'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!