ABSTRACT
The basic aim of developmental psychology is to discover adequate descriptions of development and to determine the explanatory principles lying behind them. One of the classical issues of developmental psychology concerns the question of whether skills and abilities that are acquired on the basis of strictly guided training and teaching have the same meaning and developmental effects as skills and abilities that are acquired spontaneously. The most realistic solution to the problem of development, education and 'readiness' is to make distinctions between abilities and behaviours on a scale determined by two extremes, one of which consists of maximally internally, the other of maximally externally, determined; abilities. The 'zone of proximal attention' shows a close terminological relationship with one of the basic concepts in L. S. Vygotsky's theory of development. J. S. Bruner's conception of development as the resultant of an internal push and an external pull is also clearly compatible with the zone of proximal attention concept.
