End of term celebrations

I added a video clip yesterday ('Monitoring Your Progress Of Learning To Drive') to my YouTube channel (“2010BIGTOM”) which was emphasising the need to continue learning, don’t stop when you are getting closer to Test.  It’s a really hard concept to ‘sell’ because we all naturally begin to unwind when we see the finishing line up ahead.  Athletes are trained hard on the need to keep up the intensity to go THROUGH the finishing line, not just UP TO the finishing line.

My Wife recently mentioned to me an incident that happened at her Grammar School on the last day of term.  A Teacher was horrified to see a bunch of young lads, using the school car park to do wheel spins in figure of 8’s, handbrake turns and the like.  They got hauled in, and my Wife was tearing them to shreds.  However, when she got to the point of raising the safety issues associated with that behaviour, the courageous one of the group interrupted her saying, and I quote:

“No, that’s not right Miss, you see as we’ve all passed the Test, the Government have deemed us safe to drive on the roads.”

Now whatever you think about the rights and wrongs of the statement, you have to say that in order to interrupt to make that point, he must truly believe it.  It gives a very clear insight to the attitude of some about the standard of driving required post test – it will have taken some guts to make that comment, and I would suggest that in order for him to say it, he must have felt that he was on really solid ground.

And there we have just a little captured moment of the very real problem with attitudes to learning to drive.  How typical that attitude is..... no idea.  But it’s real, it happened, and I would say it is a rare glimpse, of a truly heartfelt opinion and will go a long way to explain why the insurance premiums for newly qualified drivers is as high as it is.      

Intensive Driving Courses

Just thought I would outine some of the options for people that are considering doing an intensive driving course. 

My 1 week version is by far the cheapest option at £540.  4 hrs of 1:1 in-car training on each week-day, and 5hrs on the Saturday and Sunday.  As I make perfectly clear on the video http://youtu.be/GIcm3t14ilo   it is not going to be for everyone.  It is mentally and physically hard work.  If you are a person that likes to learn things at a slower pace, without pressure, plenty of repetition to form habits, then maybe this is not the best choice for you.  But for sure, many people are booked in to this course as it is incredibly good value.

Another option, is to break down the 30hrs into more ‘bite size’ chunks.  So 2 weeks worth of 3hr sessions every weekday with the weekend off is also popular.  It’s still demanding, it is still hard work, but it is slightly less intense – and that can be purchased for £650 with an added 2hr introductory session for just £20.

The other option for people that are busy busy busy in the week, is to book yourself up some weekend sessions.  Again, these can be tailor made to suit your requirements so for example you could do a 9am – 1pm session followed by a 4pm-8pm session on Saturdays and Sundays.  Do that over just 2 weekends and you have accumulated 32 hrs of training.  Those 4 hr sessions are £120 each.

And then of course there is the option of purchasing a block booking of a certain number of hours, and then you can plan them into your diary as and when you need them.

There are plenty of choices.  Ultimately this is for you to choose what suits your schedule as well as your budget and perhaps most importantly your preferred learning style.

Depressing learning techniques

We can’t mind read and so we need to find out what our pupils are thinking as they drive.  Some will naturally talk as they drive, some will do if you ask them to, and some will find that a real struggle.  Whether you call it a skill to be able to talk as you think is not important to me, what is important however is knowing what your pupil is thinking.

In the early days we tend to just tell them what to do, and generally speaking if you are clear and you give them time, they will do exactly that.  But after a while, the speed of the vehicle tends to overtake the speed of the thought processes.  This is a crucial phase.  There is an ability to physically drive, but sometimes the brain gets a little hung up on the sequence or priority of actions.  No problem, you know the consequences of the problem, you know why it’s occurring and now you just have to sort out preventing it from recurring.

As you can see from the above, people are unique, they vary in their ability to multi-task, they vary in their ability to communicate, they vary in their ability to assess and they vary in their ability to decide.  We are all different.  It is a fact.  When a Parent rings up and asks how long it will take to teach their Son/Daughter how to drive, they are not considering these factors.

