Watching the learner: Introduction
This is one of the most important, if not the most important lesson to learn with regard to passing the final part of your exam and going on to be a safe and effective teacher in the car.
ADI Part-Three is all about communicating your knowledge to the learner - however, you are not learning to be a lecturer - if learners simply need to know facts they can watch videos or read books. Your job will be to interact with the learners, delivering information that is relevant to their needs. However, before you can do this you need to know what those needs are.
There are a few ways to discover the needs of a learner driver. Perhaps the most obvious is asking. You can ask questions to explore your learner's knowledge and then fill in any gaps - and this is a skill that you will be using a lot, but not all the time.
One thing that you will be doing 'all the time' is watching your learners - to spot what they are getting right, so that you can give motivational feedback, and what they are getting wrong, so that you can use your expert knowledge and skill to help them.
One of the most common reasons for ADI Part-Three failure and Standards Check problems is failing to spot mistakes. This happens when the instructor pays too much attention to the road and insufficient attention to the learner.
VERY IMPORTANT: We cannot stress strongly enough just how important this skill is - please take opportunities to practise whenever and as much as you can and if at all possible, go out for dedicated practise sessions.
Your starting point
The starting point for your Part-Three preparation is learning to watch.
We want you to take every opportunity that you can to practise watching people drive.
Whenever possible, sit in the passenger seat* when friends an family are driving and watch them drive.
*As you progress with your training you will learn that driving school cars don't have a front passenger seat - they have an 'instructor's seat'. You will never be a 'passenger' when you are working. However, for the watching practise we want you to be a passenger.
For your watching practise to be successful you:
- Must gain permission from the driver before watching
- Simply be an observer - don't comment on the drive or try to 'fix' things
- Focus your attention on driving routines - Mirrors, Signal, Position, Speed, Gear Look, Assess, Decide, Act.
Trying to sort out the driving of friends and family can quickly lead to arguments!
Next: Examples of watching the learner