Do you think I'm doing alright?

Some pupils will openly ask you this question for a very good reason.  How on earth are they supposed to know how well they are progressing?

Some measures they could track:

Number of stalls
The extent of damage done to the car
Their feeling of confidence
Positional accuracy in the road
Number of times another road user is adversely affected by them
Whether they would pass a mock test
Number of times they drive over the maximum speed limit

A pupil may have their sense of what their progress is, but how do they know how accurate they are?  Do they presume they are correct?

A pupil may choose to know your opinion as their driving instructor or maybe they won't; not all pupils welcome assessment from a driving instructor.

A pupil may go out with Mum or Dad between sessions with their driving instructor and place all their notions of progress on what they say.


My point in this blog is that we should not assume that our pupils respect our opinion of their progress or even welcome it.  If a pupil can self-assess progress accurately then great, that is a happy place to be.  

It becomes tricky as a driving instructor when a pupil does not want to hear your assessment and has an unrealistic perception of their ability which is over-inflated. You can attempt to quantify your evaluation by comparing their ability versus the standard on a driving test; raise their awareness of driving fault assessment on a test.  You can invite a pupil to consider how the driving behaviours affect other road users and also their confidence.  You can attempt to put their current ability in the context of what could happen either on the driving test or post-test when they are driving independently.

But to be professional, you can set out in unambiguous terms what the expected standard of driving is BEFORE you allow a pupil to take a test.  They have the right to reject your stance and go elsewhere, but at least you have been clear.
  
Driving instructors get entirely tied up in knots about this point.  If you find yourself nodding,  get in touch as I can provide some clarity for you.