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Zone Of Proximal Development Case Study

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I feel that to best understand and help struggling students, it’s important to understand the process of learning and theories behind it. “A child’s ability to learn depends on the child’s current maturational status” (Lerner & Johns, 2015, p. 131). Developmentally, “each individual has a preset rate of growth for various human functions, including cognitive abilities” (Lerner & Johns, 2015, p. 131). Various abilities mature at different rates, however, there are certain milestones that children and adolescents hit within an age range; this includes learning. This should be kept in mind, as teaching needs to be at the appropriate difficulty level for the student; this is called the Zone of Proximal Development. Each students zone is different, however, a majority of a general education classroom will fall into the same zone, as they are alike developmentally. It becomes difficult to determine this level when students fall above or below their typically developing peers. …show more content…

Understanding the theory of learning will aide those servicing students in special education because they will have a better understanding of the process of it. Some challenging behavior may be typical for that age group or may be a learned behavior. While this can be difficult for teachers, most students respond positively to lower level behavioral interventions that can be implemented for the entire classroom. Positive reinforcement, redirecting, or setting clear, concise classroom rules are all easy to implement behavioral supports that can help to curb challenging behavior in typically developing students, as well as students who may have higher level behavioral

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