Zone of proximal development

The zone of proximal development is the gap between a learner's current or actual level of development determined by indpedendent problem-solving and the learner's emerging or potential level of development.

This idea is very similar to Jim Cummins idea of information plus one or i+1. Learners cannot build new knowledge without first having a framework or prior learning foundation. Lev Vygotsky says that learners' are generally not able to bridge a large gap of learning without some cognitively related prior knowledge to 'hang' the new information upon.

see also Education