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/ 

A race to the bottom

It would appear that the DVSA are placing increasing importance on their Standards Check grading that they periodically give to driving instructors; with talk now of it becoming compulsory for ADI’s to publicise their grading.  It begs the question why the DVSA doesn’t just automatically publicise the grades taking any “option” out of the driving instructor’s hands.

Any aspiring driving instructors might well be wondering what all the fuss is about – let me explain.

The DVSA choose to assess the competence of a driving instructor by having an examiner observe a real driving lesson from the back seat of the driving school car.  One might wonder what is possibly wrong with that?  Well, in much the same way that learner drivers can be “coached” to pass driving tests, equally, driving instructors can be “coached” to pass Standards Check assessments.  Shock, horror! Surely I didn’t just say that?  How dare I suggest such a thing?!  People get a bit confused by this situation because some perceive training that is specifically aimed at “Standards Check” assessments as being “CPD”.  But be under no illusions, if a driving instructor is receiving short, sharp, intensive “Standards Check” training they are being “coached” to pass the Standards Check with flying colours.  The problem with this approach to the Standards Check assessment is how ‘long term’ the new learning will be on the driving instructor.  The analogy I would draw for you would be to consider how long term the effects are on a learner driver by telling them to check a mirror every 8 seconds.  In doing so, the pupil complies and passes the driving test, but do you think for one moment that the pupil will continue checking the mirror every 8 seconds after passing the driving test?  This low grade type of driver training is going on in our industry right now.

So what I am really questioning is the integrity and value of the Standards Check.  The DVSA are on the brink here of making the fundamental mistake the school education industry has made in how OFSTED assesses schools.  So much emphasis is placed on the perceived value of exam grades, that the whole point of effective, meaningful education for ALL students is being lost. 

Driving instructors should be assessed by monitoring what ACTUAL CPD they do.  Are they attending driving association conferences where the DVSA attend?  Are they purchasing and passing training courses that has meaningful “teaching” qualifications attached to it?  It is my contention that the worthiness of a driving instructor is directly linked to their ability to facilitate effective learning.  What we need the DVSA to do is to follow through with the goals of the driving standards that they have provided, and assess driving instructors in their ability to deliver high quality driving training aligned to those driving standards.  The ability of a driving instructor to facilitate  effective learning is measurable by how well the driving instructor is trained.  

What we desperately need is our industry to stop providing “emergency first aid” training in the form of temporarily equipping driving instructors to pass the Standards Check.  Instead the DVSA should be requiring to see evidence of any meaningful CPD the driving instructor is participating in.      

Tom Ingram provides PAYG driving training to trainee driving instructors from £20/hr (0775 607 1464)   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Understanding "the moment"

This blog is in the form of a video just to provide a different format for followers - if it proves popular then I will use it more.  Do let me know!

Interested in learning more?  Here is a link to my ebook

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

Learning Ownership

One of the shortcomings of working with a pupil within a learning environment that is based around them listening to information only is that it deprives them of the opportunity to own how they learn.  Our Driving Standard is very clear on this point:

".....learners who:

are not engaged by the training
just receive information

are less well equipped to deal with the wide range of challenges they will meet, when they drive independently, than those who are supported to be active learners."

So a professional driving instructor will strive to promote learning by having a pupil actively contributing to the process.   Take the responsibility for maintaining safety as one example.  A pupil needs to be given the opportunity to realise the importance of assessing risk.  Sometimes driving instructors get all consumed in the dealing with driving errors that crop up instead of focussing on the important stuff.  Safety critical incidents must not, ever be ignored.  It sends entirely the wrong message to a pupil if an incident crops up that affected safety and is NOT discussed.  Without thinking we have no learning, and for some pupils, without talking, we have no thinking.  So it is essential that risk is discussed BEFORE specific training takes place, so that if an incident does crop up that affected safety, then between instructor and pupil, the process of risk assessment that was undertaken can be reviewed.  There is no shame in that by the way.  Far from it.  It is logical, justifiable and an effective means of striving for continual improvement.

If you are finding yourself getting frustrated or angry with the outcomes of the training session, then the development need sits firmly with YOU not your pupil.  Raising your voice and venting your anger on your pupil is unprofessional and completely misguided.  Our pupils do not enter our driving school cars with any deliberate intentions of creating safety critical incidents - they simply need to have the skill of risk assessment developed so that when you leave the passenger seat after they pass the test, they can continue to do that risk assessment.

