Modelling behaviour is a key tool in a training environment and one that a Trainer should be making available to aid learning, whether it be for you as a PDI, or when you are an ADI, to assist your pupils. It builds trust in a working relationship and shows someone as being authentic because they are practising what they preach.

As such, someone considering becoming a driving instructor will potentially gain a great deal of benefit from appreciating how a driving lesson looks. In this blog, owner of BIG TOM, Tom Ingram gives an example of a two hour driving lesson with a pupil. It should be stated from the start that this is not intended to be an instructive lesson for HOW to qualify as a driving instructor, more the case of being a demonstration of how he goes about providing tuition. The actual structure of a driving lesson should, in a learner-centred way, flow with the needs of the given pupil, as such, the following is not intended to be a ‘template’ for how a driving lesson looks. 

I arrived at the pupil’s house 5 minutes prior to the session starting. The pupil has had 8 hours of lessons previously, is a nervous learner, lacking in confidence. As he gets in to the car, he hands me his Pupil Record and as he settles in we exchange some pleasantries. The timing of the session is a Sunday afternoon, a two hour session and this is for two reasons: firstly, we have discovered that at the moment the pupil is affected in a negative way with other traffic, so being late on a Sunday afternoon, there should be less traffic. Secondly, we have discovered that he prefers a two hour session, as a one hour goes too fast and leaves him wishing it had been longer. We have also discovered that he benefits from another session, if possible, mid-way between the Sunday sessions – this is to aid him remembering information that he has identified he forgets with just one session per week. 

Having established my pupil is feeling fine, no ailments or tiredness that could affect the goals to be set, I scroll through the Pupil Record verbalising the notes that I see have been written down. 

I ask him if he has any questions or concerns that he may have thought about since the last session – no. 

I ask him how he would describe, in general terms, his thoughts about the progress he is making. He tells me that he doesn’t feel very confident. 

I ask him why that is. And he replies that he gets affected by other road users.  

I ask him if there is anything in particular about them that affects him. He replies that he doesn’t want to annoy them if he stalls. 

So, in my mind, we have established that his main concern, at the moment, relates to being an inconvenience to other road users, while he is moving off – so this is a co-ordination of feet skill, the balance of clutch control and setting gas. I often find it is more useful to try to consider things in terms of skills, rather than emotions.  

I offer him some encouragement, helping him to put things in context, de-personalising the issue away from him personally and placing any grievance that any road user may have with me, and my driving school. I can see from his body language that he is instantly relieved from the conversation. I say to him that we can identify a suitable goal, in respect to his comments, once he is settled in. 

He independently sets himself up, I praise him for remembering the head restraint as that is the one that many forget (out of sight, out of mind). I remind him about the handbrake and neutral checks. Interestingly, there is a checklist available to all pupils in the visor, to aid them to remember all of the cockpit drill – even though they all are made aware of it in the early sessions, the majority don’t refer to it. 

It was raining, so we briefly talk about wiper controls and I pointed out from the dash how we could tell the headlights had automatically come on as it was overcast and grey and dull.  

Given the fact that we know he suffers with nerves generally, a coping mechanism that we have adopted is for the start of his session to be him, free-wheeling so to speak, driving where he wants to drive, and in that time, I say nothing, just letting him get back into the swing of things. It normally is about 10 minutes of this, and after 7 minutes, the pupil independently pulls the car over and takes a deep breath in. 

I ask him how he feels and he feeds back to me that he is feeling very good. The route he had taken, for anyone who is interesting, involved a mini-roundabout and lots of T junctions in a residential area (all in 30’s). Not one stall happened in that time. The roads were quiet. 

So we started talking about setting the initial goal for the session, and we know he wants to deal with moving off without stalling. I ask him if there is anything that he would like me to say on the subject before he practises and he says no. I ask him how he would like me to assist by giving him a couple of options. I can record how many stalls happen, and so he could decide on a target that he doesn’t want to exceed. Or, I can record all moving offs, good and bad and he can decide on a target in percentage terms. I also ask him how long he wants the drill to go on for. He says 20 minutes, so I wrote the finish time down for him to see, and he asks if I can record all moving offs, and he wants there to be no more than 40% stalls in them. [You can of course, do scaling like this in terms of confidence levels, he might say for example he gives himself 3 out of 10 in confidence for moving off, and his goal might be to raise that to 5 out of 10 by the end].  Also, he asks me if I can choose the directions, and he has no where in mind that he does NOT want to go. 

I remind him that I’m there to ensure things stay safe while he practises, I have the duals if needed, and if he has any questions he only need ask, and also, if he needs a breather in the 20 minutes, it can easily be arranged. 

