Traditional Driving Instructor Vs Client Centred Learning
Driver training has changed in recent years to help learner drivers become better prepared independent drivers for life on the road after their driving test.
At RoadSmart, we adopt a client centred approach to teaching people to drive. Read about the difference between traditions driving instruction and the modern client centred learning experience.
What is a 'Traditional Driving Instructor'?
A traditional driving instructor is someone who doesn't use client centred learning but is one who will tell you what to do and how to do it. They will tell you that you need to signal when you turn left at the end of the road or you should position your car in a certain place in the road. It’s very much a ‘I talk and you listen’ relationship wth the learner driver.
This is an old fashioned approach to developing skills. You may end up learning despite your instructor, NOT BECAUSE OF THEM.
A hierachy forms in the car between the ‘all-knowing’ instructor and the passive ‘uneducated’ learner driver. The instructor ends trying to lay his maps of how the world works in top of your very own map of how the world works. Therefore the instructor is putting the learning in, forcing their ideologies upon you in the hope that you will remember most of it.
In reality, you won’t remember most of it and in a driving test scenario, often under pressure drivers will completely forget the things their instructor has told them to remember, because they’ve never had the chance to develop their own safe way of doing things based on their own map of the world. They’re just basically folllwing someone esles way of doing things.
Ultimately, this leads to panic, confusion and in the end, bad decision making resulting in a failed test. If you get throug the driving test, it doesn’t et you up for the world of driving independetly.
In 2014 the DVSA conducted some research and found that a high number of road accidents each year in the UK, were caused by drivers making poor decisions. They came to the conclusion that didn’t get the standard of training needed to prepare them for a lifetime of safe driving. The DVSA then published the "National Standard For Driver And Rider Training".
“You learn how to drive but you only really learn once you’ve passed your test” - You might hear that statement somewhere along your new journey, if you haven't already!
This stems from learners doing what their Instructors tell them to do - at least until they've passed their driving tests - and then experimenting with their own driving styles in their own car, without the safety net of an Instructor sat next to them.er told you, you had passed? I don't think that feeling ever goes. I can still remember that feeling 20+ years later. It's amazing isn't it!?
There must be a more efficient way of doing things....right?!
Client Centred Learning
Based on the DVSA's (Driving & Vehicle Standards Agency) findings and working with educational professionals, something had to change within the Driving Instructor industry to bring it into the modern age of education, therefore the encouragement for Instructors to take a more 'client-centred' coaching approach was born.
This more modern version of teaching - or 'coaching' - means you are always equal with your Instructor, there is no hierarchy here. Nor is there any judgement when things that you try don't work.
So, instead of being filled with your Instructor's self-righteous wisdom, a driving coach simply provides a safe and consequence-free environment for your learning to flourish, rather than having someone else's ideologies forced upon you.
Your incredible and intelligent human brain will be taken through a series of different driving topics, experiences and conversations - allowing you to make mistakes in a safe environment - learning from them along the way.
I can provide you with answers to questions, perform demonstrations or interactive briefings, all whilst allowing everything to be done on your terms.
You can choose the subject you'd like to work on and set your own achievement goals, providing they are realistic. You can also choose the best way to go about developing your skills. This could be a level of instructor involvement to assist you, or with you simply giving it a go on your now while I keep you safe - so you can experience the pros and cons of doing things in a certain way.
You'll be developing your own safe and competent driving style - all whilst I keep you 100% safe.
You'll always be actively involved, rather than being sat passively waiting for 'instructions'.
In a driving test scenario, you won't forget what you've been told to do, because it was actually you that came up with the logical steps you'll need to take in the first place.
