The Ladder to Driving Success

 

The Ladder to Driving Success

Here I am on my journey to become a better client centred driving instructor. It's time to have a look at the four stages we go through when learning to drive or when any other skill you can think of. Each stage will have the pupil experience different thoughts and feelings regarding the skill that they are learning. The first driving lesson can be a really feel-good experience whereas the second lesson can bring feelings of disappointment after the intial early boost has worn off. By being aware of these four stages of learning I will be able to better support my pupils when they feel like they are getting nowhere and progress is slow. Let's take a look.

Step one – unconsiously unskilled. At this stage a learner is unskilled but doesn't yet realise it. This can lead to beginners luck. The pupil may experience over confidence as they get the car moving and think it's all going to be easy. The first lesson usually goes well and the pupil doesn't realise how much support they are getting so think they are doing everything for themselves. I can tell when a pupil's false sense of confidence is growing because they begin to drive over the speed limit. It's a good sign in a way but has to be managed well or the risk level will become too high and confidence shattering incidents can occur.

Step two – consciously unskilled. This can be a difficult stage for the learner. After the initial excitement of being able to move a car and steer it on the road the enormity of the task ahead looms large and the pupil feels like they are getting worse. This is the time when some positive coaching come into play and the learning gets broken down into small manageable chunks so the pupil can maintain a sense of progress even though things seem harder than they did at the beginning. It's a stage where a lot of people think about giving up.

Level three – consciously unskilled. This is the longest stage of the four where the learner can perform driving tasks but only if they are concentrating on them the whole time. These are the lessons that can really tire out a learner. They need practice so that the skills become automatic and more attention can be given to the road and the overall traffic situation. It's the point where the instructor is managing the risk situation so the pupil can focus on practising the skills. Some pupils describe this stage as juggling their attention. As they concentrate on one aspect of driving another will drop off and mistakes will be made. All part of the learning process.

Level four - Unconsiously skilled. This is the final stage of learning where many skills have become automatic. No longer does the pupil have to focus on how they are using the foot controls or how huch to turn the wheel. This means that they can focus on the road and decision making regarding the overall traffic situation. Reaching this stage does not mean that the pupil is experienced though and can lead to complacency and a false sense of confidence leading to collisions. This is why most accidents occur near a person's home. They feel that because they know the roads so well absolutely nothing can go wrong putting them at risk of getting involved in accidents. Pupils can move back down the ladder if they get into stressful situation owing to inexperience. It's important that the pupil realises they are still a new driver to avoid so they can manage themselves and avoid unnecessary risk.

After climbing the learning ladder to the top it's important that the new driver continues to reflect on their driving. Looking at the little mistakes and thinking about why they happened can help prevent the big and incident causing mistakes from happening. This process starts during lessons. By getting the pupil to reflect on their mistakes a driving instructor can get the pupil to a point where they automatically do this for themselves. A lot of people react by trying to blame other drivers or the road or the weather. Anything but themselves really. This is where a sense of personal reponsibility comes in. By actively involving the pupil in the learning process from the very beginning they can develop this sense of responsibility that will stay with them for the entirity of their driving career. I have begun to make the learner more involved in deciding how the lesson will be structured and what skills they wish to practice on a particular lesson. Whenever a potential safety critical incident occurs we pull up and go through what happened. How was the pupil feeling? What were they thinking as we came to the point on the road where the incident happened? Where were they looking and what were they looking for? By answering these questions the pupil can build a deep understanding of why the incident occurred so they know what to avoid or what they should do in the future to remain safe on the road promoting a sense of personal responsibility.

So there we have the learning ladder. It's a useful concept and has many applications in driver training. I will keep using and developing the ladder during my learner driving lessons Nottingham area.