How to perceive the silent pupil

That image that we all see in print once in a while of someone waving in the sea.  It turns out they're drowning.

Have you ever walked passed any of these vast office buildings that have mirror-like windows?  How easy it is only to consider our perspective.  Unbeknown to us, behind those mirror windows, are hundreds, possibly thousands of office workers - we have absolutely no idea of their existence and assume no-one is there.  Very curious.

It is so easy to make assumptions when we work with our pupils.  Unless they offer us a window into their thoughts and feelings, we have no idea what is going on inside their head.  Driving instructors will often express their frustration of pupils who seemingly don't get what they are saying.  Try not to rush too quickly into conclusions when you get no insight into their thoughts.

In the absence of any communication from a pupil, we have no idea at all how much they are grasping.  It is just as dangerous to assume they have learnt something as it is cruel to believe they have not learnt something.  The fact is of course, if our pupil is not answering questions, or expressing their thoughts we don't know the level of understanding.  

This is why some pupils take a driving test and don't progress forward in the middle of a junction to turn right when they get a green light.  It is why some won't slow down for speed humps, or give way to a pedestrian approaching a zebra crossing.  Driving instructors, deeply within their frame of reference where all of this seems so obvious, scratch their heads in bewilderment as to how their pupil can spend as much time as they have doing the driving training and NOT know these basic 'rules of the road'.

Let's take the turning right at a junction example.  

Crossing the path of oncoming traffic is higher risk - does your pupil know why?

There is a difference between the round green light and the directional green arrow at traffic lights - does your pupil know why?

If a vehicle does not drive over the sensors in the middle of the junction before turning right, there will be a consequence - does your pupil know why?

Prior to turning right, a right side mirror check, chin to shoulder observation and then look into the new road should all occur before the car moving off - does your pupil know why?

If you cannot judge how much your pupil knows based on their responses to your questions, don't assume they know - there really are hundreds if not thousands of office workers behind those mirror windows; it's only because you can't see through the window that you are not aware of that fact.

Why does the default position that we take have to be that in the absence of our pupil giving us any notion of understanding at all, that they must already know it?  It makes no sense at all if you think about it.

Print off the driver's record from the direct.gov.uk site which lists amongst other things the competencies - some of them will instantly jump out at you as being of increased risk when driving.  At the start of each week, highlight two of them and make those your 'risk factors theme' for the week. Leave no stone unturned for the selected two, assume nothing, describe everything.  Don't wait for the particular subject or scenario to crop up, cover it proactively.  Does your pupil understand the theory?  If you don't know then have a conversation about shared responsibilities for safety between the two of you.  You cannot start to move through the five levels of verbal instruction if you don't know if they understand what you are saying.  It is not an effective working relationship between instructor and pupil if the instructor does not know how much the pupil is learning.

If they do understand, really understand, then this can be referred to immediately before it cropping up, safe in the knowledge that you have just put your pupil's brain 'in gear' so to speak before it arrives.  If they do not understand, no problem at all, do NOT fall into the trap of moving on, go and locate a good place where this subject crops up.  Demo it by driving and talking.  Get out the car and observe it.  Invite your pupil to video record it on their phone.  

If a pupil of yours takes a driving test and does one of the following: fails to stop at a stop line, tries to turn right or left when it is prohibited, drives through an amber illegally, does not enter a yellow box junction when they should, does not position correctly at a junction, fails to take sufficient observations before emerging etc then it demonstrates a lack of understanding.  Your pupil has not recognised the significance of what you have covered previously.  They have not realised that so serious is the point, that it will fail a driving test because it potentially impacts safety.  You had assumed that they understood the subject when they didn't.  It is dangerous to have newly qualified drivers driving around on public roads when they have either no appreciation of increased risk factors or do not comply with the rules of the road through ignorance.