MikeFerrara:
It sounds like you're assuming that there's something wrong with an instructor who teaches stricktly to the standards. Is that fair?
Touché.
That's true. I think if you don't exceed standards in certain ways by, for example, putting focus on what I call the 90% items (buoyancy control, finning, buddy contact, communication and a certain degree of task loading combined with neutral swimming) that you haven't really created a diver..... Oddly, if you only teach to the letter of the standards, the 90% items are the things the student is left to learn by experience. The flip side of this is that there is time enough to do it all if you teach efficiently.
There is also a distinction to be made between the letter of the standards and the intent of the standards. The letter of the standards might say that they need to hover twice for 30 seconds but the *reason* they want that doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's up to the instructor to realize that and to put hovering in context. For example, by making them swim and stop to solve a problem without losing buoyancy control and then move on....
What's wrong with only providing the minimum permitted by standards? Aren't the standards good enough? If there's something else that should really be taught, then why not add it to the standards so you can be certain that every one is teaching it?
Well....standards don't address the 90% items except in a broad sense that leaves lazy instructors with too much wiggle room. Someone who is certified to dive and hasn't spent more than 60 seconds neutral during the whole course will have trouble... This stands to reason but strictly speaking that's all the time a student *needs* to spend neutral to get a C card. No instructor I know would accept that or certify a student who couldn't swim neutrally buoyant.
I also know how I was trained and how I was trained to teach.
There are two sides to this coin too. Efficiency of teaching and effectiveness. I think it's good to learn how to teach efficiently. In the Netherlands there is another organisation that, until recently, was spending 6 months in a pool before taking students to OW. I think, even not being an instructor, that I could teach in 12 weeks what these instructors were teaching in 26. Probably most of our instructors could do it in much less time than I would need..... That's efficiency. Not wasting time. PADI is exceedingly good at this. The materials are well structured and the order of presentation is mastered to maximize retention in a minimum of time. Efficiency.
Effectiveness is using that time to do the right thing. Effectiveness is making a diver out of someone. Teaching the right things to the right level. Mastering mask clearing, mastering the 90% items, getting them to the point where they will show calm deliberate action when faced with problems..... When you can do that you're an effective instructor.
If these two things are in a weigh scale then most PADI instructors I know have tilted scales towards efficiency and are constantly seeking a balance that creates some stress. They usually, after becoming more experienced, end up changing their expectations (re-baselining) so they can feel good about their results.
To be an outstanding instructor you need to have the scales balanced. Walter's technique for teaching mask clearing, for example, is both effective and efficient. JBD's way of teaching neutral swimming also. There are many examples of instructors who have found a balance in some if not all of the skills + the 90% items.
I know first hand what instructors are tested on and what level of mastery they must demonstrate in two different agencies.
Well, here you have me at a disadvantage. I only a DM with an opinion. I guess you could say that I only get to train instructors after they've been certified....
LOL
R..
