There’s a chinese proverb which goes “Learn till old, live till old, and there is still one-third not learned” meaning that no matter how old you are, there is still more learning or studying left to do. I think that it is a saying which has a lot of relevance to our candidates, and our staff, during every IDC. If each of our candidates learn one new thing every day this IDC, then I will be a happy woman.
This IDC we have candidates and staff representing no less than 9 countries: UK, Spain, Colombia, France, Sweden, Mexico, The Netherlands, USA, and Argentina. And for this blog, I will be revealing one lesson that our candidates have learnt each day.
IDC Prep: Day 1. Lesson Learned: You can teach physics without formulas!
Every instructor-to-be needs to know this. They might need to know this so that they can comfortably pass their Instructor Exams. But even those with a PhD in applied mathematics needs to know this. Because one day they will be need to explain a question about buoyancy to a 14 year-old open water student, or will need to teach their Divemaster trainee, who dropped out of school at 13 how to calculate air consumption or the pressure-volume relationship.
Our IDC Prep Program (which is free to all our candidates) is a great way for our candidates to solidify their own theory knowledge, and learn new ways to teach and explain dive theory. For many, it was the first time they saw the famous “tic-tac-toe” (©N.Cardozo) which has rescued many a candidate over the years (and earned Nico a few beers too!).
IDC Prep: Day 2. Lesson Learned: “Swimming pool in the Caribbean” is not as warm as it sounds!
If you’ve just arrived to Playa del Carmen from northern Europe or Canada right now, then you’ll be in your shorts and T-shirt and slapping on the sunscreen. For the rest of us it feels like we are in the midst of a polar vortex! In this unusually cold spell you will see locals dressed in thick jackets and woolly hats at night when temperatures can drop as low as 14 °C (57 °F). OK, I am being a bit melodramatic here, but essentially what it means is that a few chilly nights zaps the warmth out of the swimming pool and after a couple of hours in there this morning practicing their demonstration-quality skills the candidates are ready to get out and dry off, and maybe some are wondering where they can get their hands on a dry suit.
IDC: Day 1. Lesson Learned: It’s easy when you follow the recipe
Today was the first day of the IDC proper, where the candidates got to formally introduce themselves and tell their story as to why they are here ready to start an exciting new chapter in their scuba careers.
It was also the day when the candidates got to give their first classroom presentation to explain a missed question from one of the PADI courses to their pretend students. This is not as difficult as it sounds because the candidates discovered the various PADI tools available to them to help them to give a fun, engaging classroom presentation. Things like the Lesson Guides presentation slides, and of course the Lesson Plan, or the “recipe”.
Just like when cooking, following a recipe will ensure that you don’t forget one of the ingredients making sure that the end result will be a tasty. PADI have created lots of tools to help make an instructor’s teaching job as simple as possible, and the Lesson Plan is a perfect example of a tool to ensure that all the necessary points are covered in a classroom presentation. And today our candidates used the form for the first time and (sometimes after a little bit of poking and reminding by me) realised how easy it was to follow the recipe and cover all the necessary points for a good presentation. They also got some feedback on what it will take to make a great presentation next time around.
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IDC: Day 2. Lesson Learned: Don’t try to memorise the PADI Standards
The Instructor Development Course is designed to prepare you for life as a PADI Instructor and our work as Course Directors will be tested when the candidates sit their Instructor Exams in a couple of weeks’ time. Part of the Instructor Exams will consist of written theory exams as well as an exam on the PADI standards. So understandably the candidates want to revise and prepare for these exams. But what they learned today is that it’s not a good idea to try and memorise those standards in the PADI Instructor Manual. For a few reasons.
Firstly, it would be almost impossible to remember correctly all the various rules and recommendations for teaching all the PADI programs, no matter how long you spent cramming.
Secondly, the Standards Exam is open-book, meaning the candidates will have the Instructor Manual there to refer to when answering the questions. So they just need to be familiar with the Instructor Manual and know where to look for the information.
And finally, memorising the contents of the Instructor Manual is a BAD idea, because the standards are continuously evolving and changing. So memorising out-of-date standards will mean that you are likely to make mistakes when teaching. What the candidates need to ensure is that they read the Training Bulletins every few months and note any changes in their Manual so that they stay updated.
Already, the candidates are becoming great friends with their Instructor Manuals, finding important definitions, stanards and so on, and are putting their post-it notes and highlighter pens to good use!
IDC: Day 3. Lesson Learned: Look at the big picture.
Today it was time for the candidates to give their first skill presentations in confined water. Fortunately we were blessed with warm sunshine this time around but the morning sunshine brought its own issues which the candidates needed to factor in when giving their briefings. It’s something which comes automatically to an experienced instructor but for these guys they were too focused on the task at hand this morning.
An Instructor needs to create a comfortable learning environment for his or her students, particularly in confined water when they are learning a skill for the first time. And if a bright sun is low in the sky, the student is not in a comfortable learning environment if they have to squint past the sun beams to see what the Instructor is doing. So a good instructor should look at the bigger picture when giving a presentation and if anyone needs to squint, it should be the instructor.
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IDC: Day 4. Lesson Learned: A “1” is a good score during your IDC.
Many IDC candidates fear “ The 1″. But in actual fact most Course Directors and IDC Staff Instructors will tell you that a “1” is a good score to have during an IDC.
