Turn Wright Driving School

Call: 07983554711

I am available 7 days a week, including evenings

The difference between teaching and coaching

When  we  start  learning  to  drive  the  learner,  parents  and  driving instructor all have one focus which is to ‘pass the test’. One of the many questions I am asked as a diving instructor is “how long should it take me to  pass the test?’ or  “how  many  hours do you think  I will  need before I can take my test?”. They then ask their parents, friends and relatives how long they took to learn and if it takes them longer they may start to panic or become stressed.

I, like many others, have been there and done that, it’s very easy to live life with tunnel vision and to focus on the finished article rather than the steps it will take to get there.  Mainly, because I don’t like letting others down or the feeling that I have failed in someway. Unfortunately, it s very easy to focus on the negatives rather than the positives.

How  can  this  affect  our  confidence  and  self  esteem?  When  certain things don’t go the way I want I can start to feel like I am unworthy, which makes me try too hard. Then I feel anxious, stressed and start to over think. It is very easy for us to allow our thoughts to spiral out of control and this can then knock our confidence and self esteem. I am sure that at some point in life we have all felt the same.

So what can we do to boost our confidence and self esteem? For me, I need to ask  more questions and to focus  more  on  others, amongst other things.  I also need to remember that I know what I have done and what I have achieved. What I don’t know is what drives others and what makes them feel and react the way they do.

When I learned to be a driving instructor we had to take three tests:

  • The theory test
  • A practical test
  • We also had to teach an examiner to learn to drive using what we called pre-set tests.

When we had passed all three tests we were then put on a register and are  allowed  to  charge  people  for  lessons  and  teach  them  to  drive. Whilst  I  was  training  to  become  an  instructor  I  was  told  that  if something went wrong during the lesson, I must get the the learner to stop,  then  explain  why  I  had  stopped  them,  and  offer  solutions. Although  this  method  did  work  and  people  passed  their  tests,  the

problems which occurred were that when something went wrong and they  no  longer  had anyone  in the car to tell them, occasionally this could lead to an accident.

With this in mind various government agencies including the DVSA and driving instructors looked for methods to change the way we taught people to drive with the hope that    this could reduce the amount of accidents and fatalities on the road. One of the things they looked into was to get us to coach our learners rather than to teach them.

Although  coaching  in  driving  instructions  is  a  relatively  new term,  it allows us to work with our learners and get the to recognise when something   isn’t  working  then  guide  them  to  find  solutions  for themselves. This is a much more effective way of teaching someone to drive because, in theory, they can then use these solutions when they have passed their tests, which should reduce the amount of accidents on the roads. Coaching also allows us to set goals for each lesson so the learner can see for themselves how much progress they are making and then pass the test in their own time.

During  ‘lockdown’  I  have  been  looking  at  the  different  methods  of coaching and seeng  how I can use it in my lessons to change the way I teach, as driving instructors we are constantly looking into ways that we  can  improve  so  we  can  change  our  approach  and  ask  relevant questions  to  keep  our  lessons  informative  as  well  as  fun  and  to continuously improve our pass rate.