As children, I feel as though we don’t necessarily think about the way we’re learning or whether it is right or wrong for us. Children seem to have no boundaries anything can be the answer, thinking outside the box is natural for them. However, as Teal (2011) discusses adults learn based on situations and we learn for the moment and not so much based on a direct citation from the teacher. According to From Now On (2003) “the American 
Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language defines pedagogy as ‘the art or profession of teaching.’ ” Children are open-minded and do not see things the same way as adults. Children tend to learn from the dictation of their teacher. Word for word, verbatim what the teacher says, children soak up the information and memorize to build on. Adults take their life lessons and experiences and apply the material they are learning to better understand the material or take the material and utilize it in their lives at the time they are learning.
In the video about Piaget’s developmental theory by Davidson Films, Inc Piaget asks the question “Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known?” I think this is the backbone of his theory. The video goes on to discuss how children are more likely to notice uncommon patterns than adults because they do not have a set concept in their head that the pattern needs to be a certain way. McLeod (2015) states the four stages: “1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2), 2. Pre-operational stage (from age 2 to age 7), 3. Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11), and 4. Formal operational stage (age 11+ – adolescence and adulthood)”. As we age we learn to process information differently. It’s almost a little ironic that as adults we are constantly being told to think outside the box and yet as children we are so open-minded we tend to think beyond the logic to find the answer. I believe this could be due to the formal operational stage where adults take their life experiences to process information. In life information is tossed our way daily, this information can come in many forms and how we understand this information happens three ways: logic, conceptual thinking and/or the understanding of rules.
As an Athletic Trainer, I use all three every day. I am with my patients through every step of the injury process; prevention through return to play and strengthening after. If a patient comes to me and I evaluate them I go through a series of questions and tests before I make a possible diagnosis based off their responses. Logic allows me to take information and have deductive reasoning based on that information. Rules and concepts are best paired with rehabilitation. Rules are the standard for anything and, in my opinion, are put into place (hopefully) to keep everyone safe. For athletic trainer’s rules come into place to keep our patients safe and to create a standard of care. I know if my patient has an ankle sprain receives treatment I am not going to tell them to put their ankle into a hot tub because that would be a contraindication and make their ankle worse not better. I like to think rules happen because there is logic behind them.
Concepts are a generalization of anything, the big picture have you will. For instance, ice on that swollen ankle is good is a concept. You can then break down that concept into detail on why ice is good for swelling to create a logic behind the concept, which in turn would allow one the ability to create rules about the concept. Concepts are great for Athletic Trainers because if we think about the concepts of healing our patients we can make them better through means that might not be mainstream treatments.
Every time we process information our brain neurons are firing. In fact, every time we do anything our brain neurons are firing. While there is not a lot of in-depth research on brain functions, we know the basics. When we learn, our neurons send information through pathways over synapses. These synapses are gaps between the neurons while they are microscopic in size crosses the synapse is similar to “crossing a deep ravine” (Tallis, 2015) for the first time. How we cross these synapses could be the start of the belief in learning styles. While learning styles have been debunked as being a necessity for teachers to focus on in terms of instructing a classroom I think it is important to understand that as humans we have likes and dislikes and if I am a person who enjoys learning by hands on and visual work I am probably not going to be as interested in learning material that comes from a pure lecture hall. Learning more about the wonders of how our brain works is such an important part of better understand ourselves, each other, and how to more efficiently communicate material to our patients or students. Programs such as The University of Southern Californias’ Human Connectome Project are just the beginning of digging deeper into the brain through imaging.
References
Davidson Films Inc. (2010, June 21). Piaget’s Developmental Theory: an Overview (Davidson FIlms, Inc.) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX6JxLwMJeQ
FNO. (2003, September). Pedagogy Does Matter! Retrieved from http://www.fno.org/sept03/pedagogy.html
McLeod, S. A. (2015). Jean Piaget | Cognitive Theory | Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
Tallis, T. (2015, March 2). How We Learn – Synapses and Neural Pathways (BSL) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6atleMfZqQ
TEAL Center Staff. (2011). Retrieved from https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/11_%20TEAL_Adult_Learning_Theory.pdf
Keeley Glonek, ATC, LAT 