Lev Vygotsky and the ZPD

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian social psychologist who established that the adult, usually the parent or teacher, is the main influence on the child's socialization process.  In this theory, the idea is that the child will model themselves after whatever the adult is doing, and the adult will transmit cues to the child whether it be through verbal comments, facial expressions, or gestures.  As the student continues to imitate the model, they will eventually be able to preform the task on their own.  A student's musical interactions with adults  while singing, moving, listening, and playing instruments are essential for their musical independence.

The Zone of Proximal Development is an idea based off Vygotsgy's theory, shown in the diagram below.  The green region represents what the child can do without any help from an adult.  The Orange region is what the child can do with the help of an adult.  The red area on the outside represents what the student cannot achieve, even with the help of an adult.  The orange region is what is known as the Zone of Proximal Development, because it is where the child learns, achieves their goals, and expands their ability.  The key to the ZPD is that it is constantly expanding.  As the student progresses, the level at which they can achieve things by themselves gets higher, so they are continually able to play harder music.  Depending on the child, the ZPD with expand at different rates.

The way I think about the ZPD is finding a "sweet spot" with the student so that whatever you're working on with them is neither too easy nor too hard, but just the right amount of difficulty to be in the Zone of Proximal Development.