Then what is a ZPD?

Lev Vygotsky's notion of zone of proximal development (зона ближайшего развития), often abbreviated ZPD, is the gap between a learner's current or actual development level determined by independent problem-solving and the learner's emerging or potential level of development. Simply stated, Vygotsky maintained that a child follows an adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without help or assistance. He called the difference between what a child can do with help and what he or she can do without guidance the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). Vygotsky's often-quoted definition of zone of proximal development presents it as

The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86)

As we could see above, through ZPD, learners can receive certain type of support from the environment and develop themselves within the ZPD. When a learner is capable to solve a problem by him/herself, there might no problem, however when a task is unsolvable within the learner’s ZPD, external mediation or scaffolding helps the learner to complete the task. Through this activity, the learner acquires various amount of knowledge (Berk, & Winsler, 1995).

             In the developmental theory, children’s’ language development emerges through social interaction and context or situation. It was argued that through adult’s modification or help (Scaffolding) the children’s language and knowledge could develop (Vygotsky, 1962). The learning in ZPD doesn’t require a professional instructor, it is rather a interaction between peers or an assistant from a outsider which will improve the learners knowledge (Wells, 1999). Goncu & Becker (1992) also said:

Psychological origins. We posit that adults’ participation in the illusory world of Improv has the same psychological origins as children’s participation in pretend play.  We discuss each case in turn.  Regarding children’s pretend play, many prominent theories converge on the point that children are led to the world of pretense because of their desire to understand experiences of affective significance.  For some theorists (e.g., Sutton-Smith, 1966; 1983; Vygotsky, 1978), pretense emerges from the need to know and guides the learning activity.  Vygotsky illustrated this by discussing pretend play as the zone of proximal development, an imaginative arena of growth, created by the tendencies of childhood that cannot be accomplished in real life.  For example, a young child pretends to be a mother in her play because she cannot satisfy her desire to understand this social role by becoming it in real life.  When the child creates an imaginary situation, then she enacts the representations of motherhood and appropriates from them, beginning to develop an understanding of this social role (Göncü & Becker, 1992).

According to Vygotsky an imaginary space play always develops the ZPD whether there is anyone or no one around:

When a child pretends to go to a doctor’s office she externalises her knowledge about the situation, enacting more than she actually fully comprehends. She can then use her external representation to help her transform her understanding or what is involved in the real world social situation. IT is the imagined situation itself which provides the child with a deeper insight into the meaning of the situation. The motivation for these pretend activities coming as it does from the child, is inherently about the affective problems the child has in relation to social phenomena (Vygotsky 1978). De Guerrero and Villamil (2000) adopt the theory of ZPD (zone of proximal development) and a microgenetic approach to observe the mechanisms by which strategies of revision take shape and develop in the interpsychological space created when 2 learners are working in their respective ZPDs, with the conclusion that it is a reciprocal process for both readers and writers. Vygotsky (1978) claimed that ZPD is a dynamic system and changes; which is shown in the below table.

Task to be learned

                                    ▼

Early learning ____      ZPD           ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ Much Assistance

▼         Level of                 ▼     Level of

▼         unassisted             ▼     assisted

▼         performance          ▼     performance

              _____________     ZPD     ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ Less Assistance

▼      Level of                                ▼     Level of

▼      unassisted                            ▼     assisted

▼      performance                         ▼     performance

Late Learning ____________________  ZPD  ▶ ▶ No Assistance

                Level of                                    level of

                Unassisted                              assisted

                Performance                            performance

<Table> Zone moving (Kim, 2007)

             The important part of this table is that the zone is not a stabilized space but a movable zone concept. In this sense we could say that when ZPD is first initiated by the learner, it doesn’t stay on one place but dynamically move to a next stage of the zone. I would like to propose that in a online gaming there would be a system to say that the group of ZPD moves to the next stage as we play through the game. How this happens will be explained next.