“This is so hard!”

That means you are learning.  If something comes easy to you, I’m not really teaching you anything, am I?

Mistakes are also good.  It means you are trying, you have taken the effort and opportunity to learn.

But struggling is not enough.  Struggling students need someone to guide them.  That someone could be a peer, sibling, parent, tutor, or a teacher at school.  If a student struggles too much by themselves, it leads to frustration and that develops into a bad attitude when it comes to learning.

Struggling happens when learning students are in the Zone of Proximal Development.  Lev Vygosky (1896–1934) revolutionized education by highlighting how children learn through collaboration and guidance.  

Let’s look at this image: 

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

A: Things learners can do independently
ZPD: Things learners can do, with support
B: Things learners can't do, even with support

In the center are things students can do easily on their own.  If they are working in this zone, they are not learning, but just repeating things they already know.  Students working always in this zone can lead to boredom, bad habits or bad attitudes towards learning.

The outer ring consists of the things learners can’t do, even with support.  For me, that would be speaking German.  Perhaps one day ; ).  

The middle ring is the ZPD.  This contains all the things a learner can do with support.  This is where learning happens.  What does “Support” mean for teachers in this zone?  You can:

  • Break down complex tasks
  • Give multiple means of representation
  • Modeling 
  • Use visual aids
  • Discuss patterns

Over time, support can be removed as students become more competent and independent.  When this happens, that skill becomes a part of the inner circle!  Onto the next challenges in the ZPD.  And perhaps something that was in the outer ring comes in reach for the learner.

I love that learning never ends.