Paired Training

Whilst times are tough and learner drivers might be difficult to come by offering paired training can be an effective way of boosting your business, maintaining your income, and giving your customers an amazing bargain. Also, if you are developing your coaching skills, having an extra person in the car makes it far easier to ask questions and practise your listening skills, in an effort to ensure the responsibility for the learning process sits with the learners.

Coaching lends itself to paired training and students gain maximum benefit from learning with a friend. The following points provide some guidance on the delivery of paired training:

 

• Coaching is far easier when there are two students in the car because the person in the back can be involved in feedback and all communication.
  
   
  
  
• Allow students to be themselves and to express how they think and feel. This doesn’t mean you have to listen to bad language, for example, if this offends you; but you need them to feel ‘safe’ to show you a side of their personality that would normally be hidden from an authority figure.
  
  

 

• Encourage friendly competition but insist on mutual support. The benefits of paired training will be negated if either one feels de-motivated so it is important to ensure that all feedback is constructive. If you notice any negative feelings in the car ask what kind of a relationship they have normally. You may need to set out the ‘rules’ of how this training environment works and that each person will be given the opportunity to speak and will not be spoken over. Explain that ridicule and abusive or threatening behaviour will not be tolerated and you will refuse to teach someone who does not follow these rules.
  
  

 

• Swap the two students over regularly – every 20 minutes is ideal – to ensure that the one in the back is always actively engaged in the learning process and the driver does not have the opportunity to lose concentration.
  
  

 

• Risky beliefs can be challenged more effectively by gaining agreement from the ‘other’ person. For example, through discussion it might emerge that one student believes that wearing a seatbelt will actually increase his injuries in a crash. It is more effective to engage the other student in the discussion than to ‘tell’ the student he is wrong. Recognising risky beliefs and changing them is critical to ensuring that students go onto become safe drivers.
  
  

 

• It is easier to avoid telling because you can involve the one in the back in a three-way discussion, e.g. ‘Do you both think the same?’ ‘How does your view differ?’
  
  

 

• Learning is deeper as the person in the back has the time to reflect. Often learning to drive is an intense experience. Being able to sit in the back of the car whilst remaining absorbed and engaged in the learning experience can be more effective.
  
   
  
  
• Involve the one in the back in feedback every time and encourage the feedback to focus on how it felt sitting in the back, what they saw and heard, how safe they felt.
  
  

 

• Always look for feedback from the students first before adding your opinion.
  
  

 

The following examples of exercises can be adapted to fit any number of situations.

 

• Ask the one in the back to describe the route just driven and the driver’s style. This is an interesting way of delivering feedback. It is non-judgemental and allows you to join in and reinforce strengths and weaknesses in technical skills and, also, to explore both their feelings and thoughts. For example, if the driver took a bend too fast, you could ask the one in the back, how it felt.
  
  

 

• Ask the one in the back to instruct the driver through a situation. An exercise like this is great for self expression. It encourages the person in the back to be logical and think through the processes that they themselves have to put into practice. This helps develop self assessment skills.
  
   
  
  
• Play the role of the learner driver and get the one in the passenger seat to instruct you. This need only be a short exercise – 5 minutes or so – and is very effective for ironing out problems in their own driving. For example, it can be difficult for students to appreciate exactly what is a safe speed but this often becomes very clear when they are ‘instructing’ you to adopt a speed where they feel safe. When they return to the driving seat, ask them to talk themselves through the same route they have just instructed you around.
  
  

 

• Define the task at the beginning by, for example, asking the one in the back to specifically watch for the driver’s routines on the approach to junctions, and then to describe them in as much detail as possible.
  
  

 

• Encourage open discussion on the use of drink and drugs – encourage them to discuss how they really feel and what they believe about the benefits / dangers of alcohol and drugs (prescription and illegal).
  
  

 

Paired training is an excellent way of ensuring you are tapping into the higher order cognitive skills of the learner drivers and, therefore, addressing the higher levels of the GDE matrix. In particular, by encouraging feedback and discussion you are raising awareness of their personal strengths and weaknesses. Raised awareness is critical to road safety. When newly qualified drivers are aware of how their personality, values and opinions impact on the way they drive the car they are better able to manage their limitations and allow their driving strengths to keep them safe.