Useful Learning

In very general terms we all learn new skills to add value to our lives.  Not necessarily monetary value, it can be social value, but normally there is some tangible kind of gain; independence, cultural, academic, practical, emotional pleasure.   In other words, there is normally a ‘point’ to learning.  It seems to me that this is where much of our current education system is letting down our youngsters.  I recall a young lass who was learning to drive with me, who was clearly heart-broken to tell me that after working hard to obtain a good degree qualification, she was only able to get a job as a Sales Assistant in a large retail outlet very loosely connected to the subject of her degree.  To this day I can recall the sound of disappointment, resentment, anger, despair in her voice as she described to me the financial consequences of investing in the degree that she was then not able to repay due to her low income.  As a young adult, I imagine that must be some shock of the ‘real world’.  I’m guessing that some young adults will have the mental resources and perhaps family to pull on in order to see them through that harsh reality.  For others, to see all that hard work, financial investment and the resulting loss of opportunity, it may well prove too much to cope with.

What we teach in our schools and how we teach needs re-thinking in my view.  The driving education industry is in no better shape.  Look at the results.  We have youngsters coming out of their training who are prone to having accidents (1 in 5 according to the DSA), and the insurance premiums reflect that situation.  We will very soon be denying our youngsters of the opportunity to obtain the benefits that being able to drive provide.  In effect, we are robbing them of hope, ambition, independence.  My profession enables me to interface with these youngsters on a daily basis, and my observation is that this situation does not bode well.  It seems to me to be a very basic need that people need to feel valued, they need to experience reward for effort, they need to have ambition, and witness that when you take a certain course of actions, there is a ‘point’ to it. 

About 15 years ago, I was working for an electronics company and I was involved in reviewing the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing processes in a factory of about 400 people.  In an attempt to provide an environment where people were genuinely motivated to consider how they went about their daily work, I was involved in providing training sessions to raise the awareness of the need and rewards for being prepared to think differently.  Not easy I can tell you.  There is always much resistance to change, and as you might expect, there were pockets of success where a group of people embraced the concept and ran with it.  When I witnessed the results of this attitude, it was staggering.  For sure the measures relating to quality and efficiency improved, but more than that, people smiled, people enjoyed their work, and there were clear signs that people genuinely cared for each other in their workplace.  Although I’m not involved in the education system, it seems to me that there is a need to expose our younger generation with some of this ideology.  They need to be equipped with some useful tools and techniques that are going to be meaningful to them; not an A* in maths, but discovering a sport they can play for the rest of their life, or learning how to interact with others, or understanding the benefits to be had of playing music, constructing practical objects, fixing things.  I recently tried to make some kind of connection with a new customer of mine, and could not discover any hobbies, sports, interests whatsoever worthy of talking about.  There was no inclination to speak about College, family members, job prospects.  When I asked what he was doing for the rest of the week-end the reply was “sitting down”.

 Academic qualifications will always have their use in certain situations, but generally our young people need to be equipped to add value to their community that requires so much more than an A* can ever provide. 

I believe how we teach our youngsters to drive deserves as much attention, as does how we teach our driving instructors.    It’s not just how to drive in the physical sense that I’m referring to, it’s how they drive in terms of their attitude to driving.  Two quick examples:

1.        Recently a 17 yr old female kept on stalling the car.  There was no connection in her head of the job of the clutch pedal.  Why should there be?  She has no mechanical background to draw on, she has no engineering experience, she has never given a thought of how a car works.  I made efforts that I think any reasonable driving instructor would make to find that connection.  I attempted by drawing diagrams, showing professional graphics, referring to illustrations in books, watching other road users pull up to emerges, listening to the engine and feeling the effects of different clutch positions.  We messed around with practical drills that were focussed on the clutch when there was nothing else to distract her....no road users, no pedestrians just big empty spaces.  The moment of connection came when I mentioned a very simple analogy with riding a bike.  Now the funny thing is that she had previously told me she did not ride bikes, she had some experience when she was very young, but she had not ridden a bike as a teenager.  And the even funnier thing is that the analogy with the bike that I gave, whilst not being technically the same (as bikes don’t have clutches), the connecting theme was strong enough for it to have instant meaning to her.  Literally, from that moment on, there were no stalls.  Despite the analogy not being technical, it connected with her, it ‘joined some dots’ in her head.  So tenuous was the analogy that I'd never given that to any other learner before, and yet it has proven so successful on this occasion.... this was a big learning point for me personally.  Now I very much doubt that for the rest of her life, she will ever need to describe to anyone even the basic concept of how a clutch in a car works, but I tell you what, she wont be stalling when she comes to emerges for the rest of her life.  The training is meaningful.  A different approach that I see in training learners and sadly, also training driving instructors, is forcing her to dip the clutch at a certain time on the approach to the junction by repeated verbal command until she eventually 'gets it'.  She of course, 'gets' nothing, all that has been achieved, is she has been ‘conditioned’ to do a certain action.  Very sad.  And this approach leads me on to the second example.

