Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Scrabulous and the Zone of Proximal Development

I can now play Scrabble on Facebook. My favorite game combined with my favorite time-waster. Glorious.

Andy and I play Scrabble a lot. It's challenging, because he's better than I am. There's a developmental psychologist named Vygotsky that educators talk about a lot, because he developed this idea called the "Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD). The idea is that kids learn things the best when they are given tasks that are just above their capabilities, so they have to stretch to complete them. Well, a Scrabble game with Andy is right in my ZPD. I rarely win, but I'm close enough to his ability to keep him from completely killing me every time...then I'd lose motivation, and Vygotsky doesn't want that!

I think, aside from Scrabble, Andy and I are relatively well-matched mentally. I would have to imagine that's going to be key for a good marriage, as long as neither of us gets too smart in graduate school. (I can safely say that's not a danger for me...)

2 comments:

Ann said...

I have been praticing. I can kick Andy's butt in Scrabble. Tell him to bring it on.
Mammy

Ann said...

OK, I haven't been PRATICING, I have been PRACTICING. See, that's how good I will be in a Scrabble game.