“The future of the world is in my classroom today.” —Ivan Welton Fitzwater | |
What Is the Zone of Proximal Development? | |
The zone of proximal development (ZPD), also known as the zone of potential development, is a concept often used in classrooms to help students with skill development.
The core idea of the ZPD is that a more knowledgeable person can enhance a student’s learning by guiding them through a task slightly above their ability level.
As the student becomes more competent, the expert gradually stops helping until the student can perform the skill by themselves.
The idea of the ZPD came from a Russian psychologist named Lev Vygotsky in the early 1900s. Vygotsky believed that every person has two stages of skill development:
- a level they can achieve by themselves
- a level they can achieve with the help of an experienced mentor or teacher
He referred to the level an individual can achieve with help as their ZPD.
The idea of pairing instruction with a student is known as scaffolding, which is one of the core concepts of Vygotsky’s idea of the ZPD. The person performing the scaffolding can be a teacher, a parent, or even a peer.
Scaffolding and the ZPD are often used in preschool and elementary classrooms, but the same principles can be applied outside of a school setting.
A parent teaching a child how to ride a bike or a coach walking an athlete through how to throw a ball are also an example of these concepts.
In this article, we’ll break down the different stages of the ZPD and explain how the ZPD and scaffolding can be practically applied to help an individual’s learning.
The ZPD can be broken into three stages. Think of them as a series of overlapping circles:
- Tasks the learner can do without assistance. This category includes everything a person can do without help from a more experienced individual.
- Tasks the learner can do with assistance. This category includes tasks a person can’t work through by themselves but can work through with help, also known as their ZPD.
- Tasks the learner can’t do with assistance. The final category includes tasks that are too difficult to perform even with an instructor’s help. For example, a young child might be able to spell out their own name by themselves but might need help from someone else to write the complete alphabet. The task is above their skill level and outside their ZPD.
Instructional scaffolding is a method of teaching that helps a student learn a new skill.
It involves a more knowledgeable person guiding a student through a task that’s in their ZPD. As a learner’s ability to complete a skill improves, the instructor should lessen the amount of aid they provide.
The concept can be applied in the classroom to a variety of subjects, including language, math, and science.
Teachers can use scaffolding by using techniques like:
- modeling
- providing examples
- working one-on-one with students
- using visual aids
Scaffolding can also be used outside the classroom. Many coaches may use scaffolding in sports to teach athletes new motor skills.
Scaffolding provides a student with a supportive learning environment where they can ask questions and receive feedback. The following are some benefits of scaffolding a student:
- motivates the learner
- minimizes frustration for the learner
- allows the learner to learn quickly
- provides a personalized teaching experience
- allows for efficient learning
The following are examples of questions you could ask a learner while scaffolding them to help them with their learning:
- What else could you do here?
- When you do this, what happens?
- What do you notice?
- What could we do next?
- Why do you think that happened?
Who can be a ‘more knowledgeable other’?
In Vygotsky’s framework, the “more knowledgeable other” is a term for someone who guides a learner through a new skill.
This can be anybody with a mastery of the skill being taught. In a classroom setting, it’s often a teacher or tutor.
However, even a peer with mastery of the subject could potentially scaffold another student.
When performed properly, the concept of the ZPD and scaffolding can help students solve problems that would otherwise be beyond their capability. Here are a couple examples of how it could be used in the classroom.
Example 1
A student is learning how to add two numbers together. They can successfully add numbers together that are less than 10 but have trouble with bigger numbers.
Their teacher shows them an example of how to solve a problem using large numbers before getting them to try a similar problem themselves. When the student gets stuck, the teacher provides hints.
Example 2
A child is trying to learn how to draw a rectangle. Their teacher breaks down the process for them by first drawing two horizontal lines and then drawing two vertical lines. They ask the student to do the same.
Even though scaffolding has many benefits for learners, there may also be some challenges in a classroom setting.
To properly scaffold, the teacher needs to have an understanding of a student’s ZPD to make sure the student works at an appropriate level.
Scaffolding works best when a student is working within their skill level. If they’re working above their ZPD, they won’t benefit from scaffolding.
The ZPD and scaffolding are two concepts that can efficiently help someone learn a skill.
Scaffolding involves an experienced instructor guiding a learner through a task that’s in their ZPD. An individual’s ZPD includes any task that can only be completed with help.