2.       You can be technically good in any given field, but it doesn’t necessarily make you any good does it?   A Learner may technically be good, they pass their test comfortably, but what happens next may be very different.  Their attitude to driving can very rapidly undo all the good skills of driving that have been achieved.  About 6 yrs ago, I was leaning into my car in the early morning, before work, when a car drove passed jamming the door against my legs.  A few days later, I found the car, knocked on the door and discovered the driver had been an elderly lady going for her routine hospital appointment, she said she couldn’t see through her windscreen because it had been misted up.  So although she had instant recall of the incident and the cause, she clearly had decided at the time not to stop at the scene of an accident, and not even to report it.  I received no apology from her, and despite my request, she did not contact the Police to make any admission, and since that day I have suffered with a sore neck.   It’s a little bit like the vast majority of the staff at the electronics factory and their attitude to change.  All they want is to go to work, see the clock out, go home and get paid.  What happens in between is of little consequence to them.  All that elderly lady wanted to do was drive to the hospital, get her new blood and drive back.  What happens in between is of little regard to her.  The missing link is the attitude.  I’m sure she didn’t wake up that morning thinking “Today, I don’t care if I run a guy over and give him neck pain for the rest of his life”, but the fact is, she did, and she did not even see the need to stop. 

Tapping in to the deeper mental resource of us all to nourish the ‘attitude’ is a big challenge.  There seems to be very little recognition for the need to by the public.  As such, unless the financing of driving training becomes centralised, then it seems unlikely that the public will be willing to pay for such training.  Personally, I do make time for it, but I wonder what percentage of training providers do?   

Until the training that is provided is ‘fit for purpose’ then you have to wonder where this is leading.  I’ve discussed at length with fellow driving trainers this subject and although many disagree, my opinion is that the error lies in the testing.  If the testing standard bore more resemblance to the reality then it would force up the standard of the required training.  But I guess that’s perhaps a topic for another day.

How good am I at what I do?

As we’re coming to the end of the year, I thought it wont do me any harm to ask myself this question.

I decided a couple of years ago that I need a means of measuring my ability that needed to be more relevant than the DSA’s method.  The DSA come into a driving instructors professional life every few years, take a snap shot assessment of that instructors ability to instruct by observing ONE lesson, then they leave them be for another few years.  I came to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that this wasn’t a true picture of how good I am.  They don’t look at my test results, they don’t look at the range of training methods I use, they don’t look at the wealth of support I provide on my website, they don’t even consider the fact that I have taught learners with dyspraxia, aspergers, or learners who are deaf and cannot speak.  I could well be wrong, but it just seems to me that this ‘snapshot’ approach to assessment is completely inadequate to the point of being meaningless.  But I’m sure the DSA would have strong views to counter that conclusion.

Over a year ago, I wondered what would be better measures.  I thought that seeing as I’m in private industry, unlike a school for example, perhaps turnover would be good to measure.  Then that spurred me into wondering what my customers would want to know about me to gauge how good I am.  I settled on 2 measures.  The first was how many of my standard learners (no disabilities or learning difficulties) pass their test with me first time; when they come to me as an absolute beginner.  The other measure was how long it takes me on average to get those learners to pass the test.  Whatever your opinion is of the worthiness of those measures, I considered that my customers would WANT to know those figures if they were comparing me to other instructors. 

There has been a steady improvement in those 2 measures since I’ve been monitoring them.  That might not surprise you.  Start bothering to measure anything, and you straight away become focussed on it.   Coincidentally or not, there has likewise been a steady increase in my turnover.  Also, the actual grade of pass for my learners has steadily increased.  My range and expenditure on marketing has steadily increased.  But the only 2 things that mattered to me, that I have been bothering to measure were those performance measures mentioned, all these others are a by-product.... at least I THINK they are.

Last week my Wife who is on the Senior Leadership Team of a Grammar School, had the pleasure of an OFSTED visit.  Amongst many interesting discussions we had, two things she said stick out in my mind.  On the evening of the first day of the assessment, when at that stage they have no idea how it is going to go, she was full of praise for the students.  She could not speak highly enough of them – I admired that greatly.  After OFSTED had awarded them an ‘Outstanding’, she went on to tell me how enthusiastic the staff are to improve yet further on certain aspects.  The process of being measured, appears to have assisted in looking at the students and realising how ‘good’ they are.  Not good as in qualifications necessarily, good as in, engaged, enthusiastic, welcoming, polite, bright.  More significantly, the process has left them wanting more, they want to improve yet further. 

