A letter I shared with my instructional staff designed to justify my existence on a bad-weather day...

I apologize and regret that I haven’t called a meeting of our minds in some time. In the meantime I want to pause and make good use of this bad-weather day! I’ll begin by re-stating my excitement that we are all working together to create and refine our collective perspective on aviation education, and hopefully create a blueprint that may influence the broader industry one day. Here are my thoughts after grabbing one quick session in the pattern with a student this morning before the ceiling came down too much...

What I'm saying is: we can't settle for merely teaching our students to fly, we must help them to learn, even learn how to learn.

 I’d like to think about objectives, and their proper place. Here we go...

 It is well and good to have task-based objectives such as: “today we will teach holding altitude by reference to the horizon." 

• Motivation for this lesson will be: "to gain success at aircraft control necessary for future flight activities."
• This session will: 
• be preceded by 15 -30 minutes of ground instruction, and 
• include a 45-60 minute flight, and 
• include a 15 minute debrief. 
• Instructor actions:
• I will point out the position of the horizon relative to the cowling and note the relationship of this reference to the attitude indicator. 
• I will also discuss evidence of success found on the (1) altimeter, (2) airspeed indicator and the (3) vertical speed indicator, and how to interpret that data.
• Student actions:
• He will take full control of the aircraft during this lesson
• Success will be measured by: the student’s ability to hold an altitude/attitude. 
• Rote-level learning will be indicated by watching the student's eyes and noting his scan.
• Understanding-level learning will be indicated by matching actions to observations.
• Application-level learning will be indicated by success at matching observations to actions at a rate and quality that allows for no more than a 200' variance up or down.
• Correlation-level learning will be indicated by the student’s success at this task while adding another task such as programming the GPS for KBVY direct, as well as a variation of no more than 100' up or down. 

Whew, job well done. I have brought the student one step closer to becoming a pilot. Here endeth the lesson!

No...

 Please do include this lesson in your repertoire, but let this be only the launching board for the rest of our job, the real job. What I'm saying is: we can't settle for merely teaching our students to fly, we must help them to learn, even learn how to learn. I know we all understand the difference, that's why we are all here working together. Applying this principle to our daily activities needs to be what sets us apart from many other schools. Daily, students beat a path to our door, after they go past and through other schools’ doors, because we are different in this regard. 

Today’s morning lesson with my student was focused on landings. My primary learning objective, though, was to stay ahead of my student’s perceptions as we moved around the pattern in preparation for landing. The warm-up for this objective was to start by building on the simplest early tasks which were met during start up, communication, taxi, and run-up. These were handled by him as he had already gained a good correlative level of success on these. Success was met with positive reinforcement from me in the form of “good” or a visual thumbs up. This act on my part was designed to immediately identify and reinforce a good outcome (Pavlovian...ish). This is perhaps among the most important actions on our part as instructors. Error or confusion on his part was met with the opportunity: first for him to identify and correct, then by my positive reinforcement of the correction. If corrective action were needed by me due to operational safety, then I would do so with very careful attention to the smooth application of my input to minimize the effect of the intervention. The event must be positive if learning is to occur, and stick for future benefit. The proper time for discussion of the potential negative outcomes of his actions would be after the moment of threat has fully passed, whether in flight or later on the ground. This discussion of outcomes is critical, of course, but must be saved for a moment when the lesson will be positively experienced. 

As the lesson progresses, each landing is set up by the student with positive reinforcement by me, and a consistent, simple script identifying visual cues, operational considerations, and desired outcomes. You know me well enough to know that I am in the pattern only because the weather dictated the need to remain local; and that each circuit concluded with a full stop, runway exit, after landing check, debrief and then taxi back to the runway. 

After several circuits, I was able to let the student know that I am still there to answer his questions and react to his statements but that I have said everything he needs to hear. My primary job at this point is positive reinforcement, and to maintain safety. 

The desired outcome of this lesson has been the development of the student’s ego, his positive self-image, and belief in the knowledge he has acquired and his ability to perform to standards. This lesson was followed by an opportunity to enter his thoughts and observations into his journal. The next lesson will begin with his new thoughts upon having had time to digest the previous session. 

Positive reinforcement is the name of the game for us at AVIER! and there is no “yes but... the standards, the curriculum, learn from our failures.” We know that the curriculum and the standards are immutable; but the way in which our students interact with these standards deeply impacts the quality of those lessons learned. How we reach the individual matters a great deal in the development of a PIC. 

Thank you so much for caring enough to read this far, and for all of your hard work. Please share with all of us in the group your further thoughts, observations and ideas. And always, at every single moment in the cockpit remember to pay extra attention to the positive outcomes and tailor the task-objectives to the student’s:

• Readiness,
• Exercise,
• Effect,
• Primacy,
• Intensity, and 
• Recency.

Expect to succeed sometimes and to fail sometimes, but always keep the positive. Gotcha and negative reinforcement should always be replaced by positive redirection at the moment and discussion after threat has passed. It’s a wild game, thanks for playing!

Thank you, Paul B. Beaulieu, Jr., owner * AVIER * 47 LP Henderson Rd. Beverly, MA 01915 * (978)335-4581