A new learner, completely open to suggestion sits beside an ADI and stares blankly at the dashboard, the ADI, experienced, asks the novice to move the car, after a short silence the pupil says - how. The instructor responds with a volley of questions about when the pupil has been a passenger, have they watched someone else drive, do they know what the levers and pedals do. An uncomfortable silence follows when the pupil whispers quietly, I just want you to teach me to drive.
Good for business, good for self esteem, or poor practice.
Just lately we have been approached, as a company, by students asking us to just teach them to drive, please don't ask what I want to do this week, please do not tell me I know all this from being in my parents car, to one in particular, I am currently studying to be a doctor, in my life I have been ill but I do not want trial and error of my past experiences to lead the way, it could cost a life and so can this silly idea that, as my previous instructor told me, I can drive already I just do not know how yet but I can find out based on my experience.
So has the coaching concept been taken one step too far. Seven years ago a report was published that favoured coaching for learner drivers, and from that point on the business people in this arena have taken the baton and run with it. Good for them, taking the manageable income of a tutor and turn it into their own, for some an improvement in skills is a good thing, for others it is patronising and unprofessional.
Yet as educators, we know there is room within the field of coaching to make the learning environment a better place, for some. We can build rapport with all of our clients, develop a fun informative learning place, but when we start to let the learner do all of the work while we sit smugly and observe, then it becomes taking advantage of the students time and money. That is not coaching.
Pure coaching does not have a place within the driving industry, but a method that encourages thinking outside of the box does, however, study and research into the mind is an essential element, but then as it becomes indepth it becomes a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
Coaching is fascinating to study, and coaching in practice is a strong reliable tool, it does however involve commitment and a contract. It also is known to be ineffective when dealing with a novice. If the driving test is to mark a standard that is average or minimal, then those whose experience is derived from uneducated experience or belief of another then that process would be suffocated by it's own inability to deliver the required outcome..
As a nation we are being steered away from oppressive schooling, however this is not a new concept and dates back about one hundred years. Coaching tries to manipulate the student into creating belief systems so that the student does not feel isolated in their understanding, particularly if the student feels lost in the educational process, therefore anti-oppressive schooling allows the use of multi factored approach thereby freeing the learner. Within the learning to drive scenario this would be difficult to achieve as the goal is a single factor.
Copyright A Green 2013
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