I’m thinking what I need to do is ‘see things for what they are’.  Being assessed or measuring yourself, is no small thing.  I read blogs from teachers, I know teachers and ex-Heads who clearly articulate the effects OFSTED can have on people.  People get unwell when being assessed, people cry, people feel bitter resentment at being assessed, this is a big deal to many.  Arguably, the less of a ‘big deal’ it is to someone, perhaps the more is their need for development.  It seems that people that are good, the ones that want to make a difference, that ARE bothered about improving, are the very ones that get seriously affected by the process of assessment. 

This time last year, I set a goal of losing 3 stone in a period of time, I actually lost 2 stone.  I didn’t mark the occasion, I didn’t buy new clothes, I didn’t feel any sense of achievement as in my eyes, I hadn’t even met my goal.  I simply stopped measuring myself once the time period was up, and settled back into my previous life.  The result is that 12 months later, I’m heavier than at any other time.  It’s a shame that I let that go in my personal life.  In my professional life, I do still monitor those 2 measures, and I am reaping the rewards it seems, but I tell you what, I wont stop measuring them; I’m going to learn from my Wife’s observations, I’m going to ‘celebrate’ my successes, recognise what I have achieved, but importantly improve yet further, I am really keen to continue learning and improving in 2012.

Being prepared to change

As a relative newcomer to the driving education industry I am keen to learn.  Part of the process of learning is to reflect.  It’s vitally important to take time to step back, and consider how things are going.  It’s perfectly natural as far as I can see.  In almost every other thing we all do, we at some stage find time to reflect on how we do it; can it be done with more efficiency, or less effort, or more enjoyment or less risk.

So what do we do?  You might say we get people to pass their test, or you might say we train people, or you might say we enable people to learn in a safe environment.  Your function as you see it might be to dictate where a learner looks at a specific time, or to make a PDI say a certain sentence or question in a given circumstance.  On the other hand, your stance may be that you see your role as a facilitator to learning, the method or content is not such a big deal for you, you are more interested in allowing any kind of learning to flourish. 

What we do and how we go about it is personal.  There is not necessarily a right or wrong way, as long as you are achieving the end goal for your customer, earning a living and perhaps having fun along the way, then you could argue that it’s really not that important HOW we go about our work.

“Well, you know, it’s always been that way in the 30 years I’ve been in the business, and I can’t see it changing much anytime soon”.  I’ve been in 3 distinctly different careers in my time so far, and in each one, I have seen many people saying that.  These are the same people that count down the payslips until they retire.

However, right now, we are in need of some pretty fundamental change as far as I can see.  I say that because our society appears to be demanding everything, yesterday.  There appears to be a need to have everything ‘to the max’ as soon as possible.  This is all well and good if it were sustainable, but it simply isn’t.  Whether it be building careers, homes, or families, you have to be willing and prepared to take the long view.  Our society doesn’t like considering the long view, we all want instant results....NOW!  Under normal circumstances, this may not present much of a problem, but things are far from normal.   The housing market is way overpriced, banks have been forgetting their purpose in life, youth unemployment is steadily increasing, worldwide, and on it goes.  These circumstances mean that instant results are harder to come by.  Many very well educated souls are struggling to find work that values their academic qualifications gained.  The less well educated are a step further back.    

I believe education is fundamental to this situation.  The education system that was designed at it’s birth is an entirely different education system that is needed now.  What is needed right now is to stimulate ‘life’.   If you don’t nourish and stimulate a living thing, it wilts, it loses the will to exist.   By ‘life’ what I mean is energy, fight, courage, innovation, change, stamina, persistence, dare I say it, self-learning. 

You need look no further than the driving education industry for evidence of this.  The ability to drive, to be mobile is a wonderful skill.  It changes lives.  It dramatically enhances the lives of people in many ways.  We have millions of young people who cannot drive, they cannot finance learning to drive, and they don’t even really want to learn to drive.  Even if they could drive, they cannot afford to pay for the insurance.  It is a sad thing to witness this lack of hope.  Let’s not forget that these are the very people that are in the prime of their life, they are the fittest they are going to be, these are the people that are big cogs in the economy of this country, and they are to a large degree DISENGAGED.

