Driving Instructors

Call or text Diane on 07930 697406

L of a way 2 Pass Half Day CPD workshop
How would it feel to have at your fingertips the solution to any psychological challenges?
Click the link above to find out more, or call Diane on 07930 697406.

In this present economic climate and with a plethora of new instructors, it’s important to have an edge over the competition. How many more recommendations would you get if you could offer your pupils cutting edge, proven techniques that would allow them to take their test feeling calm and confident in their ability?

This workshop will arm you with these techniques, eliminating the negative emotions that inhibit the learning process, including anxiety, stress, fear, guilt, embarrassment, intimidation, frustration, and allow your pupils to have increased confidence, self-esteem and self-belief. Your current skills as an instructor teach the competence...these new skills will enable you to build the confidence.

Emotions affect us every waking moment of our lives and never more so than in stressful situations. Every driving lesson you’ve ever conducted or driving test taken will have involved a range of emotions, some positive, some negative.

Each and every memory that we have has an emotion attached to it: you only need to think back to your own Part 2/3 or check tests and I guarantee that you can immediately recall the emotions that you experienced…perhaps nerves/anxiety beforehand, then immense relief once it‘s over!

The question is, to what extent do emotions slow down or speed up the learning process? Emotions are a huge determining factor in a pupil’s learning ability whether that be adversely or beneficially, and can even affect physical ability. For example, a pupil may be able to perform a hill start perfectly when on a quiet road, and then totally panic when in a pressurised situation such as at a busy junction or with a car behind. So what’s different? Not the physical ability as they have demonstrated that they are physically capable, but the emotion behind the clutch control. The pupil feels under pressure to have accurate clutch control, and therefore starts to question their ability, which in turn leads to panic and perhaps loss of confidence. Once this happens several times then this is a new learned reaction and the pupil ’learns’ how to ’fear’ hill starts. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, ultimately affecting their physical ability to accurately control the clutch.

Additional ADI/PDI Services

'Top Ten Reasons for failure and how to avoid them'
This chapter from the book is based on DSA's findings which were produced in a leaflet of the same name.  DSA gave permission to use this information as the basis for this chapter.
Available as a free pdf. to give to your pupils or to display on your own website. Please email Diane@Lofaway2pass.com  quoting 'Top 10 request' and it will be sent to you within 24 hours.

Instructors' guide to learning styles
Useful for all pupils, but especially useful for dyslexic/dyspraxic/ADHD learners. This pdf. details the different ways in which pupils learn, whether it be visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, and how to adapt your teaching to enable your pupils to take information on board more easily. Please email Diane@Lofaway2pass.com  quoting 'Learning styles' and it will be sent to you within 24 hours.

Amazon Associates Programme
Instructors can sell L of a way 2 Pass from their own website and earn commission from Amazon. Please visit the Amazon associates page on the Amazon website.

ADI/PDI 1-2-1 Success Sessions
Can you afford to fail your Part II/III or Check Test?
Each failed test not only costs about £100, but can leave you feeling depressed, frustrated, angry, embarrassed, and often anxious or nervous about your next test.
Do you want to overcome these feelings and pass your test stress free?
How important is it to take your Check Test feeling as confident or competent in your ability as you would under non-test conditions?
If you're a PDI, how do you feel knowing that your whole career rides on a one hour exam? Would you approach your Part III differently if you could totally banish your nerves, enabling you to take your test feeling calm, relaxed and in control of the situation?
How much would that feeling be worth to you?
For more information click on the link below or call Diane on 07930 697406

click here to find out more about ADI & PDI Success Session

Copyright extract from L of a way 2 Pass – Diane Hall DSA(ADI), TFT-Alg.
This book is NOT a driving manual, nor is it intended to replace the role of the A.D.I., but to provide yourself and your pupils with additional methods and techniques that will enable capable drivers to pass their test without nerves getting in the way, and to reduce the number of times that you have to keep repeating the same basic instructions.

