DiverBuoy once bubbled...
Self study course - is the only method I use. It reduces classroom time - to what PADI calls prescriptive teaching only. Students openly discuss end of module reviews, we talk about only what they missed, unless the students themselves would like to talk about something else.
I think the point of my post was to show that PADI materials do cover all of those things - so that an intelligent person like yourself could figure out those things from PADI - and through instructors who teach PADI.
I'm glad you're proof (as all my students are) that PADI covers all of those things - not that it was ever in doubt to those of use who teach PADI.
Go PADI!
I too use self study with my students...but...I use it to free me from having to regurgitate the abc's to talk about all the things that the book leaves out. I don't use it to eliminate classroom time. It seems the longer I teach and the longer I dive the more I have to say to new divers. The book, IMO, leaves many things in drastic need of instructor elaboration.
An example...The book tells students how to find out how much weight they need. It does not say anything about how to figure out where to put it. The result is all the head-up foot-down divers we see working 10 times as hard as they need to to control where they are in the water. Letting students in on this little secret makes a difference in their diving and learning curve that it simply can't be adequately described. You need to see it to get the full impact.
I have many many more examples but the point is that for what most get from their instructor and what I got from my original instructors some could do just as well without an instructor at all. If all the instructor is going to do is grade the test, why not just give students the answer key?
Anyone want to go point for point and talk about what I think is missing and why?