Their education in schools needs to be more meaningful to them.  Not just meaningful in the academic sense, but meaningful in the valued sense.  They need to feel equipped to deal with the ever changing world.  More importantly perhaps is that whatever they learn at school has got to be stimulating, give them hope, offer them skills that are far beyond the conventional approach of Maths, English etc.  The result needs to produce youngsters who are passionate in any given subject, they will go on to be creative in their field come what may, they feel they can adapt however it is needed.  The education system needs to open up the opportunity for a pupil to discover the subject that makes their heart beat faster.

In the above context I then look at the industry that I am personally involved.  I reflect on what we do as professionals and the signs are also not good.  I certainly see myself needing to develop further to make my training more meaningful to my customers.  I also believe that we all need to consider not just how we encourage learning, but in much the same way as I suggest with the schools above, the actual content of the learning needs to be more meaningful, relevant and inspiring.  Ultimately, as an industry, we need to treat people as individuals and not ‘candidates’. 

I leave you with this sad tale.  Last year I taught a wonderful young couple how to drive.  They could not have been more different in their needs.  The male was confident, assured, assertive, precise, and motivated.  The female was nervous, hesitant, fearful, timid and motivated.  He took 2 attempts to pass, she passed first time.  She has not driven since, cannot afford the insurance.  How sad is that?  A wonderful young couple, they had a very young one when they were training with me, and when I bumped into them last week she was expecting her 2^nd on that same day.  Imagine how her life (and the young ones lives) would be transformed if she were able to pay the insurance to drive.

All of us ignore this current situation at our peril..... it will bite our behinds in years to come.

How fast we learn

I keep an eye on forums, I keep in touch with fellow trainers.  One subject that often crops up is how fast someone can learn.  Everyone has an opinion on it.  I’ve just witnessed for myself how fast my 9 year old son can learn how to navigate around and operate ‘Sky’ along with a new Smart 3D tv; his parents could not assist him at all, and I don’t recall him referring to any instruction booklets!  It’s fair to say that in the space of a few days, he is a wizard on it!

But for the purpose of this blog, let’s set the scope of talking about learners who have never driven before getting to the standard of passing the learner test first time.  That way, it sets the context.

I’ve had good friends of mine openly question my stats on the rate of learning for my pupils.  They feel comfortable doing that, because they know me, they know I wont react to that question.  It’s a perfectly legitimate question.  One friend said that he normally expects it to take 3 times longer than the figure I was quoting in 2010.  I’m talking here about how many instructional hours on average it takes. 

The moment that a ‘teacher’ of anything, treats every single one of their ‘learners’ the same way, you are in danger of the effects of standardising.  Give a teacher in a secondary school a class full of 33 kids and give another teacher a class of 17 kids, leave them be for a term then bring them together to discuss ‘transfer of learning’ and I reckon within 30 seconds the theme of differentiation will crop up.   

“Right folks, THIS is what we are going to do today.  Those 3 objectives.  THIS is how we’re going to do it.  I need ALL OF YOUR ATTENTION.  It is very important we get through this, as we have much to do”.  Off they go.  The teacher then goes about setting tasks to aid learning.  It can be done a whole variety of ways, some may appeal to some kids, other kids will be switched off.  One consequence is that you get the enthusiastic, bright young lass at the front who always has her hand up to answer questions being held back by ‘Johnny’ who’s only contribution to the class is to slow everything down, like a heavy weight on the shoulders of the teacher. 

What factors affect the rate of learning to drive?

The instructor: What are his thoughts on the rate of learning?  He may well think that going too fast restricts the depth of learning, he may well want to earn more money by slowing down the rate of learning.  How motivated is he to get the learner to pass first time?  Passing first time might not be his idea of running a business.  Is he interested in adapting his methods of teaching so that they are interesting, fun, informative, meaningful and engaging to the learner?  Does he have any willingness to discover how his learner likes/prefers to learn?

The learner:  How motivated is he to learn to drive?  Is he physically able and willing to undertake a course of lessons on time?  What standard of driving is he wanting to achieve?  Does he feel any responsibility or ownership for how he learns, and what happens on his test?  Is he comfortable and happy with the car, the instructor, the timing and duration of lessons?  Are there any barriers to learning such as previous experiences causing fear/anxiety, learning difficulties, physical disabilities, problems of physical/mental alertness.  Is he prepared to consider his own attitudes and responsibilities as a driver?

The method:  Will there be any other learning going on outside of the driving lessons that supplement/reinforce the training?  Is the learner receiving training that meets his needs?  Does the scope of training meet the standard of the test?  Is the style of teaching effective for that learner?  Are there any factors such as budget or time that affect how regularly the training occurs and for what duration?  How is the progress of the learner measured?   How effective is the structure of the training sessions for that learner?  Is there opportunity for self-learning?