 

So what is needed is an ability to root cause why something is occurring.  

Only by understanding why a driving fault is happening will you stand any chance of dealing with it.  Many Instructors bypass this process, and what they emphasise is the need to control the action, or prompt it.  But the real key is understanding, properly understanding why the necessary action is not occurring.  As Driving Instructors you can tell someone why an action is needed until you are blue in the face, but unless they personally connect with that, until they actually buy into what you say, you are literally wasting your time. 

In effect, this concept of explain and prompt is nothing more than drip feeding a robotic sequence of events.  “I must do these mirrors now because if I don’t my Instructor will pull me over and bore me to tears about the need to do mirrors in this particular order/timing”.  That is not learning, that is simply learning by repetition and in effect forced learning.  There is no connection in that type of learning, it is weak, superficial and more to the point dangerous.  Dangerous because you can be sure that as soon as your Pupil obtains their pass, they will be dropping those stupid, pathetic actions immediately.

If you are simply interested in forcing your Pupil to follow a sequence of actions in order to pass a test, then you are dumbing down learning.  This is not learning times tables, or constructing a sentence in a different language, this is learning a life skill that requires an ability to APPLY the theory in any unique situation.  The more diverse the area surrounding a Test Centre the more unique situations crop up and the more often the least prepared pupils will suffer.

This approach does fly in the face of fashion of course.  These days, everyone, generally speaking, wants to achieve everything the day before yesterday.  As such, intensive courses are becoming increasingly popular.   But it is generally wise to pause, take stock and evaluate how appropriate this kind of rate of learning suits an individual’s learning patterns.  Some people do naturally have an ability to appreciate/respond to guidance when learning a new skill and some people need time to do that.  It is quite frankly bonkers to ignore this fact when considering how a person wants to learn to drive.

I believe that more emphasis needs to be placed on how each individual Pupils like to learn to drive, than on any generic learning technique.  You ask any decent Chef how they cook a dish, or any golfer how they strike a ball, or any musician how they play a piece of music – you will quickly realise people visualise, explain, and do things in completely different ways, what they do not like is monotonous, standardised teaching methods.

Sorry - I'm out of magic wands

I did a little bit of work with a certain PDI a long time ago, I can’t be certain but would be surprised if it was more than 4hrs.  I then heard nothing else until the day before yesterday, when he informed me that he had now had 2 attempts at the Part 3 Test, failed both and was now asking if I had a ‘couple of hours’ to do some training before his third and final attempt later this month.

Now I must state from the start that it’s not for me to judge anyone on how they go about their strategy for training for a new career so I do not intend to blog here in a critical way but I genuinely do believe there is something to be gained by looking at strategy.

As I recently posted on my G+ page (which has a lot of stuff on it for PDI’s by the way), when training to be a Driving Instructor you must have one eye on passing the test criteria and one eye on what is required for you to be properly prepared for the job once qualified.  One of my biggest criticisms with some of the training provided by the large nationals out there, is that they only consider the test criteria.  As such, if you are able to perform a reverse bay park satisfactorily for the Part 2 test, then as it’s not tested on the Part 3 test, they don’t include in their training how to teach reverse bay park.  Now that is a big omission in my opinion.  And it is that kind of lack of attention to detail that I think does not assist PDI’s in the slightest.

But as it turned out, this PDI I heard from the other day has had no professional training (except my 4hrs) at all!  None whatsoever!  He said to me that he had watched a few videos on the subject from the YouTube channel of a Trainer and that with some buddying up with another PDI appeared to be the sum of his training strategy.

Whilst the YouTube video channels can be useful, I think it is a bit much to expect them to be the primary learning tool for training for a new career.  I’ve said on my blog here and elsewhere several times, my viewing list that I provide pre-course is a preparatory tool, preparing for the 1:1 in-car training – you can’t learn how to drive by watching a video!

Although this may now appear harsh given the circumstances,  if for no other reason that assisting other PDI’s who are considering their strategy; listen very carefully to the advice professionals in the industry give.  

