Lev Vygotsky introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) during the 1930s as a groundbreaking and counter-educational theory to the child development theories proposed by Maria Montessori or Jean Piaget. Vygotsky acknowledged the benefits of curiosity-driven settings for motor and practical skills but argued that a teacher or a more knowledgeable individual was necessary for specific domains, such as mathematics or writing.
He proposed that in such areas, there are learning tasks within a child’s grasp and other tasks that are too far ahead, no matter how much support is available to the child. Optimal learning happens between these areas, outside our comfort zone but not in the anxiety zone.
What a child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow.
Lev Vygotsky
Deliberate practice is a term coined by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. It means a systematic and purposeful approach to improving performance in a specific skill or domain.
Characteristics of deliberate practice include:
- Setting clear goals and breaking down the skill into manageable components.
- Focused and intentional efforts to improve a specific aspect of performance.
- Immediate feedback to correct errors and make adjustments.
- Repetition and consistent practice over time.
This is a fundamental truth about any sort of practice: If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.
K. Anders Ericsson – Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Lastly, flow, a concept popularized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced, according to him, “chicks sent me high”), is a mental state in which a person becomes fully immersed and engaged in an activity, experiencing a sense of effortless focus, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation.
Characteristics of flow include:
- A balance between challenge and skill. Flow often occurs when a person is highly skilled and performs tasks that are neither difficult nor easy (Goldilocks-like tasks – just right).
- A sense of control over one’s actions.
- Losing track of time with complete absorption in the task at hand.
- Intrinsically rewarding experiences.
Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow: The Classic Work On How To Achieve
Flow typically involves enjoyment and intrinsic motivation (being in the zone), whereas deliberate practice and ZPD can be challenging and may require extrinsic motivation or discipline (outside the comfort zone).
When applying these concepts to child education, creating structured study times is crucial, emphasizing routine and predictability. A distraction-free environment enhances focus and concentration.
We could start our learning session by recapping the exercises we did the previous days (elements of deliberate practice and flow, but not necessarily ZPD).
We engage in deliberate practice by summarising previous material and providing immediate feedback.
Flow occurs when the task is challenging but still achievable, balancing boredom and frustration. When children feel challenged but not overwhelmed by the recap session, they might experience flow.
If kids find the recap too easy and become bored, that’s a sign of stopping the summary and going to the next topic.
If they struggle too much with recapping, we redo the exercises with fresh eyes and minds. Perhaps the world is too much, and children need a break and encouragement.
After we finish this recap, we move to new material, where all three concepts come into play.
Applying ZPD for new material involves designing tasks that a child can complete with guidance but not independently (progressively more challenging exercises).
In implementing deliberate practice, the new material is broken down into smaller steps, with specific goals set for the learner. Immediate feedback helps the child learn from mistakes and improve.
Flow is achieved when children are eager to engage beyond the set tasks, indicating mastery. This state is beneficial for deepening the learning experience as they know they mastered something that seemed complicated, and they want to continue this mental state.
In essence, with new material, children start outside their comfort zone (ZPD) and, with deliberate practice, engage in new concepts effectively, feeling motivated and enjoying the acquisition of new skills (flow).
Effective study habits and learning strategies support academic growth, equipping children with the necessary skills and mindsets to thrive in an ever-changing, knowledge-oriented world.
On a side note, Barb & her Hero Husband Phil raised their two daughters with twenty minutes of carefully designed extra math practice through use of the Kumon math program. The result of this extra “drill and kill” practice? One daughter is now a Stanford trained pediatrician, and the second is a graduate level statistician. Yet reform educators would have one believe that the decade Barb and Phil gave their daughters of twenty minutes of daily extra math practice would turn the girls away from math. What reform educators characterize as “drill and kill” is actually all-important “drill to skill”!
It certainly wasn’t that the girls loved every day of their practice. (Take heart, homeschooling parents!) But that practice led to the solid internalization of mathematical patterns that the girls needed long-term for professional careers in STEM—and for them to feel comfortable with and ultimately learn to love mathematics. Incidentally, when Barb was recently in Vietnam, she learned that her daughter’s statistics graduate advisor rarely takes on students educated in the US, because he has found that US-trained students simply don’t have the comfort and ability with math of students from countries that use more traditional approaches to teaching math. All those years of a little bit of extra practice a day for the Oakley girls paid off!
From Barbara Oakley’s blog of Learning how to Learn fame.