{"id":675,"date":"2024-04-20T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T03:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/?p=675"},"modified":"2024-04-20T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T03:57:07","slug":"can-attending-to-zpd-support-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/2024\/04\/20\/can-attending-to-zpd-support-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Attending to ZPD Support Belonging?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Clare Creighton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past year, I watched Adam Lenz (SI Coordinator) facilitate training for new Supplemental Instruction (SI) leaders. As he talked through Vygotsky\u2019s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) construct from Vygotsky\u2019s learning theory it unlocked an insight for me – I heard a connection to belonging that I hadn\u2019t heard before. What if attending to the Zone of Proximal Development contributes to a learner\u2019s sense of belonging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick side bar on the theories themselves: The Zone of Proximal Development is the space between where someone is with their current understanding and knowledge and where they are capable of getting with support from instructors and peers. This graphic<\/a> simplifies it a bit to demonstrate that between what a student can already do and what they can\u2019t do, there lives a developmental area of what they can do when given support for their learning. Strayhorn (2012) frames belonging as the ability to feel connected to, included by and cared for by other people \u2013 respected and valued as a part of a community or system larger than you. Framed in an academic domain, belonging can be a part of learning settings if (a) students feel like a part of a community within a classroom, (b) they feel a sense of connection to the course, classmates, the instructor, the discipline, or the academic environment, and\/or (c) they feel accepted, valued, included, and encouraged by others within the class and related to the course. There is far more research<\/a> on this. I\u2019m also going to use Nevitt Sanford\u2019s (1967) theory of challenge and support<\/a> to help me tie these thoughts together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connection I heard was this: perhaps in attending to ZPD through designing learning exercises and training within students\u2019 zone of proximal development, we have the opportunity to also support students\u2019 sense that they belong in that learning environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a learning environment (new job, coursework) is constantly beyond the zone of proximal development (or for Sanford \u2013 too much challenge, not enough support), I imagine if it can inadvertently send messages to learners that they don\u2019t belong: you should already know this, other people already know this, and you\u2019re behind. Or perhaps you should be able to do this and if you can\u2019t, you\u2019re not cut out for this job\/class\/degree. Those messages can exacerbate imposter syndrome and lead to folks leaving the position\/class\/group, or perhaps they persist, but the experience impacts their sense of self-efficacy and therefore the way they engage in new challenges and opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, if tasks are consistently on the other side of the zone of proximal development (too easy, not enough challenge) it can convey a different message: I don\u2019t think you\u2019re capable of doing hard things. If there is zero challenge, it can still make folks feel like they don\u2019t fit and should be somewhere else \u2013 the result of which can cause folks to divest energy and taper off motivation and investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balancing challenge\/support and working within the zone of proximal development can convey that learning and growth are part of their experience, that you believe they can do it, and that you\u2019ll offer support until they can do it on their own. I\u2019m painting with a broad brush here because there are elements of either of these theories that don\u2019t align with belonging as a primary goal (situating a \u201cmore knowledgeable other\u201d as a key part of ZPD). But there is enough that piqued my curiosity to draw this connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019m designing and facilitating a supportive and effective learning setting, here are a few ways I can consider this connection and apply it when supporting students:<\/p>\n\n\n\n