As I continue with my studies in the Lektor Consulting Practical instructor course, the material gets more and more into the psychological aspects, human factors, relationships, communication and many more things. Those mentioned give an understanding that not only an instructor has to know the ICAO documents or how to apply them (one of the examples only). The instructor has to be a warm person with a will and ability to act in a directive or a supportive way. They have to distinguish between those two and adapt to the situation. Understanding the student and how they thrive, what pushes them to show their best inner controller is a key to forming a relationship and finding talents in each and every student in the class.
I received a question today, in the first pages of the session – which instructor do you want to be – a instructor-leader, or an instructor? And the question may arise – how can one be a leader-instructor in a learner-centered course… Think about it. I got the answers from the Practical instructor course.
Do we really fully understand how the environment works on different types of people? If they feel good about themselves – feel competent, have enough autonomy in their tasks and feel the relatedness to their colleagues around them, to the profession itself? As an instructor-leader you should be able to act on it whenever one of the mentioned above is not there.
If you already have an experience as an instructor, be it for a beginners course or the refresher one, have you ever suggested to your students to stop the exercise whenever they want?
At Lektor Consulting this is exactly what is suggested. Again, this is a very advanced style of teaching, in my opinion, but it actually does work! As long as students know what the structure of the task is, what the assignment is:
“When tasks are structured, students clearly understand the rules, requirements, alternatives and how exactly they are supposed to perform the task. And also, how are they going to be evaluated and assessment criteria.” I totally agree with this and I have to admit, there were situations in the simulator based training, during the exercises or just before them, when the tasks weren’t well enough explained, or they were explained afterwards. In this case the confusion in student’s minds can occur, when they would have no idea why they are doing the exercise or what is expected.
Given the opportunity, students will become good ATCOs with a nice nudge from the instructor-leader and they will do a perfect job. What else should we want?
I would suggest to everyone not only to evaluate the environment in your own workplace or what there is to offer – check with your team members, employees, friends at work or actually anyone - how they feel and what should be done to increase their motivation for work.
I cannot stress enough about having autonomy (pretty ironic, huh? Since I just talked about it) on my own course – being able to schedule my own lessons, sessions and length, still being on track, following the information pretty deeply makes my calendar not tight for other tasks of mine. And if there are some urgent family matters, for example, no roster of instructor’s has to be changed, I can catch up whenever, at my earliest convenience. One of the biggest advantages to getting this course online and fully remotely.
It does not, of course, mean that I am all alone in these studies. I have an assigned instructor, to whom I can write my questions, notes or ideas and with whom we can interact. This makes me feel well supported in the unclear situations and again - having someone senior in a Practical instructor course is a huge pro for my confidence as a student.
This post is the third in a series, and you can read the other ones here:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9