Checking for understanding of risks to safety

The DVSA are keen to tell driving instructors that the “value” they bring is in the “learning” that is created for pupils.  What this blog does is put that “learning” under the microscope and look at what this REALLY means.

“To move off at pace from a standstill, the gas must be set in order to accommodate the faster raising of the clutch and therefore not stalling.”

“To move off from a standstill on the left side of the road, there will be a “blindspot” to the side over your right shoulder where you cannot see when viewing through the right side mirror and can only be checked to be safe by physically turning your head and looking over your right shoulder.”

Both of these are statements of fact. 

Let’s consider for a couple of minutes at how meaningful the above COULD be to a pupil. 

With the first statement of fact, should the pupil not understand the meaning of what you have said then inevitably they will stall the car.  With the second they will not check the blindspot and you absolutely must to maintain safety for the two of you. 

My point is that it is not enough just to say things to pupils.  It might work in a classroom, but in order to maintain safety on our roads, they must actually understand the points you make.  But how do they understand?

Daniel Willingham said “Memory is the residue of thought”.

If a pupil does not really get your statement regarding the clutch, they will continue to stall the car, you will continue to make the point, and through a process of trial and error i.e. after hammering dozens of stalls out of your driving school car, they will eventually appreciate the importance of setting the gas. 

If a pupil does not really get your statement regarding the blind spot, they wont do it, you will keep reminding them, and when they realise they will not pass the driving test if they do not do it, they will do it on the driving test. 

So the first bit of learning is gained through preventing a stall, and the second is gained in order to pass the driving test. 

As a driving instructor you have choices about how you BACK UP those statements of fact, in order to make them meaningful to a pupil.  You can physically get out the car and ask a pupil to literally see how much of the blindspot stops them from seeing you approach the vehicle from the right.  In addition you can find quiet areas to allow them to practise the raising of the clutch with and without gas and see how the car responds.  You can show graphics from books, animations from apps, videos from YouTube.  You can drive and demonstrate or they can drive.  You can ask them questions to test understanding.  Taking Daniels point above, you can invite them to write/draw/doodle what these points mean to them.

If the pupil eventually perfects the technique of foot control to accommodate the brisk moving off (by whatever means), then their confidence will be dramatically increased with the absence of stalls.  If a pupil turns “on” blindspot checks nearing the end of a learning process when they appreciate that otherwise it will not pass the driving test then they are extremely unlikely to continue with those observations.  This blog from February this year is a perfect example of this very fact. 

As professionals it is essential that there is integrity to the learning process, otherwise safety is being compromised.

Tom Ingram provides payg driving training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464    http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Here's another 'list' for you

As a trainee driving instructor you will be getting used to 'lists' by now.  Here is another one for you that I would have dearly loved to have been shown when I was in your shoes.

There are some key essentials that you should be striving for your pupil to at the very least ‘understand’.  I’m not suggesting that a pupil can’t drive without mastering the following, but it will affect how well they drive!

All round effective observations are required at ANY speed of the vehicle

The gas is needing to be set in order to prevent a stall

Picture in the mind a gear change BEFORE the left foot puts the clutch down

Observations when reversing involves literally turning the head right round as well as mirror checks

Situations develop that will have a consequence and accurately assessing the risk is a skill

A speed limit is not an instruction, drive to conditions not speed limits

Rush practising bay parking and you will regret it for the rest of your life

To identify which way to turn a steering wheel when reversing the eyes must physically look where the rear of the car needs to go – staring at mirrors will inevitably result in steering the wrong way

Limit the amount other road users are adversely affected by you to an absolute minimum

Safe driving demands constant attention – managing distractions is a skill

If the car is needing to stop, the clutch MUST go all the way down

Less vision – less speed – lower gears – slower lifting up of the clutch

The feet must control pace to enable the eyes to identify and assess hazards

Putting the handbrake on enables the right foot to get off the brake to then set the gas

It is the extent of lifting the clutch that dictates pace, not how much gas is set

Check a ‘new road’ is clear to enter BEFORE steering into it

Understanding the BEST thing to do is more important than doing anything

The right foot (braking) often dictates how well a driver negotiates roundabouts – too fast on the approach and the eyes/hands simply can’t keep up

