Instructional Techniques and Teaching Methods
How people learn
Learning is purposeful, results from experience, is multifaceted, and is an active process. In the cognitive domain, learners move from rote to understanding to application to correlation; a student who can only recite a VFR minimum has not learned it. Psychomotor skills develop through observation, imitation, practice, and habit. The laws of learning, readiness, exercise, effect, primacy, recency, intensity, and freedom, explain why a well-sequenced lesson beats a lecture.
Choosing a method
Match the method to the objective: lecture for new material, guided discussion to draw out experience, demonstration-performance for maneuvers (explain, demonstrate, direct practice, evaluate), and scenario-based training for ADM and risk management. Good questions are clear, brief, and thought-provoking; avoid yes-or-no questions and guessing games.
Assessment and responsibility
Criterion-referenced tests measure against a standard; norm-referenced tests rank students. The instructor evaluates, certifies, supervises, and endorses, and students copy the instructor's behavior, so set the example in preflight discipline, checklist use, and go/no-go decisions.
Traps
- Maslow's hierarchy addresses needs, not skill; a tired or worried student will not learn regardless of the lesson plan.
- Defense mechanisms such as rationalization, denial, and compensation look like attitude problems; address the threat beneath them.
- A lesson plan needs unity, content, scope, practicality, and flexibility, not just an outline.
Rule of thumb
Build each lesson around one objective, teach it to the application level, and finish by having the student explain the why. If they cannot, the lesson is not finished.