For instructors and students alike, the changes mean greater emphasis on how we learn and how both personality and circumstance can affect our learning success.
The update is so extensive that it affects almost every paragraph of the old manual with rewording, reorganizing, deleting, expanding, condensing, or exchanging thoughts, ideas, and concepts. The new book has fewer chapters than its predecessor, but the total amount of information has been increased to include a number of previously separate publications, such as Presolo Written Test and Positive Exchange of Flight Controls. Lists have replaced descriptions, and many sections and subsections have large type headings, making important ideas and concepts easier to identify.
Cosmetically, the graphics have been modernized. Photographs showing instructors and students in a variety of learning environments offer a broad representation of age, gender, and race. They replace 1950s-style caricatures of the stereotypical nuclear family.
The book's first chapter, "The Learning Process," was changed the most. It now includes a general description of learning theory and briefly discusses the relationship between behavioral and cognitive theories of learning. It also expands the sections on learning characteristics and levels and describes how memory works. The object of including all of this information is to educate instructors about how we learn. Because the way each of us learns is affected by a variety of factors, instructors need a broad theoretical base. When all goes as planned, CFIs can apply this theory to help them find the best ways to teach each of their students.
Behavioral theory is based on a stimulus-response model. For a given stimulus, a living creature will react with a specific response. Behavioral psychologists, not to mention parents, know that the most effective way to influence behavior is by rewarding good behavior and punishing undesirable behavior. Instructors are encouraged to apply this principle in their teaching, offering praise for getting it right.
Cognitive theory attempts to explain how the brain interprets and assimilates information. One part of the theory focuses on information processing - the physiological activity of the brain during learning. The other part of the theory focuses on social interaction - how culture and life experiences affect information processing and behavior.
The information-processing model explains how humans sense, interpret, and then store experiences. The senses identify information and determine importance, then transmit it to short-term memory, also called working memory. There, the brain organizes the information and processes it into long-term storage. In some respects, short-term memory is similar to a computer's RAM, while long-term memory is more like a hard drive.
Social interaction describes how previous learning and experiences will affect perceptions and interpretation of new information, and how it assists or interferes with new learning.
Understanding these elements of cognitive theory can help your instructor understand you and, hopefully, teach you in a way that works most effectively with the way you learn.
The Handbook section called "Characteristics of Learning" illustrates different learning styles as well as the inter- dependency and function of left- and right-brain learning functions, sensory perceptions, attitudes, and personality.
Left-brain processing is analytical and objective, while right-brain processing is intuitive, emotional, and spatially oriented. Some people approach learning from the top down, organizing a framework first, then filling in the empty squares, while others want all the parts first so they can build from the bottom up. You should be taught in the same way that you learn best. For instance, a top-down learner will be most effective if he or she starts with a big-picture understanding, then fills in the details. A bottom-up learner wants all the details first so he or she can build them into a broader understanding.
Personality traits also have a lot to do with how we learn best and therefore how we should be taught. Dependent and reflective personalities tend to be cautious. They succeed best with strong instructor participation and guidance. More independent and impulsive personality types tend to jump right in. Instructors may need to carefully watch impulsive types so that they don't exceed their capabilities while they're experimenting on their own.
To demonstrate how many types of learning must happen simultaneously in order to master a skill such as flying, the text offers a simple exercise. It asks instructors to write the word learning on a piece of paper 15 times, trying to improve the speed and quality of the writing each time. The trick is that they must do it with the hand they do not normally write with. It quickly becomes clear that successfully performing this task does more than teach a sequence of muscle movements. It also changes the writer's perception of the task as it grows easier with repetition, develops concepts of how to perform the skill, and changes the attitude toward the skill.
Not only do the ways in which we learn receive more attention than ever in the newest version of the Handbook, communication skills also get new emphasis. In recent years, the importance of communicating effectively has become a hot topic in personal and business relationships. Flight training is no different. A new section, "Developing Communication Skills," describes typical communication situations, then lists 10 ways to improve listening, including not judging, not insisting on having the last word, paying attention to nonverbal cues, and being aware of biases. Of course, as the book points out, listening is a two-way street. Communication is most effective when students and instructors are good listeners.