As driving instructors we have a say on the vast majority of the above.  We really can control many of the factors that affect rate of learning.  The only ones that our direct control is restricted on are the factors to do with the attitude/approach to learning from the actual learner.  I recall a couple of years ago not being made aware of learning difficulties of a learner.  He didn’t feel it necessary to tell  me, nor did the Father.  And yet both were openly frustrated with me for the inconsistent standard of driving he was attaining.  With the best will in the world, if parents are not going to disclose medical conditions to someone who is teaching their child a life skill, then any high expectations to do with rate of learning is completely irrational. 

You can be the best ‘teacher’ in the world, but until the ‘learner’ is wanting to learn, you have a job on your hands.  I make efforts at the very start to discover where the learner and his parents are on this subject of motivation.  I don’t feel it’s my responsibility to wake up one of my learners, so that they take a driving lesson with me.  Getting them out of bed is not part of the service!

Two examples spring to my mind straight away.  I have one learner who regularly turns up 5-10 minutes late.  He has missed 2 lessons so far because he couldn’t get out of bed.  He has got himself to a certain standard of about 20 hours in and has just stopped any lessons as he is too busy with exams.  This is a hard way to learn to drive.  The consequence of this approach of needing more lessons is not a problem for this particular learner who has wealthy parents.  The other example is with one learner who has completely changed his attitude to learning.  Previously he had a rather blasé, ‘what will be will be’ bordering on reckless approach to learning to drive.  He has very recently made a connection that this attitude to learning was affecting his rate of learning which was directly affecting the cost to him of learning to drive.  He is employed, his parents don’t pay for his lessons, so although that took a while for him to make that connection, boy has he made it now, this is one motivated person I now have. 

One last very real example I can give before I close.  I will never forget how demoralised I felt as a PDI when I was banished to the back seat while training with my trainer.  If when doing an exercise, I was struggling, he would say “Oh here we go again, Tom is thinking too much, swap over”, and the PDI in the back would take over, and I would go in the back seat.  Although I was in my late 30’s, I felt humiliated, demoralised, inadequate, delinquent, sad, angry, frustrated.  You can bet your house that affected my rate of learning.  I still see this trainer out and about to this day.  We must all be very careful indeed and aware that what we say and do cannot only affect the rate of learning, it can have deep effects on our learners.  If there is one thing I learnt from that experience it is that my customers (either learners or PDI’s) don’t pay me, for me to make them feel inadequate.  

It’s quite a complex subject.  This is probably why it generates so much interest and discussion amongst driver trainers.  But the important message I have for my PDI’s is that you can control to a very large extent the rate of learning to your learners if you choose to. 

The question is .... do you want to?

The value of Check Tests

The DSA measure the continued competence of an ADI by regularly spot checking them every few years or so.  This spot check is called a ‘check test’.  It consists of the ADI demonstrating to the DSA a typical lesson that they provide, either to a real learner, or the ADI can choose to ask the DSA examiner to role-play a learner.  The test takes an hour, you are then instantly graded, and as long as you get a 4, 5 or 6, then you don’t get tested again for 2, 3, 4 years.

Now when you consider that in the nearly 3 years I have been in business not a single customer has asked me what my check test result is, one has to question why the DSA do that exercise.  When people with youngsters move house, top of the list of criteria regarding WHERE you move will be whether there are any good schools in the area.  How can they check that?  You can instantly get access to the OFSTED grading, it’s even possible to see it on ‘Rightmove’.  So rightly or wrongly, the public see a direct link between assessing how good a school is, and the grade OFSTED have given it.

Whilst I recognise that more emphasis is being placed right now by OFSTED on the quality of teaching, they simply will not ignore exam results.  A measure of a schools competence must be what exam results they achieve with the students they serve.  Not necessarily in terms of achieving a certain quota of top marks, but demonstrating that you are markedly improving the education or learning of the students that come into the school.  It would be extremely odd if they didn’t take that into account would it not?

It is odd then that the DSA don’t (seemingly) take into account a driving instructors pass rates when they grade them.  In that hour of assessment, the examiner looks at the ADI’s METHOD of teaching.  Important I grant you, but should it be the sole measure?  When OFSTED go into a school, yes, for sure they go and assess teachers teaching in classes, but they don’t ignore exam results!

The irony is that you could have an ADI who for that 1 assessment every 4 years, ‘turns on’ the METHOD button in front of the DSA, and gets graded the highest grade 6, but then takes on average 2.5 test attempts per learner to get a pass. 

Turn it on its head though for a second.  Ignore the big stick approach from the DSA and consider how ADI’s can evaluate their own competence.

