LSV's initial observation, however, opened up
the much broader question of how people learn in co-participation,
interaction, communication with others and how one locates the moments and
socio-cognitive locations at which such learning takes place. It also
opened up the perspective that the learning took place directly as part of
the interaction, that the character of the interaction as well is part
of which is learned and that learning occured in the formulating of one's
own participation in the interaction as well as recognizing the
contribution of one's co-participant.
Thus potentially any interaction could be seen as placing a person
in a situation of learning, within the available ranges of learning that
individual is capable of participating in at that moment. A sense of
excitement, or challenge, o diffiulty, or struggle, or of deep
contemplation might then serve as indicators as the strength or depth of
the developmental space one was drawn into as part of any particular
interaction.
The original Zone of Proximal Development metaphor seems to be one
of organic growth of an individual located in a social environment,
stretching outward in a nutrient medium, with the evaluation element being
as a kind of measure of the potential rate of growth. The issues I see
opened up by the term, however, suggest rather some other model (which I
cannot yet grab in a simple metaphor) of potentials for participating in
various kinds of interaction, for variable forms of participation in those
interactions which stretch one in different ways, and for expanding one's
repertoire and potentials for future interactions from any current
interaction. I also see a kind of problem-solving element and learning
from problem-solving element in the course of addressing the posibilities
of one's participation in any interaction.
Whether one wants to reserve the term ZOPED for some particular
subsets of learning interactions that mediate the distance between two
people, or one wants to use it more broadly to encompass the spaces of
learning we find ourselves in whatever the prompt and activity, I think at
least all these issues are opened up for consideration by the ZOPED
concept.
Chguck Bazerman