Glasses for Driving

At a recent ADINJC meeting we had a presentation from Rob Heard of The Older Drivers Forum click link here to find out more. Rob made a point about starting to wear glasses while driving as one of his colleagues pointed out that he had not seen something.

My own eyesight meets ADI standards but is not perfect and as I said in a previous article I have the start of age related macular degeneration and cataracts.

The optician made the point of keeping an eye on it (my joke, not his) by extra check ups. But thinking about Rob and his presentation I decided that keeping a dedicated pair of glasses for driving in my car would be a practical and smart idea.

Advantages

• You’ll always have them when needed, so no risk of forgetting them at home
• You can choose lenses optimized for driving
• Have a chat with your optician for advice
• They can serve as a backup if you forget or misplace your everyday glasses

Spare glasses can be very cheap. The bottom end of range Specsavers ones come in at £15 a go with prescription lenses.

If, like me, you have been known to sit on them or drop them outside the car, it’s not the end of the world at £15. But when you pay a couple of hundred pounds for a pair it’s a much bigger ouch!

For between £5-10 you can have glasses holders that attach to your sun visors. They are parked out of the way and easily accessible when you need them.

That little bit of extra clarity could be a life saver. The fact you are doing it is a message to the pupils about being safe.

Check your eyesight every two years.

A day without a road death is the aim of #projectEdward. The reality is that every day in the UK five people are killed and over 80 are seriously injured. What can we do about it?

Many years ago as a young driving instructor I had a new pupil who told me that her husband had taken two driving tests and was driving around on a provisional driving licence.

I remember telling her that he should take and pass his test, because if he had already failed twice there was probably something wrong with his driving and it should be sorted.

The next week she never turned up for her lesson which I put down to my big mouth saying her husband needs to get his driving sorted.

Later that day on seeing the local paper I found out from the front page the real reason that she had not turned up for her lesson.

All over the front page was the tragic news that he had been in a car accident and the two children had been killed. Like most of us I like to be right, but not at that price.

I still think about this from time to time and wonder what we as driving instructors can do.

One of my thoughts is that he had taken two driving tests (and failed), he must have thought that his driving was okay and he was just unlucky.

A point with taking someone to test is we are saying that they are safe and ready to pass.

When I first started out as a driving instructor, I had a view that if the pupil wanted to take a driving test as they were the ones paying that we should let them.

That view comes at a price and the real question is how that price is to be paid.

I should point out that I make the decision now as to when they take their driving test. It has done wonders for my pass rate.

Like most of you I have a little bit of flexibility with regards to their circumstances.

Sometimes the conversations are difficult but remember how the price is sometimes paid.

So assuming we do everything that we should do, what can be done to reduce accidents. As we look at the Goals for Driver Education we see a number of levels:

• The first level is all about control of the vehicle
• Second level is interacting with other road users
• The third level is our journeys and our purpose in driving
• The fourth level is about how we can influence our own driving

Certainly levels one and two are tested in the driving test and the third level gets a nod with driving independently.

But what about the last level which is about how we as people function.

This is where factors that come into play with accidents occur. It is what we bring to an accident.

We have looked elsewhere at reflection and in more detail about how we can work on our own skills (ADI DIRT) but how do other professionals deal with mistakes. A very useful one from the medical profession is LAST. This is:

• Late
• Angry
• Stressed
• Tired

Late

All of us come under time pressure. I know that my driving deteriorates if I am in a hurry. Sometimes a lesson overruns or a traffic accident has occurred.

There can be many reasons for being late so the question is how do we handle it and how can we get our pupils to deal with that. The really obvious answer is give yourself time.

As working driving instructors we get very good at timing ourselves. Putting a lunch break into the day is not a bad call. A little bit of time out to stretch our legs and get some fresh air can only be a good thing.

Look at how you structure your day. Three two hour lessons mean you only have two lots of dead time as you go between the lessons. Six one lessons give you five lots of dead time and much more opportunity to be late. You should have earnt the same with both, but the six one hour lessons have significantly increased your working day and your mileage.

Angry

The big question here is why are you angry. If we know our triggers we are in a better position to deal with them.

As instructors sometimes just pausing for a moment and taking a couple of deep breaths will put you back on track. Other techniques here might be to give what you are doing some proportionality. Delayed by a road accident, consider that someone is not just delayed but might not be going home. In the great scheme of things is it worth getting angry.

As instructors do we get angry with our pupils and if so why. Your pupil is paying you for your skill and time so if they are not getting something what can you do about it. Finding yourself repeating the same thing and nothing is happening, maybe you should try something different.

If they haven’t paid you, have you made yourself clear about your expectation of them. How do you deal with cancellations. The more ruthless you are in charging the greater the turnover you will have with your pupils. The softer you are the more cancellations you will have. Find a balance that you are comfortable with.

Some people like to get angry and they use it as a tool to get what they want. This is coercion whereas what you really want from people is cooperation. Nobody likes an angry person.

Stressed

Where is this stress coming from and where does it go. It’s what I call a Cotton Eyed Joe situation (from the song).

Stress can be imposed either internally or externally. Either way you owe it to yourself and your pupils to do something about it. Sometimes it can pay to sit down and just write things out. When I write these articles new thoughts occur to me and sometimes I think differently at the end of writing something out than I did before I started writing.

Talking things through with a friend or a colleague can help. Join a local association and you will meet like minded people. The best thing for people is other people.

