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/