That being said, Like Peter, I'd like to raise another possibly negative
example-- as a heuristic probe: what can we infer about the "boundaries"
of the concept of the ZPD from instances of those individuals who appear
to be lacking the potential to enter a ZPD? A close member of my family
works on a day-to-day basis with with people with multidimensional problems
in living that have diagnosed with various mental disoders such as the
various schizophrenias, bipolar depression, "borderline" personality, etc.
One of the things he has noted about the folks he works with is their great
difficulty to respond to an interaction, much less to engage in joint
problem solving or guided participation. The result of this limitation is
that many of his clients experience the same dilemmas over and over again.
This does not mean that the clients can't communicate. Many of them are
articulate, and have moments of insight-- but where does insight (and the
conceptual change of insight) come from?
Assuming, as Eugene suggests, that the concept ZPD in its historical
context referred especially to the interactional character of learning,
what can we say for those idividuals for whom intermental processes are
extremely difficult, if possible at all? Does activation of a ZPD depend
on a certain level of communicative competence? What might that level be?
Carol Berkenkotter