Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect: Motor Learning, Psychosocial Foundations & Teaching That Sticks — with Dr. Myra Meekins

Hands On Hands Off

Today on Hands On, Hands Off, host Moyo Tillery sits down with Dr. Myra Meekins—PT, educator, and curriculum designer—to rethink how we teach and learn OMPT. From “practice makes perfect” to practice with purpose, Myra connects classic motor-learning models to the OPTIMAL theory (expectancies, autonomy, external focus), and shows why you must address the psychosocial to change the psychomotor.

We get concrete about designing sticky learning experiences for DPT students, residents, and fellows; building safe, high-expectation lab cultures; and using feedback, simulations, and competency-based education to translate knowledge to performance. Myra also shares her path from MTI fellowship and WashU’s Movement System Impairments work to leading curriculum development for a new DPT program and co-investigating a $1.6M grant bringing PT simulation into high schools.

You’ll learn

• Why clear expectations + psychological safety accelerates skill acquisition
• How to scaffold from competence → refinement → mastery across DPT, residency, and fellowship
• Practical ways to make learning “stick” for a class of 100 (and a class of 10)
• Using low-stakes, frequent formative assessment to steer teaching in real time
• Designing integrated, case-based curricula (and avoiding silo traps)
• What competency-based education and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) look like in PT
• Movement as the organizing principle: applying Movement System Impairments to guide exam & intervention
• Why educators must adapt to the learner in front of them, not the one they used to be