Living your life only on social media is a mistake. Find something that you enjoy and get out and enjoy it. There will probably be some sort of club or association for it near you.

Sometimes a decent walk is all that is needed. I like to get out on the Downs each Sunday and falling asleep being physically tired is wonderful. The countryside is a complete contrast to my life in the city and when I get back tell anyone who will listen what a great day I have had.

As instructors we should have some balance in our lives. A swim or a trip to the gym might be what’s needed. The physicality of exercise is an excellent stress reliever. If there is a steam room and sauna attached that is even better.

Tired

All of us work hard so make sure you have some you-time. A life outside driving instruction will give you balance.

It might be lived around your children or if you are really lucky supporting Portsmouth FC! Singing in a football choir with a few thousand like minded supporters assessing the chances of opposing teams supporters reaching the station can be a welcome distraction from the world of driving instruction.

Family and outside interests will make what you do less tiring. It will help you relate to your pupils and make your life richer, more rewarding and dare I say it less tiring.

Notice that I’ve said we should be doing more, not less. Tiredness can be a symptom of burnout. Is stress making you tired and what are you going to do about it.

Once you reach a situation of welcoming cancellations you are doing too much. Remember we work to live not live to work.

Summary

I’ve talked a lot here about how we as driving instructors can reduce our level of mistakes by having some balance in our lives. The tool I have used for this is LAST.

We have many different techniques for ensuring a safe driver and one that I don’t think gets enough air time is mentoring. I make the point to my pupils that while it is smart to learn from their own mistakes, it’s much smarter to learn from my mistakes and those of others.

I can assure you that I’m not perfect and I want to share with my pupils what I have learned. Hopefully I have enough credibility with them that they will take some of this on board.

I want to share LAST with them. What this does is address errors from a point of view that we make a contribution to them.

If something has happened and you are able to say what else could I have done you are probably in the clear. If you are blaming the other person then there is a good chance that there was something that you could have done. Using LAST might give you an indication of what you have done and why.

A very reasonable question might be what is the actual state of our industry and what tools do we have for looking at it. A way of doing this is to look at driving tests and the associated numbers that come with that.

What I have done here is to provide a link to DRT121G (you will need to scroll down) so you can have your own look and perhaps tell me what you think?

Below is an extract from the the link above:

Date	Tests Done	Tests Passed	Pass Rate %	Forward Bookings
Feb 2020	138,678	62,950	45.4	219,786
February-2021	68	54	79.4.	433,185
May-2025	147,687	74,107	50.2	631,472

Feb 2020 was the last full month before COVID and lockdown.

Feb 2021 was a lock month with emergency tests only.

May 2025 is the last full month for which we have figures.

Number of Tests Conducted:

If we round figures to make them more easily understandable we can say that prior to COVID 140 000 tests per month and we are now doing 150 000 tests a month which means we are eating into the backlog at a rate of 10 000 tests per month.

If we look at the 14 months that we were most affected by COVID (March 2020-April 2021) we had 559 838 driving tests done which I’m going to call 560 000. Compare this against the previous 14 months (January 2019-February 2020) and we conducted 1 916 128 tests which I’m going to call 1 920 000.

A quick calculation of 1 920 000 less 560 000 means we have lost about 1 360 000 tests. At a rate of 10 000 tests a month extra we are looking at 136 months to catch up. Or to put this another way, more than 11.5 years. But bear in mind with a pass rate of 50% we are still looking at the best part of 6 years to catch up.

Pass Rate:

Instructors:

The pass rate has risen. Pre-covid it was 45.4% now it has reached 50.2% two months running. What is going on here?

Has the ADINJC training team been working miracles. There are certainly some very good opportunities for training and as an industry this is what we should be doing.

It might be argued that new instructors to the industry are driving the pass rate up. As we came out of COVID in 2021 lots of new people moved into the industry. Modern training methods, new enthusiastic instructors, it could all have played a part.

Have driving instructors improved the quality of their training as delivered to our pupils. Lots of us did some CPD during lockdown and we could be seeing the effects of that. Certainly there is a marked improvement in the pass rate post COVID.

The DVSA:

Have the DVSA had a hand in this. What about the “Ready to Pass” campaign, has it helped. It was brought in in July 2022 and the pass rate was 48.8%. Two years later in July 2024 the pass rate was consistently above 48.8% so it has been a slow burner taking two years to get back to per COVID rates.

If we look closer at these rates it becomes apparent that the pass rate is nearly always better in July and August. It might be said that a happy driving examiner thinking about holidays is more likely to produce a pass.

The more cynical of you out there might be pointing out that with very few Standards Checks being conducted, it could be that happy driving instructors are getting on with the job and not worrying about having a stranger in the back.

What is interesting is that the number of zero fault passes seems to have risen. Could it be that the marking criteria has changed. If you follow the link given earlier and look up the table of “Zero Fault Passes” you will see a consistent rise in the number of “Zero Fault Passes”.

In April 2007 the first year given in the table a test candidate had a 0.20% chance of a zero fault pass” or put another way 1 in 500. The last year given in the table April 2023 gives a 2.00% chance of the candidate having the zero fault pass or a 1 in 50 chance.

Pupils:

What about the pupils, does a longer wait mean that we have better trained pupils who are having more lessons and showing the value of our training.

Could it be that as more pupils are doing tests in non dual-controlled cars they are exercising greater awareness and responsibility thereby meeting some very important safety criteria.

