Question: What are efficacy implications for teaching students inside the zone of proximal development?
Answer:
When teaching students inside the zone of proximal development, the child is at at stage where the they already know as much as they can through independent problem solving, but there is still plenty of space for them to achieve more knowledge with the help of adult guidance or by working with their peers. So the expected results for teaching them during this stage is that they will start to learn how to interact with others instead of independently problem-solving and will start to progress in their learning and capabilities to retain new knowledge presented.
So, yes if you buy what Vygotsky has to say, then providing work that a child can do without help is merely busy work. And if it is so difficult that they couldn't get it even with an adult, then students will not benefit either.... think if giving a first grader a Calc III book.
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