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Cognitive Development - Reflective Statement

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Thirteen years ago I first started learning to play the guitar and today I am still very passionate about developing my skills on the instrument. Looking in detail at the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, this reflective statement will explore my learning journey of playing the guitar and a challenge I faced with my development explaining the impact it had with reference to the chosen theories. Jean Piaget and Lev Semanovich Vygotsky were two of the most influential theorists that contributed to how we view cognitive development today. Piaget was born in 1896 in Neuchatel, Switzerland to a father who was a scientist and a mentally ill mother. Like his father, this led him to spend most of his time in scientific study rather than perusing …show more content…

This would have first been shown when introduced to the image of a guitar. By not having any prior schemes connected to this new experience, I would have entered a mental state of disequilibrium. To try fixing this imbalanced state, Piaget describes a process called ‘adaptation’ taking place. This is the process of adjusting to new situations and experiences through the modification of existing schemes or the creation of new schemes by either of two processes called ‘accommodation’ or ‘assimilation’. Accommodation refers to creating fresh information to form a new mental image or scheme. An example would be when I first experienced seeing a guitar, a new ‘guitar’ scheme was created and every other experience of guitars was then added to this scheme. As well as accommodation taking place, assimilation is used to adjust existing mental models or schemes to fit a mental experience (Krause, Bochner, Duchesne, & McMaugh, 2010). An example of this would be when I previously had only seen acoustic guitars, and then being introduced to the experience of seeing an electric guitar for the first time. Knowing that it looked similar to what I currently thought a guitar looks like, but the shape and size were different, I experienced disequilibrium and then using accommodation I adjusted my existing mental model and scheme to fit the new experience. Once balance between what is

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