This chapter traces the origins of the idea in Lev Vygotsky's thought in the early 1930s. The notion of zona blizhaishego razvitia ZBR had great promise for developmental psychology and education. For Vygotsky, the use of the ZBR concept was descriptive rather than explanatory. Vygotsky perceived the process of imitation as the mechanism of development. Vygotsky developed the idea of heterochronic emergence of different psychological functions. It is interesting that the origin of the notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) can be found in Henri Bergson's thinking. The ZBR-in the form of the ZPD-is assumed to exist as an entity among other psychological functions (e.g. cognitive characteristics). Its focus on the dynamic process of emergence has become translated into a static depiction of some process of teaching and learning-usually with the focus on the relevance of the "more experienced" partner in the educational interaction.

The notion of "developmental education" or the image of "education that leads development", as any other notion, has discriminative power only until it allows us to see something that otherwise would remain unnoticed. This chapter explores the levels of micro- and macro-analysis of the interrelation between learning, instruction, and development and interprets the development (of higher psychological functions) with the help of a conceptual toolkit of cultural-historical theory as simultaneous transition. It provides macro-analysis of developmental education on the scale of the system of education and discusses the types of interaction or pedagogical facilitation that every educational system uses in order to provoke and support children's independence in mastering and using various cultural tools. The type of interaction that is predominant in each specific system of education determines its developmental affordances and its limitations at the same time.