Nunchi in a learning environment

South Korea is doing very well on limiting the virus death toll given its population.  They also make use of "nunchi" which you won't find on the standards check form (SC1).  But there should be a line under Teaching & Learning Strategies that asks:

Did the trainer demonstrate nunchi towards their pupil?

Nunchi is all about the art of intuiting what others are thinking and learning how to anticipate their needs.  I can think of times when a pupil is about to do something when I can prevent it from occurring.  You might question if I'm depriving them of the opportunity to learn from making mistakes.  As we are creatures of habit, sometimes it is better to prevent a certain habit from forming in the first place.  It's easier to tread a fresh path of behaviour than it is to 'de-rail' from an existing one.

But it's more than that.

We train in a 1:1 learning environment, and some of us are attempting to tap into the beliefs and attitudes that our pupil holds dear. We can assist in the raising of awareness of likely outcomes, e.g. wearing seat belts, maintaining the car, texting while driving, dropping off children on yellow zig-zags,  speeding.  When you are in those kinds of conversations, you are asking your pupil to open up, share a window to their inner feelings - we should quite rightly tread carefully.  One way I could describe it is not allowing your pupil to 'lose face', we should do our best to ensure the pupil is not uncomfortable or feels like they lose dignity as a result of the training.

Another reason that nunchi gets my vote is that it demonstrates efficiency with words and actions.  When we are paying attention, our brain is visualising the sequence of steps desired in our pupil and is double-checking the minutiae of the task, e.g. gear changes, observations.  It becomes a smooth process that has subtlety and finesse; which is why I like the description of nunchi being an art.  It shouldn't be underestimated how powerfully a learning environment surrounded by success benefits our pupils.  Nunchi within briefings and de-briefings is important.  We should not be expecting all pupils to engage in these discussions in the same manner; this is one of the activities that gives driving instructors a bad reputation.  Pupils who are sat in the driving school car outside their home, listening to an instructor, bored out of their brains.  They are not robots!  You know what you want to cover, for excellent reasons, but have some flexibility about the delivery - get your head out of 'standards check' ticky box mode.