Аннотация

Vygotsky argued that children's development is most likely to occur when, in the course of collaboration, assistance is provided within their zone of proximal development--the distance between what a child can achieve independently and what he or she can do with the assistance of a more competent member of their culture. This paper reports the results of a study exploring the impact of providing feedback with or without a partner in order to ascertain whether feedback can create a zone of proximal development. Participants in the study consisted of 180 children aged from 6 to 8, drawn from 3 public elementary schools in Salt Lake City, serving predominantly European-American middle and lower middle class students. A subsample of 48 students was used based on their level of thinking regarding a balancing problem. Students were placed in three groups: no partner, partner of same level of thinking, and partner with a higher level of thinking. Half of the students received feedback and the other half did not. Results indicate students who received feedback achieved significantly higher on the posttest. Having a partner did not prove to be more beneficial than not having a partner. Collaboration with a partner was helpful when feedback was not provided. (AA)

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