[Xmca-l] Re: zone of next development

[David Kellogg]

Peter:

The French translation is "zone prochaine de developpement", i.e. the next
zone of development. Francoise Seve explains why--it is because the "next
zone of development" does not refer to any particular skill or knowledge or
even metalinguistic reflection that the child is going to have in the
course of development; it refers very precisely to the functions which will
be the most rapidly developing functions in the next age level, according
to the schema that Vygotsky was working out in "The Problem of Age" (Vol. 5
in English, p. 196). This is completely confirmed by a remark that Vygotsky
makes at the beginning of the lecture on the Crisis at Three (p. 283 in the
English Collected Works):

""...(W)e must assume that all changes and all events that happen during
the period of this crisis are grouped around some neoformation of a
transitional type. Consequently, when we analyse the symptoms of the
crisis, we msut answer, albeit conditionally, the question as to what it is
that is new that appears during the indicated time and what is the fate of
the neoformation that disappears after it. Then we must consider what
change is occurring in the central and peripheral lines of development.
Finally, we must evaluate the critical age from the point of view of the
zone of its proximal development, that is, the relation to subsequent
growth".

This is why the ZPD is ALWAYS measured in years, something that very few
Western people who invoke the concept have ever noted, even though it is
quite explicit in every place that the ZPD is invoked. Even when the ZPD is
spoken of somewhat loosely, (e.g. "What the child can do with assistance
today he will be able to do without assistance tomorrow", or "in play the
child is a head taller than himself") it is very clear that years are
meant. Tomorrow does not and cannot mean 24 hours later, and the child will
not be a head taller than himself in a week or two.

David Kellogg
Macquarie University

On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu> wrote:

> 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
>