When scaffolding a learner, the goal isn’t to feed the learner answers but to aid their learning with certain techniques, like prompting, modeling, or giving clues.
As a learner starts to master a skill, the amount of support given should be reduced.
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“Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.” —Dr. John Trainer
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Talking With Young Children: How Teachers Encourage Learning
Everything teachers say—questions, comments, guidance—can influence what children learn. Intentional, purposeful conversations support children’s cognitive, language, social, and emotional development.
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What is Documentation and Evidence of Learning and Why is it Important? | |
By Magn Wakeham & Chelsey Gulsvig
Documentation and Evidence of Learning has the potential to serve many purposes during children’s learning experiences. When defining documentation, we must think of it as a process, “a systematic act of collecting, interpreting and reflecting on concrete traces of learning” (Gambetti). Documentation typically includes samples of the children’s work, photographs of the children engaged in the project work, and comments and transcripts of conversations. Documentation supports the teachers in their reflective planning and teaching practices when they use it as a cycle with emergent curriculum and our developmental assessment tools. High-quality documentation of children’s work and ideas contributes to the quality of o program in many ways:
1. It Makes The Children’s Learning Visible
By providing evidence of learning in all areas of their development through photographs, transcripts of conversations, and artifacts of their work displayed, we can visibly see the learning process. Learning is purposeful, social, representational, empowering, and emotional.
2. It Enhances Children’s Learning
Loris Malaguzzi points out, through documentation children, “become even more curious, interested, and confident as they contemplate the meaning of what they have achieved” (Malaguzzi, 1993). By preparing and displaying evidence of the children’s learning experiences, the children can re-visit their experience and work which allows their understanding to create more in-depth thinking, questioning, and dialogue. It’s a creative process, the mistakes, the rethinking and execution of new plans, and “owning” the experiences and discoveries that promote critical thinking, problem-solving skills, conceptual development, and a sense of mastery.
3. It Encourages Parent Participation and Collaboration
There are many ways we involve parents to contribute to their children’s projects after examining documentation:
- By listening to their thoughts and ideas
- By helping them to collect materials
- By helping them record their ideas on paper
- By making suggestions
- By reading with their child about the topic they’re interested in.
4. It Respects the Value of a Child’s Work
Displaying the children’s work, efforts, ideas, and learning in a beautiful and respectful way supports our value in children to be capable, thoughtful, and creative. Taking children’s ideas and work seriously conveys to them that their efforts, intentions, and ideas are taken seriously. Children will also take their work seriously which encourages them to work in a responsible, joyful, and dedicated way.
5. It Helps Teacher Planning and Assessment
Teachers use documentation to continuously plan based on evidence in documentation as work progresses through an emergent curriculum. Teachers use the documentation to dialogue between ideas, thoughts, and new possibilities with children during their work. Planning decisions can be made based on what individuals or groups of children have found interesting, stimulating, or challenging. The documentation provides ongoing reflective planning and evaluation as the teaching team uses all three components [documentation, assessment, and curriculum] as a system to extend learning and development.
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“Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” —Unknown
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Get Down to the Child’s Level | |
I want you try something. Sit down on the floor, and then have your partner or a friend stand about 2-3 feet from you. Now….have a conversation. About whatever you want, but stay on the floor. Do this for a good 3-5 minutes. Then switch roles so you each get a turn.
Now tell me, how did you feel? Did you feel really engaged in the conversation, or were you thinking too much about how your neck hurt from looking up to even be able to really pay attention? Were you able to hear your communication partner well? Are you feeling refreshed/happy or a bit tired after this short conversation?
This is what it feels like to be a very small child. They are constantly having to look up at you when you speak, which not only can hurt their neck and be generally uncomfortable, it can cause a flight or fight reaction and can actually distract them from the message you are sending. Your child is less likely to be able to listen, focus, understand and learn from communications that are *literally* above their head than if you simply get down at their level.
Make Eye Contact
Once you squat down so that you are face to face with your child, make eye contact so that you know your child is attending to you. Young children will not always make direct eye contact for very long…this is OK! Just making that quick connection is important. Get face to face as often as you can, attempt eye contact and look at your child’s face/eyes when you speak to him/her.