A good driver will give others plenty of warning of their intentions PRIOR to doing them

It is possible to judge how severe a bend is in the road BEFORE you get to it

Never drive faster than you instinctively feel comfortable with

Dangerous situations develop quicker on faster roads – anticipation is a skill

You and your environment will affect your driving behaviour

Do not look down at the gear lever before changing gear, it will affect your position in the road

On reversing manoeuvres the feet are quiet and the hands are busy

Position trumps everything

From a standstill, when you enter a roundabout, don’t delay with a 1-2 gear change

A poorly timed observation is as bad as no observation at all

Changing from 2^nd to 3^rd gear requires no sideways pressure at all – the gear lever is spring loaded

The condition of a vehicle will impact on safety – they do not look after themselves

Unless the clutch goes fully down, the vehicle will continue to ‘drive’ in the gear it is in – if you are unsure where to park, you MUST put the clutch down or the vehicle will just keep on driving

Driving is a physical activity with practical consequences; events change fast and others WILL do unexpected things

If the car stalls, it will be for a reason

Don’t do blind-spot checks when the vehicle is travelling at high speeds

If you think a signal is needed, put a signal on, if you think the lights need to be on, put them on

A heavy right foot is an insult to your passengers

Oh…….. and put the phone in the glovebox

Tom Ingram provides payg training to trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464
http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Driving behaviour

A limitation of the “instructor led” approach to learning is that it is set within a pre-determined environment of parent – child.  Parents on private driving lessons will do anything and everything possible for the good of their child, and that unwavering emotion often leads them to be “blind” as to how they are ‘suffocating them in love’.   Unwittingly they prevent their child from even contemplating risks let alone taking risks or considering how they can manage risk.  Similarly, a driving instructor who is controlling everything in a learning environment is robbing their pupils of responsibility, ownership, rational thinking, considering probabilities, imagining outcomes, discovering ability, controlling parameters, identifying success measures and possible impacts to safety.  A parent does all this in the name of love, but a driving instructor does it in the name of laziness; it is far easier to tell a pupil what to do, rather than assist them in developing key skills.  But the real point is that sooner or later, once that driving test is passed, that pupil joins the public roads whether they have the necessary thinking skills for sustaining road safety…… or not.  Their feelings, thoughts and beliefs are coming on the roads, and their deep seated unconscious attitudes (perhaps yet to even surface) will be joining them too.  They and we have no choice in this fact.  So in effect there are two factors that will be affecting their driving behaviours: the first is very much within their own self and the other is related to the environment in which they are in as they drive.

The problem with the “instructor led” approach to driving training is that the environment they learnt to drive in bears no similarity at all with the environment in which they drive independently in.  They have in effect been trained within a sterile, unrealistic learning environment that has no benefit to them because their behaviour will be entirely different when they are in their own driving environment.   And if that were not enough, while they were ‘trained’ in that sterile, unrealistic learning environment, they were deliberately restricted from learning in any personally meaningful way.  They were not given the chance to discover many personal characteristics relating to their strengths/weaknesses in practical or cognitive skills for being a driver.  Cosmic.  They may as well have been trained by their Parents!

When you set up your new driving school car once you have qualified as a driving instructor (sounds good eh?), get yourself an additional mirror for your windscreen that is set only on the pupils face (it means you do not have to turn your head to look at them which is not just practically easier for you, but also less overbearing for your pupil).  When they have been with you for a while, take a mental ‘timeout’ from the session, and for 10 minutes, silently, with no notice given to your pupil, concentrate on what their eyes do when they drive.  Focus on the eyes.  They will have already been given all your words of wisdom on the whats, wheres, hows and whys of effective observations, just take a few minutes to specifically and thoroughly assess if their eyes are working in a methodical, systematic, logical fashion.  It will be time well spent.  Because while you have unexpectedly remained entirely silent for 10 minutes, you have allowed your pupil to lose themselves in their thoughts, and you have just caught a glimpse of the actual environment in which your pupil will be driving when alone.   This is a sample of what observations you can reasonably expect the pupil to make when they drive alone without the distractions of emotions, music, fatigue, drugs, mobile phones, friends, make up, eating, being lost etc.  It will either cut the mustard or it wont and you should be very clear about that because the obs aren’t going to magically improve post-test.  I have achieved this same goal by filming a training session (with your pupils consent of course) and providing them with the footage that demonstrates sound methodology to obs….. or not.  I mention this because we humans being as defensive and proud as we are, will instinctively deny or disbelieve your assessment if it is not recorded!

