Einstein & Individual Differences
Amongst the thousands of memorable things that Albert Einstein (1879 to 1955) said, two quotes stand out for me:
‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.’
‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’
I find both of these quotes entirely relevant to the six articles I have been writing over the past six months on instructor training and I am going to discuss each one in the context of driver training. A driving instructor needs to be great at what they do and if that is the case then what they do will implicitly acknowledge these two quotations. Addressing these quotes makes you client-centred. Einstein didn’t refer to coaches. He was talking about education and it really doesn’t matter whether the facilitator of the education is called a teacher, coach, trainer, mentor, instructor, or tutor, so long as they put the person, who is learning, at the centre of the process; and the process is all about the person, who is learning, and not about the facilitator.
The first quote focuses on the fact that we are all different. It represents a shift in thinking. Rather than believing that education is best achieved by focusing on similarities, it recognises that education is all about individual differences. We are no longer measured on our general intelligence (IQ) but on the fact that there are multiple intelligences and individuals are encouraged to focus on what they are good at – where their natural ability lays. A fish is never going to be able to climb a tree and therefore it would be unfair to use tree climbing as a measure of intelligence for all. Similarly, not everyone can read or write to the same level and so written tests are unfair as a measure of intelligence for everybody. Teachers no longer stand at the front of the classroom talking at the class because it has for a long time been recognised that this approach excludes a large proportion of the population. Young people are encouraged to work in small groups so that they can focus on their individual strengths and use these to produce positive outcomes as part of a team. One person, for example, will be good at maintaining an overview and keeping notes; another will excel in researching information; another will be able to demonstrate to the rest of the group their understanding; another will be best able to calculate the costs and benefits of the task; and another will be best suited to presenting to everyone else the conclusions drawn.
As driving instructors, we must keep ourselves current with what is happening in education and our understanding of how people learn because the information available is constantly being updated and developed. We now know far more about how the brain works and how people process information than we did even five years’ ago. And this is where the second quotation comes in: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ Learning facts is not going to keep someone alive on the road; learning how to think is going to empower the individual to make safer decisions and choices based on an understanding of who they are and this is likely to improve their chances of staying alive on the road.
Addressing the higher levels of the Goals for Driver Education (GDE) and developing self-evaluation skills in trainee drivers is critical to safe thinking when driving. The most effective way to address the GDE is with reference to the first quote: don’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. This is the same as saying, a one size fits all approach does not work for everyone. Some people will believe they are stupid and because they cannot process what you are saying, they will continue to hold onto this belief. This belief will affect their decisions and their behaviour and could result in a crash. Driving instructors need to understand what makes people tick; and how the way they think and feel affects the way they behave, in order to be able to teach them to drive: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ We have to start with the belief that everybody is a genius; and that if we are not getting our point across, we might be missing the point ourselves. The GDE framework helps us to do this because it reminds us that the way someone thinks and feels affects the decisions they make. Asking questions around thoughts and feelings raises awareness and ultimately builds responsibility for the driving task post-test. For example:
When you qualify as a driving instructor you are at the very beginning of your journey. If you believe you have made it when you qualify and sit back resting on your laurels then you will always find something like the Standards Check a challenge because your personal beliefs and self-imposed limitations will prevent you from seeing it as an important step in your development. Your initial training and development got you to a certain point and through your Part 3. Thereafter, it is up to you to continue your development so that when you take the Standards Check you can come away from there knowing it was a fair assessment of where you are at and therefore offers valid guidance as to what you need to do to continue to develop. It seems to me that there are some people believing they can apply a few techniques to the Standards Check that they don’t normally use in their everyday lessons and that this will see them okay on the day. Remember Einstein’s quote: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ This is as relevant to us as driving instructors (coaches, teachers, trainers or mentors) as it is to our customers.
Amongst the thousands of memorable things that Albert Einstein (1879 to 1955) said, two quotes stand out for me:
‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.’
‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’
I find both of these quotes entirely relevant to the six articles I have been writing over the past six months on instructor training and I am going to discuss each one in the context of driver training. A driving instructor needs to be great at what they do and if that is the case then what they do will implicitly acknowledge these two quotations. Addressing these quotes makes you client-centred. Einstein didn’t refer to coaches. He was talking about education and it really doesn’t matter whether the facilitator of the education is called a teacher, coach, trainer, mentor, instructor, or tutor, so long as they put the person, who is learning, at the centre of the process; and the process is all about the person, who is learning, and not about the facilitator.
The first quote focuses on the fact that we are all different. It represents a shift in thinking. Rather than believing that education is best achieved by focusing on similarities, it recognises that education is all about individual differences. We are no longer measured on our general intelligence (IQ) but on the fact that there are multiple intelligences and individuals are encouraged to focus on what they are good at – where their natural ability lays. A fish is never going to be able to climb a tree and therefore it would be unfair to use tree climbing as a measure of intelligence for all. Similarly, not everyone can read or write to the same level and so written tests are unfair as a measure of intelligence for everybody. Teachers no longer stand at the front of the classroom talking at the class because it has for a long time been recognised that this approach excludes a large proportion of the population. Young people are encouraged to work in small groups so that they can focus on their individual strengths and use these to produce positive outcomes as part of a team. One person, for example, will be good at maintaining an overview and keeping notes; another will excel in researching information; another will be able to demonstrate to the rest of the group their understanding; another will be best able to calculate the costs and benefits of the task; and another will be best suited to presenting to everyone else the conclusions drawn.
As driving instructors, we must keep ourselves current with what is happening in education and our understanding of how people learn because the information available is constantly being updated and developed. We now know far more about how the brain works and how people process information than we did even five years’ ago. And this is where the second quotation comes in: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ Learning facts is not going to keep someone alive on the road; learning how to think is going to empower the individual to make safer decisions and choices based on an understanding of who they are and this is likely to improve their chances of staying alive on the road.
Addressing the higher levels of the Goals for Driver Education (GDE) and developing self-evaluation skills in trainee drivers is critical to safe thinking when driving. The most effective way to address the GDE is with reference to the first quote: don’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. This is the same as saying, a one size fits all approach does not work for everyone. Some people will believe they are stupid and because they cannot process what you are saying, they will continue to hold onto this belief. This belief will affect their decisions and their behaviour and could result in a crash. Driving instructors need to understand what makes people tick; and how the way they think and feel affects the way they behave, in order to be able to teach them to drive: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ We have to start with the belief that everybody is a genius; and that if we are not getting our point across, we might be missing the point ourselves. The GDE framework helps us to do this because it reminds us that the way someone thinks and feels affects the decisions they make. Asking questions around thoughts and feelings raises awareness and ultimately builds responsibility for the driving task post-test. For example:
- You have just driven really well for the last five minutes. How will having your mates in the car change some of the decisions you just had to make?
- How do you feel when you are tired? How will tiredness affect your driving decisions?
- How do you feel when you are upset about something? How will that emotion interfere with your thoughts when driving?
- How do you feel when an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you? How will you handle that feeling when you are driving on your own?
- On a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 is absolutely brilliant and 0 is rubbish, how well did you do just then?
- What do you enjoy most about driving?
When you qualify as a driving instructor you are at the very beginning of your journey. If you believe you have made it when you qualify and sit back resting on your laurels then you will always find something like the Standards Check a challenge because your personal beliefs and self-imposed limitations will prevent you from seeing it as an important step in your development. Your initial training and development got you to a certain point and through your Part 3. Thereafter, it is up to you to continue your development so that when you take the Standards Check you can come away from there knowing it was a fair assessment of where you are at and therefore offers valid guidance as to what you need to do to continue to develop. It seems to me that there are some people believing they can apply a few techniques to the Standards Check that they don’t normally use in their everyday lessons and that this will see them okay on the day. Remember Einstein’s quote: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ This is as relevant to us as driving instructors (coaches, teachers, trainers or mentors) as it is to our customers.
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