Warning – this unit was last revised in 2007

Unit 7: Lesson Planning – Recapping previous lessons

Research Material:
The Driving Instructor’s Handbook

Any recap should be interactive – involve your customer as much as possible, asking questions about their previous experiences, skills and knowledge. Ask them how they felt about things that happened to assess their attitude, try to summarise their strengths and weaknesses and make sure your customer is happy with your assessment.

With one of your own customers, you will already know what you have covered. Be as interactive as possible – this is not an exercise in telling them anything, but finding out and assessing. They may well have been proud of things they did, which you should build on, but they may have been dwelling on problems they had also, which you must help to overcome. This is also an ideal time to find out what they have done in between lessons – private practice, theory work, or simply thinking things through.

If you are covering a lesson for another instructor, or picking up with a new customer who has left a previous instructor you will need to ask more probing questions. Relate what you ask to the subject to be covered – so don’t worry about asking about roundabouts if the lesson to be covered is to be turning left or right (unless there is to be a roundabout on route – obviously!).

Bear in mind that with a new customer who has already had lessons, they may never have driven away from home before – establishing this early on can be a great help to you, and a relief to your customer.

Discussion Points:
Recap on previous lessons – targeting the discussion towards the subject ahead.

Recapping on previous experience – how skills and knowledge your customer has will be useful for the subject ahead.

Skills and Overlaps:
Mirrors and observations
Signalling?
Positioning safely and under control
Speed and gears (including clutch control)
Looking to ensure the next action is safe

Exercises:
Write a few notes on the skills necessary to recap before learning the following exercises:
Reversing (based on a customer who drives forwards to a competent standard)
Emergency Stop (based on a customer who drives competently)

Your trainer will role-play customers who have been passed to you by an instructor who is away for the lesson. You will recap their knowledge based on the lesson objective:
James – Mirrors and the Emergency Stop
David – Reverse Round a Corner
Jake – Working on mock test problems – signalling

Your trainer will role-play one of your own customer and you will deliver an interactive re-cap session.