Why You Should Come Down To a Child’s Eye Level
Here are benefits to coming down to eye-level.
- Captures their attention
- It helps you capture your child’s attention and promotes joint attention.
- Validates their interests
- It signals to your child that they are important, shows that you are listening, and validates their interests.
- Increases visual access
- It allows your child to see you better. This makes gestures, facial expressions, oral movements, and verbal models more visually accessible, which in turn, makes them easier to imitate.
- Increased auditory access
- It allows your child to hear you better, especially in the presence of competing noise.
- Incentivizes the relationship
- It helps set the stage for a warm and welcoming interaction and incentivizes the relationship.
So squat down, kneel, or sit the floor and watch the magic happen!
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Less is More - Finding Peace in Your Organized Classroom | |
Have you ever walked into an early childhood classroom and felt overwhelmed by the amount of classroom materials or toys or the decorations?
Children can feel overwhelmed in certain classroom environments, too. When children feel overwhelmed by visual or physical stimulation, they can show us challenging behavior or sometimes appear to “shut down”. Fortunately, we as educators can make small changes to the environment which can make a difference in children’s behaviors in the classroom. Educators can find some good resources on designing early childhood learning environments in this IEL resource list. This toolkit will give you some ideas on how to organize your classroom and find peace in your indoor environment.
Limit Choices and Materials
When there are a plethora of toys and materials in the classroom, children may act out. Children make many choices in an early childhood classroom every day, but when the number of toys and materials seems infinite, it can be hard for a child to make a choice. An educator can limit the choices to two or three items and see if that helps a child. For example, “Jose, would you like to play with blocks, cars, or the water table right now?” This can give a young child agency as well as a manageable number of choices.
Even better is to limit the number of overall choices of materials available within the classroom. But why? Fewer overall choices allow a child to more easily orient themselves in the environment and know what they want from their options. With too many options, a child might use most of their time and energy on making decisions, rather than engaging with materials or people. With too many things available, a child may take out an excessive number of items at once, mixing them all together, and have a hard time transitioning or cleaning up.
When there are less materials and toys in the classroom, clean up by the children, assisted by the teachers, can go much smoother. Consider having less of each item available. For example, if you had all one hundred pieces of a manipulative set in a bin on the shelf for the children to build with and were finding that clean-up was becoming a struggle, consider reducing the number of pieces to the set and putting some in storage.
Structure, Routines and Schedules
Establishing structure and routine in an early childhood classroom is crucial for fostering a supportive and effective learning environment. Consistent routines help young children feel secure, understand expectations, and develop self-discipline. Structure provides a framework for daily activities, allowing children to anticipate what comes next, which reduces anxiety and enhances their ability to focus. It also creates opportunities for intentional teaching moments, enabling educators to plan and deliver meaningful, developmentally appropriate activities. At Stepping Stone School, implementing a well-organized routine not only supports children's cognitive and social-emotional development but also maximizes the impact of our educational programs by creating a stable and nurturing atmosphere where every child can thrive.
A visual schedule can help children know what to anticipate. A visual schedule helps the child keep track of their day and keep calm during their routine and tasks. Teachers can easily create a visual schedule with images of the typical routines of the day like group time, choice time, playground, music class, rest time, and lunch. Each activity has an image and the word directly below it – as a young child would typically use the image to understand the activity.
Maintain a Clean and Tidy Classroom
Build a routine for tidying up at different parts of the day. Before transitioning to a new activity, play a song to indicate that it is time to clean up and transition to group time. This gives children time to get their areas put away. Have one teacher gathered at the circle reading a quiet story that children can join when they are ready and finished cleaning. Get some more ideas for transitions in our tip sheet.
Tidying up is easier for children when shelves or bins are marked with the images of what belongs them. For example, tape a photo of Legos on the Lego bin. Children can be very independent in cleaning up when they know where items belong and when these locations do not change very often. Encourage children to work together and notice when items are still left out or in disarray.
Some children may want to be more involved in cleaning projects. Could they help with spraying and wiping tables before snack or sweeping the class with a child-sized broom? Some young children need and want this type of movement to feel regulated and calm in the classroom. Build spaces for these activities into your classroom schedule. An added benefit is a clean classroom!
