I am really between a rock and a hard place on this
Most of my cadets come down to do fun stuff with their mates and have a good time together doing something they can’t do elsewhere - they don’t come from school to do more lessons - they do them because its what we do for part of the year before getting back to the activities
Once they have done their leading they learn - ironically - that the exam is open book and they retake what they got wrong only until they pass - normally 3 attempts for the most inept - then the incentive to learn for the next set of subjects is no longer there when after 3 weeks they will have passed.
So I am stuck - do I strive to deliver the quality training to impart the knowledge as per our remit despite the fact that for the majority I am pushing water uphill, or do I pay the same lip service the the classifications as the cadets and put my effort into the training that they want and enjoy (but still get valuable learnings and skills from)
i think that is down to personal experience - for me a lot stuck with me and aided me in the ground school/exam elements of my pilots licence.
I am now an engineer so accept the engineering elements learnt with the ATC are perhaps held on to through personal interest, but the principles of flight, air nav etc were certainly elements which i had the basic understanding of thanks to the ATC
i can understand this - and i am sure i would be on board with that too
however Google is not the answer. in my experience copy and pasting the question into Google doesn’t 100% give a straight or clear answer each time. it may help someone steer towards the answer but it isn’t a case of the lessons are a pointless exercise, the Cadets don’t need them they can just google/use the internet for answers.
the open book element - ie using their notes makes it [the lesson] more meaningful as the notes can only come via attendance
i also recognise this. and for me the leading subjects are the ones i find harder to teach.
as a pilot the Senior/MAC subjects on air nav/pilot nav are the most enjoyable and rewarding lessons for me - and the lessons i get the best, most positive feedback on once taught.
As something i have real interest and passion in i can make the lessons come a live much more than i can trying to teach Alpha angle of a wing and Bernoulli’s principle in the PoF leading lessons - these are dry elements of the topic and perhaps there are more exciting ways to teach these, but personally i don’t have to individual interest in the basics to get excited myself…which i feel is what your indicating.
except your reason of the Instructor not being motivated is because the Cadets won’t be…knowing it is open book
Don’t get me wrong - at Leading they are all still keen as mustard, taking notes, asking questions and engaged. Good time classes all round.
However, once they have experienced the exam process, got another year older with school exams becoming more important etc, despite the ‘more interesting’ subjects, they just want to get through as quickly and painlessly as possible
Its not that I don’t want to teach it - they don’t want to learn it, just pass the exam
In fact the exams can be the best teaching sessions when the inevitable ‘Sir, what does this mean’…comes up
“We” control who does the exams, so if your sqn says this is how it’s done, tough.
It doesn’t help than some sqns sign their cadets up and let them get on with it.
I have seen this also. At Leading, they are generally motivated to learn, as the want to progress. Generally, cadets at Senior and MAC are just not interested, no matter how hard you try - as they know they can pass without putting in any effort.
In my wing, also, the Wing Commander (during the AFI) sets targets for the next year for getting cadets up to certain classification levels - which doesn’t exactly incentivise the squadrons to be rigorous in their approach to controlling exam access!
Agreed, but given what I’ve said above regarding the 43.75% success rate for each learning outcome - judicious use of Google does somewhat shorten the odds…
a fair comment but “open book” although an old term, is self-explanatory in that note books can be open.
unfortunately the default in society is to hit Google/the internet to find the answer, a frustration when the Cadets could have the notes on the topic already.
If it were an “open book” paper based exam, we could let cadets use their shiny new subject booklets in the exam… I bet that would improve the note taking/willingness to not just cover off the bare minimum! And reference to only their own notes would reinforce the learning.
This is why there should be a time limit to questions, say 30 seconds, especially as they are ‘eeny, meeny’ questions and two of the options are historically gash’, like some of the phone-in competition … The capital city of France is A. a fish, B. bucket of sand, C. Paris, D. London @ many ££££s/min. Then have 3 months before a resit, 9 months before the next level can be started and this clock starts once the final section has been completed. Not quite academic rigour, but it would concentrate the minds of the feckless, be that staff or cadets.
Our lot it is predominantly skills at searching the internet.
If there was no internet to search, it would be own notes or nothing at all - that is a good incentive to take good notes I’d say.
It would only take the few cadets that can’t be bothered to turn up noteless and fail whilst seeing their peers with notes pass to give them a little more motivation for second time round… Especially if that means waiting until the next sitting, rather than just a few days before finishing it at home.
Yeah, but that means we need to be able to override the system at Sqn level, unless someone is left beavering away somewhere going through all the requests and supplied evidence.