We then moved off (without a stall – a 1 marked on the record backed up with me telling him that I had captured that moving off), and I directed him initially in a residential area. I asked him to pull over a couple of times. As we progressed, and I was telling him the amount he had done, and at that time, 100% successful, about half way through, I asked him if he was ok, with me increasing the challenge somewhat by directing him to go to what would be busier roads, to which he agreed. 

We then went into the town area, so this introduced traffic lights, a crossroads junction, zebra crossings, pelican crossing, passing parked cars – meeting situations, having traffic behind us and oncoming, and some of the turning rights, did involve a pause due to oncoming traffic. So every single pause and moving off, was recorded. At the 20 minute mark, we pulled over and we both knew that he had not stalled once, even without referring to my tally. My pupil was smiling. And I fedback to him that he had done 15 moving offs in that time. He said he was very pleased with that, and he looked it. 

Although, nothing untoward had happened in that 20 minute practice, I was very aware of my responsibility to monitor what happens that is NOT directly related to the goal the pupil had set. There can be many risks that develop when our pupils practice, and it is important that they don’t feel overburdened by trying to take on too much. 

In terms of the clock, we were about 40 minutes into the two hour session. 

I refer to the Pupil Record sheet [this is the DVSA “Summary of Skills” publication that is online – it is a neat package of the Driving Standard]. As I am talking through some options for the next goal, my pupil says that we had done a couple of emergency stops, but that there was more to do. And I can see from the record that we had still to discuss “stopping in the distance seen to be clear” and me pointing out 3 and 6 car lengths (stopping distances at 20 and 30mph in the dry) for him to physically see. It is a mixture of knowledge and understanding that I am striving to achieve with this. And for a nervy pupil this is not a topic to be taken without a good deal of care and attention being careful with the choice of words. 

Having spent a little time on the above, I also mentioned to him the likelihood of the ABS triggering as it was pouring down with rain. So we managed to have a discussion about what the point of ABS is, and what he could reasonably expect to happen. And in a quiet road, with no distractions, we do two further stops. One at 15 mph and one at 20 mph. Both times, the point I say stop, was level with something to line up to, like a street light for example, so that my pupil can physically see the distance taken to stop, even when pouring in rain. We talked about the need for good breathing in times of anxiety and stress, and although I don’t personally like seeing pupils affected immediately after doing an emergency stop, I’m always happy for them to pause and reflect for a moment before continuing the session. I like to emphasise after emergency stops how our emotional state can impair our ability to drive and often this will trigger a conversation about how other things that we do in life, could also trigger an emotional reaction. 

We are now at the half-way point of the session, paused again for some more goal-setting. 

Again, I offer a number of options that I believe to be natural progressions for my pupil, logical, within his capability and yet giving an opportunity for more learning. He chooses to drive to another town about 20 minutes drive away. It is an interesting choice because for the first time it would be him driving out of a built-up area, some of the speed restrictions will be 40, 50 and nationals. It is also challenging in so far as it involves a twisty turny A road, through farmland with ditches either side of the road. So this would definitely come under ‘rural road’ training.  

I ask my pupil if he knows the road, and he confirms that he knows it well, from travelling on it as a passenger many times. I ask him if there is anything about the journey that concerns him and he replies, no it is going to be fine. 

So his goal was to go to this nearby town and back which it was not lost on me, was a brave goal to set given his concerns that he raised at the start of the session outside his home. I reiterated that I am there to help him and he only need ask if anything arises. 

As we made our way on the road, out of our town in 30’s, there is a short strip of 40’s then followed by nationals. On the 40’s bit, my pupil, to my surprise, momentarily tried to go from 3rd to 4th, but actually was putting it into reverse! The gear box grumbled and he instinctively stopped before putting it into 4th. I made a mental note of it, and we carried on our way. 

As we approached a sharp left bend, I initially pointed out to my pupil three clues, that are warnings of increased risk up ahead, which he acknowledged. And I talked him through the necessary driving actions, Level 1 full talk through, to manage the bend safely. As we came out of the bend on to a straight bit, after he went up the gears again (this time with no drama), I linked the loss of vision, speed and gears, all before the bend, with the “you must be able to stop in the distance seen to be clear” – so I was hoping to relay to him connections between the topics and how they can be transferred. 

He drove to the town, and back. There were two things of note. Firstly, he has a tendency to look down at the gear lever when changing into higher gears. This is hardly surprising seeing as prior to this goal, he had only driven in 1, 2, 3 and reverse gears. So while I made reference to this to him, I wanted him to be able to concentrate on the goal he had set. Secondly, I noticed on bendy bits, he had a tendency to be positioned too far left. On one occasion, I physically intervened with the steering, to re-position away from the solid white line. Again, I believe we should expect mistakes like this to happen on new topics and with my supervision, I can ensure things stay safe.  

