In Vygotsky’s sociohistorical theory of development. the distance between a child’s actual developmental level as she performs a task independently and her potential level of development as she works with an adult or more accomplished peer. Vygotsky held that because children’s level of functioning is raised to new heights when working with others, their learning occurs in the ‘zone of proximal development’.
See Action theory, Joint attention, Intentionality, Internal speech, Internalization, Scaffolding