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Written Assignment Unit 3 EDUC 5420

This document discusses the use of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) in an Indonesian language classroom. The ZPD recognizes that students can solve problems with guidance that are beyond their independent abilities. The author describes a lesson on persuasive speeches where students in grade 10 were grouped based on their Indonesian language skills. Through collaborative work in their groups, students explored the structure and elements of persuasive speeches. They then individually wrote their own persuasive texts, applying what they learned from working with more proficient peers within their ZPD. The process aimed to help students progress by completing tasks they could not do alone but could achieve with social interaction and assistance from others.

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178 views4 pages

Written Assignment Unit 3 EDUC 5420

This document discusses the use of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) in an Indonesian language classroom. The ZPD recognizes that students can solve problems with guidance that are beyond their independent abilities. The author describes a lesson on persuasive speeches where students in grade 10 were grouped based on their Indonesian language skills. Through collaborative work in their groups, students explored the structure and elements of persuasive speeches. They then individually wrote their own persuasive texts, applying what they learned from working with more proficient peers within their ZPD. The process aimed to help students progress by completing tasks they could not do alone but could achieve with social interaction and assistance from others.

Uploaded by

Rima
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© © All Rights Reserved
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The Zone of Proximal Development in the Indonesian Language Class

University of People

EDUC 5420: Adolescent Development

Dr. Augustine Panchoo

September, 23th 2021


The teaching and learning process in the classroom must be able to provide

opportunities for all students to develop their abilities to the fullest. This is what underlies

Vygotsky's theory called the zone of proximal development. This theory emphasizes the gap

between the actual developmental level determined by independent problem solving and the

potential developmental level determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in

collaboration with more capable peers. The main aim of education from a Vygotskian

perspective is to keep learners in their own ZPD as often as possible by providing them with

interesting and culturally meaningful learning and problem-solving tasks that are slightly more

difficult than what they would do on their own, so they need to work closely with other people

or more competent colleagues or with teachers or adults to complete assignments (Roosevelt,

2008 as cited in Shabani et al., 2010). The idea is that after completing an assignment together,

students will likely be able to complete the same task individually after, and through the

process, the student's ZPD for that particular task will be raised. This process is then repeated

at a higher level of task difficulty than the new ZPD required by the learner (Roosevelt, 2008

as cited in Shabani et al., 2010).

Further discussion, in this final project, the author will describe the use of ZPD in the

classroom. The subject taught is Indonesian for grade 10. The topic discussed is persuasive

speech. It is necessary to explain the situation of students' language skills in different classes,

which creates a gap in understanding when the lesson is delivered. The majority of them do not

speak the language as their first language. The steps for implementing ZPD in the classroom

are as follows:

1. Identifying. Considering the situation above, to find out what they understand about

persuasive speeches in Indonesian, the teacher starts the lesson by showing Severn

Suzuki's video speech about global warming. On a note given by the teacher, students
are asked to write down what type of text the speaker used in the speech and what its

purpose was. By identifying this prior knowledge, the teacher can build on those skills

when introducing a new concept in this case, students' prior knowledge of persuasive

speech (Wrinkler, 2021).

2. Grouping. Based on the results of students' answers, the teacher groups students to

conduct further discussion and analysis about the structure, elements and characteristics

of persuasive speeches. As Vygotsky believed that to advance their learning further,

children must engage in social interactions with other more knowledgeable people

(Vinney, 2019). In this case, grouping students based on different knowledge and skills

in Indonesian will provide opportunities for students to explore the material, also from

diverse cultural perspectives. Shabani et al. (2010) explained that based on ZPD's ideas

that individuals learn best when cooperating with others during joint collaboration, and

through such collaborative efforts with more skilled people, learners learn and

internalize new concepts, psychological tools, and skills.

3. The next and final step, students individually make persuasive texts. Understanding the

concept of persuasive texts may not be the only problem faced by students, but language

limitations are also an obstacle here. With the collaboration in groups in the second

stage, students who have difficulty can understand better. This collaborative process

produces the vocabulary needed to write a speech. Shabani et al. (2010) describe that

sometimes the tasks given to students are outside the ZPD that can be done by students,

or tasks that students cannot do even with help. Thus, the focus of teaching is on tasks

within the ZPD that cannot be done by the learner alone but have the potential to be

completed with the guidance of others. As a student completes an assignment, his ZPD,

or gap between what he can do on his own and what he can only complete with help

shrinks (Shabani et al., 2010).


References

Shabani, K., Khatib, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010, December). Vygotsky's zone of proximal

development: Instructional implications and teachers' professional

development. English Language Teaching, 3 (4), 237-

248. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1081990.pdf

Vinney, C. (2019). How the zone of proximal development maximizes learning potential.

ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/zone-of-proximal-development-4584842

Winkler, S. (2010, January 8). What is the zone of proximal

development? HowStuffWorks. https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/parenting/p

arenting-tips/zone-proximal2.htm

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