Literature I 45
For an accurate, yet concise, comparison between the basic tenets of
cognitive theories in the Vestern (American and French) and the Soviet
psychological traditions, see Hedegaard (1986),
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Both the French and the Soviet traditions put greater emphasis on the
processes and potentials of human mental development than on its
quantifiable products, and structure development in stages, a construct
that does not fit comfortably with quantitative models more typical of
Anglo-American psychology (Sutton,1980b). The notion of Zone of Proximal
Development exemplifies this qualitative approach:
Ve must determine at least two developmental levels. The first
level can be called the actual development level, that is, the level
of development of a child's mental functions that has been
established as a result of certain already completed developmental
cycles. ... (but! what children can do with the assistance of others
might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental
development than what they can do alone. ...The zone of proximal
development is the distance between the actual development 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 ,1978:85-86 ).
The fact that Vygotsky's theory draws on Engel's law of dialectics
explains why for him development is not a linear model, but an
alternation of periods of growth (i.e. slow, quantitative change) and
crises of development (i.e. sudden, qualitative change):
Ve believe that child development is a complex dialectical process
characterized by periodicity, unevenness in the development of
different functions, metamorphosis or qualitative transformation of
one form into another, intertwining of external and internal
factors, and adaptive processes... L⅛ps in the child's development
are seen ... as no more than a moment in the general line of
development. (Vygotsky,1978:73).
The dynamics of the movement are generated by the 'inner contradictions',
or conflicting tendencies that develop in every stage as a result of the
very process of development. The major contradiction is between the