Go and ask 20 ADI’s if they consider themselves a good instructor and listen to the replies.  My bet is they will start using words like “patient, professional, friendly, good value, reliable”.  And some will say “grade 6”.  And some will be bothering to monitor their first time pass rates and tell you what it currently is.  Now which of those would a customer want to know about? 

The check test does have a value in the process of grading an ADI, but for it to be the only measure of competence is insultingly disrespectful to the paying public.  They deserve to be informed of the quality of driving instructors.  Measuring quality of a professional in the teaching world has got to include results, it’s a nonsense not to.  There are of course exceptions, I know some ADI’s specialise in learning difficulties for instance, but I personally think it’s high time the DSA took a bit of ownership on this subject and demonstrate some willingness to embrace transparency and accountability.

Mock tests for Learners

I did a mock test last week for a Learner who has not learnt with me.  He had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at the test 10 years ago.  He has recently taken his theory test and with the realisation that he is getting no younger, wants to be mobile,  so has a new found enthusiasm to pass the test.  He came to me as ‘test ready’ except for about 2 subjects that he wanted some firming up on.

The thing is, and this is the crunch, when he made initial contact he had ALREADY booked his test.  The very first thing he said to me, I remember it well, was that he had booked the test, but just wanted a few lessons to brush up on some shortfalls.  I remember it well, because I was shocked by that news.  The very first question I asked him was whether he feels he knows what the scope of the test is and the standard required.... big ‘Yes’ to both. 

After a few lessons, I realised that he was not short on just a couple of subjects, actually the situation was much worse. I was very aware that test day was only 2-3 weeks away.  I proposed that we do a mock test, to see where he really is. 

The mock test lasted 1hr 10mins.  In it, I do everything that may come up; a bay park, emergency stop, right and left reverse, parallel park, turn in the road, dual carriageway driving, show and tell, independent drive and half a dozen pull overs inc on a hill and near to a parked car.  As part of the price for the mock test, I send through a comprehensive report of the test.  Any faults and observations are listed, with helpful tips and hints. 

In this particular case, as soon as the mock test was completed, the Learner immediately cancelled the test he had booked, thereby saving him about £100 that would otherwise almost certainly have been wasted on a test fail.  Perhaps ‘wasted’ is not quite the right word.  The experience of doing the test is in itself valuable.  Sometimes a test fail can be as a result of the nerves of the test actually inhibiting the ability to drive.  My experience tells me that if you fail a test due to test nerves, then it is very likely that your actual standard of driving prior to the test was not high enough.  Test nerves certainly will affect you on the day, but they should not be affecting you to the extent that it causes a test fail.  I can only come to that conclusion with the benefit of my pass rate.

I recall a Learner of mine who came to me from the very start of learning to drive, an extremely nervous learner.  A single Mother with 2-3 young kids, she fitted in lessons between a very hectic schedule.  She not only battled the practicalities of doing the course of lessons, but her fear of other vehicles, particularly lorries seriously affected her.  She had a similar stance to the chap I mention in this blog, she set up a test completely independently of me.  We did a mock test, and despite my advice to not go to test she insisted on going to test, as is her right I suppose.  So she went to a different instructor who unlike me, would allow her to use her driving school car for the test and failed.  What a great shame.  So she then took a handful of more lessons with that other instructor, went to test and passed.  In effect, the £100 that had been used for the failed test, could have been used for the extra lessons and that would then have, in all likelihood, resulted in a test pass. 

It is of course, everyone’s right to go to test when they want.  They don’t even have to use a driving instructor to learn, or a driving school car to go to test.  But paying for a driving instructor to give you a course of driving lessons and then going directly against their advice as to when to go to test, is a dodgy strategy.   I found it disappointing, I was sad that I never saw this lass nail that test after all the hard work we had put in together.  But I’m passionate about this job, I take pride in my pass rates.  I am confident in my ability to assess if someone is ‘test ready’ and I am prepared to stick to my decision on that point.  As much as it saddens me to have not seen this lass pass, I can proudly state that I have achieved an extraordinarily high ‘FIRST TIME pass rate’ by taking the approach that I do.  I can say to anyone considering to take lessons with me, what my approach is, and what my actual results are.  I know that the female driving instructor who took my lass to test too early which resulted in a test fail, definitely CANNOT say the same.  I guess we all work differently.  Ultimately, our customers decide who they want to train them.

Getting back to the mock test though.  It is a very useful tool to assess how ready someone is to go to test.  It is pretty life like as I’m sure the chap from last week will verify.   What you receive for the fee I charge is an accurate assessment of your driving (good and bad) at that precise time.  Not only will the comprehensive report you receive be of practical use, but consider also how it assists you psychologically..... now what price do you put on that before going to test?

'Learning' the DSA way.

