The concept of zone of proximal development in early childhood education: appropriations in academic productions and Brazilian official documents

Abstract

This paper presents results of a research that aimed to understand and to analyze the appropriation of the theoretical assumptions of Cultural-Historical Psychology in early childhood education during the period that goes from 2000 up to 2009. We conducted a literature review of documents from the Ministry of Education (MEC) and academic production (theses) related to the topic, issued on the above mentioned period. One of the categories analyzed by us which will be highlighted in this paper is the concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD). We found out that in the theses and in MEC’s documents the most explored issue concerning the ZPD was the definition of the concept itself. It was presented as the distance between what the child is able to perform alone (actual development) and what he/she performs with the help of an adult or in collaboration with more experienced children (potential development). Regarding the role-playing games, most authors used it as creating ZPDs. In respect to the teaching methods the authors in general emphasized that the good instruction is the one that anticipates in relation to development. We believe that this analysis is needed so that we can understand the appropriation’s process of this current’s ideas in Brazil in the first decade of this century. We believe that this analysis will help us in trying to build the necessary clues for understanding this complex movement that revolves around the disseminated and studied ideas about education, specifically the education of early children.