Principle 9: Skill level varies across a developmental range.
Proficiency comes from developing skills with and without social support in different contexts.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about constrained and unconstrained skills for people that run, fund, and assist organizations that teach and serve kids. This post is part of a series that describes 14 key principles of skill building I identified from the Science of Learning and Development. (Especially Dynamic Skill Theory.) Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
Last updated: June 4, 2025
Key Takeaway
Skill is the ability to think and act in an organized way in a specific context (Immordino-Yang and Fischer, 2010). The developmental range is the difference in a person’s skill level with social support (optimal level) and without support (functional level). With the right amount of challenge, rigor, feedback, and support, we can intentionally help children drive accelerate progress across their developmental range (Cantor et al., 2019).
“Skills are not all or none: A person does not suddenly move from not being able to perform a task to performing it well. Instead, a person’s skills vary frequently between two upper limits – a functional level, the most complex performance that a child or adult performs without support, and an optimal level, the most complex performance that she or he performs with explicit support, such as through modeling or priming. As a person builds a more competent, automated skill, she no longer requires extensive support, and can routinely perform well at a functional level.” (Fischer and Immordino-Yang, 2002)
The developmental range is the difference in a person’s ability with and without social support (Fischer & Bidell, 2006). At the low end is the functional level. This is the highest skill level for a particular task or activity a person is capable of independently. When a person receives high support, their skill level for the same task typically increases (Mascolo, 2020). This is called the optimal level.
We routinely operate at different skill levels for different tasks. “In optimal contexts–with high support, familiar tasks, and motivation to perform–children show a true upper limit on performance” (Fischer et al., 1993). Everyday we use skills across our developmental range.
As adults, we operate at our functional level when we prepare a familiar meal, read a newspaper, or drive a familiar route in low to moderate traffic. We move closer to our optimal level when we follow a recipe to prepare a meal for the first time; read a complex text after hearing a relevant lecture; or use GPS to drive an unfamiliar route (Fischer & Yan, 2002; Mascolo, 2020).
This concept of the developmental range builds upon Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. The ZPD emphasizes the level of support a person receives to complete a task or engage in an activity. The developmental range goes further to incorporate the conditions under which a task or activity is engaged: skill area, features of the task, context, emotions, motivation, time of day, etc. (See Principles 3, 6, and 7.)
A person’s skill level for the same task can vary moment to moment based upon a combination of these factors. People show one level of ability when they act independently and a much higher ability in a highly supported context (Fischer et al., 1993; Fischer, 2008; Mascolo & Fischer, 2010).
We are most aware of our developmental range when we learn something new. When prompted by a more experienced teacher or mentor, we can understand a new idea or practice a new skill at a relatively high level. We are operating closer to our optimal level.
But when we leave and try to explain the new idea or demonstrate the skill to a friend we find our ability drops precipitously. We are operating closer to our functional level. This idea of the developmental range applies across tasks, ages, and cultures. The range grows larger with age at least through the late twenties (Fischer & Bidell, 2006).
Instructional and program design can intentionally support the acceleration of students’ progress across their developmental range. Examples include: 1) intentional leverage of prior knowledge; 2) activities that support retention of knowledge and information in long-term memory; 3) presentation of material in multiple modalities and contexts; and, 4) use of strategies such as well-designed project-based learning, well-designed service learning, and well-designed collaborative learning (Cantor et al., 2019).
But wait, there’s more
Works Cited
Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2019). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307–337.
Fischer, K. W. (2008). Dynamic cycles of cognitive and brain development: Measuring growth in mind, brain, and education. In A. M. Battro, K. W. Fischer, & P. Léna (Eds.), The educated brain (pp. 127–150). Cambridge University Press.
Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic development of action and thought. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 313–399). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fischer, K. W., Bullock, D. H., Rotenberg, E. J., & Raya, P. (1993). The dynamics of competence: How context contributes directly to skill. In R. Wozniak & K. Fischer (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fischer, K. W., & Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2002). Cognitive development and education: From dynamic general structure to specific learning and teaching. In E. Lagemann (Ed.), Traditions of scholarship in education. Spencer Foundation.
Fischer, K. W., & Yan, Z. (2002). Darwin’s construction of the theory of evolution: Microdevelopment of explanations of variation and change in species. In N. Granott & J. Parziale (Eds.), Microdevelopment: Transition processes in development and learning. Cambridge University Press.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). Neuroscience bases of learning. In V. G. Aukrust (Ed.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd Edition, pp. 310–316). Elsevier.
Mascolo, M. F. (2020). Dynamic skill theory: An integrative model of psychological development. In M. F. Mascolo & T. R. Bidell (Eds.), Handbook of integrative developmental science: Essays in honor of Kurt W. Fischer (pp. 91–135). Routledge.
Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). The dynamic development of thinking, feeling, and acting over the lifespan. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of life-span development (Vol. 1, pp. 149–194). Wiley.