My Own (Overly Lengthy) ZPD Experience

The most notable example of a ZPD that I can remember inhabiting was during my time as a trainee worker in a kennel.  During my first week in the boarding facility, working on learning the ropes to being a “kennel technician,” I shadowed another employee who was doing all of the work that I needed to acquire the skills for.

For the first couple days, I would come in when she started her shift at 6:45, enter the building alongside her, and watch her disarm the alarm system.  I would follow her as she prepared the “breakfast” for each dog in the facility, following along as she read out loud the abbreviated instructions for each dog’s food, told me what the abbreviated instructions meant, and showed me how to measure them out.

These daily chore duties were incredibly helpful to have someone to shadow, since all of the little bits of copious tedium weren’t entirely intuitive.  When I was cutting dog nails, she told me when I had done enough, too little, and would point out on the nail how to spot the quick.  When administering medication, I was guided by the trainer in how I should hold my hands to best restrain and medicate whichever uncooperative dog I was holding.

However, the most critical gain from having an MKO was being able to observe my trainer manage “Day Play” (and in all honesty, Day Play wasn’t too much unlike a school).  Here, the facility had set up for its trainees to stand in the “Day Play” area with an (as I can now recognize) MKO.  The trainer would explain how Day Play worked – how to hold yourself as you stood with the dogs, how to observe and correct them before a fight broke out, how to use a squeegee to gently fend off not-so-gentle jumping dogs, and how to handle my greatest fear: dog fights.  I watched as the trainer showed me different methods for safely breaking up dog fights, and she watched as I did it for the first couple times.  This gave me an invaluable base of confidence when handling and observing dogs.

After my third year in the kennel, I’m even more grateful for these first couple of weeks shadowing an MKO after seeing what it’s like for kennel techs who didn’t have access to an MKO.

Following a shift in management and an exodus of employees, the almost entirely new batch of employees had to figure out the million tiny parts of the job without a trainer, any other kennel techs who could give them guidance, and a young manager who was new to the job.  Returning to the kennel after summer began last year, I was appalled to see just how much the facility had suffered.  The kennels were filthy, sewage hadn’t been unclogged, medicine simply wasn’t being administered, and the whole facility was filled with the howling and barking of uncontrolled dogs in Day Play.

The first thing I did was to gather everyone there and demonstrate unclogging the drain — which now, I realize, was me trying to exercise my abilities as an MKO.

Later, I attempted to remedy the Day Play situation.  The first problem was that the employees were on their phones the whole time, but I realized that this was more of a symptom.  I think they reached a hopeless point where they didn’t think the situation could improve at all — that the ear-splitting howling was simply something that they had to endure.  I attempted to demonstrate that it didn’t have to be; I showed them how to properly correct the dogs just enough that they would calm down and not fight each other.  And yet, because they had already been working here and paid here for months without my help, they were reluctant to listen to what I had to say.

Now that I know terms like MKO and ZPD, I wonder if it’s harder for people to work through the ZPD if they have things to unlearn.  It also helps to clarify something that I had always taken for granted and never really questioned: why teachers are older than students.  I think that a reason I had difficulty getting through to my coworkers as an MKO was that I was either their age or younger.

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Observation ZPD and MKO Experience

Being in the classroom has been a much more refreshing experience as an MKO (even if the kids tease me for being from Carleton and not St. Olaf!).

I walk around the classroom during the students’ group and independent work times, answering questions that they might have.  It has taken them a while to warm up to me, but now they have sought me out even when I don’t prompt them.  They seek me out more than my coworkers did when I was attempting to be a role model to help them, which is a nod towards Vygostky’s claim that kids are most receptive to help from adults, rather than Piaget’s emphasis on peer interaction.

Making up the bulk of their questions, kids have been asking me to clarify definitions they need to research when dictionary apps didn’t cut it.  This showed me the value of in-person MKO’s, and how teachers and their intuition aren’t obsolete even with complex computers.  These vocab words, from the relatively old Lord of the Flies, are also ones which their peers aren’t very familiar with either — showing again how older MKO’s and their longer exposure to experience can have some advantages over peer MKOs.

However, a disadvantage of me being closer to their age than the teacher I’m observing means that sometimes I don’t know the answers to their questions either!

I’m really enjoying my time at the school, and seeing the kids grow comfortable enough with me that they ask me questions.  Some of the kids are still distracted.  There is one boy who almost solely plays Terraria on his iPad during the class period, and so I tried to engage him before class started by asking about the game, though he didn’t talk about it much.  However, with the introduction of a more interesting text (Lord of the Flies), a lot of them seem more inclined to talk during class.

I’m really looking forward to working more these coming weeks!

• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Hannah Piper.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Hannah Piper.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Hannah Piper.