Vygotsky and Personal Learning Environments
This article is very interesting; it truly reminded me of all the discussions we used to have in the Education Psychology course about Vgotsky versus Piaget, and Skinner during last semester.
Vigotsky’s definition of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is "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". Simply said the ZPD is the area between what an individual can achieve on their own and what they can achieve with assistance.
I certainly agree with his theory when he advances that students should be allowed to reach the top of their ZPD, and should be judged on their ZPD: indeed many students may not perform well under the pressure of the limited time of exams in order to be accurately evaluated and receive the grades they deserve. I have seem many children (relatives, friends, neighbors) that have similar issues, they just do not perform well during standardized tests, but are across the year good students.
I truly believe that -although it sounds complicated and complex to implement it- educators should consider evaluating students on how well they have reached their optimal potential within their ZPD, instead of "teaching to the test" and being evaluated on how well they prepared for the test.
I agree, but it still makes me wonder how can one evaluate that. I can understand the reason why such an approach would be more beneficial and i am definitely one of those people who hate the pressure of timed exams, but everyone level of achievement varies. I think this is where the crux of the problem lies. Also with state and soon national standards it will become increasingly difficult not to teach with a testing goal in mind.
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