Has the rise in automatic cars brought about the rise in the pass rate. Well according to DRT122E (follow the link above and scroll down) the answer is no. The latest figures show that the rate for auto is 42.8% based on 2023/24 figures and based on these figures, training with auto has had no effect on increasing pass rates.

February 2021:

For me this is the most interesting month which tells us a lot about driving tests. You will no doubt point out that with only 68 tests conducted that month it’s a very small sample. But what a pass rate: 79.4%, if this was an industry average all the problems would be solved.

This was a lockdown month and only tests for emergency workers were being conducted. What conclusions can we draw from this.

The fewer vehicles on the road the greater the likelihood of a pass. This is born out by the pass rates for rural driving test centers. As a driving licence allows you to drive on any road in the country perhaps all test centers should be located in busy urban areas so drivers have to show that they have the skills to cope.

But maybe passing in a rural area and then building up experience on the quieter roads is making the case for Graduated Driving Licences. As far as I am aware drivers who pass at the quieter centers normally build their experience up before tackling the busier roads.

Forward Bookings:

The system is bloated. It’s a problem for which every driving instructor has a solution but nobody has the answer. If you want to start an argument at your local test center say you are full of sympathy for the DVSA.

Point out that as an organisation they spend more than they earn (or at least according to their latest business plan). They are working under a series of legal constraints which regulate how they operate and in turn have to regulate us.

They are subject to political considerations and Civil Service rules of working. The political decision might be you cannot put the cost of a driving test up as this might be an inflationary measure and doing so would unfairly disadvantage the poorer people looking for jobs. Civil Service rules might say that a driving examiner is a certain pay grade and if you raise their pay everyone else on that grade would also qualify. A special case you might say and the flood gates to inflationary pay demands someone else might say.

If you are then verbally abused and possibly threatened by your fellow driving instructors for saying this, imagine what it is like to be on the receiving end of this from 40 000 driving instructors. For balance I should point out that a culture of not informing stakeholders (us) in an effective way means that they, the DVSA, are part of the problem.

Nearly three times the number of people are waiting for a test now than there was before COVID. The system has two major problems: a limited number of driving test centers and a limited number of people prepared to do the job under the current conditions.

The NHS works under similar constraints and how have they handled the waiting list problem. Their answer is different working practices, but what can we or the DVSA do?

As we saw at the beginning of this piece the DVSA is able to currently provide about 10 000 extra tests a month compared with pre-Covid conditions. But we lost 1 360 000 tests. How has the surge (where they got backroom staff onto the frontline) helped.

If we look at the period from when the surge started October 2023 till October 2024 (2,165,815 tests) and compare it to May 2021 to May 2021 (1,766,732 tests) which was the first year back we see that we have had roughly 400 000 tests eating into the backlog.

I want to say well done the DVSA, controversial I know but 400 000 extra tests over a 13 month period. We are still over a million tests behind from our start of 1 360 000 but we are getting somewhere.

960 000 at 10 000 a month is 96 months and about half of these would be failures so we are down to a backlog of 48 months or 4 years before we catch up.

Overview

The conversation around age-related driving assessments is gaining momentum in the UK. Recent surveys indicate a significant portion of the public supports mandatory retesting or health checks for drivers over 70, aiming to ensure road safety for all users.

Current Regulations

Licence Renewal: Drivers over 70 are required to renew their driving licence every three years, self-declaring their fitness to drive without mandatory medical or driving assessments.

Public Opinion

• Support for Assessments: A survey by The Green Insurer revealed that 33% of UK drivers believe motorists should retake their driving test at 70, and 46% support mandatory eye tests for older drivers.
• Generational Divide: Younger drivers are more inclined to support stricter testing measures for older drivers, reflecting concerns about age-related declines in driving abilities.

Regular eyesight tests should be part of every driver’s routine. If you are an ADI even more so. I would hazard a guess and say that if all ADI’s took an eyesight test over the next few months lives would be saved.

I do not mean that ADI’s are driving around with defective eyesight, but that an eyesight test can be a look into your general health and will be able to detect amongst other things blood pressure, glaucoma and diabetes.

I have regular tests and my optician tells me I have the start of age-related macular degeneration. Appropriate management and even more regular checks will keep me and others safe.

I and the ADINJC strongly urge you to have your eyesight checked.

The generational divide above is very interesting. The reality is that young drivers 17-24 are four times more likely to be involved in an accident. If you check out this link click here you will find that a man has to be 86 years and older to be more risky than a young man 17-24. So long as my eyesight holds out I’m good for a few years yet.

The gender divide is also interesting. Young women 17-24 are much safer than young men of a similar age.and remain so till their 50’s. Quite why that is so I can only speculate but have a click through on the link and see what you think.

Implications for ADIs

• Refresher Courses: These are often offered by local authorities and driver disability assessment centers. They can be a source of variety in your work.
• Policy Advocacy: Engaging in discussions about potential policy changes allows ADIs to contribute their expertise to the development of fair and effective driving assessments.

Did you know?

• Over 5.7 million drivers in the UK are aged 70 or older (DVLA, 2024).
• The number of drivers aged 90+ has grown by 34% over the last five years.
• In 2023, drivers aged 70+ were involved in 13% of fatal accidents, despite being just 8% of licensed holders.

By staying informed and proactive, ADIs can support older drivers in maintaining their independence while promoting safety on the roads.

