳✱*

The zone of proximal development has further use in the assessment of intelligence. Vygotsky

approached the long accepted procedure that children’s true capacities can only be revealed

by test administered tothem in isolation.

He's NERD!!!

He argued that their ability to profit from assistance from adults can tell a lot about their capacities than their efforts at unsupported problem solving. It is the buds of development that are found in the ZPD and not the fruits. Moreover,

it is the buds of development which are important for diagnosis in order to predict and work for future progress.

(Schaffer 2009, 125)

Vygotskiy's ZPD and Assessment

Cognition and ZPD

According to this outlook cognitive development is not a

spontaneous process but occurs with the child’s interaction with the physical world. It happens when children are embedded in social context, surrounded by people of greater expertise willing to share their knowledge with the child.

ZPD and Vygotskiy

Lev Simenovich Vygotsky was the first person who used the idea of the zone of proximal development. Although Vygotsky devoted only limited space to the zone of proximal development in his description of socio cognitive theory, the concept has become the best part of his work.

Birinci Lem'a

Cognition and ZPD

Cognition is socially created and

ZPD is way of bringing this about. The child in the context is far way important than the child in-isolation. Thus, the cognitive development can be seen as the transition from inter-mental to intra-mental through which the child acts as active partner in the learning process with its dynamic and mutually adjusted nature.

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِ

✳✱*

The first level

can be called actual developmental level, which is the level of mental development of the child that has been established or achieved. This is the level that is usually used by different tests to measure child’s mental age. In many studies it is generally accepted that children are developed only to the level that they can perform independently on the basis of how and to what level of difficulty that they solve problems.

The second level of development is more

visible through the light of the theory of the zone of proximal development. This measures the level of development or potential a child has when s/he works with the collaboration of others and most importantly adults. Imitation can serve here as a good example. Children are

not able to imitate everything though they are able to imitate actions that go beyond the limits of their own capabilities. Adults can serve here by handing imitations which are above the child’s development and at the same time not at the level that they cannot even try to reach

two levels of development in a child’s developmental span

To conclude, development does not coincide with learning process. It lags behind the assessment

process which leaves the area for the ZPD. That area is where the child needs assistance and assessment of adults in order to reach the next level of development. (Cole et al. 1978, 84-91)