I'm getting so frustrated! Grrrr!

One of the easiest traps to fall into as a newly qualified driving instructor is to try too hard.  You can’t “force” learning – it just doesn’t work like that.

One of the 17 criteria that the DVSA assess all of us on in the Standards Check is:

TEACHING & LEARNING STRATEGIES

Was the pupil encouraged to analyse problems and take responsibility for their learning?

Unit 6.3 of our Driving Standard says:

5. transfer the balance of responsibility for their learning process to the learner as soon as they are ready to take it

ADI 1 says:

4.46 Was the pupil encouraged to analyse problems and take responsibility for their learning?

This means that the ADI has to provide time for this to happen and has to stop talking for long enough for the pupil to do the work.

None of us can accuse our DVSA of being in any way ambiguous about this.  It says we have to stop talking for long enough for the pupil to do the work.  One symptom of an ADI who is getting frustrated and “trying too hard” is that they will not stop talking; they think quantity of talking somehow ensures quality learning.

Let’s just consider for a minute this aspect of responsibility for learning.  When a customer of mine signs up for one of my driving courses, as part of the welcome message, they are directed to my driving video channel.  The current subscriber tally to this channel is over 900 and according to the dashboard, the public videos have been viewed 484,472 times.  But apart from these public videos, my customers are also screened in to gain access to a series of videos that are exclusively for their eyes only – it is restricted content.  The videos are longer in length and go into more detail than the public videos.  If you care to take a look at some of the public videos, you will see comments and questions from a wide range of non-BIG TOM customers, all responded to by me.  You might think, that given the fact that people who do not know my driving school, take the time to view and ask questions might mean that my own customers would do the same?  Not so.  There will be a variety of reasons why this is the case, but the fact is that it is not true.  Do I care if my customers do not make use of a resource that my driving school provides?  Not in the slightest.  I can only offer it to them, make sure they are aware that it exists, but other than that, they are either going to be inclined (motivated) to look at them….. or not.  The consequences of not looking at them is to deprive them of thinking about key road safety concepts and techniques outside of the car – this is the ideal time, when they are relaxed, to give some thought to these subjects that invite deeper thought.  Remember, without thought we have no learning.

I can tell within 5-10 minutes if any of my customers have been viewing the driving videos.  If they haven’t then it simply means that we spend time in the car, usually paused (so as to enable them to think deeply while remaining safe), and discuss these key road safety concepts.  My point is that it is the pupil who is deciding how they learn, they are either making effective use of their time or not.  When pupils do look at the videos, it reinforces learning, it prepares them for what they are about to do, it enables them to test their understanding, it can be highly motivating.

One of the obstacles that we as driving instructors have to deal with is when pupils have become used to sitting back, and waiting for teachers to “spoon feed” them learning.  Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, some pupils in academic learning have become conditioned to learning within “test” or “assessment” modes.  As such, they have become practised in the form of learning by taking tests, and if they struggle, they just take more tests.  This is extremely unhelpful when it comes to attempting to learn to drive.  As the DVSA is telling all of us, the idea is for them to give some thought as to how they learn best, and unfortunately, the method of “trial and error” that they have become so used to doing, is particularly unhelpful.  Whilst the making of mistakes is an opportunity to learn, if a pupil becomes complacent to what mistakes means when learning to drive, they don’t actually learn a great deal from them.  An academic “mistake” is not to be considered the same as a “mistake” when driving that might actually affect safety. 

Pupils do need to be told about this.  We can’t assume that they will be able to recognise the difference of the learning in an academic environment vs in-car training.  So if you find yourself getting frustrated with an apparent lack of progress or perhaps the same driving mistakes being made repeatedly with little apparent appreciation of the consequences, stop what you are doing, take a time-out and spend some quality time building your relationship with your pupil.

Tom Ingram provides PAYG driving training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464