My point of this blog is to highlight that their future driving behaviour is going to come down to what their mind/body brings to the car, AS WELL AS the particular environment within and surrounding that car at the time.  It is in this context that you start to appreciate how ineffective “instructor led” training is to our pupils and why it really should be banished from our industry yesterday.

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

Top 5 Standards Check Fails

Driving instructors are subject to a periodical “Standards Check” from the DVSA where the examiner observes a driving lesson provided to a pupil.  Having analysed over 2000 results since this check was introduced in 2014 they have published the Top 5 reasons where ADI’s fail to demonstrate competence.  I offer it here for your perusal but do remember to come back to this blog, because as a trainee driving instructor I believe there is a more important message to give you.

Since I first trained to qualify as a driving instructor in 2008 the number 1 reason why candidates fail driving tests has always been “Observations at junctions”.  Driving instructors will know this, and yet candidates continue to fail for this reason year in, year out.  So simply knowing these facts of reasons why people fail is not in itself beneficial; it’s undoubtedly interesting but it does not affect outcomes so therefore I believe we all should be careful about what weight we put on the benefit of knowing such information.

I would advise trainee driving instructors to consider what “value” they are going to be providing their pupils.  Our chief goal should always be to facilitate long-term learning in a safe and enjoyable environment.  As tempting as it naturally is to go “chasing” data as is provided in the DVSA link above, it really should be avoided.  This effort of concentrating on assessment data that is focussed on fault finding is negative in nature and unhelpful to the 'learner'.  It is the trap that our pupils regularly fall in to when they suffer a driving test fail.  Rather than consider the root cause skill that needs developing, instead their entire focus is on attempting to ensure that particular driving fault (the symptom) is not committed again.  It is a weakness of the assessment process but as professional trainers we do have the power to choose how we handle this data for the good of our pupils. 

The question then becomes one that is centred around the amount of long-term learning that professional driving instructors are providing pupils.   The absence of long-term learning occurs for a variety of reasons, some of which really should be blindingly obvious to identify; we are after all training in a 1:1 learning environment.  The crux of the matter comes in how we respond when it is identified.  I am of the firm belief that too many instructors will take the easy option of reverting to “instructor led” training when they see that a pupil has an obstacle to learning.  This basically revolves around a learning environment whereby the instructor is no longer facilitating long-term learning, choosing to coach a driving test pass instead. 

It is key that a pupil recognises the responsibility they have in ensuring they “understand” in order to learn.  This is a practical skill with consequences to safety that go beyond the objective of simply passing the driving test.  We should remember that in a class of 30 students, it is possible to ‘hide’, but in 1:1 training we are duty bound to flag up when learning is simply not taking place and rightly “expect” our pupils to meaningfully engage.  Each one of us should bear in mind that when a pupil chooses to take the path of “Go direct to test” and we condone it, we are in effect contributing to the poor road safety statistics that exist for 17 to early 20 year olds.  Parents wont thank you when your ex-pupil is added to the collision data for newly qualified drivers; and of course, parents have their part to play in this situation too.

A subject is introduced to a pupil eg reverse parallel parking.  We explain the reason why it is done, we demonstrate how it is done in a variety of ways.  We offer the pupil to step outside and observe the vehicle while we demonstrate it.  We provide them with videos to reinforce learning at home.  We check understanding with open questions.  We invite them to reflect on the subject; create a mind-map, draw a diagram.   We offer them an environment in which to practise which is stress-free and safe.  We do all this and more, because we are attempting to facilitate learning BUT AT SOME POINT we must be critically assessing if learning is taking place.  If a pupil is repeatedly making either ad-hoc mistakes or the same mistake then they are not making progress and you are NOT transferring long-term learning.  It is essential at this point to not revert to “spoon feeding”.  Pupils do need to meaningfully engage in learning which goes beyond a mechanised, inflexible ‘technique’ to perform a reverse parallel park that will suffice to pass a driving test.  The technical competence required for this manoeuvre on a driving test, bears little resemblance to that needed in real life parking situations.  If you coach your pupil in this manner, they will not be equipped for independent driving post-test. 