I was unfortunately unable to assist this PDI as I can't fit him in the diary until late August at the earliest and it seems he is now under time pressure (2 yrs from passing Part 1).

"When do you want to pass your test?"

Generally speaking when people want to learn to drive, they want to learn well, and asap.  So there can be a slight conflict there.  At the start I will always ask when do they want to pass the test by, and some show great restraint and will calmly say something along the lines of ...... “Well I’m not too fussed on when, as long as I learn properly”.  And how can anyone argue with that as an approach?

But I find that approach is not goal orientated enough.  It’s an answer that whiffs a little bit of.... ‘let’s just see shall we Tom, what will be will be’.  And whilst that may come across as calm and relaxed, the potential problem is that once people realise I can get them driving the car in 4-6hrs, and it’s a nice feeling, and it gets addictive, then inevitably that answer of ‘I’m not too fussed’ goes and is replaced with a desire to pass the test quick sharp.

It’s all perfectly natural of course.  You can’t get overly excited about something when you don’t know how good it is.  I’m sure some of us think the latest gizmo ‘would be nice to get as and when’, but only when you get the thing do you realise how utterly brilliant it is and you wonder why on earth you didn’t get it earlier. 

This is why I do like to try and get some clear goal on timescales.  I’m not one for poodling around locally where you live, repeatedly covering old ground, I like stretching people.  So whilst I appreciate this may not be for some, I like variation and continually challenging people.  To get the the rate of learning steady and continuous, driving in new areas, on unfamiliar roads is key.   So lots of driving, and lots of driving on unfamiliar roads.  A chap who started with me this week, spent 6 hours getting familiar with the car locally, then he drove to a new town yesterday, and will go to a new City today.  It is that rate of learning that keeps things interesting, makes it an enjoyable experience.  As I say though, not for everyone, some people like slower rates of learning, ‘back burner’ learning as I call it – no problem with that either, it just takes longer that’s all. 

Looking at the variables of what you could experience, there are a few things you can control.  By setting the time of your sessions to say evening only, you are generally going to learn in quieter conditions as there will be less traffic.  May appeal in the short term, but is not a reflection of how you will be driving post test, and you can’t take tests in the evening either!

You can control where you drive around.  You are the customer, you control where you go – as long as you appreciate the connection between lack of variety and the longer it takes to learn.  If you want quiet roads, no traffic, no peds, no cyclists etc then that’s fine, but at some stage you are going to need to up your game when training if you want to train to be able to deal with what is coming your way after you pass your test.

You can control how long your sessions are.  1 hour may appeal as it is short and sweet, but it does limit where you can go to train (not great if you live a long way from a Test Centre).  The other thing is that a longer driving session generally is more efficient as the continuity enables progression, loads of short sessions makes it very disjointed.

You can control how often you train.  If you plan in regular and frequent sessions then you are never too long from your previous experience, so you tend to get back where you left off that bit quicker and then, off you go again.  Leave it too long, and recalling what you did last time is an effort, and getting to the same standard as last time is an effort.  By the way, I find this planning of sessions is absolutely key to the efficiency of your learning.  If you do not forward plan your sessions, book them in early with me, then what can easily happen is that you feel disappointed when you can’t get a session as soon as you would like, or at the time that you like.  A different mindset is required for learning to drive -this is not a timetabled event like at College, this needs planning by you, so that you get what you want.  That is a responsibility and I find some people embrace that better than others.

You cannot control the weather!  So learning in the Summer months means you are fairly unlikely to encounter fog, frost, snow, sleet, driving in the dark.  They all present their own problems and are good experiences when training.

The alternative is you don’t concern yourself with any of the above.  You simply say to me, ‘Tell you what Tom, you just organise it all for me’ and that’s your choice.  I will happily arrange for the opportunity to be there for you to learn efficiently.  I’ll stipulate when, where, how long, etc but just as long as that is not confused with who is responsible for the learning!  

I guess you could summarise by saying that the more focussed you are with what you want to happen from the outset, tends to dictate what does happen. 

Your Drivers Pack

The ‘Drivers Pack’ is essential to the course.  

