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Teacher Development Video

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The Laughing Child by Harry Dugmore
Lila and the Zone of Proximal Development
Selection of maths videos from the Teaching Channel

Lila and the Zone of Proximal Development

In Lila & ZPD September 2012 my five year old daughter, Lila Rose came running excitedly into the kitchen with television remote in hand yelling: “Mommy I’ve worked out how to count in threes, I’ve worked out how to count in threes”. Interested in her excitement and its ability to get her away from the television to which she had been glued I asked her how she had figured this out. “Look mommy” she said pointing to the ‘3’ ‘6’ and ‘9’ buttons on the remote – “its 3, 6, 9”. I quickly grabbed my cell phone and asked her if she would explain to me again.

The video below shows this interaction and illuminates how relatively simple questioning invokes the creation of a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978) space in which Lila extends her discovery beyond the three numbers shown on the remote and thus beyond the concrete to the abstract nature of the pattern and how the pattern works.

My motivation for sharing this is firstly to share that learners clearly know a lot more mathematics than we think when they enter school and that their environments (even the TV room) are rich contexts for mathematical exploration and extension if we choose to engage with our children and our learners in these contexts. Prof Mellony Graven

If you wish to watch the video on YouTube, click here.

Click on the link for a video transcript of Lila and the ZPD.

The Laughing Child

In November 2013, Harry Dugmore talked to us about "The Laughing Child" which highlights the importance of laughter in homes and school environments. Have a look at the TEDxRhodesU video below.