This investigation postulatesVygotsky’s (1978) concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and his related “scaffolding” metaphor as well as Norton’s (2006) principles of sociocultural identity as its theoretical foundation.Thisresearchintends to scrutinizethe socioculturally-oriented mediationalmechanisms utilized in student-student and student-teacher collaborationsin an Iranian EFL writing...

As the focus of Australian educational research has shifted to studying the quality of teacher intervention, the notion of scaffolding is becoming increasingly popular among educators in different areas such as literacy and numeracy, early childhood education and educational psychology for adults. Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology, and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in particular, is...

the present study aimed at investigating the possible impact ofzone of proximal development (zpd) on the learners’ performance. forty-sixiranian university students participated in this study by taking two types of readingcomprehension tests (i.e., the main idea and wh-question type). the researchersused the winstep program to analyze the data and estimate the learners’ raschmeasure in pre, pos...

Intelligent tutoring Systems (ITSs) adapt content and activities with the goals of being both effective and efficient instructional environments. They have goals for students to be challenged and guided in an optimal way--without being too overwhelmed with difficult material or too bored with easy or repetitive material. We propose a particular definition of the zone of proximal development (ZP...

The application of zone of proximal development (ZPD), as a major tenet of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT, 1978), has recently been invited in the L2 learning/teaching profession. This study mainly examined whether Iranian EFL learners’ interactions in diverse ZPD-activated proximal contexts through the use of storytelling instruction could improve their oral (speaking) proficiency and at...

group dynamic assessment (g-da) grounded in vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory (sct) is believed to have the potential to provide a context for capturing a group of learners’ zone of proximal development (zpd) (poehner & lantolf, 2010; shabani, 2010). the present study aims at testing the applicability of g-da in identifying the mediational strategies offered by a mediator during his g-da int...

The purpose of this study is to advance the notion scaffolding in coaching as a socio-pedagogic activity through exploring “doing” during competition preparation period. Using method critical companionship, analysis draws on storied representation coach’s practice. Findings conceptualise transformative process continuous building and enacting both coach athlete’s agentic capabilities enhance le...

The term zone of proximal development is probably one of the most widely recognized and wellknown ideas associated with Vygotsky’s scientific legacy. This famous concept is more precise and elaborated than its common reception or interpretation (Chaiklin, 2003, p. 39). It could be viewed in a narrow context, i.e. within the concrete problem of relations between learning and development. But to ...

Group dynamic assessment (G-DA) grounded in Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory (SCT) is believed to have the potential to provide a context for capturing a group of learners’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Poehner & Lantolf, 2010; Shabani, 2010). The present study aims at testing the applicability of G-DA in identifying the mediational strategies offered by a mediator during his G-DA interac...