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Before facilitators can start to lead learners through steps which are important to learn a concept; they need a grip of how responsibilities referred to as scaffolds are pertinent to everyday life. Facilitators build on the scaffolds to develop the learner's zone of proximal development. The rationale for facilitators to incorporate the zone of proximal development in their teaching lessons is to emphasise the relationship of the learners’ prior knowledge of a task with a new concept being learned (Silver, 2011: 24).

In this section, Vygotsky’s influence in the development of teaching methods that are appropriate when using computers as mediation tools is highlighted. The concepts zone of proximal development, scaffolding and mediational role of tools and their potential to transform human activity are explicated in relation to the study.

A more competent peer or adult is viewed as assisting performance by bridging the gap between what the learner knows and can do and what the learner needs to know. Hardman and Ngambi (2003:10) conceptualised this gap between unassisted and assisted performance as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), the “space” where learning leads to development. The ZPD is where the interpersonal and intrapersonal activities blend and fuse and no longer exist as separate entities. Scaffolding, on the other hand, is a key feature of effective teaching and can include modelling a skill, providing hints or cues, and adapting material or activities (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009:173).

The ZPD is a concept that implies support. Vygotsky believed that there was a difference between what an individual could achieve by themselves and what they could do with the help of a more skilled individual (Chaiklin, 2003:41). The ZPD therefore refers to an individual’s potential to learn (Bentham, 2002:10), and Vygotsky referred to intelligence as an individual’s potential to learn. The ZPD also takes into account individual differences and the fact that various individuals may have different ZPDs for different subject areas.

Some adult learners in the Level 3 AET class at the mine were not integrating computers fully for learning, especially in Full-Time, which presented a challenge to complete the two methods of learning in the AET programme. There were no computer literacy classes to advance these learners prior to engaging with the computers in the lab. It was time-consuming for the facilitators to go to individual learners and show them how to use the mouse, keyboard and monitor. Eventually, facilitators did give individual attention for the learners to be able to engage with the computer by showing them how to reposition their hands to hold a mouse, stressing that they should hold the mouse tightly to be able to move it around.

The 120 minutes face-to-face teaching-learning was characterised by collaborative learning whereby knowledge was constructed in a social context. In another 120 minutes, the facilitator modelled a good grip for learners, showing them how to use a mouse (left and right buttons) and use a keyboard for typing as an input device, and then assisted them in changing their grip with a little practice in the computer lab. All this happened during the computer-based lessons. Finally, this period where learners were able to use the mouse and keyboard can be identified as being part of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Zahedi, Tessir & Hawey, 2017). The settlement of such a zone is particularly important in a collaborative context since “working out a collective zone of proximal development calls for a conceptual model that can be used for representing the activity as an object-oriented system” (Engeström, 1999:66). During this time, the participants were aware of their final goal and they framed their process into a ZPD in order to keep track of their object and outcome (Zahedi, Tessir & Hawey, 2017).

However, individual learners just needed a little coaching and scaffolding, which incorporated the principles of contingent instructions (Bentham, 2002:18), and which included offering more help when an individual was struggling and withdrawing help when the individual was succeeding. The computer software applications already include elements of scaffolding in their fundamental design, which allow the user to internalise instructions given by the software in order to learn.

The concept of mediation emphasises the role played by human and symbolic intermediaries placed between the individual learner and the material to be learned. When an adult learner comes to a shared understanding of the use of a computer, he/she is trying to achieve inter-subjectivity,

through either discussions of some sort or through engagement with the tool, as depicted in Figure 2.5.

Figure 2.5: Zone of proximal development (adapted from Fullam, 2001)

As mentioned earlier in this thesis, certain computer software applications already include elements of scaffolding in their fundamental design, which also allows the user to internalise instructions given by software in order to learn. Bentham (2002:11) reminds us that to learn, the individual should internalise the instructions of the other in order to self-regulate. The potential of AT to be used as an analytical tool in this inquiry has already been described. Its potential to be used to analyse the dynamic human interactions mediated by computer-based education at both the micro (psychological and interpersonal) and macro (sociological or culture) levels to construct and understand zones of proximal development is clear.

The step-by-step process which facilitators use to apply the zone of proximal development in AET studies is as follows:

 Firstly, facilitators identify what a learner already knows. By identifying this prior knowledge, the facilitator can build on that skill set when introducing new concepts.  Next, the facilitator builds on this knowledge through scaffolding. The scaffold helps

learners move from what they already know to what they should know by the end of class. When planning lessons, facilitators keep in mind the scaffolding process by integrating guided practice in their lesson plans.

 Lastly, facilitators help learners connect their new learning to their prior knowledge. For example, a numeracy facilitator teaches learners how to master dividing decimals using the computer; then the facilitator relates this concept back to multiplying decimals.

 Through applying the concept of the zone of proximal development, the facilitator identifies what a learner already knows, teaches him or her something new to add to it, and then relates this back to his or her prior knowledge so that he or she can now understand the new concept with assistance.

Vygotsky believed that when a learner is at the ZPD for a particular task and provided with the appropriate assistance from the facilitator, it will give the learner opportunity to achieve the task presented.

The computer is one tool within a particular activity system through which knowledge, identity, authority and power relations are continually negotiated and re-negotiated (Russell, 2001:64). As new elements are introduced in the activity, contradictions can arise between the new and the old elements of the activity. For example, a contradiction may occur after a new procedure has been set up, should tension exist between it and the old activity configuration. I submit that inappropriateness is identified when an organisational policy does not correspond to the organisation’s requirements or objectives, or when it simply goes against common sense.