Articles

Learning at the McKinnon Institute: Proficiency with the Bricks

Being a parent has pulled me into some unexpected alleyways of learning. One such journey came in reading about those who design imaginative constructions for LEGO, the maker of the ubiquitous small, brightly-colored plastic bricks that fit together — the same sharp-edged bricks that I've stepped on too many times while walking barefoot through my house. While LEGO makes many specialized pieces, those who design and make creations for LEGO itself first have to demonstrate high proficiency with the simple basic brick. From the basic bricks spring forth the larger modules that eventually combine into thematic displays. In learning to skillfully practice the art and profession of massage, we can take a lesson from LEGO — the basic bricks are the starting points.

The program of massage instruction that we've created at the McKinnon Institute could have taken its cue from the LEGO approach. Our program teaches skills within classes that combine into certificates. It's a modular approach that, like the LEGO bricks, gives students at lot of freedom in choosing the content and timing right for them. Beyond freedom of creativity, however, there are some sound educational reasons why I strongly believe in this modular approach.

Over the last three or four decades, there has been a revolution in the study of the mind. Both from cognitive psychology and from neuroscience, there have been new insights into how we learn and develop expertise [1,2]. What's been discovered is that bringing new skills and knowledge into use is far more complex than simple memorization. As the inventor Charles Kettering observed, "You can know a lot about something and not really understand it". The ability to take tests is a poor predictor of ability to practice.

Gaining expertise is a process of information organization. Two of the major keys to this process are engagement and situational practice. Engagement means that a student must be involved in an active process of questioning and discovery. A learning process must challenge what students thought they knew as well as simply adding new concepts. The instructor's job is to provide the stimulus and context and, in the mode of a tour guide, help the student to notice the important landmarks.

Situational practice implies that the situation of learning be a close match to what will be encountered in actual practice. We learn best incrementally; when we add small increments to what we have already learned and immediately apply them to our practice. We need to experience the ambiguity of deciding for ourselves how and when to use a new technique, while having a mentor to critique our choices. Learning is an active process that, at its best, closely resembles an apprenticeship.

This brings us back to the concepts embodied in the modular approach of the McKinnon programs. Our goal is to allow students to learn, gain experience in real practice, and then continue into the next increment of learning. We provide the basic bricks of technique concepts, kinesthetic vocabulary, and nonverbal communication skills while students bring in their own learning styles and experience.

Sometimes the bricks are corrections to a student's biomechanics so that they will work effectively with much less effort. Sometimes they take the form of having a "client" gently activate a muscle while we palpate its course, so that our hands and minds combine their independent knowledge of anatomy. Sometimes it's the fun of doing Tai Ji push hands with colored balloons helping to diagnose our hand-to-hand contact — an exercise that gets us out of our minds and into our bodies while molding us from a collection of individual students into a cooperating class of co-learners. The LEGO people were right, you have to start from proficiency with the bricks.

[1] Theodore J. Marchese, 1998: The New Conversations about Learning: Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology, Cognitive Science and Work-Place Studies, The Adult Learner in Higher Education and the Workplace, New Horizons for Learning. (http://www.newhorizons.org/lrnbus_marchese.html)

[2] National Research Council, 2000: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Expanded Edition, National Academy Press. (http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9853.html)

Keith Eric Grant is head of the sports and deep tissue massage department at the McKinnon Massage Institute in Oakland, CA. He is also a computational physicist; an avid dancer; and an advocate of teaching orthopedic massage within the greater contexts of kinesthetic awareness communication skills.