When we teach learner drivers, we spend hours perfecting clutch control, steering technique, and mirror checks. These are vital skills, but they are not the full picture. If we’re serious about developing safe, thoughtful, self-aware drivers, we must give equal (if not greater) attention to helping young people understand the role emotions play in driving.

Anger, stress, anxiety, overconfidence – these are major contributors to risky decisions on the road. A learner can have excellent car control and still make unsafe choices when emotional pressure hits. Whether it’s reacting to a near miss, driving after an argument, or trying to impress friends, emotions often override technical skill.

This isn’t just our opinion, it’s what the GDE Matrix (Goals for Driver Education) is trying to tell us. The higher levels of the matrix (decisions around personal goals, emotional state, and risk awareness) are the real root causes of crashes, far more than technical errors like gear selection or poor mirror use. In other words, it’s not the steering, it’s the mindset.

The challenge is, most driving instructors haven’t been trained to teach this. Our qualification process and the UK driving test focus mainly on vehicle handling and traffic procedures. Emotional self-awareness? Coaching conversations? Hardly touched. We’re not assessed on these things by the DVSA, so it’s no surprise many ADIs feel underprepared.

But if we want to produce drivers who are truly safe – not just test-ready – we have to step up. The driving test should not be the bar you use to judge your success as a driving instructor.

Pass photos are nice, but they’re a false measure of our effectiveness as road safety professionals.

The real test is what happens when our learners are alone, under pressure, and need to make the right choices. That’s where coaching emotional awareness, motivation, and self-reflection makes all the difference.

© Stewart Lochrie
Brightcoaching.net

Why forward-thinking ADIs are expanding into minibus assessments.

Minibus Driving Assessments.

The role of a Driving Instructor is to educate and coach learner drivers in road safety and encourage best practice on the roads.

It is such a rewarding job, in so many different ways. But why stop there?!
Have you ever thought about being a Minibus Driving Assessor?!

This might seem a bit random but it’s an incredibly rewarding opportunity for ADIs looking for a new challenge.

If you have a passion for helping and educating others and promoting road safety, then maybe this is the perfect avenue for you.

The skills you have as a Driving Instructor are hugely transferrable to Minibus Assessments.

The role of an Assessor is to educate full licence holders in the safe transport of passengers.

Why become a Minibus Driver Assessor?

It can provide:

• An additional income stream
• An interesting variety of work and clients
• A 7-day full pay cancellation policy
• This can be what you want it to be if you are independent
• Less travel as there would be no travel between lessons
• Less wear and tear as you would use the clients vehicle

The rewards of being a Minibus Driver Assessor are:

• You will be developing skills in Business to Business / Fleet work
• You will be doing CPD in order to keep up to date and fresh with the industry movement
• Additional qualifications; MiDAS standard / MiDAS standard and accessible
• Generous reimbursement
• Paid travel / accommodation if you are partnered with a specialist provider
• Gain experience of accessible transport equipment and best practice
• Helping people, making a real difference in the safe transport of passengers

There are of course some challenges, as there are with any job.

However, the challenges that come with this job role are something that you can really get your teeth into and engage with.

The criteria and execution of delivering Assessments are different to being in the car with a Learner Driver and this can often be a bit of a learning curve.

It can take a minute to get your head around the different ways of coaching.

This is a great opportunity for you to learn and do additional CPD in order to adopt the new skills needed to deliver these assessments.

The legislation for Minibus Drivers is different from that of Car Drivers.
Again, more CPD is required which is a fantastic opportunity for you to discover and learn more.

Driving is one of the highest risk activities, risk is higher as soon as you talk about transporting other people, children and vulnerable adults.
Sometimes you will be delivering assessments to people who have never driven anything bigger than a Corsa.

This can be quite challenging as the Assessor as you only have a limited amount of time to conduct the Assessment and conclude whether they would be a safe enough driver to be transporting passengers. This can be a really tough decision, and lead to difficult conversations.

The benefits of being an ADI with drivers new to mini buses is that we already possess the skills in order to guide, coach and support these novice drivers.

If a Minibus Driver Assessor is not an ADI and you do not have to be, to be an Assessor, they legally can not coach the driver.

This often leads to drivers being signed off as “passes” when they are not ready for the job.

Having more ADIs delivering these courses, will help ensure that road safety is at the heart of this course and drivers will be competent in safely transporting passengers when signed off as “passed”.

Travel time may be a bit longer to get to the client than you are used to as a Driving Instructor.

But once you are there, you’re there for the day and get paid for the time regardless of who shows up.

If you are delivering these courses independently, you can choose how far you travel of course.

However, if you decide to partner with a specialist provider, often the travel time is 60 minutes or less, which is an acceptable travel time to get to work nowadays.

What’s the first step?

You will need to attend a MiDAS course to gain the appropriate qualification.

The course can be completed independently and you can choose from the list of locations.

Or, you can partner with a specialist provider and they will often arrange for someone from the Community Transport Association (CTA) to come and conduct the assessments, providing there are enough participants at a set location.

MiDAS ‘Driver Assessor’ qualification issued by the Community Transport Association

• This course is 2 days for Standard and 3 days for Standard and Accessible.
• The qualification lasts for 2 years
• You will need to attend a 1 day refresher course every 2 years

Once you have completed your qualification, you will be registered as an Assessor with the CTA and you can start delivering Assessments either for yourself or on behalf of the specialist provider you have chosen.

The benefits of partnering with a specialist provider is that they do all the admin and behind the scenes work.

They purchase the learner passes needed and liaise back and forth with the clients.

