ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with one of Lev Vygotsky's key themes. Zone of Proximal Development (ZOP) that is extremely important to anyone wanting to know more about how people teach and learn. It continues with examples of it to clarify. To understand it you need to familiar with some of the concepts, such as guided participation, peer and reciprocal teaching, and scaffolding learning. The child, living and learning alongside others, adults and peers, actively seeks to understand every aspect of her world. Vygotsky had noticed that children deeply engaged in play often surprised him in terms of what they revealed they knew and could do. The child, at play, reveals much about the gap between her performance level and her potential level. It is what fills the ZPD, the gap between the performance level and the potential level that is important. This is where the role of others in learning comes about.