During the IDC each candidate is given a score from 1 to 5 for each of their presentations, exactly the same way that it will work during their IE. Anything over a 3.4 or 3.5 is a passing score, and most of the time the candidates get way more than that, and receive just minor feedback on ways they can improve their performance or what would make it easier for their students. But occasionally, a candidate’s presentation merits a score of 1. Common reasons include safety (lesson number two for today: expect the unexpected), or that the student did not meet achieve the objective of the skill.
So why is an epic “fail” like that a good score? Because people learn by their mistakes. If someone gets a “1” because their student didn’t swim the full 9 metres in the CESA, you can be sure that every one of their student will swim the full 9 metres in future. Not only that, but all the other candidates in that group also learned from the mistake and won’t repeat it.
The idea is that the candidates learn, develop and improve their teaching skills during an IDC (it stands for Instructor Development Course after all) and there’s no doubt that the candidates learned that today.
IDC: Day 5. Lesson Learned: There’s a lot to think about in open water.
Before the candidates’ first open water presentation today they had done two confined water presentations and were feeling pretty confident about the way to give a good in-water presentation. The only difference today was that they each had two skills rather than one, and they would be carried out in the ocean rather than a pool.
The definition of “Open Water” in the PADI Instructor Manual is “a body of water significantly larger than a swimming pool offering conditions typical of a natural body of water encountered by divers.” Some of those conditions today included mild to moderate current, a fine sandy bottom, and a few waves on the surface. Nothing too perturbing in itself but when you add to that everything else that the candidates need to think about, it can get a little eventful down there.
It’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. So many things to consider, pay attention to and watch out for. This goes for the candidate as well as the Course Director or Staff Instructor who is evaluating. Do I go with the current or fight it?.. Don’t leave a student unattended… don’t stir up the silt… did my student meet the performance requirement?… and the list goes on.
But despite all this, the candidates did a pretty good job and there were passing scores all round.
IDC: Day 6. Lesson Learned: Experience something new.
Today was another day for open water skills presentations. But rather than the ocean, they went to a cenote. Cenotes are sink holes which are dotted all over this part of Mexico. For thousands of years rainwater has filtered through the rocks to fill them up with crystal clear water, and many have inter-connecting cave systems that the specially-trained divers can explore. There are human skulls and prehistoric animal remains still being found in the cave systems and are archeologically very important.
For our candidates today, they did not go into a cave, but they did catch a glimpse of this beautiful, mystical, underwater world and it was the first time for many of them. These cenotes are what keep many instructors here and what give them the urge to continue their own dive education and get their full cave certifiation so that they can see more.
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The candidates have had a couple of days away from the IDC to complete the EFR Instructor course, but then it was back to it…
IDC: Day 7. Lesson Learned. Sell, Sell, Sell!
The day kicked off with the candidates’ second prescriptive presentation where they give their own classroom presentation to explain a wrong question in the students’ homework. During these presentation the candidates must promote another PADI course, and promote ownership of a piece of dive equipment. They all did a great job of selling these things but I’m not sure that many of them stopped to think why they were doing this.
Later on, in my Business of Diving presentation we discussed the role that instructors play in sustaining a healthy diving industry. We discussed why it is important for the diving industry that divers keep diving – selling them dive courses and dive equipment are just two ways that instructors can help to do that.
After the presentation, the candidates got to show off their selling techniques by trying to convince their customers – sometimes very tough customers! – to buy their products.
IDC: Day 8. Lesson Learned. Don’t forget to have fun!
Crazy as it might sound, but during an IDC it’s easy for the candidates to forget that they are doing this because they love diving! So many skills, classroom presentations, and so on. But there was no way they could forget today, as they spent the day fun diving off Cozumel island. That’s right, FUN diving! It is important that the IDC candidates have fun during an IDC, because we want them to pass on some of that fun and passion to their own students. They can be, technically, the best instructors ever and get the best scores during their Instructor Exams, but they won’t make good instructors if their own students don’t have fun with them.
So it was an easy day for them, enjoying the swim-throughs, walls and abundant fish in the protected marine park that surrounds Cozumel.
IDC: Day 9. Lesson Learned. Understand your skill.
Today started with confined water presentations. During these presentations the candidates are scored on what they do and don’t do in the water, and also on what they do and don’t say during their briefings and debriefings. One thing which the instructor must state is the “Objective” of the skill, also known as the “Performance Requirement”. For example, the performance requirement of the Hover is to “Hover using buoyancy control for at least 30 seconds, without kicking or sculling.” Now if the instructor candidate does not state the Objective in the briefing and again in the debriefing, they will lose points.
But an instructor’s job is not to score points. An Instructor’s job is to teach people how to scuba dive and stating the Objective helps to do this for two reasons. By clearly stating what is involved in the skill at the beginning, it focuses the students’ minds on what exactly they are trying to do and the instructor can then give a clear description and demo to help them understand how they will do it. Also, the instructor must understand exactly what is required of their student. Understanding the skill helps to avoid an instructor being over-picky and demanding more than is required of the student. So the Objective helps both the student and the instructor to understand the skill.
And with that, the IDC is over! Well, there is still the Mock IE where the candidates will experience give their final presentations and take their final written exams, as well as get an idea of how things will work at the real Instructor Exams which start on Friday, but that’s it. Time has certainly flown for me and I’m sure for the candidates also. After successfully completing their IE the candidates will be ready to start teaching their first courses, and for sure they will continue learning new things every day!