Why driving Instruction doesn't work!

In this short series of articles I will be advocating why coaching is far more effective then instruction. This is the first article, if you would like to receive these articles direct to your inbox to help you learn more about the benefits of coaching and client centred learning then sign up to our emails by registering on our website.

Learning is not always easy especially when it can be often so hard to learn. We have stuck so many labels on learning that it may have become confusing on which method works best.
It will become no surprise that I am going to advocate coaching as the best learning method but I hasten to add so many people do not understand coaching that first I am going to explain why other methods do not work in isolation and then why coaching will always work if the coach has developed the skills of coaching. Over the next series of emails I will take a brief look at different words we use to describe ourselves when helping people to learn. The good news is all of the methods will work.


So I am going to start with a brief look at the word training and if you take a moment to think about what we could possibly train, what sprung in to my mind was, you could train your dog, training states you are going to train the dog to perform a specific task quite precisely. Training is often command led and so if we require the dog to sit, we command it to sit and hopefully the dog sits. When training we are looking for a change in behaviour or in the case of the dog create a new behaviour on command and so if we are training our learners to drive we are looking for a change in what they have done previously. So through repetitive training we are able to produce a change in behaviour that is consistent and has fewer errors and can be done quicker and then in more difficult conditions. This can be related to driving a car on automatic pilot it doesn't require you to think about the physical or mental actions required to do something, for example changing gear. Training helps perfect this task and is an effective method but it is not sufficient to produce a safe and competent driver.


Training will allow the learner driver to reproduce what has been taught and then be able to act automatically and then will be able to replicate the behaviour time and time again exactly the same way, just like changing gear. You may already be thinking what's the difference and does it matter and to be honest it probably doesn't matter what label you stick on helping someone learn but it may help you to think about what methods work best for helping you trying to achieve a leaning outcome for your client.


This blog is part of a series of emails which you can sign up to by registering on our website. I will look at the word Instruction and why instruction is helpful in the next article.
Graham Hooper