Adult and Child Development in the Zone of Proximal Development: Socratic Dialogue in a Playworld

Abstract

This article analyses adult and child development in the zone of proximal development in an educational practice based in Vygotsky's theories of play: the playworld educational practice. The playworld educational practice is a central component of a Scandinavian play pedagogy that promotes shared responsibility amongst adults and children for engaging in adult–child joint play. The playworld practice, which is based on a work of children's literature, includes joint adult–child scripted and improvisational acting and set design. We explore conditions under which playworld activities create a zone of proximal development that fosters development in both adult and child. Our analysis, based on data from a K-1 classroom, expands Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development so that we see not only the unidirectional development of a child toward an adult stage of development but also the simultaneous development experienced by adults participating in the zone with the child.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the following people for their participation and support during the realization of this project and the writing of this article: the children of “Michael's” class and “Michael”; Sonja Baumer, Kristen Radsliff Clark, Michael Cole, Peg Griffin, Pentti Hakkarainen, Ana Marjanovic-Shane, Kiyotaka Miyazaki, Tomoko Miyazaki, Monica Nilsson, Anna Rainio, Helle Rossen, Lars Rossen and Critistián Simonetti. Robert Lecusay acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Notes

¹With the exception of the researchers' names, all names are pseudonyms.

²We use the term “Children” to refer to two or more children speaking simultaneously.