Learning to drive is not an activity that demands intelligence; competence is not dependent on IQ.  But a pupil must ensure that they actually “get it”.  And more to the point, as professionals in a training industry we absolutely must be checking that our pupils “get it”.  Ignoring or diverting around an obstacle to learning is unprofessional.  I quite accept that the working relationship that a pupil has with their driving instructor may not be able to withstand the open, professional, high quality feedback which I am referring to here; but the point is, at least YOU can sleep soundly at night knowing you are positively contributing to road safety in the UK.

Tom Ingram provides payg driving training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Phases of learning

Attempting to understand the phases of learning that a pupil experiences when learning to drive is meaningful for a trainee driving instructor.  It may have been a while since you learnt something from scratch, you might have forgotten the typical feelings that are felt by pupils as they strive to learn.  Frustration for example.  Oh how frustrating it can be at times.  I recall failed attempts to learn musical instruments, the frustration is felt even now.  As we all experience the unfolding of our lives and the experiences we enjoy and endure, there will inevitably be thoughts of how we failed to learn a certain lesson of life at given times…. but how often is that frustration felt actually empowering.

It often is all about the experience.  It is quite amazing what potential we have in us to achieve if what we experience makes us happy, confident and motivated.  If the carrot is dangled there within sight, reach and it looks mighty juicy, then that carrot will normally, eventually get eaten.

When it comes to the basic car control, a driving instructor would do well to recognise the stages that their pupil will go through.  Initially in the cognitive stage, there is a considerable amount of thinking going on as we introduce the different controls to our pupil.  We should be careful not to burden them with too much detail too soon; pupils will benefit from time spent understanding how and why the car is controlled in the ways that we can.  For those pupils that have no previous related experiences to compare to eg cycling, mechanics, travelling at speed, sports with techniques, multi-tasking then it does pay to invest the time and effort initially to let these new ideas sink in.  What may be blindingly obvious to you may be entirely alien to your pupil and they may need plenty of time to become aware of a concept that they cannot even see from the drivers seat eg clutch control, steering, gear changes.  Telling your pupil that this is a practical activity is important because the learning process for practical activities inevitably involves real, tangible outcomes that affects things like the car, other road users, and/or the pupil’s confidence.  We are not in theoretical land here where outcomes matter not.  Outcomes are real, meaningful and that is one of the first seeds to sow in a new pupil – with learning to drive comes responsibility.   Responsibility in maintaining safety but also in developing effective learning.  If a driving instructor is talking at length about a subject that the pupil is not engaged in at all, then that cannot be ignored.  Talking AT pupils is not just a waste of time but it is damaging to the working relationship.  The timing and extent of detail that you go in to for a given pupil should be directly related to the needs of that pupil.

As your pupil continues to drive around, forwards, in reverse, approaching junctions, then in the right environment learning will take place and begins to become partially automated as they move in to the associative stage.  Choosing the correct place to practise is essential in creating a satisfying experience for your pupil.  Asking questions regarding their perception of fear/danger, how they identify a developing hazard are very relevant because were you NOT to understand how they feel at this stage then any progress can be seriously inhibited because you are inviting them to do the wrong thing, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.  Forcing a pupil to drive around so that they are scared out of their mind is unprofessional and reckless.  It is also incredibly dangerous because in these circumstances the senses shut down in our pupil, so any notion you have of controlling outcomes by verbal instruction can be futile due to your pupil literally not being able to hear you, such is their concentration and/or fear. 

With the passing of more time and increased confidence then your pupil will have less strain on the working memory freeing up the ability to talk while driving.  You can introduce concepts such as glancing at a side mirror vs properly observing via a side mirror.  In the initial stages your pupil’s head will almost continuously be facing straight ahead; a perfectly natural and instinctive reaction to the activity.  But in this autonomous stage the actions of gear change, foot work and signalling are more controlled, measured and natural looking, so introducing the more advanced concepts of safe driving will be much better received, such as well timed “chin to shoulder” observations. 