“Leeeeeeean into the mountain.....leeeeeeean”. 

It doesn’t come across well in type, but this very simple choice of words has stayed with me.  Rewind I would estimate 15 years ago, and there is me and my lovely Wife skiing in Souze d’Oulx ski resort.  Attempting to anyway.  It wasn’t the first time I had been skiing, but a beginner I most certainly was!

What fun.  What fantastic fun.  But, there comes a time when you get fed up of falling.  I suffer to this very day with a knee injury sustained on the very first time I went skiing in Andorra. As much fun as it is, you actually do get fed up with falling.  Much like riding a bike and falling I guess.  Much like that feeling when you just cannot swim.  It’s hard work isn’t it.  That feeling of trying and trying and trying and trying but you still keep failing.... or seemingly so anyway.  But is it true to say that although you do keep failing, you are still learning?  Only by making mistakes can one hope to improve.  Well, I think some keen golfers might have an opinion on that one. 

What does help is when someone begins to make connections with you.  And this brings me back to the opening sentence.  This skiing instructor we had, began to sing this sentence out at the top of his voice whilst doing exactly that.... leaning towards the mountainside while traversing across it.  Only when you lean into the mountainside, do you affect the angle of the ski digging into the mountainside, and it is exactly that ‘digging in’ or grip that is stopping you from sliding DOWN the mountain.  In other words, not leaning in means your ski is flat on the snow, which means there is no traction, which means gravity will slide you down ...... see you at the bottom.  So as I write this, not only can I hear the instructor’s voice and accent but I can even visualise him demonstrating it.  And that was something like 6 days, about 15 years ago.  Amazing eh?  Clearly, that worked with me.  I think it’s fair to say that I benefitted from that experience..... I learnt something that beautifully sunny morning that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.  He 'connected' with me.

Fast forward to now, and this blog which is all about how the DSA like driving instructors to ‘teach’ learners.  The DSA like ‘core comps’.  On the part 3 test (pass rate of much lower than 50%), the DSA want you (a trainee driving instructor) to demonstrate to them that you are able to TRANSFER LEARNING.  You are expected to do that, by identifying a driving fault, understanding why it occurs, and providing solutions to prevent it from recurring.   

“I’ve just spotted you do .......”

Analyse why that happened.

“To help you with that problem, I want you to do this.......”

“That’s important that, because if you don’t, then......”

And for good measure, the DSA like you to remind/pre-empt the learner not to fall into the same trap by a nice timely reminder of your ‘solution’ just before it happens again.

That all sounds incredibly logical does it not?  What could possibly be wrong with that as a concept?

And they split the Part 3 test into 2 so that you can demonstrate to them that you are able to distinguish between ‘standards’ of ability, accurately investigate the root cause of driving fault, prioritise what is important and what is not, and pitch your level of instruction appropriate to that persons needs, in a timely manner.  Again, how utterly sensible. 

I wonder what my skiing instructor would think of that as a concept for learning.

On one of my own part 3 failed attempts, the examiner very kindly offered me an analogy in my de-brief that I remember to this day.  “Have you got any kids Tom?”.  I gave him my kids names and ages.  Wait for it, this is a true story:

“Well, if your Wife was cooking a meal, and had pans boiling on the hob, and George wanted to climb up to get a toy from the cupboard above the cooker.  Would you allow him to knock the pan of boiling water over him and burn him, or would you be pro-active and warn him not to do it, and why?”

Oh my.  ‘Beam me up Scottie’.  This chap was, and remains to this day to be an utterly decent chap.  I have an opinion about his role-playing on part 3 tests, but that aside, this is a chap I have time for. 

So, I don’t think we’re changing the world with the DSA stance on this ‘learning’ concept.

As it stands right now, that is what TRANSFER OF LEARNING is all about in the DSA world.  That is what you have to do to qualify, and that is what you have to do to stay qualified.  What is slowly but surely coming in to the DSA world is a thought about actually how the learner would like to learn, but let’s not rush things.

As an interested person in ‘learning’ both professionally and as a bystander, I cannot help but think how I would do it.  And that is an incredibly deep question for me to answer.  It gets at the heart of what makes me tick.  Sure, I could tune myself into the DSA world of learning, and ‘conform’.  But even in my very limited experience so far, it is blindingly obvious that there is something missing in their approach.  And from what I can make out, Catherine Tate quite nicely sums it up with:

                                                                           “Am I bothered?”

Because I think ultimately THAT is what this comes down to.  As a driving instructor, are you actually bothered that only 50% of learners pass the test, or as a trainer that so few pass the part 3, or as a PDI that you can charge the same rate for lessons while YOU learn how to do the job?  Do you care about fatality statistics in the UK, or the horrendous insurance premiums, or the actual chances of a newly qualified driver having a collision?

