Tom Ingram (Owner of BIG TOM Driving School) deals with the
challenge of differing aspirations between a Driving Instructor and the pupil.
If you were to draw a poll of 1000 pupils who are learning
to drive and ask the question “What is your goal for learning to drive?”, what
percentage will answer “My goal is to pass the test”? On the face of it, that is hard to argue
with. But in this blog I would like to
offer a reason as to why that answer really must be challenged.
The driving test is rather limited in its ability to assess
the competence of a pupil to drive to the expected levels as stated in our
Driving Standard. The degree to which
driving test centres across the UK can test driving ability in a wide variety
of class of road and conditions will vary.
Driving tests are not undertaken at night. There is no parking in multi-storey car parks
or pulling up to fast food drive thru outlets.
No friends in the car at the time of the test, no smart phones ready to
hand.
So passing the driving test is really not the goal, it may
be the goal of our pupil, but if you want to sleep soundly at night, how can it
be the ultimate goal? People can pass
driving tests and still not be confident or competent for post-test
driving. People can be coached to pass
driving tests.
We appear to have a conflict of interests. In times like these it is always good to see
what the DVSA have to say. Thumb through
to Role 6 of our Standard, Unit 3 “Enable safe and responsible driving” and you
will come across this paragraph:
In the context of
learning to drive, the instructor brings to the learning process their
hard-earned knowledge, understanding and experience. If they rely simply on telling the learner
what they should do they will probably be able to teach them enough to pass their
test. However, all the evidence suggests
that learners in this sort of relationship do not really change the way they
think and quickly forget what they have been taught. There is a better chance of a long-lasting
change in understanding and behaviour if the instructor:
Presents their
knowledge, understanding and experience clearly and effectively
Listens to the
learner’s reactions to that input
Helps the learner to
identify any obstacles to understanding and change
Supports the learner
to identify strategies for overcoming those obstacles for themselves
In this context this
is not about teaching learners to perform driving tasks in particular
ways. While it is reasonable to
encourage learners to practise particular methods for performing a given task,
because there are clearly explainable benefits to that method, the outcome of
the learning process should be that the learner has developed a safe and
responsible method which they can apply consistently and reliably; not that
they have learnt any one specified method.
Spend time with your pupil to discuss this. It is important. The Standard states “… it is about creating a
conversation between the learner and the instructor that is based on mutual
respect.”
What percentage of instructor/pupil relationships will have
that mutual respect is an interesting question, as is identifying the barriers
to developing that mutual respect.
This is an incredibly interesting factor of the work of a
Driving Instructor and is really assisted with the guidance provided by the
DVSA through their Standard.
Tom Ingram offers PDI training on a pay as you go basis
0775 607 1464
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