• All Drivers must complete a 90 minute online theory course and achieve a minimum of 80% on the exam at the end
• This is independent study and must be completed before the practical assessment
• If the Assessor is independent, it is their responsibility to purchase this (known as a learner pass) and ensure its completion
• If you are partnered with a specialist provider, they will take care of all of this for you

The benefits of being independent is that you are in control of everything including bookings, admin and purchasing the correct learner passes for your clients.

Some of these things you must do include:

• Checking each drivers licence has the correct category for the minibus they will be driving ie D1 or Cat B
• Acquiring minibus details from the client and checking that they have suitable insurance
• Checking that the organisation has the correct permit displayed
• Liaising with the client until the course date
• Add each driver onto the CTA portal
• Purchase learner passes and then distributing them to each driver individually
• Uploading driver reports after the practical assessment
• Downloading and distributing pass certificates

Your clients will be dealing with you from the initial phone call so the rapport can be built from the very beginning.

I work closely with a specialist provider who are focused on road safety and making a difference.

There isn’t a lot of good information available online about how to get into this or the importance of having ADIs delivering these types of assessments.
If you are interested in this avenue, I’m more than happy to have a no obligation chat!

© Charli Hodgson https://drive-up-training.co.uk/
The contact details for UKGRS are:
support@ukgrs.com
01452 347332

You might have heard about being more proactive when delivering a normal driving lesson or when being examined on a Part 3 or Standards Check.

Let’s start with the definition of what proactive is.

Proactive is creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened.

Where reactive is acting in response to something that has already happened, rather than taking action to prevent it or anticipate it.

Well, you might ask, why is being more proactive more productive than being reactive on a driving lesson?

Let’s explain some of the benefits:

Keeping your pupil, your vehicle and other road users safe:

Our number one priority is making sure nobody is harmed or endangered during our driving lessons.

As driving instructors, our own driving needs to be at a high enough standard to be able to observe, anticipate, prioritize and decide what to do.

If we see issues well in advance, depending on the amount of time or the ability level of the pupil we should ask the pupil what the next hazard or danger is and ask them what they are going to do about it.

Ok, what if your pupil doesn’t respond to this, well you can always direct their eyes to the issue first.

For example, you are approaching a meeting situation, and you notice your pupil who is at the trained level, is not slowing down to stop when you would be.

Your prompt in this instance could be,”Is there enough room to pass through that gap ahead?”.

This is what they call a closed question on the move as there is really only one answer to it, which is a yes or a no answer.

Also, if your pupil doesn’t respond to this you can tell them to wait, by asking them to wait at a specified place, like,” wait behind that black car”.

You should then give them feedback shortly afterwards, so your pupil understands why you did this.

Creating a positive and comfortable learning environment:

Using the last example of the meeting situation, what is the benefit of doing this as opposed to just dual- braking them just before colliding with another vehicle.

Well, guess how your pupil feels when you dual brake them.

They will lose confidence which in turn will affect the amount of learning that takes place.

Anxiety is one of the largest barriers to learning.

Secondly, your pupil might start to lack confidence in you, as they are expecting you to help them become a safer driver.

By being more proactive, the pupil is involved in the process of learning and the more involved and motivated they become, especially if they are successful.

Also, if your pupil is allowed to keep making mistakes, your feedback will be based mainly on these mistakes.

Why not try to prevent these mistakes happening in the first place, prevention is better than cure!

Knowing what your pupil has seen and what they are going to deal with hazards or situations:

When I first started to train to be a driving instructor a number of years ago, I remember my trainer told me that we need to be fortune tellers.

What he meant by this is that we should have some idea what our pupils are observing, anticipating, prioritising or what they are going to do.

If your pupil is silent there is no-way we can do this, we can’t mind read!

One technique I like to use is to get my pupil to tell me when they are planning to emerge at a junction, so that I can confirm that it’s safe to emerge or tell them to wait if it isn’t.

Preventing errors or commissions becoming habits:

An error is a mistake your pupil is not aware of, and a commission is an error that your pupil has consciously made, which means they have done it deliberately.

By spotting mistakes early enough in the learning process you can prevent your pupil repeating that same mistake.

For example, if your pupil keeps coasting when approaching to turn at a
junction.

You either don’t spot it or choose to ignore it as you don’t think it’s affecting their speed of approach, then coasting will soon become a habit formed during their first few attempts.

Remember practice becomes permanent or repetition is the mother of mastery!

What you think doesn’t matter at the time, soon becomes a problem when your pupil is approaching a downhill or high-speed junction.

This applies to all the other basic skills in driving like, steering, braking,
acceleration, gear changing and mirror use etc.

If these basic foundations are not in place, then you can’t build on them.

A house is only as good as its foundations!

I have also been told by an ADI Examiner that a driving lesson you deliver on a ADI Part 3 or Standards Check that is mainly reactive, then you will be unsuccessful.

Ok, we can’t always be proactive on lessons.

When we want to confirm if learning has taken place, we would need to back off with our help (reactive) to see if learning has taken place, especially if you’re using a repetitive route.

This is essential to see what they have achieved.

You are trying to see if they can complete the goal independently, which is our role as driving instructors.

We should transfer this responsibility back upon our pupil as soon as they are capable of doing this.

You can always intervene verbally if they can’t.

Let’s explain some of the pre-existing conditions that are needed to be proactive.

Your own driving standards need to be maintained at a high level.

You need to observe, anticipate, prioritise and decide with confidence so hopefully our own standards become your pupils.