It is important to recognise though that just because you may have 40 + years of driving experience, the experiences your pupil is having can be extremely mind blowing.  The sense of speed, danger, discomfort, freedom, power that a pupil perceives is very personal to them; these can equally be contributing positively in the learning process as well as negatively.  When the feelings are affecting the driving behaviours (ability) then it is important to have an open conversation with your pupil and invite them to explain how they feel.  Not only will that insight assist you in better understanding your pupil (thereby assisting in maintaining safety and learning) but crucially, the conversation will help to raise the awareness of your pupil about what makes them tick.  It was said many moons ago “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider” (Francis Bacon) and I would strongly urge you to invite your pupils not only to talk with you about matters affecting their learning, but also to reflect by WRITING.  If your pupil is thinking, writing, reading about their learning experience then there is great potential for effective learning.  Anything that you can do to encourage this will be time well spent.

Tom Ingram provides driving training to trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464  http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

The driving test conveyor belt

When you first enter the industry as a driving instructor it is natural to assume that the key skills you need to possess include patience, calmness, understanding, empathy and reassurance and let’s throw in a dollop of sense of humour as well, that always goes down well.  Undoubtedly having these skills in your armoury can do you no harm but what you really need to understand is where you fit into the bigger picture, because that will NOT be quite so apparent.

You will realise quite quickly that there is more to the job of a driving instructor than developing the skills, techniques and knowledge that makes a safe driver.  In all walks of life we can focus our attention and efforts to achieve a particular goal but that does not in itself lead to permanence in our behaviours.  Driving instruction is no different.  Our education system places a heavy bias on exam results, but that is not necessarily resulting in well rounded, confident young adults equipped to deal with all the challenges soon to come their way.  And what you are going to discover as a newly qualified driving instructor is that there will equally be a heavy bias on passing the driving test.  The pupil(s) sat next to you, quite naturally has one thing in their mind, passing the driving test as soon as possible.  They are not interested in developing skills to aid anticipation of hazards, assessing driving conditions, reflecting on decisions they make as a driver, considering personal strengths/weaknesses for given situations.  They are interested in your pass rate, how quickly you take people to test, the test routes, how long it takes to book a test and if they fail when can they take another test. 

Our DVSA driving standards are designed to offer a guiding light in the thoroughness of our training.  They do not mention about driving tests and neither should we to our pupils.  Recently a driving instructor commented on a forum that everyone should calm down about their concerns regarding the new law for taking learners on to motorways; motorway driving is not on the test, we should feel no obligation to cover it in our training, in his opinion.  This is a person who appears to be training pupils to pass driving tests.   One of the problems with this approach is in the permanence of the learning.  Students who learn to pass exams have limited retention of knowledge beyond the exam; they have after all only temporarily retained the knowledge to pass the exam, what is the point in retaining it for any longer?  Equally, one could argue what is the point in learning ANYTHING that is not going to be asked in the exam?  The same goes for our pupils who learn how to pass a driving test, once that goal is achieved, that knowledge is also disposed of under the “no longer required” category.  This IS why the driving behaviour of newly qualified drivers is having to be further monitored by the use of “black box” telematics.  It is an attempt to re-name that newly acquired knowledge into the category of “Temporary hold” rather than “no longer required”.   

As professionals in the industry we have a duty to act like professionals and work to driving standards rather than the standard required to pass driving tests.  If you train a pupil to make a certain observation at a given moment in time in order to pass a test, do you honestly think that pupil is going to continue making that observation after they pass the test?  Do you intend to offer to assist pupils navigating up and down multi-storey car parks, dealing safely with breakdowns, managing in-car technology, handling a group of excited passenger friends in the car?

