Peer supports on the Web for activating the zone of proximal development

Abstract

Most web learning systems provide discussion forums for teachers and students to exchange ideas. Although students can attain higher levels of thinking or skills if they are scaffolded by experts, such learning systems cannot mediate and include proper students in peer support activities that activate a student’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Students must actively seek answers to their learning problems in the public discussion forum to attain higher levels of thinking or skills . This study presents a decision tree methodology for activating students’ ZPD by providing peer support in a web based learning system. The experience of and guidelines for utilizing the decision tree methodology for peer support are depicted by a group problem-solving example. Meanwhile, students’ conversation dialogue and the communication network of peer supports during the group problem-solving activity are explored. The proposed methodology allows teachers to go online and use the data collected to efficiently analyze the effectiveness of peer help in activating ZPD.