Deconflating the ZPD and instructional scaffolding: Retranslating and reconceiving the zone of proximal development as the zone of next development

This article provides a reconception of what is known as Vygotsky's “zone of proximal development,” particularly its improper conflation with the notion of “instructional scaffolding.” The article introduces the essay's purpose and motivation; reviews and critiques Vygotsky's description of the ZPD and explains how it has come to be misinterpreted; summarizes Wood, Bruner, and Ross's introduction of the scaffolding metaphor; and provides a different, more accurate translation of the ZPD as the zone of next development, based on the documentary film The Butterflies of Zagorsk. Through this analysis, the author contends that the conflation of scaffolding with the ZPD has produced a trivialization of Vygotsky's greater body of work, reducing it to a briefly-mentioned pedagogical idea and resulting in the neglect of his more important project of generating a comprehensive cultural-historical-social theory of mediated human development.