Passing of the driving test is a natural by-product of good driving training.  Your younger pupils may not be too willing to hear that to begin with.  They may have any number of very real obstacles to learning to drive, obstacles that simply cannot be ignored in order to develop a safe driver but that does not necessarily mean that THEY will recognise that fact.  Some pupils will need guidance in appreciating unrealistic expectations as they may not be too experienced in that so far in their life.  An educational factory that is bending over backwards to condition students to take exams does not develop an understanding of what real, practical, meaningful learning actually looks like.  Managing obstacles to learning simply comes in the form of re-taking of tests repeatedly.  There is no need to develop a responsibility for what any learning actually means to you as a student when you are simply being encouraged to regurgitate knowledge in the short-term.  As all of us know only too well, if we don’t feel a sense of “owning” our involvement in something, then the outcome is “out of our hands”.  As a newly qualified driving instructor, if you can develop a relationship with your pupil so that they can sense they very much are in control of outcomes then that is certainly heading towards “safe driving”.   A student who fails exams can re-sit it or even the entire year but consider what failure means to our driving pupils.  It is the easiest thing in the world to teach a pupil to pass a driving test, but if they then go on to have accidents, feel unconfident to drive, can’t afford the insurance then really, what value have you added?  All of us driving instructors can look the other way with this, pretend it is not happening, but all the evidence out there is suggesting that many of our pupils are being seriously let down by our unprofessional approach to learning to drive.

Tom Ingram provides driving training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

How will you contribute to the driving training industry?

One of the challenges that meets newly qualified driving instructors is the problem that the behaviour that a pupil intends is not what actually occurs.  Bearing in mind that driving instructors do not require a teaching qualification this problem can sometimes cause great frustration and irritation to the instructor.  In this blog I will expand on this particular issue and discuss why this happens.

James takes a mock test with you which he fails as he was doing 35 in a 30.  Does that seem harsh to you?  Pupils do need to receive good quality feedback. You discuss this with James, it is not a new problem, he has been consistently wanting to drive at just over 30mph for a long time, he knows it, he knows you know it.  Where to go from here?  James is itching to do another mock test, because he just wants to show you that when he really really concentrates on his speed, he can manage to not go over 30mph.  So you do another mock test, sure enough, he passes with no speeding, and James is feeling really good about himself.  Hoorah!  Let’s book the real test then.  Has that speeding problem gone away?  Of course it hasn’t.  There is a disconnect between what James intends to do and what he actually does.  Here we are talking about speeding but it could equally be related to texting while driving, tailgating, drifting between lanes on a multi-lane roundabout, excessive acceleration or braking that makes for an uncomfortable ride.  As the driving instructor, you encourage the pupil to become aware of how they are driving, you check for understanding but there is no change in behaviour.  Hmmmmm…… that’s annoying isn’t it? 

One of the reasons why we have the level of distrust from car insurers about newly qualified drivers is due to how your ‘average’ driving instructor deals with this problem.  Many instructors will say to James after the 2^nd successful mock test “There you go James, you see, you CAN do it.  That’s all it requires, just need to focus like that when you are driving and you will be fine.  A couple of endorsements for speeding James and those points on your licence will mean you have to start all this over again, including the theory…. so, have you got that now then?”  James nods his head whilst thinking “I only wanted to prove I can pass your mock test”.

A glance at the GDE matrix shows us some pertinent considerations:

Regarding risk, we have sensation seeking, acceptation of risk, risky driving style.  Under self-evaluation we have risky tendencies, typically risky motives when driving, personal safety margins, realistic assessment of own skill, strengths and weaknesses regarding driving skills in traffic.  James' attitude to the risk associated with driving at 35 in a 30 may not match yours.   His thoughts on the subject might raise an opinion or belief that will not be changing any time soon – he may have formed this through his upbringing, due to the influence of friends or family members or it may simply be deeply ingrained in James.  My point is, unless we make attempts to understand the influencers on his behaviour, as a professional, how can we ever hope to assess the risk associated with it?

As our driving standard tells us and this blog has mentioned on many occasions, we can help develop a pupil’s self-awareness but at some point, it really is incumbent on our pupils to take responsibility for the outcomes of their learning process.  It will only be through open and honest conversations with pupils that we can ever hope for them to change driving behaviours.  At the core of your relationships with your pupils must be openness, integrity and respect.  On the whole, pupils do not enter into driving training with driving instructors to completely ignore any issue that crops up, what they do need assistance with however, is discovering what is affecting them to make the decisions that they are.  Right now, more than at any time since I have been in this industry, what is needed is some acknowledgement of how poor training affects outcomes – not in terms of passing driving tests, but in terms of developing safe drivers in the long term.  That accountability is sadly very much lacking.  We have car insurers telling our customers after they pass their driving test that the only way to make the insurance premium affordable is if they are continually monitored with telematics fitted to their car.  That consequence of the training provided is shameful and if you are coming into the industry now, it would be good to ask yourself what kind of driving instructor are you wanting to be: one who exacerbates this distrust in newly qualified drivers or one who seeks to assist pupils in truly changing driving behaviours for the better.

