Proximal Development through a Development Exercise

[Arlo Hettle]

One of my most memorable experiences with the ZPD took place during my time in high school theater. Everyone involved, including the actors, were expected to come in on Saturday mornings and work behind the scenes building and painting sets and helping with costumes and props. During my first year, I shied away from any tasks that I thought were too difficult. I am not an artistic person and I had no experience with power tools, so I felt like one of the least useful people. I spent a lot of those mornings trying to make it seem like I was busy rather than actually contributing. During my next year, I was encouraged by one of the upperclassmen to learn how to use the drill. He taught me, and sure enough, it was pretty easy, but it was not something I ever would have brought myself to do on my own. After that, I was able to contribute much more than I had previously, I opened myself up to being taught about how to use other tools, and by the time I was a senior, I was able to reverse the roles, become an MKO, and help teach new students how to build sets.

In Global Studies, Mrs. McDonald used intentional partner work as a way to facilitate scaffolding. The students had been exploring the five-stage demographic transition model, a way of categorizing the relative development of a country by their birth and death rates. The day before, she had assigned students one of eight countries, and they spent time exploring its different demographic factors. When the students got to class the next day, she had them group up by country. In those groups, the students were able to share their evidence and come to a consensus about which stage in the model they were in. After that, she had all of the countries group up by the stage they thought they were in and compare their demographics before giving them the opportunity to move stages again. Finally, after all of this small-group discussion, representatives from each group were asked to share their choice with the entire class. Mrs. McDonald could have saved an entire day of class by having the students decide individually on what stage they were in the day before. However, she chose to take the time to allow the students to assist each other and learn from each other’s findings. Not only that, but when the students did finally reach the point where they were sharing their answers with their class and teacher, they could be more confident in their justification. I think this is especially Vygotskian because Mrs. McDonald ended by explaining that there are no right answers when it comes to this model. Every country has some demographics that would place it in one stage and some that would place it in another. It is more important that the students are comfortable with describing these demographics and how they relate to the model than it is to “correctly” place a country. While the students thought they were working together to get the right answer, they were really working together to grow and build knowledge of country demographics.

Unfortunately, I feel like I have not really had the chance to fully explore my role as an MKO. In the Global Studies classroom that I am in twice a week, the students have so far always been engaged in activities that I am not asked to help with and that the students seem comfortable doing without my help. I know that Mrs. McDonald’s original goal was to have me working more closely with a few struggling students, but the time that she tried to facilitate that, they were not interested in getting extra help. I think it is especially hard because they are seniors and might feel more embarrassed than younger students at getting extra tutoring. I am hopeful that I can get the opportunity to work more closely with students, there is a lot of really interesting material that the students are covering and I would love to hear more from them about which parts they are connecting with.

One of the most interesting moments came in the other classroom that I am in once a week, made up of 9th grade English students. At the beginning of the hour, Mrs. McKay went to collect the students’ short writing assignments. She was upset upon realizing that there were only around 6 students who had completed the assignment in the 25 person class. She went on to lecture the students, reminding them of all of the class time that they had been given to work on this assignment. She kept repeating the point that this assignment was just the beginning, that if they were falling behind now it would not be setting them up for success in the rest of high school. However, I also appreciated that she emphasized that this lecture was not for students who had legitimate reasons, like family illness, for turning it in late. Her class employs a flexible late work policy, which I really appreciate in spirit. However, moments like these make me question how to motivate students to do their work on time without the kinds of grade incentives that I had when I was in school. I know that the best goal would be to make the homework interesting and fulfilling in a way that students become intrinsically motivated to do it, but I also recognize that it is difficult to do that, particularly when the students are being forced to read texts like Lord of the Flies that I would describe as somewhat dry and outdated.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Arlo Hettle.

[Trina Eichel]

Hi Arlo,

It is so great that you have such a strong memory of a time in which an MKO helped you learn something within your ZPD. It is especially cool that you went on to become an MKO in this setting. I feel like this is the model that Prairie Creek is going for in their mixed-grade classes. If a 2nd grader benefits from a 3rd grade MKO, they will then gain the knowledge to be able to become an MKO for the 2nd graders once they get to 3rd grade.

I also relate to your comment about not getting the chance to fully explore your role as an MKO. At Prairie Creek, the children are very independent and encouraged to do their work in collaboration with their peers, but independently of adults. It is very cool to watch the students be MKOs to each other and I have taken more of an observational role in the classroom. This has also given me the opportunity to talk to Molly (the teacher) about her specific teaching methods and philosophies without interrupting the class. I hope that in your classroom the students will become more open to your help, especially because it would be beneficial to their learning.

[Author]

Posts