This includes a thorough knowledge of publications like Driving the Essential Skills, Know your Traffic Signs and the Highway Code.

You need to know what to say and when.

Actors and actresses know their lines from a script.

If you practice and develop the words you use, your pupil will understand what is required of them.

This includes using mainly closed questions or embedded commands.

Talk throughs are also still needed in modern driving instruction when your pupil needs them.

Listening skills and observing your pupils’ actions and body language.

You need to listen not just what your pupil says but how they say it as well.

By listening to the tone of your pupil’s voice, facial expressions or body language you can usually tell how they are about to react to hazards or situations.

You also need to see if they are responding correctly to your help as well.

Don’t assume that because you have told them to do something that they are going to do it.

Don’t look at the windscreen all the time, if safe look at your pupil when talking to them!

But not if there is an imminent danger ahead of you!

© Dave Allen
https://agradeinstructortraining.co.uk/

Helping our clients learn to drive is all about communication; it’s a key skill in our daily work.

If there is one communication skill you should aim to master or improve then it is listening.

Listening is the key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively, messages or answers from clients or their parents are easily misunderstood.

Communication can break down and you can easily become frustrated or irritated.

Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is part of the foundation of coaching.

Developing good listening skills is a huge asset in everyday life and an essential coaching skill.

There are two obvious parts to spoken communication: SPEAKING and LISTENING.
A parent usually spends a long time teaching a child how to speak and learn new words, be polite and speak clearly. But, we are rarely taught how to listen, so the outcome is that we learn to hear rather than learn to actively listen.

We tend to take it for granted and assume the person we are talking to will listen. However, the level they listen at can be anywhere from not at all to fully engaged.

Listening has been called the “forgotten skill”.

Sometimes we become aware that the person hasn’t listened and it can become frustrating and cause arguments. This results in a breakdown in communication.

When we listen properly, it allows us to understand fully. When we understand, it can have an effect on the speaker and it means that as they explain a topic to someone, they understand the topic better for themselves: they become more aware and make better decisions.

I am often aware when watching PDIs and ADIs that they are not really listening to their pupils properly and are missing key things. Sometimes a PDI who is inexperienced at asking questions will be thinking about the next question instead of listening to the pupils answer.

The pupil could have been saying almost anything! Likewise, I don’t always feel pupils listen enough to our responses so we need to make them aware of this and of the importance of listening.

Listening is not the same as hearing.

Hearing refers to the sounds that you hear, whereas listening requires more than that: it requires focus.

Listening means paying attention to not only the story or answer to a question, but also how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body.

In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Your ability to listen effectively depends on the degree to which you perceive and understand these messages.

For example, if someone tells you that they are happy with their life but through gritted teeth or with tears filling their eyes, you should consider that the verbal and non-verbal messages are in conflict, they maybe don’t mean what they say.

Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some sort of communication, of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing. (Adler, R. et al. 2001).

Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs credit their success to effective listening skills. Richard Branson frequently quotes listening as one of the main factors behind his success.

So why do we listen?

• We listen to obtain information
• We listen to understand
• We listen for enjoyment
• We listen to learn.

The good news is that whilst some people are naturally good listeners, listening is a skill we can improve if we are not good at it.

Below are 10 suggestions for improving your listening skills and these can be practised at any time not just in lessons:

1. Stop talking

It was Mark Twain who famously said, “If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two tongues and one ear.” Try not to talk so much, just allow yourself to listen.

When somebody else is talking, listen to what they are saying, do not interrupt, talk over them, or finish their sentences for them.

Reflect on if you think you do listen well enough or if you butt in too much, stop and just listen.

When the other person has finished talking, you may need to clarify to ensure you have received their message accurately.

2. Prepare yourself to listen

When a session starts, the coach should be “ready to listen”.

The mnemonic to remember and use is “ALF”: Always listen first.

Put other things out of your mind as the human mind is easily distracted with thoughts such as “What time does my next lesson start?” or “Is it going to rain in a moment in this lesson?”

Try to put other thoughts out of your mind and concentrate on the messages that are being communicated.

When you first meet your pupil and ask, “How are you today?” then you need to be genuinely interested in the reply and the listening process can start.

Remember that the pupil’s mind may be full of all sorts of things as well.

Allow space for them: try to start the session by preparing them for it.

Let them get concerns and worries out of the way so they are clear to fully focus on the session.

3. Put the pupil or person speaking at ease

Help the speaker to feel free to speak and remember their needs and concerns.

Nod or use other gestures or words to encourage them to continue.
Maintain eye contact but don’t stare, show you are listening and understanding what is being said.

When someone finishes speaking, make sure you clarify what they have said.

A good listener is able to clarify vague or muddled ideas and help the speaker to be more specific.

This can be done by repeating words back to them. “So can I see if I have this correct? You feel…”, “Am I right in thinking…?”

By summarising and using the pupils’ own words; we can make sure we fully understand.

It can be a boost to the pupil if they hear their own words coming back from someone else.

4. Focus on what is being said and remove distractions: Actively listen

Don’t doodle, shuffle papers or record cards, look out the window, play with your fingernails or similar.

Avoid unnecessary interruptions.

These behaviours disrupt the listening process and send messages to the speaker that you are bored or distracted.

5. Empathise

Always try to understand the other person’s point of view. Look at things from their perspective and try to let go of preconceived ideas.

By having an open mind you can more fully empathise with the person speaking.

