... where the child teaches itself. Vygotsky, on the other hand, saw the child as the apprentice, and believed that they need to be guided in order to learn. Vygotsky developed a concept called zones of proximinal development (ZPD). The ZPD is the area between the child's current level of knowledge and their potential abilities. A child cannot learn beyond their zone, but can enter the next zone earlier with the use of scaffolding. Scaffolding is support from an 'expert' maybe a peer, teacher or parent. They help advance a child's learning by providing a framework within which the child can develop. This help is slowly removed as the knowledge becomes internalised. An application of ZPD and the use of scaffolding in education can be seen through peer tutoring. Peer tutoring is a scheme in which the expert child is given the role of tutor, and the novice child is given ...

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