Adopt a “More than Enough” Mindset
Sometimes educators operate with a mindset to keep absolutely every item in a classroom, even if it is broken or missing pieces, this poses a safety hazard and anything that is broken should be discarded. Take a look around your classroom tomorrow, are there items that you should throw away? Are there items that you and the children no longer need? Could those items be donated or discarded?
Often times we keep items in our classroom well past their “expiration dates.” Reducing the amount of “stuff” in our classroom can require a mindset shift to understanding that we have more than enough materials to help children learn and grow. When we have an indoor environment that looks inviting, well designed, and calm, children and adults alike can find a sense of peace and purpose in their space.
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The Magic of Puppets - Enhancing Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom | |
Learning through play is fundamental to our children’s education. When children are highly engaged, this leads to better learning experiences, helping to promote their development further. Puppets help to develop children’s imaginations as well as encourage creative play and discovery.
Puppets open a door to a child’s imagination, allowing them to create, explore, and flourish. Breathing life and fun into classroom learning, puppet play is a powerful teaching tool in early education settings.
Children are more open to learning when they are having fun, and puppets offer an entertaining approach to introducing new concepts. Puppets can act as role models for behavior and emotional regulation, and they can boost communication skills through structured and playful teacher-led opportunities.
Puppets offer our children an opportunity for role-playing that allows them to explore new personalities, ideas, and develop their imaginations.
10 Benefits of Using Puppets in the Classroom
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Emotional Development - Puppets can teach children about their emotions. Children can interact with the puppets as they share their ability to be happy, sad, angry, funny, or scared. This helps children to understand and express their own emotions more effectively.
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Listening Skills - Puppets are great tutors. The puppet on your hand can encourage the child to listen to it as it gives instructions or tells a story. Puppets can help children learn stories, rhymes, and songs as they imitate the puppet too.
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Motor Skills - There are a number of motor skills that children can improve through playing with puppets. The fine movement required to wear a puppet helps with dexterity, and using fingers to manipulate the puppet improves fine motor coordination. Puppets help with eye-hand coordination as the puppet is made to walk and move in different directions, improving balance and directionality as the child has great fun playing with the puppet.
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Social Skills - Puppets can increase children’s communication and social skills by providing structured opportunities to interact. Children can also practice these skills by using puppets to interact with other children, fostering teamwork and collaboration.
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Music Appreciation - Puppets can make music and creative movement more interesting. They can teach children the words and movements to new songs, making musical activities more engaging and enjoyable.
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Encouraging Creativity - Children can use puppets to come up with stories, scenarios, and creative ways to solve problems. Puppets allow children to tap into their imaginations and create their own stories, enhancing their creative thinking.
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Guidance - Children can learn appropriate behaviors by watching the puppet’s example. Puppets can also introduce and explain classroom rules in a fun and memorable way, making it easier for children to understand and follow them.
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Concentration - Using puppets has increased the children’s concentration, allowing us to provide more learning opportunities as they engage for longer periods of time. Puppets captivate children’s attention, making it easier to maintain their focus on educational activities.
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Language Development - Children love to have ‘conversations’ with a puppet. Each verbal interaction with their puppet will encourage language development. Children who are generally shy benefit from the opportunity to let the puppet be their voice. It is also possible to have a conversation between two puppets, enabling a dialogue between two puppet characters and further enhancing language skills.
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Educates in Values - The traditional stories represented with puppets often talk about values such as tolerance, generosity, or kindness. They usually convey a positive message to children, helping them to understand and adopt important social values.
At Stepping Stone School, we enjoy integrating puppets into our daily activities through stories, nursery rhymes, games, and different tools. Using puppets is an expectation, as we want our children to develop certain skills while having fun. Puppets provide a dynamic and enjoyable way to enhance learning, making education a magical and memorable experience for our children.
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A teacher's vitality or capacity to be vital, present, positive, and deeply engaged and connected to her/his children and students is not a fixed, indelible condition, but a state that ebbs and flows and grows within the context of the teaching life. Stepping Stone School is committed to a program of professional development devoted explicitly to nourishing the inner and external life or core dimensions that are increasingly important for our educators on their journey.
-Rhonda Paver
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The Educator Vitality Journey is a program designed to help our teachers to make a daily, conscious effort to be positive, self-aware, passionate, and fully engaged in their roles, while deepening their understanding of their true potential.
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