If the speaker says something that you disagree with then wait and challenge with some questions to counter what is said but keep an open mind to the views and opinions of others.

As an ADI we can often get statements from pupils that we know to be incorrect such as: “It would take four car lengths to stop my car on a dual carriageway if the traffic ahead stops and I am travelling at 70mph.”

However, we need to have respect for what they say: it is important at that moment to the speaker.

Each party is entitled to gain respect from the other person speaking.

6. Be patient

A pause, even a long pause, does not necessarily mean that the speaker has finished.

Be patient and let the speaker continue in their own time, sometimes it takes time to formulate what to say and how to say it.

Try hard not to interrupt or finish a sentence for someone.

7. Avoid personal prejudice, try to be impartial

Don’t become irritated and don’t let the person’s habits or mannerisms distract you from what the speaker is really saying.

Everyone speaks differently: some pupils are more nervous or shy than others, some have regional accents or make excessive arm movements, some people like to pace whilst talking and others like to sit still.

Focus on what is being said and try to ignore styles of delivery.

8. Listen to the tone

Volume and tone both add to what someone is saying.

Everybody will use pitch, tone and volume of voice in certain situations: use these to help you to understand the emphasis of what is being said.

9. Listen for ideas and not just words

You need to get the whole picture, not just bits and pieces.

Maybe one of the most difficult aspects of listening is the ability to link together pieces of information to reveal the ideas of others.

With proper concentration, letting go of distractions, and focus this can become easier.

10. Wait and watch for non-verbal communication

Gestures, facial expressions, and eye-movements can all be important.

We don’t just listen with our ears but also with our eyes. Watch carefully as well.

© Lynne BarrieMA
lynne@lynnebarrie.co.uk

Listening skills can be divided into five levels and in normal conversation we often listen at levels 1 to 3.

When we become more adept at listening and really make a difference, this is when we can listen at the 4 or 5 level.

That’s where we need to be to be able to coach effectively.

Level 1: Ignoring

This is the lowest level of listening, just listening for our turn to speak.

This can be very irritating to the speaker because he knows that the listener is not paying attention.

It may be that the listener is distracted.

This means that the conversation follows the listener’s agenda, not the speakers’ agenda.

I always think of my dad behind his paper when my mum was talking and he would say “yes” and “okay”.

She knew he wasn’t listening!

Level 2: Pretend Listening

Pretend listening is most easily explained in face-to-face conversation.
You’re talking to the other person and they have that “glazed, somewhere else” look in their eyes.

On the phone to clients it happens when you say things like “I see” and “OK,” etc. while working on an unrelated email or similar.

People can tell you’re distracted.

You may give examples of your own experience: “In my experience it’s better to….”

If they ask about an intensive course you may reply: “My son took one of those and didn’t like it much”.

Level 3: Selective Listening

During selective listening we pay attention to the speaker as long as they are talking about things we like or agree with.

It also happens when the listener gives advice without finding out if the speaker wants to hear it.

An example of this would be that you are saying that you are having a hard time with understanding roundabouts and immediately advice on how to approach more slowly is given.

Remember we are trying to make the pupil think.

Level 4: Attentive Listening

This is when the listener asks for more information and a conversation starts. Now we are getting into listening carefully.

Whilst the person is speaking we are deciding whether we agree or disagree, determining whether they are right or wrong.

Instead of paying close attention to the other person, we’re formulating our response to what he or she is saying.

Level 5: Empathetic Listening

This is the highest level of listening and hardest to achieve. It is where the listener employs his intuition and reads between the lines to hear the real issue beneath the words.

To achieve empathic listening, slow down, be patient, talk less and listen more, repeat back what was said to ensure you don’t overlook anything.

A good way to start developing listening skills is to listen to yourself talk.

We have our own conversation going on in our head, some of it negative and some positive.

If we can learn to control our own thoughts, it can be an asset when we start to learn to coach.

It takes a lot of determination to be an active listener because old habits are hard to break.

Really focus on listening and remind yourself that the goal is to truly hear what the other person is saying.

Concentrate, ask questions, reflect, and clarify to make sure you understand.

If you don’t you may well find what someone says to you and what you hear can be amazingly different!

If you start using listening techniques, you will be able to communicate better with your colleagues, pupils and their parents and friends.

© Lynne BarrieMA
lynne@lynnebarrie.co.uk

If I want to research an item, I often look to Wikipedia for help online.

I had heard about the GROW model, but it was at a postgraduate course in coaching for driver development, held at East London University.

It was here that I began to fully understand its connotations and started to use it in my lessons.

Wikipedia describes the GROW model as a simple method or process for setting goals and solving problems.

It was developed in the UK and used from the late 1980s.

There have been many claims to the authorship of the GROW method.

While no one person can be clearly identified as the originator, Graham Alexander, Alan Fine, and Sir John Whitmore all made significant contributions.

John Whitmore was the first to publish GROW in his book Coaching for Performance (1992), so through the book’s success, GROW became known universally and is now acknowledged globally as the most popular coaching model.

GROW is well-suited to our industry and works well for ADIs to form coaching conversations with clients.

GROW highlights the nature of a problem for coaching purposes.

For a problem to exist in coaching terms, there must be two elements present.

Firstly, there must be something that the client is trying to achieve. The Goal.

Then there must be something stopping them from achieving that goal: barriers or obstacles.

Using GROW automatically breaks a problem down into these component parts.