The choice is ultimately yours.


Tom Ingram provides payg driving training to trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464  http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Limitations of learning

As a professional driving instructor it seems almost a sign of weakness for me to bring up the subject of barriers to learning but I’m a firm believer that we should be as prepared to consider our own personal limitations as we should be prepared to ask our pupils to consider theirs.  Whilst it is undoubtedly our goal to nurture learning it would be foolish to think that it is a given, 100% of the time. 

When the in-car learning environment is heavily biased towards the driving instructor controlling, dominating and solely deciding on what happens, when and how, that style of learning environment is particularly prone to being only as good as the instructor is.  If on the other hand, the instructor is working in more of a role of facilitating learning, then any personal weaknesses of the instructor are not constantly anchoring down learning.  The sorts of things I’m referring to here are communications, relationship building, training at the correct location at the correct time, over instructing, under instructing, limitations of driving techniques and skills, ability to assess progress and confidence etc.  If a driving instructor has high ability in these skill areas then this is good for the pupil, if on the other hand, the driving instructor is weak in any of these areas then that will expose fundamental flaws in the learning process. 

Any readers of this blog will know that personally, I am a firm believer in a learning environment that is swathed in positivity and encouragement – not patronising and over the top, but well timed, good quality feedback that is justified is incredibly rewarding, encouraging and motivating for a pupil.  As such, my own personal approach is not to expect a pupil to drive like I do, if I did, then they would only ever be as good as I am and more to the point, I am limiting the potential for personalised learning.

The reason why I am making this point is because as a PDI who is considering coming into this industry you may not necessarily have received professional training in the art of learning and perhaps it might have been a while since you have done any serious learning yourself.  In much the same way that sometimes we can have a pupil sat next to us who has absolutely no previous experience or thoughts of a mechanically propelled object let alone car, we should not be ASSUMING that what might be blindingly obvious to us, is going to be obvious to them.  I do mean this quite literally.  In an “instructor led” learning environment, the instructor will go in to kind of auto-pilot mode when they discuss the basic controls for the car.  They will have their own personal biases, technical know how, language they use and the depth and scope of it will be pre-set because in their opinion, that is what the pupil needs to know.  But the pupil may not want to know all the ins and outs of the controls just yet, they may not even want to be sat in the drivers seat, the prospect of pressing any foot pedals right now terrifies them and they desperately need things to be done entirely differently…… immediately.  We really should not make assumptions of what we think is appropriate for the pupil, instead we should be open minded and enter into discussions where the input of the pupil could not be predicted; asking a question in such a manner that you have absolutely no idea how it is going to be answered is always a good sign!

This is of course a skill in itself.  I have seen PDI’s in the past who whether it be through previous experiences or just natural ability are able to embrace this very effectively, very quickly.  Other PDI’s might need more time to come round to this idea, as it is either new to them, or different.  But I would encourage you to at least consider this.  If all you do is end up training your learner pupils in a role that is not much different to how an enthusiastic parent would go about it, then you are opening yourself up to not only being frustrated and miserable (due to your pre-conceived ideas of what progress the pupils should be making), but also, potentially you are going to providing a thoroughly miserable learning experience to your pupil.  Learning is supposed to be fun, stimulating, challenging, rewarding, motivational and boosting self-confidence.  Forcing pupils to do things that they do not want to do, making them feel unsafe, anxious and inadequate is not good for self-confidence and is being reckless with your ‘customer experience’.

In the interests of balance I should point out that some pupils very much like the driving instructor to take a more dominant role in the learning environment.  The ability for pupils to self-evaluate will differ for sure, and it might not be natural but if you can encourage them to start analysing their confidence and ability you will be mightily impressed at how empowering it is for them.  Ultimately, the previous experience of pupils regarding driving or learning really matters not to us, it is what it is, and we play the cards we are dealt with.  If you are proficient in developing skills for the pupil to effectively measure their progress then the working relationship between you and your pupils will flourish.

Tom Ingram provides pay as you go driving training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/