In the last article of this series I started looking at the Core Competencies section of the Check Test marking sheet and considered the importance of seeing your pupil's mistakes (fault identification) and identifying their causes (fault analysis). But seeing the mistakes and knowing why they happen is only part of the instructional process. You need to actually do something with the information, and to help you start understanding what is needed, this article looks at Remedial Action and Level of Instruction.

Remedial action

The third and final heading in the Core Competencies section is Remedial Action. This refers to how you deal with the problems uncovered through your observation and analysis of your pupil's mistakes.
Ideally your remedial action should start during fault analysis. As you work with your pupil to analyse mistakes, you can build up a picture (literally, if you are using visual aids) of what might be done differently next time. As part of this process you might choose to climb into the driving seat and demonstrate the principles involved. It can also be useful to demonstrate where your pupil went wrong (if it's safe to do so). This will often enable pupils to view the situation more objectively and to work out solutions for themselves.

Finally, you must give your pupil an opportunity to practise the new skill/behaviour. It's important to remember that most people need help to bridge the gap between knowing (the result of your explanation) and doing. This means that you will probably need to increase your level of instruction, offering whatever degree of help is necessary to ensure success.

In addition to offering an increased level of instruction, it might also be necessary to change your training route in order to help your pupil to regain lost confidence. For example, if a mistake with basic observation at a busy junction led to an embarrassing situation for the pupil (e.g. stalling) it would be a good idea to ensure that the habit of correct observation is in place before returning to that junction. You could do this by practising on quieter roads.

Essentially, although Remedial Action is marked as an individual item, it's really determined by a combination of the skills listed in the Instructional Techniques section of the Check-Test marking sheet. Having said this, even if your teaching techniques are fairly good, you could still be marked down under the Remedial Action section if things are left unexplained, mistakes are allowed to be repeated, incorrect instruction is given, or corrective action is taken too late to be of practical benefit.

Instructional Techniques

This section of the marking form has ten headings. The first two and last (Recaps and Aims and Objectives) have been touched on in previous articles in Driving Instructor and will be covered again in detailed future articles. That leaves us with seven marking items, the first of which is Level of Instruction.

Level of Instruction refers to the amount of direct help and support you give to your pupils as they attempt to master new driving skills. Your pupils should receive enough instruction - by full talk-through, prompting or active questioning on the move - to enable them to control the car and deal with traffic situations safely.

By adopting a structured approach when teaching new skills or correcting errors you will maximise your pupil's chances of success. I've already mentioned above that the remedial process (and indeed the process of teaching a new skill) starts with exploring the pupil's knowledge and putting new understanding in place. However, remember there is a large gap between knowing and doing.

Perhaps it is obvious that when your pupils attempt a new skill for the first time they will need a lot of help and encouragement to ensure success; in other words, a full talk-through. What is perhaps less obvious is that many pupils who have been quite proficient at a particular skill during previous lessons, but who then start regressing and making silly mistakes, will also need a full talk-through.

When a pupil is learning a new skill the talk-through enables them to coordinate thoughts and control of the vehicle (in terms of, "what do I do next and how do I do it?") With the experienced pupil who makes a silly mistake, the talk-through serves a different purpose. This time, the pupil still has the skill but may have lost some confidence. Again, the talk through helps coordinate thoughts and regain control of the vehicle, but this time the thoughts are likely to be more along the lines of: "What if I can't do it?", "I hope I don't make a fool of myself!", "What if I get it wrong on my test?" etc. Talk-through will help to calm this internal chatter.

Uncharacteristic Mistakes

Quite often pupils will make uncharacteristic mistakes during driving tests and Check Test lessons. The examiner has no way of knowing that the mistake is uncharacteristic because he/she does not know the history of the pupil. If your pupil needs help to complete something that they were perfectly able to do without help last week, then you must offer help. It's no use sitting there thinking "What's the matter with you? We covered this six weeks ago!" If your pupil is struggling, then you need to help ­ otherwise the examiner will consider that you are under-instructing. On the other hand, many instructors worry about over-instructing. So how can this be avoided?

As discussed above, the first stage of our structured approach to level of instruction is full talk-through. However, if this was to be continued indefinitely, the pupil will become totally dependent on the instructor. In order to avoid this, continue with a full talk-through until the task is being completed at something similar to driving test standard (with your help). When this point is reached you can move onto the next level of instruction ­ namely question-through.

Question-Through

'Question-through' is simply my term for instruction that is driven by questions. In order to be effective, your instructional questions must:

• be asked early enough to allow the pupil adequate response time
• contain enough information for the pupil to understand exactly what you're asking.

For example, if you have been giving full talk-through for junctions and then suddenly jump to a question like "What will you do at the junction ahead?" you are likely to end up with a confused customer ­ even if the question is asked early. A more useful question might be something like: "Which way will you look first as you slowly approach the junction ahead?" (The question content will depend on the pupil's strengths and weaknesses.)

During this phase of training the most important thing is not whether the pupil knows the answer to your question but how quickly he/she responds. You should only be asking questions that your pupil can reasonably be expected to answer. If your pupil responds quickly and positively to the question, either with words or with actions, then you know that the link between understanding (knowing) and action (doing) has been made.

If the pupil's response to your question is hesitant (assuming that your question is appropriate and well timed) then a little more help through further questions (or reverting to talk-through) will be required before the skill can be tackled unaided.

The final part of the 'level of instruction structure' is to allow your pupil to take total responsibility for the skill that you have been practising. Do this by offering an opportunity for them to demonstrate how well they can do. By offering the opportunity to try the skill unaided, you give your pupil a chance to say no.

This is important. If they're reluctant to try without your help you need to find out why. You can then continue to help them with any perceived problems until they become sufficiently confident.

You can contact John Farlam by:
email: John@smartdriving.co.uk
and/or get free driving, training and business advice by visiting:
www.smartdriving.co.uk