Abstract

Various methods of teaching had been implemented to create an active and fun teaching process by teachers for students. Teachers’ actions during class could lead to different responses from students. However, those actions are not always well accepted by students. Valsiner suggested a theory on a set of teachers’ actions for promoting students’ response called zone of promotion action (ZPA). The characteristics of the teacher’s ZPA were not imbedded, indicating that the students could accept, reject or respond in a pseudo manner. This study aims to identify the forms of promote action which had pseudo responses called teacher’s pseudo promote action (P-PA). Data were collected by interviewing teachers and students. The teaching process was observed through video recording. The subject of this study was a novice teacher and three students with high, moderate, and low math skills. The result showed that P-PA was dominant on the student with low math skill. This was apparent when she was silent, behaving as if she did not pay any attention to her teacher but she actually got the concept. She partly followed the teacher’s instruction, and got answers from her classmates to complete the task, so that it seemed as if she understood the concept that was given.

Key words: Valsiner’s zone theory, mathematics teaching, pseudo promote action (P-PA).