Inside the pack is the proposed syllabus, a progress monitoring record, a template for reflecting on driving sessions, and the actual notes that are taken on the sessions themselves. 

How much attention anyone wants to pay to that pack I guess is their choice.  I’m not sure when you are learning something new why you would actually choose not to refer to the key learning points at any point; that seems to me to be a very worthwhile few minutes spent.

So when a session finishes, you take your Drivers Pack with you, and in doing so you have a key reference to what has been done in-car, including suggested videos to watch to reinforce the learning.  

When I next see you, you need to bring that pack as it is the starting reference point to the next session.  I will refer to the key learning points and pitch some questions on them, I will look at the progress sheet to see what subjects have been covered and when, and what stage you are at on them.  We will then discuss some objectives for the session – that will be pitched precisely for your needs.

If you don’t bring the Drivers Pack, oh dear, now that causes problems.  Inevitably we spend longer reviewing what was done the last time I saw you – I will be relying on an accurate account from you with regards to the key learning points.  I have no means of seeing your progress to date and it all starts to get a little amateurish in it’s approach..... not a nice place to be.

If on the other hand you continue to not bring the Drivers Pack to your driving sessions then it truly starts to get very murky.  It all goes very wishy washy as the foundations of the course have been taken away – we are truly into the territory of driving lessons ‘on the hoof’ – communication, trust and accountability between pupil and trainer is rock bottom and I would argue that the programme of learning is then on shaky ground.  The efficiency of the learning experience is very much reduced which ultimately means it takes longer to learn and costs more.  That consequence will displease you,  and you then go elsewhere, where you start the process off again – and no-one ‘wins’ from that experience.  

Pause - observe - act

A couple of blogs ago I said I was intending to look up this concept of 'Masterly Inactivity' this weekend.  

The more I read the more I like the ‘feel’ of it.  And I do think it can be one of those ‘feely’ type concepts.... you go with the flow, you adapt to what is in front of you; this is not a concept of pre-conceived ideas or checklists, this seems to be willing and able to read urgent/pressing situations accurately to then give the absolute appropriate response – calmly, thoroughly, without fuss.

It strikes me that to do the above would take some confidence.  To have that level of willingness to say...   ‘let what’s going to happen....happen’ will not appeal to many I’m thinking.  It may well be that this skill if we are calling it a ‘skill’ can only be properly executed by the experienced.

It’s roots do seem to be medical.  It dates back to the 19^th Century.  There appears to be a balance between being prepared to sit tight, closely monitor and ultimately wait, with the need to ensure you are covering all the bases, ensuring you are keeping up to date with all the latest information; sometimes minute changes, and being prepared to ‘act’ at a moments notice.  So yes intuition appears to feature here, gut feel if you like  – there is an element of reasoned instinct being suggested.  But  I gather this is not to be confused with ‘let’s wait and see’ or ‘no idea, let’s see what happens’ – that is definitely not masterly inactivity, that is simply waiting to react to whatever crops up.

And I think this is why I like this concept.  I can certainly think of lots of situations on the driving front where I’ve needed to ‘pause’ and ‘monitor’.  Also, in my previous career, I can instantly recall dealing with a suicide ‘jumper’ on Staples Corner where I effectively used this policy (unknowingly to be honest) to good effect.

It seems to be actively waiting, not to be confused with putting to the back of the queue.  This is an activity that deserves, even demands attention, but it is wise to wait, observe and then act.  And in that regard, I can see that this is a useful skill while driving, and while teaching others to learn to drive. 

With teaching others to drive, it is extremely easy to fuss about, detailing the most minute of detail, acting very busy busy busy in your professional capacity, and missing the most fundamental of details about your pupil that simply needed you to sit back a bit, pause and notice.  We can be so busy ticking boxes, and executing text book instruction if you like to call it that, that we miss the most blindingly obvious details in our haste to go the ‘DSA’ way. 

With regards to driving, I instantly recall a pursuit in my previous career that resulted after quite some time with me following the vehicle on to a dis-used field.  Rather than instinctively acting, the better decision of pausing and monitoring turned out to be so much more effective as it led to a complete exit of the vehicle from the driver ‘in motion’ so to speak – who knows what may have occurred if I’d taken a more active/busy option.