On a long straight bit of road, this was on the return journey, I started to talk of using side mirrors to help with position, as well as pointing out to him the darker grey bit in the middle of the lane that we can straddle. Again, he appeared to be able to register what I was saying, although I didn’t feel it was the right time to check for understanding on both points, as my intuition told me my pupil was working hard in his brain.  

I then talked about the fact that at the start of the session it was daylight, and now, it was pitch black – and how it is not often that happens in a session. My pupil stated that he felt quite happy driving in the dark, he recognised that it was a bit more tricky, but he actually liked it. This conversation was being had, as he was driving along.  

When we got back to our town, the clock was indicating 15 more minutes left, so I asked him to pull over into a parking area on the left, one that he felt happy with. There was a superb opportunity in the not too distant, that I thought he would pull over, but he didn’t. Instead he went further along, before pulling over. If I had controlled where he had pulled over, the place that I believed was the natural option, that would be classed as over-instruction. Over and under instruction is an interesting topic and one that parents often fall foul of when they accompany their sons/daughters on private lessons. 

I turned to my pupil, sort of facing him more, and we both smiled with eye contact. It had been an incredible session in my mind, but I was interested to hear what he had to say. We reviewed what the goals had been, and on both counts, my pupil said that he had achieved them and that he felt his confidence had improved. I congratulated him on achieving the goals and mentioned that he had been brave on two counts. Firstly, in terms of the first goal, allowing me to direct him to busier locations, and secondly, for choosing to drive to a new town and all that brought, in the rain, and in the dark. 

I then asked an open question relating to whether there was anything of note from the journey to the other town, I was thinking position in the road, but his response was the gear error – something that didn’t crop up after it happened. But, seeing as this was on his mind, I asked him if I could assist with that, and he said yes, looking down at the gear lever. So we had another brief conversation about bias but I did make the point that it was only one error in what was dozens of gear changes. Personally, and this is just a by the by comment, I do wonder if that is even a genuine driving error. Mistakes will be made in a learning environment, and as long as the consequences are not dire, then I’m not sure what value there is to be had of labouring a mistake such as the above, but, as I say, it WAS in his mind, quite clearly, so in that regard, we discussed it.

I also made reference to the positioning as it didn’t appear to be in his recollection, and asked him if he could think if there was a pattern to when it had happened, to which he could not. I think that is one for him to reflect on. Pupils are not always going to know instantly why things happen, but by asking the question, I hope I have sowed the seed for him to think on about that. There can be many reasons: tiredness, momentary lapse in concentration, eyesight, spatial awareness, moving away from oncoming traffic, thinner roads, bendy roads, traffic behind being distracting, faster speeds and on it goes. One for my pupil to think about, but in both regards, I emphasised the potential seriousness and I made a note in the Pupil Record because: 

1. We wouldn’t want a pupil to make that reverse gear error a habit – looking after the car 
2. I have physically intervened which does represent a safety critical incident; meaning, had I not, then the consequences would likely have been serious – risk management 

I think this kind of note taking for driving instructors is important, not just for them, but also the pupil. My pupils take their Pupil Records home with them, so they can refer to them at any time. Granted, in the early days of training, the driving instructor bears a great deal of responsibility for the outcomes, but with time, we want that to be transferring things like risk management and lesson planning over to our pupils, so helping them to recognise the significance of safety critical incidents does no harm in developing healthy attitudes. But also, when I next see the pupil, I won’t be relying on only his memory as I have made notes.

From my point of view, I was quite happy with the session. I would give it a 6/10. When I consider the level of my input for helping the pupil achieve his goals, I think it was very good. I could sense that my pupil was very happy at the conclusion of the session.

I believe I could have done better with the level of my input for managing the risk though. This would come under the competency of:

Was any verbal/physical intervention timely and appropriate?

I would have preferred to have been more proactive on the positioning issue. We were after all, driving at higher speeds, in the dark, in the rain, and my pupil was doing this for the first time. I think in hindsight, that I should have been more alert and verbally assisted earlier prior to the physical intervention with the steering. It wasn’t a dramatic intervention, I didn’t consider us to be ‘out of control’, it was more of a nudge to reposition right, than a drastic steering change, but, that is not really the point. I think that I should have been more proactive on this. It is rare for me to physically intervene with either pedals or steering, and I need to acknowledge that I did have to do it on this occasion. It wasn’t lost on me that this was a training session ending at 7pm on Sunday evening, so there is a possibility that my delayed verbals was a sign of tiredness. But certainly, one for me to reflect on.