The Social Construction of Data: Methodological Problems of Investigating Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development

Educational researchers have traditionally drawn on procedures and metaphors from the hard sciences to guide their thinking about methodological issues. One frequently invoked metaphor is that of the purity of data, which a researcher can contaminate through the process of investigation. This article questions the appropriateness of the purity metaphor, using a perspective provided by Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD)...