GROW was influenced by the Inner Game method developed by Timothy Gallwey, a tennis coach who noticed that he could often see what players were doing incorrectly but that simply telling them what they should be doing did not bring about lasting change.

The parallel between Gallwey’s Inner Game method and the GROW method can be illustrated by the example of players who do not keep their eyes on the ball.

Some coaches might give instructions such as: ‘Keep your eye on the ball’, to try to correct this.

The problem with this sort of instruction is that a player will be able to follow it for a short while but may be unable to keep it in mind in the long term.

So, one day, instead of giving an instruction, Gallwey asked players to say ‘bounce’ out loud when the ball bounced and ‘hit’ out loud when they hit the ball.

The result was that the players started to improve, without a lot of effort, because they were keeping their eyes on the ball.

But because of the way the instruction was given they did not have a voice in their heads saying, ‘I must keep my eye on the ball.’

Instead, they were playing a simple game while they were playing tennis.

Once Gallwey saw how play could be improved in this way, he stopped giving instructions and started asking awareness raising questions that would help players discover for themselves what worked and what needed to change.

A good way of thinking about the GROW Model is to think about how you’d plan a journey.

First, you decide where you are going, the Goal.

Then you would establish where you currently are, your current Reality.

You then explore various routes (the Options) to your destination.

In the final step, establishing the Will, you ensure that you’re committed to making the journey, and are prepared for the obstacles that you could meet on the way.

The GROW model is a powerful model for ADIs to use: it’s flexible and it can transcend boundaries of culture, discipline and personality.

As I’m sure you have worked out by now, the GROW model is an acronym standing for (G)oals, (R)eality, (O)ptions and (W)ill, highlighting the four key steps in the implementation of the GROW model.

By working through these four stages, the GROW Model raises an individual’s awareness and understanding of:

1. their own aspirations
2. their current situation and beliefs
3. the possibilities and resources open to them
4. the actions they want to take to achieve their personal and professional goals.

There are many questions which the coach could use at any point and part of the skill of the coach is to know which questions to use and in how much detail.

Some suggested questions to ask for each stage:

GOALS:

By setting goals which are inspiring and challenging as well as specific, measurable and achievable in a realistic time frame, the GROW Model successfully promotes confidence and self-motivation, leading to personal satisfaction.

The goal should come from the pupil and not from you as the coach. Your job is to help them achieve that goal.

1. What is your ultimate, long-term goal?
2. What is important to you now?
3. What would you like to get out of the next 60 minutes?
4. What areas do you want to work on?
5. What will make you feel this time has been well spent?
6. How will you know when you have achieved your goal?
7. What would you like to happen with ______?
8. What result are you trying to achieve?
9. What do you want to change?
10. What would the benefits be if you achieved this goal?

REALITY:

The key is to take it slowly with your questions and remember it’s not an interrogation.

Let the pupil think about the question and reflect on his or her answers.
Use your listening skills: this is not the time to jump in with immediate solutions or your own opinions.

1. Where are you now with your goal?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10 where are you?
3. What has contributed to your success so far?
4. What progress have you made so far?
5. What is working well right now?
6. What is required of you?
7. What is happening now (what, who, when, and how often)? What is the effect or result of this?
8. Have you already taken any steps towards your goal
9. What do you think is stopping you?
10. What did you learn from _____?
11. What have you already tried?
12. What could you do better this time?

OPTIONS:

1. What are your options?
2. What could you do differently?
3. Which option feels right to you?
4. What do you need to stop doing to achieve this goal?
5. What obstacles stand in your way?
6. What do you think you need to do next?
7. What could be your first step?
8. What do you think you need to do to get a better result (or closer to your goal)?
9. What else could you do?
10. Who else might be able to help?
11. What has worked for you already? How could you do more of that?
12. What is the hardest/most challenging part of that for you?
13. What’s the best/worst thing about that option?

WILL or the WAY FORWARD:

This is the last step in the GROW model where the coach checks for commitment and helps establish a clear action plan for the next steps.

1. What is your next step?
2. When are you going to start?
3. How are you going to go about it?
4. What do you think you need to do right now?
5. Is there anything else you can do?
6. On a scale of one to ten how determined are you to succeed?
7. What would it take to make it a ten?
8. What resources can help you?
9. Is there anything missing?
10. What one small step will you take now?
11. What support do you need to get that done?
12. What do you need from me/others to help you achieve this?

Finally, here is an example of the whole process. What the pupil might say is shown in red; what you might choose to say as the coach is in blue.

You could change the questions shown here for some of the others given above.

GOAL:

I want to pass my test next month.

How can we achieve that?

What makes it important to you?

How can we start to help you with that today?

REALITY:

I need more sessions.

I need more time and money.

I need to practise more.

I need to try a mock test.

Maybe I need to wait longer.

Do you have the necessary skills?

What will we need to improve for you to do that?

What will it feel like if you don’t achieve it?

OPTIONS:

Just more lessons in that time?

What might your parents/ the examiner say to you about that right now?

What do you think I might suggest?

What options do you have to practise?

Can you afford it right now?

Will it cost more if you aren’t successful?

The WAY FORWARD:

I don’t know.

I’ll get more practice.

I’ll try harder now I’ve got my test booked.

What do you need to make this happen?

Have you got what you need to achieve it?

What is your first step?

What do you need from me to achieve your goal?

If you haven’t tried the GROW model, why not give it a go in your next lesson?

© Lynne Barrie MA

lynne@lynnebarrie.co.uk