When you are both considering what to work on, allow your pupil the time to actually imagine how this is going to proceed.  Ask them to consider if there are any risks that they can think of in doing what you are both planning on doing.  They need to realise that there are choices about how they learn.  They can control outcomes by giving some thought to where to train, how long, how difficult to make it.  But importantly, having made those decisions, if it turns out that they had made an error on how they thought the session would go (in terms of learning outcomes or safety implications) then that is still very worthwhile to review the process taken in risk assessing.  It is a good sign when a pupil starts to independently recognise the value in reviewing outcomes, but they do need a hand in developing that skill.

Whilst I am making reference there to identifying the responsibility to maintain safety while training, we should not forget the benefit to the learning outcomes of the pupil, by having an engaged pupil.  When pupils can sense that they have the freedom to control learning outcomes it boosts satisfaction levels, learning, motivation and self-worth.  Pupils need to feel they are being fulfilled in the process of learning and driving instructors are no different.  It is vitally important as a newly qualified driving instructor that you can sense the value you are providing - and the DVSA tell us all that the value comes in the development of active learners, not 'compliant' learners.   

In summary, I wanted to introduce in this blog the concept within the DVSA Driving Standard of how we maximise long term learning by encouraging pupils to actively engage in the process.  Pupils learn by thinking.  The "doing" bit of car control is a given, that is the stuff of the lower two levels on the GDE matrix.  What I am referring to here is how instructors can encourage pupils to start taking on the responsibility for their learning process by equipping them with the skills of identification, assessment, decision making and reflection.  Whilst I have used the example of maintaining safety in this blog, you can apply these key skills to any given situation within the learning environment.  And they are just that.... skills, skills that pupils need to be made aware of, practice and develop.   

So today, give some thought to the "how" of your pupils learning, rather than the "what".  Pupils need to be given the opportunity to review how effective their learning is and where any obstacles may exist.

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

Think beyond the passing of tests

The reality of the situation re the quality of driver training currently is that the liability or risk of newly qualified drivers is so great that car insurers are only prepared to make it viable in financial terms to insure a car if the driver agrees to having a black "telematics" box fitted.  That is where we currently find ourselves. 

Quite typically my pupils are telling me that with telematics the quotes they receive for a fairly average second hand car is around £1500, without telematics £2500.   The telematics are in effect behaving as some kind of substitute driving instructor whereby the newly qualified driver continues to sense a monitoring of driving behaviour.  Why is this necessary?  Because bluntly, without it, insurers recognise the increased risk that the new driver presents.

What this should be telling us all as an industry, is that the driving training being provided can best be described as a systemic failure on a cataclysmic magnitude .  Preparing pupils to pass driving tests that then exposes that they are ill-equipped to drive independently post-test is really no reason to celebrate.  If this performance measure were being monitored in the same manner as any other comparable industry regarding the value it provides to the consumer, there would be a national outcry of it being 'not fit for purpose'. 

However, in the interests of balance, it should be said that it is very often our customers desire to look upon driving training as no more than being able to pass the driving test - so the fact that these customers are now having to endure extortionate insurance premiums is for many driving instructors, quite justifiable.  I have just renewed my own driving school car annual insurance for just over £250 the same level it was when I came into the industry in 2008.

If a customer wants to go to test come hell or high water, they will find an instructor that will let them go to test.  This is one of the downfalls of our system; a candidate presenting themselves for a driving test does not require ANY formal authority to go to test from a professional driving instructor, they don't even need to use a driving school car for the purposes of the test.  Our pupils and their parents do not, on the whole, make connections between the quality of driving training and long-term road safety, instead, their minds are centred around the repeated taking of driving tests in order to eventually get a full driving licence. 

And this is equally the case for PDI's who want to qualify as a driving instructor too.  PDI's if left to their own devices will naturally, generally speaking be focussed just on the passing of the 3 DVSA tests; who can blame them?  And yet, look at the fall out rate of driving instructors from the industry.  The DfT statistics that are regularly provided for public viewing show all of us the static numbers on the ADI register DESPITE the monthly addition of newly qualified ADI's.  ADI's are leaving the industry in droves. 

How this level of mass "under-performance" is allowed to continue unchecked is quite unbelievable.

Tom Ingram provides driving training to PDI's on a PAYG basis 0775 607 1464
http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/