A Zone of Proximal Development Process in the Selective Disposal of Urban Solid Waste: Problem Solving with Two Assembled Materials

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a constructivist concept associated with learning processes involving the participation of a mediator or facilitator. In a previous study, our group developed an observation model that can be used to study learning processes of this type by measuring the fine skills involved in the selective disposal of Urban Solid Waste, a topic of environmental education involving numerous difficulties. We also developed an approach to evaluate the occurrence of a ZPD event using a mathematical problem-solving example. Combining both proposals, we carried out a quasi-experimental exercise in 2017, in which we tried to observe a zone of proximal development process in the resolution of two problems involving the selective disposal of Urban Solid Waste, one of them of very high difficulty and the other of moderate difficulty. The present work aims to show why selective disposal is a difficult and complicated environmental task. We worked with two groups of university students, a "control" group and a "quasi-experimental" group, with forty members each. We were able to verify the occurrence of a ZPD process in some participants of the "quasi-experimental" group.