Re: what's so great about zopeds?

Pedro Portes (prport01 who-is-at ulkyvm.louisville.edu)
Sat, 11 Oct 1997 14:42:50 -0400

At 09:45 AM 10/11/97 -0500, you wrote: gestures, words) that point
> back to that limnal zone.
>A couple of questions: how do people visualize the zone? Are there other
> "between" concepts that we
>could compare to zoped?
>
>
>L*
>
>Here are a couple of thoughts, Leigh,
1. I visualize the zone as a place that is situated between the actual and
the distal zones of development.
It is a place where a process occurs, dialectically in which the inter and
intra levels are crossed, where agency is expressed in constructing models
of the world in the head. A place where the activity unit of analysis can
be deployed .
So is it the construction zone, where competence is developed to be
manifested later?
A place like short term memory in IPS models where the metaphor is that of
a blackboard where/in-between new inputs and LTM(consciousness?) traces
meet....?

But I also think it was also a way to debunk the then 3 mighty analyses of
the Learning/Dev relation and say, hey look at this aspect of development
that is not addressed by the Piaget, Beh. and Gestalt positions. The
context in which this zone was originally envisioned was The issue of the
3 competing models about the relationship between learning and development.
The less obvious zone where both learning and development are in embryonic
states that cannot be observed directly or measured with performance in
mind. So the metaphor is created instrumentally to make a decisive point of
contention that captured the analytic approach by CHAT.
It invited teaching experiments at the psychol(indiv. level). Then it
became a "distance" between two operational levels in the example provided
by LSV.

I see therapy as a place where the role of the effective counselor is to
tap into the problem related ZPD of the client, where the client
agentically may choose to take some neutral stimuli and convert it into a
solution that solves the problem, (whether intended or not by the
therapist). The therapist tries to lend her consciousness, place tools,
beliefs, skills at the disposal of the learner/client, experiences are
re-mediated so that hopefully the learner can come out and act with
new/better means. The CH zpd spin has been most applied to special ed., (I
am drafting an approximation to a CH approach as a theory of counseling,
which is leading to a lot of relabeling, reconceptualizing.)

Finally, I see the metaphor not just as a place that comes and goes between
indiv. and social/expert consciousness. At the sociogenetic level, I see
groups having and "agentically " developing ZPD's. The use mediational
means to change the status quo (unions, civil right and other marches, a
courtcase).

&, The metaphor as a useful analytical tool (not a place), a mediational
means in its own right.

Well, I'm getting beyond the point which may be just the place/tool thing,
so stop.

2. Second question? perhaps cog. environment.

pedro
P. R. Portes
Professor
Educational & Counseling
Psychology Dept. 310
University of Louisville
KY 40292
Fax- 502-852-0629
Of. Tel. 502-852-0630