[Xmca-l] zone of next development

[Peter Smagorinsky]

I'm watching the version of The Butterflies of Zagorsk that Mike generously shared from the UCSD archives. I give it 4 stars. It would be 5, but the copy is pretty bad.

The narrator consistently refers to the "zone of next development" illustrated by periodic diagnostic sessions that also involved assistance with deaf and blind kids learning how to speak with their hands on another's hands.

Zone of Next Development seems such a better term than ZPD. Proximal is too ambiguous, and so allows for just about any learning of anything anyhow to be illustrative of the ZPD. "Next" instead really emphasizes the more long-term growth that Vygotsky had in mind, as I understand his writing.

But it's proximal in all the translations. Any help in understanding why? Thx,p