摘要：The zone of proximal development is a well-known and frequently referenced term withincultural historical psychology. Nevertheless, it is rarely used in the concrete practiceof assessing intellectual development. The majority of proposals for such assessment arebased on a behavioral and psychometric conception of development. This study presentsa Scheme for Evaluation of Intellectual Development based on the concept of thezone of proximal development and on gradual intellectual development. The Schemewas applied to 160 Mexican pre-school children from rural, suburban, official, and privatekindergartens. The Scheme permitted us to determine the zone of proximal developmentby evaluating the children’s level of external orientation during the solution ofnew intellectual tasks. Three levels of orientation through external help were established.The results showed that the majority of children from all groups managed to fulfil newtasks after receiving external help, which indicated the existence of their zone of proximaldevelopment. Differences were detected in the use of the level of help in all groups.Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between the level of helping received,the degree of fulfilment of the task, and the children’s socio-cultural group. The resultspermitted us to establish more precisely the zone of proximal development at pre-schoolage. We discuss how the concept of the zone of proximal development might be used inconcrete psychological practice and research, instead of being only a well-known termat a declarative level.
关键词：intellectual development; zone of proximal development; level of development;preschool development; assessment of intellect; assessment of development; intellectual;actions
