"This term [Zone of Proximal Development] was coined by Vygotsky and is probably what he’s best known for. It was one of the ways he tried to convey that human learning and development emerge from, and exist in, the social spaces people create together, rather than within any individual. A Zone of Proximal Development is an environment that allows people to go beyond what they can do alone. Little children spend their days in these environments, which invite and support them to do what’s 'proximal' to their current abilities, to play at speaking, reading, dancing, and so much more. They might not yet know how to do those things, but the people around them do. And these people don’t just speak, read, and dance on their own—they encourage the little non-knowers to join in, to play and perform as speakers, readers, and dancers, even though they haven’t yet mastered those skills."
Lois Holzman, The Overweight Brain, p. 154.
Vygotsky, Whitehead, and the Zone of Becoming
The Zone of Proximal Development is a concept developed by Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), a Soviet psychologist known for his work on cognitive development and the social and cultural influences on learning, and later expanded upon by Lois Holzman, a developmental psychologist and co-founder of the East Side Institute, where she has built on Vygotsky's ideas through her work on social therapy and performance-based approaches to learning.
As Holzman explains in The Overweight Brain, the zone is not a specific place, but rather a dynamic interaction or activity in which individuals or groups engage—much like performers in an improvisational play on a stage. In this collaborative process, participants explore and discover their potential, expanding their abilities and uncovering capacities for becoming who they are not yet. They bring with them a spirit of play, which fosters creativity, adaptability, and openness to new possibilities. This process emphasizes the power of social interaction in learning and development, highlighting that people grow through shared experiences that challenge them just beyond their current capabilities.
Vygotsky also emphasized that human beings, as improvisers of their lives, are not merely intellects seeking answers to questions. They - we - are also emotional beings, and our emotions are integral to who we are and who we are becoming. He put it this way:
"Somehow our society has formed a one-sided view of the human personality, and for some reason everyone understood giftedness and talent only as it applied to the intellect. But it is possible not only to be talented in one’s thoughts but also to be talented in one’s feelings as well. The emotional part of the personality has no less value than the other sides, and it also should be the object and concern of education, as well as intellect and will. Love can reach the same level of talent and even genius, as the discovery of differential calculus."
This recognition of emotional talent, indeed of love, meshes with the spirit of the Zone of Proximal Development, where growth occurs not only through intellectual challenges but also through emotional engagement and the supportive interplay of relationships. It highlights the importance of valuing our emotional lives, nurturing creativity, empathy, and the capacity for deep feeling, all of which contribute to the continuous process of becoming.
The Zone of Proximal Development helps individuals recognize that they are "in process"—constantly growing and evolving. It encourages the realization that they are capable of becoming something or someone new, beyond who they have been in the past. This perspective encourages transformation and underscores the potential for continuous development, especially as individuals engage with challenges that stretch their abilities in supportive, collaborative environments.
Since its development by Vygotsky, the concept has been applied across many settings, including education, therapy, organizational development, and community-building initiatives. It has influenced approaches that prioritize social interaction, scaffolding, and guided participation in learning. By creating environments that support individuals as they explore beyond their current capabilities, the Zone of Proximal Development has become a powerful framework for fostering growth and transformation across various contexts. It recognizes that human development is not solely an intellectual endeavor, but also an emotional journey, where growth is fostered through creativity, empathy, and a genuine love of learning.
The East Side Institute is a hub for this kind of growth, influenced by the idea of Vygotsky, Marx, and Wittgenstein.
*
Those of us influenced by process-relational philosophy will naturally see connections between these ideas and the process philosophy of education. We will see a Zone of Proximal Development as what Whitehead calls a "society" of concrescing subjects, in this case of people, each of whom discovers his or her own potential through creative interaction with others. And we will appreciate the idea that people are emotional/cognitive beings in process, aligning with Whitehead's view that learning is a dynamic and relational activity involving the whole person in an ongoing journey of becoming.
In this process view, education is not merely about the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student but about the mutual growth and transformation of both. The learner, like all actual entities in Whitehead's cosmology, is shaped by their interactions and by the "lures" or possibilities presented in each moment. The teacher acts as a facilitator, providing an environment rich with opportunities for students to explore and engage creatively, thus enabling them to fulfill their potential through self-directed and collaborative inquiry. This aligns with Vygotsky's emphasis on social learning, as well as with Whitehead's understanding that knowledge is not static but evolving, and that learning is best approached as a living, adaptive process deeply embedded in relationships.
Even more deeply, Whitehead offers a philosophy, indeed a cosmology, of becoming, where all entities, human and non-human alike, are in a constant state of change and development. In this framework, education is part of a larger, cosmic process of creative advance into novelty. Every learner is a unique instance of becoming, influenced by their past while open to future possibilities. Whitehead’s emphasis on the interdependence of all things means that learning is not isolated but deeply connected to the larger flow of life. Just as each moment of experience builds upon those that came before, the process of learning is cumulative, relational, and transformative, contributing to the ongoing evolution of both the individual and the community. This cosmology challenges us to see education not as preparing students for a static future but as nurturing their potential to creatively respond to the dynamic world they are continuously co-creating.
* What Whitehead adds is an emphasis on ecology, that is, on the idea that the entire universe is an improvisational process, in which entities "learn" with and from one another. This ecological vision suggests that learning is not confined to human beings alone but is a feature of all relationships in the natural world. Every entity, from the smallest particle to the largest ecosystem, is engaged in a process of creative response and adaptation, shaped by interactions within its environment. This interconnected learning process underscores the value of community and collaboration, revealing that all growth and transformation are co-created, much like the educational experience where students, teachers, and environments coalesce to create something novel.
The zone of becoming becomes a garden of becoming.
- Jay McDaniel
The Overweight Brain
We live at a time when knowledge of the world is all right there on our smart phones. Yet we persist in going through life trying to get as much knowledge, as many facts and arguments and opinions and predictions, into our heads—and being tested and evaluated and judged by how much we know. Being in the world as a knower keeps us stuck, Holzman says. It constrains creativity and risk taking, keeps us and our dreams small, stops us from learning new things, and stifles our capacity to create new possibilities for ourselves, families, communities and the entire world. For that, she says, we need a new form of life — something she calls “non-knowing growing.” That’s the invitation of The Overweight Brain — offering a simple but radical departure — an approach to using all we are (and all we know) to make a better world.
The Social Origin of Mind: Vygotsky believed that human mental and cognitive abilities are not biologically determined, but instead created and shaped by use of language and tools in the process of interacting and constructing the cultural and social environment.
The Importance of Mediation: He saw mediation as the key to human development, because it leads to the use of cultural tools and becomes a pathway for psychological development through the process of interiorization.
The Zone of Proximal Development: Vygotsky introduced the concept of the ZPD which refers to the gap between a child's current level of development and the level they are capable of reaching with tools provided by others with more knowledge.
The Significance of Play:Vygotsky viewed play as a crucial aspect of children's development, as the best sandbox to build and develop practice of mediation.