Is there a connection between cognitive tools, scaffolding and ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)? Today, as I was attempting to synthesize my readings with my data I came to the conclusion that there is. This was a big “aha” moment for me. As yet, I hadn’t thought to bring my studies of Imaginative Education into the work I was doing in my field study. As I was thinking about where I would go next with my field study lessons (in storytelling), it occurred to me that it would be possible and perhaps very effect to infuse a storytelling opportunity into my Curriculum Design Project. What better way than to represent the journey of a water molecule through a story. What better way to understand my inquiries so for than to meld them both together into a single lesson!
This excited me.
As I began to think about the practical part of developing the lesson it seemed important to make some connections with my storytelling unit and cognitive tools first. I started writing ideas on some stickies. On each sticky I wrote one scaffolding activity that I had already employed with my students to help them be effective storytellers (when telling the story of “The Tailor”). Then under that activity I wrote corresponding cognitive tools that were used. Here are a few examples:
1. The scaffold of the Virginia Reel activity used the cognitive tools of game and pattern (rotating around and moving to the next position)
2. The scaffold of Telling the Wall used the cognitive tools of rhyme and rhythm (telling the patterns and repetitions in the story); while telling the story the students employed forming images, binary opposites (give/take); drama (using voice inflection and emotion to tell the story)
3. The scaffold of creating a Story Map used the cognitive tools of imagery (visual representation of the story), binary opposites, pattern (in the drawings of the story)
4. The scaffold of Around the Circle used the cognitive tools of game, rhythm, binary opposites
My sticky activity (and data analysis) clearly pointed out that as we had moved through some of these scaffolds and cognitive tools, it was time to push the students forward in their storytelling abilities, their use of Adobe Voice and perhaps the medium of storytelling. Egan suggests that “we need to provide opportunities for students to begin using some of the later tool kit even if in embryonic form. As with young children’s use of embryonic tools of literacy, in Vygotsky’s terms, this might be seen as drawing the students forward in their ‘zone of proximal development.'” (Egan, 2005, pg.82).
The combination or synthesis of scaffolding activities and cognitive tools (can they be the same?) had lead my students to the place of needing more tools in their kit or scaffolds in order to move them into a place of greater learning opportunities. Complexity theorists see this place as the “edge of chaos”. This is where they claim new life/learning happens. “Teaching and learning seem to be more about expanding the space of the possible and creating conditions for the emergence of the as-yet unimagined, rather than perpetuating entrenched habit of interpretation.” (Fels and Belliveau, pg. 26) Vygotsky’s ZPD becomes then, a location where the of scaffolding learning among students happens: scaffolding that includes the use of Egan’s cognitive tools.
With all this in mind, I have set forth to create a series of lessons that will be employed through the use of scaffolding activities and cognitive tools. The idea of oral language development (storytelling) as the umbrella focus and Vygotsky’s ZPD as my aim for providing an “action site of learning” (from Performative Inquiry, Fels and Belliveau).