If you are not bothered, I guess you can happily swill around in your ‘consciously incompetent’ state, and ‘turn on’ the DSA learning system on your next check test. 

But if you are bothered, like me, then I wonder if, like me, you can’t help yourself but start reflecting on the trials and battles you have endured over the years.  And I wonder if you come to the same conclusion as me, and recognise that you simply cannot channel ‘TRANSFER OF LEARNING’ into a ‘one size fits all’ technique; you simply have to adopt the necessary learning style to suit the needs of the learner and adapt your thinking and techniques to suit theirs. 

Bringing me nicely back to “Leeeeeeean into the mountain...... leeeeeeeean” – certainly did it for me!

How motivation affects learning

Motivated to ‘learn’?

I find that most of my learners are as keen as mustard to learn to drive, well, initially anyway.  A very few don’t even start keen which I guess means that there are ‘other forces’ at work. 

It can be a shock though when a young person of 17 years starts to take lessons, and suddenly realises that actually Mum & Dad make it look so easy!  There’s actually quite a bit to this driving!

The thing is though, once learners get over the initial ‘body shock’ of co-ordinating hands and feet independently, they discover that the ACT of driving is perhaps not such a big deal.  However, then their instructor starts talking about anticipating the actions of other road users, forward planning, reading bends, giving priority rather than taking it; in other words, what often distinguishes an ‘average’ driver from a ‘good’ driver is what goes on between the ears.

You see, many people can, and do drive round in the ‘here and now’ only.  In other words they just deal with what crops up in their immediate radar of about 20 feet in front of their moving vehicle.  It’s a little like how the race horses sometimes have blinkers put on them.  Why do they do that?  I imagine it’s to avoid them getting distracted with what is going on around them.... the EXACT opposite of what we need to do when driving.  The mark of a good driver is one who is constantly, moving the head, making observations all around them, so they can risk assess, and plan what they need to do, and also what options they have in the event of an emergency. 

But I would go one step further.  I think there is so much more than even those 2 aspects of driving.  An incredibly important aspect is considering what your attitudes and responsibilities are as an independent driver.  Let me briefly give just a few examples, what are your thoughts on:

                Driving through an amber traffic light

                Maintaining your speed when entering a stretch of road with parked cars both sides of the road

                Wanting to maintain or even better your driving skills after passing the test

                Texting or taking calls on the loud speaker when driving

                Rubbing 10mph off your normal speed to save money

                Wearing a seat belt, or insisting your friends put on their seat belt

                Travelling at 80mph on a motorway

                Slowing down on the approach to a speed camera, then speeding up again

                Driving without insurance

                Purchasing an electric car to help save the planet

                Racing with another driver

                Volunteering yourself as the ‘nominated driver’ for a work Christmas party

                Swearing/gesticulating at other road users

                Assisting a driver who has broken down on the side of the road

                Carrying on driving even when ‘dog tired’

                Sharing a car journey with a work colleague

                Continuing to make journeys when you know the tyre tread is below 1.6mm

                Attempting an overtake when you can’t really see that it’s safe to do so

I could go on, but you get the idea?

Now you’re opinion of that list, and it’s relevance may be affected by a few things.  You may be reading this blog from the point of view of a learner, a learner’s parent, a PDI, an ADI, a trainer, a professional in the field of learning, but interestingly, many readers will already be drivers.  Your opinions may be affected by your parents, your upbringing, your profession, knowing someone who has died or been seriously injured as a consequence of the above, your social conscience, your moral compass.

You are either willing and able to be trained to consider these points or not.  Sometimes I can raise one of the above subjects with a Learner, and literally a glazed look comes into their eyes, I can almost read their minds “Just teach me how to drive, I just want to pass the test”.  Some Learners appear to struggle to be motivated to get out of bed in time for a lesson.

My experience is that it is all in the initial setting up.  If when I speak to a parent, they are telling me that money is extremely tight, they are looking for the cheapest deal, they need their son/daughter to go to test within say £200 of lessons.  Then hey, guess what..... there wont be much time to be considering the above will there.  Stands to reason doesn’t it?  There is no judgement, or criticism in that remark, but it must be a fact.  If my customer (or their parent) is restricting the level of training from the start, then in effect, they have already demonstrated how motivated they are to ‘learn’.

I don’t stand in judgement here.  It is the DSA who police what the learners get tested on, how the driving instructors get tested and monitored.  The general public will ultimately decide whether the standards of training for drivers needs to be raised.  But it’s interesting to consider how people’s motivation to learn affects how WELL they learn.