Each of the terms
zone, proximal and development need a closer examination. In explicating
a Vygotskian approach in education, Bodrova and Leong (,**/) point
out that the term development refers to the formation of higher mental
functions upon an individual’s utilisation and successive mastery of cultural
tools and resources. The term zone they say alludes to the fact that
human development is not fixed and once and for all but a continuum of
behaviours in various degrees of maturation. They finally argue that the
term proximal in describing this zone, alludes to the fact that the zone of development is itself limited by those behaviours that are closest to
emergence in any individual and have the possibility of developing in the
near future at any given point of time.