Preservice education students can simulate a zone of proximal development (ZPD) with the following class demonstration. Arrange students in pairs, designating one of the pair to be the "expert" and the other to be the "learner" or apprentice. The expert is to coach or teach the learner a skill that is difficult or even impossible to do alone, but that can be done modestly well if the expert provides appropriate assistance.

A simple task of this type is to have the expert assist the learner in recreating or duplicating a simple, but abstract drawing or photo that you provide for the expert. (e.g. A small-sized reproduction of an abstract work of art works nicely, or even a doodle or scribble that you yourself draw. But many photographs also work if they have several objects in the them arranged in an interesting, non-stereotyped way.) The learner cannot look at the drawing or photo directly, but must reproduce it entirely from the description, hints, and support given by the expert.

After the expert and learner work at this task for a reasonable length of time, discuss with them how well it went. Issues that typically come up are: 1) should the expert give more detailed, precise instructions, or does this prevent the learner from actually learning? 2) do the inevitable differences between the original and the reproduction mean that the learner has not really "learned" to draw the shape, or that the learner still has more to learn, or merely that learning is inevitably a reconstruction, rather than a duplication, of experts' knowledge?

If you have time to do this activity a second time with the expert and learner roles switched, students can also begin to sense an additional issue: that preferred teaching styles and preferred learning styles affect the success of learning.