Organization of zone of proximal development of planning cognitive function in schoolchildren

The article presents the results of the work on organization of zone of proximal development (ZPD) of planning cognitive function. Planning is considered to be a higher mental function included into a range of a primary schoolchild’s new psychological formations together with analysis and reflection. It develops in the frames of a schoolchild’s leading activity – learning activity as delineated in the Elkonin and Davydov theory. The article describes diagnostic procedures, criteria and empirical indicators of planning function development including its unstable transitional forms. To influence these transitional forms of planning the authors propose correctional procedure, designed basing on the ZPD structure. ZPD organization relies on the core concepts of L.S. Vygotsky theory such as interiorization and sign mediation. ZPD organization is grounded in stage-by-stage character of controlled transitions from joint-distributed interactions of an adult and a schoolchild to independent schoolchild’s activity. The efficiency of the method is proved by positive dynamics of planning function in most of the experiment participants.