So yes, I like this idea. ... it appeals to me greatly; don’t know what you think?

Learning how to drive in a classroom

I’ve been recording my mileage on my driving sessions this week.  It’s good to monitor these kind of things should anyone ask me.  

Another good measure is how much time my Learners spend literally driving in a given hour.  I don’t mean sitting on the side of the road talking, I mean with wheels rolling, car moving.  It seems to me that with this increasing trend of Driving Instructors providing lessons at £9 per hour there must be lots of talking and precious little driving going on.  I think it’s really important to stay focussed on what your customer needs – and in my game that means as much time driving under professional supervision as is possible.

On that note, today, I’ve just finished a superb 30hr intensive course.  Despite the pretty poor weather conditions – raining every single day, it has been amazing what has been achieved over 7 days.  I always make a point of asking people at the end of the course if there is anything I could have done or said that would better prepare them for the course.  Today, I was told that the training was completely and utterly mentally and physically draining, and the analogy that my pupil mentioned I thought was worthy of repeating here.  She said that she found the days training a little bit like the feeling you get when you start off with a new employer – that feeling when you get back home of utter exhaustion.  She said that whilst she definitely found the 2^nd half of the week less demanding than the first, it was a tough first few days.

Now I find that kind of feedback is very beneficial.  You see, tomorrow I have an absolute beginner starting with me who has decided to do 10 lots of 3 hrs over the next 10 weekdays.  So he has decided to take things just a little bit easier than the intensive course; not 4 hrs a day but 3, and also with the weekend off in between.  Now of course we are all different.  We all have different needs.  But I reckon that there’s much to be said for placing more emphasis on how you like to learn than on the price.  The difference in price between those 2 courses  is £110.  So it’s a question of balancing out how well you will learn after 30hrs of instruction over 7 consecutive days compared to 2 weeks.  Yes, the 7 day option is cheaper, but are you going to be able to learn at that rate?

Many of my competitors who advertise on the radio and the like, use a model of using classroom training in the week.  They speak of ‘5 days’, not 7 days like I do but '5 days'.  So they are (apparently) putting into '5 days' what I’m doing over 7 days and yet also finding time in those '5 days' for their customers to be not behind the steering wheel, but in classrooms.   The thing is, and this is the real point, you can take the option my pupil who is starting tomorrow has, for CHEAPER than any of these organisations who do the classroom sessions. 

I ask you this, when you want to learn how to drive, what would you prefer, practising by driving, or sitting in a classroom talking about driving?

Masterly inactivity

I heard about the term ‘masterly inactivity’ earlier this week which apparently is used commonly in the medical world particularly at times of high stress in emergencies.  I plan to do some digging around this weekend to learn some more about it.  But it’s been swishing around in my head since I heard about it.  Although I know very little about it, what I have heard, it seems there is much to be said for the concept and it may have many advantages in other applications, driving too.

I can think of both personal and business situations where deciding to do nothing has proved to be very beneficial.  I don’t believe we’re talking inactivity as in ‘still rabbits in headlights’, but deciding to wait, do nothing at this precise moment in time for a certain period of time, has definitely worked for me in the past.

There are some mental skills when driving that are absolutely key, being assertive, confident, forward planning, anticipation, decision making.  And keeping calm and methodical is way up top of any list that I would make – let me give you an example from yesterday:

My pupil was approaching a 4 exit roundabout, and I asked her to take the 4^th exit on the right.  Rather than looking at the sign that was slightly obscured by branches, she asked “What.... back on ourselves?” to which I said “Yea” as the 4^th exit was at 5 o/c on the clock face and we were approaching at 6 o/c. 

So she then set up the approaching speed and gears beautifully, she ‘read’ the roundabout well, and as such she entered it without pausing, she then counted off in her head the exits, at exit 3 did lovely obs, signalled at the correct time, moved over and was just about to exit on the 4^th exit when she suddenly jerked the steering wheel to the right and made moves to come off where we had started.

