Post by bdgiorgi on Sept 27, 2017 18:01:16 GMT
Zone of proximal development
What would it mean to say that a concept or skill that you had not yet learned was in your zone of proximal development (ZPD)? Can you give an example from your past school experience of a situation in which either:
- a teacher appropriately chose a task within your ZPD to work on with you, or
- a teacher inappropriately chose a task for you that was above or below your ZPD?
An example from my past school experience of a situation in which a teacher inappropriately chose a take for me that was below my zone of proximal development (ZPD), happened was when I was in high school, in my grade 11 academic math class. It was the beginning tor the semester and the teacher had taught something that I wasn't quite picking up initially, but had no doubt that in due time, and with help from my teacher, that I would eventually pick it up. However, that same day, the teacher presented the class with a quiz on what she just taught. Of course, I did poorly on it. That same day, my teacher approached me with a piece of paper requesting that I drop down to a lower level class, an applied math class, because she thought this current class was going to be too difficult for me and that i would fail. So I did as she requested, and it just so happens, when the semester had come to and end, i exceeding well over the class average in the applied math class, finishing with a grade of 98% overall, and i was then told i should have stayed in the academic class, as it would have challenged my abilities more and would have been more suitable for me. Therefore, I believe my teacher from the academic class I was initially in, had inappropriately chosen a task for me that was below my ZPD (dropping down a level to applied math was below my ZPD).
What would it mean to say that a concept or skill that you had not yet learned was in your zone of proximal development (ZPD)? Can you give an example from your past school experience of a situation in which either:
- a teacher appropriately chose a task within your ZPD to work on with you, or
- a teacher inappropriately chose a task for you that was above or below your ZPD?
An example from my past school experience of a situation in which a teacher inappropriately chose a take for me that was below my zone of proximal development (ZPD), happened was when I was in high school, in my grade 11 academic math class. It was the beginning tor the semester and the teacher had taught something that I wasn't quite picking up initially, but had no doubt that in due time, and with help from my teacher, that I would eventually pick it up. However, that same day, the teacher presented the class with a quiz on what she just taught. Of course, I did poorly on it. That same day, my teacher approached me with a piece of paper requesting that I drop down to a lower level class, an applied math class, because she thought this current class was going to be too difficult for me and that i would fail. So I did as she requested, and it just so happens, when the semester had come to and end, i exceeding well over the class average in the applied math class, finishing with a grade of 98% overall, and i was then told i should have stayed in the academic class, as it would have challenged my abilities more and would have been more suitable for me. Therefore, I believe my teacher from the academic class I was initially in, had inappropriately chosen a task for me that was below my ZPD (dropping down a level to applied math was below my ZPD).