As Driving Instructors we all have the same goal in mind; to get our pupils’ driving to a standard required for the test in the minimum number of lessons with which you and they feel comfortable, whilst at the same time making sure that they become safe, confident and considerate drivers. Specific visualisation exercises provided in this book will help focus your pupils’ attention on their driving in between lessons. This will help to ensure that they haven’t forgotten everything that you taught them previously, thus helping to reduce the repetition during lessons. Other techniques used will increase your pupils’ confidence and competence levels, therefore making the learning process much more enjoyable and less frustrating for both yourself and your pupil. There is also a stress-busting section which will reduce test day nerves, therefore ensuring the best possible chance of your pupil passing their test on the first attempt, provided of course that they are at the required standard.

We all have different methods of teaching; ask any instructor how they teach reverse park, and although the result is the same, the method often varies. Therefore, I have intentionally refrained from giving specific instructions as they may conflict with your own method, and only serve to confuse your pupil. If used correctly, this book will greatly assist and speed up the learning process, and therefore it will be helpful for your pupil if you work with them by completing the ‘specifics’ where necessary, in the spaces provided. Your pupil will then be able to visualise between lessons what you have been teaching them. For example, if you teach a reverse park, ordinarily you may find your pupil has often forgotten how to do it by the next lesson. However, if a pupil is willing to spend just a few minutes a day in between lessons visualising the manoeuvre, using the techniques in the book, then they are much more likely to remember it for the following lesson. This works in much the same way as learning the words to a song; if you just hear it once, you won’t remember it, but play it every day and soon enough you will know the words off by heart.

We are all trained to teach the standard syllabus to prepare a pupil for their driving test. However, I believe that the standardised training doesn’t go deep enough into the psychology of learning. It was only because of my frustration with this that I decided to investigate further and to put into practice the methods described in this book.

Ten percent of the population is diagnosed as dyslexic, with an estimation that up to 25 percent of the population may have some form of dyslexia. That means that at any time, up to one quarter of your pupils may be dyslexic. Before I started researching this book, I didn’t realise how debilitating dyslexia can be for learner drivers. It’s often difficult as instructors to accept that our standard method of teaching is not always the most appropriate for every learner, and your pupils who are dyslexic will benefit from multi-sensory learning techniques to help them to take information on board more easily.

Like many people, I didn’t know an awful lot about dyslexia, so therefore I have enlisted the help of an expert on dyslexia. A specialist chapter has been written by Sandra Read to aid all learners who are dyslexic. However, this advice will benefit all of your pupils, regardless of whether your pupil is dyslexic or not. I suggest that you have a look at her techniques for ‘multi-sensory learning’ as you will find these will enhance your ability to convey information. Before I researched these methods I found that pupils forgot so much from one lesson to the next. After putting into practice Sandra’s ideas, I found that pupils could remember much more from their previous lessons.

If you take on board Sandra’s suggestions in the chapter ‘Dyslexic Dilemma‘, you are taking the first steps in really helping your dyslexic learners to learn in the manner which they find most suitable. You may not find all the suggestions work for you and your pupils, but experiment and find what does work. The British Dyslexia Association is making details of this book available on their information leaflet, and we are interested in hearing from instructors who have used these techniques and to what effect, and also any other techniques that you find useful for any group of learners who experience learning difficulties, as these hints and tip can be posted onto the website to benefit other instructors and pupils.

I truly believe that it’s time to revamp our ideas as instructors, and to develop a person centred approach to learning, rather than just following the set syllabus. These techniques really do work. Please, try them with your pupils and see the difference for yourself. You will find that with the help of these techniques your pupils will learn easily, enjoy their lessons more, and definitely be less ‘stressed out’ over their test!

I hope that over time, these techniques will become standard practice, and as instructors we will help to produce confident, competent drivers who are thoughtful, considerate, and above all, safe. However, this can only happen with your help and input. It’s very easy to mock something that we are not familiar with, and to be honest I was very sceptical until I started to use these techniques for myself. You know yourself how pupils differ from each other on test day; some are laid back and calm, whereas others are so nervous that they even cry or are physically sick. After using the stress busting techniques, you may find it seems like you are teaching a different pupil!

If you have found this book useful and want to learn more about the techniques used, please don’t hesitate to contact me.