The new emphasis on communication is also evident in a new subsection on communication interference, which describes how environmental, physiological, and psychological conditions interfere with communication. Again, the ultimate goal is to help instructors be better teachers. So, if a psychological condition like fear seems to be interfering with effective communication, the instructor knows that he or she must put the student at ease before the student will be able to absorb new information.
The revisions to the Aviation Instructor's Handbook also help instructors create more effective lesson plans by introducing performance-based objectives. This section shows instructors how to set measurable, reasonable standards for student performance. All performance-based objectives have three elements: a description of the skill or behavior, the conditions under which the skill or behavior will be demonstrated, and criteria for determining whether the objective has been accomplished.
Creating lessons around these objectives helps instructors to organize their thinking and helps students understand what they must do to succeed. For example, instead of telling a student that the goal of a lesson is to do steep turns, the instructor would describe how to perform a steep turn, list acceptable conditions such as the appropriate airspeed, and set criteria for accomplishing the objective such as maximum altitude and bank deviations. Now the instructor and the student know immediately if the goal of the lesson has been achieved.
Once instructors have taught a subject to their students, they must have a way to determine whether the students have mastered the information. That's where testing comes in. With the increasing emphasis on stage checks and other testing in addition to the FAA's written, oral, and practical exams, the updated Handbook offers instructors guidance on how to create effective tests. "Critique and Evaluation" introduces norm- and criterion- referenced testing and includes methods for constructing criterion-referenced tests. It also includes in- formation on the presolo written exam.
Norm-referenced testing measures students against each other, which is similar to running a race to see who comes in first. This type of test is usually graded using a bell curve. The disadvantage is that, within a group of students, only one can finish first and one has to come in last, even though both may have scores within one percentage point of each other.
Criterion-referenced testing compares student performance against a single standard. This is more practical for flight training because all pilots must pass the same written and practical exams. The score is based on a specific standard, and not on how other pilots did.
While all of this theoretical knowledge gives CFIs a good reference base, they may also need a little more concrete guidance on how to apply the information. The ninth chapter in the Handbook, "Techniques of Flight Instruction," offers them some new information on widely accepted practices, such as the positive exchange of flight controls, use of realistic distractions, and aeronautical decision making (ADM).
The "Telling and Doing" section of this chapter describes methods for teaching maneuvers and explains why each step is important to the learning process. It starts with the instructor demonstrating and explaining the maneuver, followed by the student explaining the maneuver while the instructor accomplishes the task. This allows the student to organize his or her thoughts about the procedure while observing the instructor's technique. It also gives the instructor the chance to evaluate whether the student understands the maneuver. Then the student talks himself through the maneuver while flying, giving the instructor another opportunity to evaluate progress.
The section titled "Positive Exchange of Flight Controls" tells why it is important to know who's flying and describes the specific procedure for exchanging flight controls. According to this model, when the instructor wants the student to take the controls, he or she says, "You have the flight controls." The student responds, "I have the flight controls," and the instructor repeats, "You have the flight controls." The intent is to reduce potential accidents that stem from not knowing who's flying the aircraft.
The section on ADM describes the systematic approach to making sound decisions. It includes explanations of the poor judgment chain that leads to faulty decisions, the decision-making process, factors affecting decisions, and ways to evaluate student decision making.
A poor judgment chain is a series of bad decisions that eventually lead to an accident or incident. By breaking the chain, an accident may be prevented ("Poor Judgment: Breaking the chain," AOPA Flight Training, July 2000). The decision-making process includes defining the problem, assessing risk, selecting a solution, implementing the decision and evaluating the outcome. Factors affecting decisions include pilot self-assessment (personal capabilities and limits), attitudes, stress management, use of internal and external resources, workload, situational awareness, and external pressures. Instructors are urged to constantly monitor student decisions and suggest ways in which to improve them.
Instructors are taught to recognize common distractions that lead to accidents, and this section suggests methods to evaluate and train students to deal with these situations during flight.
When the student has completed the tests and mastered the necessary skills and information, it's time for the checkride. For the first time, the Handbook includes guidance on how to properly fill out the checkride application, covering the most common mistakes. It also includes updated information on the correct endorsements for solo flights, cross-countries, and other activities.
With all this new information, don't be surprised if your instructor makes some changes in the way he or she teaches. If you do your part by listening, communicating, studying, and practicing, you're sure to find the experience more rewarding than ever.
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