Cognitive Development - Reflective Statement
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 more conventional leisure activities. He was a very gifted as a child and at the age of 10 had published his first scientific article. At 14 he was offered a curators position at the Geneva Museum of Nation History and at 18 he had gained his first Bachelor’s degree. He then completed his PHD and by the time he was 21 he had published 25 scholarly papers. From his studies with children in Paris, he became convinced that children think in ways that are qualitatively different than adults. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 84 (Krause, Bochner, Duchesne, & McMaugh, 2010). Like Piaget, Vygotsky was born into an intellectual family in the southern Byelorussian town of Gomel. Intellectually gifted as a child with an extraordinary memory, he was educated at home and later won a place at the University of Moscow in 1913. After completing university with a degree in law, he returned to Byelorussia and taught a range of subjects to adults and children including language and literature, logic and psychology, and art history and theatre. During this teaching he became interested in children with learning difficulties and intellectual disabilities inspiring him to develop research clinics that conducted research on such children. He was
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 more conventional leisure activities. He was a very gifted as a child and at the age of 10 had published his first scientific article. At 14 he was offered a curators position at the Geneva Museum of Nation History and at 18 he had gained his first Bachelor’s degree. He then completed his PHD and by the time he was 21 he had published 25 scholarly papers. From his studies with children in Paris, he became convinced that children think in ways that are qualitatively different than adults. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 84 (Krause, Bochner, Duchesne, & McMaugh, 2010). Like Piaget, Vygotsky was born into an intellectual family in the southern Byelorussian town of Gomel. Intellectually gifted as a child with an extraordinary memory, he was educated at home and later won a place at the University of Moscow in 1913. After completing university with a degree in law, he returned to Byelorussia and taught a range of subjects to adults and children including language and literature, logic and psychology, and art history and theatre. During this teaching he became interested in children with learning difficulties and intellectual disabilities inspiring him to develop research clinics that conducted research on such children. He was
References: Krause, K., Bochner, S., Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A. (2010). Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching (3rd ed.). Victoria: Cengage Learning