We pull over later on, and she tells me that she was confused as she thought we were going ‘back on ourselves’ as I had said we were. 

All the planning on the approach, the execution of the roundabout, everything was spot on, then rather than following through to complete that sequence of following the instruction “4^th exit on the right”, suddenly a little gremlin in the back of the head starts questioning, and confusing matters. 

‘4^th exit on the right’ is sufficiently accurate enough of an instruction to not be confused.  ‘Back on ourselves’ is not a good description of direction and will NOT be used by Examiners on Test.    If there are branches obscuring the view of the sign on approach it strikes me you have two choices – you either slow down so that you have more time to view that sign, or you go with your instinct and follow the logical sequence – following the instruction word for word. 

An Examiner on the Test will not appreciate questions from a candidate like “What.... back on ourselves?”, or “What....not that one there, but the other?”, or “Do you mean over there?” – getting a system that you can apply independently AND HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO STICK WITH, is key.

Needing constant confirmation of intended junctions to exit, or where a turn is, or where to pull over, or what the speed limit is, or whether to wait for a bus to pull out, or whether a green filter arrow is intended for us – are all signs of someone not being truly independent yet..... not a crime, just a symptom.

And sometimes when we are faced with those odd little moments in driving when we are questioning ourselves, I rather suspect ‘masterly inactivity’ will be the order of the day for a split second – mirrors, off gas and wait (that wait enables you to digest information around you, it enables others to be aware of you, and that time often lets things naturally unfold).  

Somebody please raise testing standards.

About 2 years ago, I saw that a post-graduate on The Apprentice was unable to work out in her head the change that was required from a £20 – and it reinforced to me that the education ‘system’ if you like, was not ‘fit for purpose’.   So the news coming through right now that Exam Boards have been making exams easier so as to be more attractive for schools to purchase from them rather than a competitor is hardly surprising.  Employers have been saying for a long time now that the academic ability of the average school leaver is effectively unemployable – to no effect.

There are similarities in the driving training industry.  Pretending that driving standards are increasing when we have ever increasing insurance premiums is nonsense.  Not enough emphasis is placed on the importance of a rigorous test at the end of the training.  I realise that comparing academic qualifications with a life skill such as driving is not too clever, but in principle, the end test is the means by which you assess if the learning is sufficient enough to be fit for purpose. 

The practical test for Learners sets the benchmark of the training they receive.  There is enough evidence out there to realise that training providers are dumbing down training so as to appeal more attractive to the customers.  You only need look at the national pass rate to appreciate that even with the standard of the test as low as it is, people are often not meeting that standard.  Training providers get very defensive and some start to aggressively claim that is not how THEY go about their business.  But this is all hot air, because, most people will instinctively defend their corner to the claim I’m making here, I’d expect them to.  But you have to look at the facts.  The DSA are speaking to newly qualified drivers who have passed their test – and are being told that often they don’t feel equipped for driving independently post-test; and these are people that pass!

It seems to me that many training providers in the driving industry are too prepared to defend their corner in just the way that school Heads will defend their ever increasing exam results.  It fools no-one.  People can hide behind stats, but unless there is a proper assessment of the ‘end product’ that ensures the learning standard attained is fit for the purpose it is designed, we will continue to see this decline. 

A case in point is the blog I put up the other day about an organisation providing intensive course training.  To be making yourself stand out from competitors by implying that your training will ensure that you never have an accident that can be your fault is appalling – there is no other way to describe it, they should be ashamed that they are prepared to drop to such levels in the name of winning business.   And this is precisely my point, if you simply let organisations compete for business (schools included) with little regard to the output, then should we really be surprised to find the output is later found to be lacking?

The practical test should be longer in duration and the examiner should be allowed to question the candidate as they feel appropriate to test depth of learning.  There should be a variety of manoeuvre type exercises that reflect what will be required post-test – the current test of a random single manoeuvre is like testing a footballer in trials, by asking him/her to do as many ‘keepy ups’ as possible – utterly meaningless.