This blog looks at this question of how well you can drive, and explores how the manner in which you answer the question can have profound consequences for the journey that you will take on your path of learning to drive. Let’s take a deeper look at what we all can learn from the simple question of “How well can you drive?”

Part of the problem with this kind of question is that it can be interpreted in different ways, and it can be answered with different meaning as well. If you happen to be a Learner who is absolutely desperate to take a driving test then you may answer this question with positivity, confidence and assertiveness, such is your eagerness to get your full driving licence. However, a newly qualified driver who actually never did get the hang of doing a bay park in a car park, might actually be pretty disappointed with their driving ability as this problem with parking is affecting them every day.

We all have our own perspective, we might be judging it against different criteria. For example, a Learner might consider less than 5 stalls in an hour driving lesson is great progress, an experienced driver of 20 years might be comparing their driving to an advanced driving organisations qualification.

How we invite our pupils on the BIG TOM 5 Day Intensive Driving Course to assess how well they are doing is actually, no small matter. We will make sure that we spend time and effort to properly develop an honest, trusting and respectful relationship with our pupil, this is time well spent, because it is internationally recognised that an effective learning environment is one in which the pupil is at the heart of it, and feels confident and empowered to “own” their learning process. Contrast that approach with one in which a 17 year old pupil has only ever experienced a learning environment at school where they have been conditioned to submit some academic work, get told where it is lacking, and then make adjustments and re-submit it, and keep doing that until eventually they will accept it. This is a simple example of how our life experiences will influence how we behave, how receptive we are to self-awareness, and how much we will be inclined to take responsibility for the learning process. Being a safe, competent and confident driver bears little resemblance to academic qualifications and their examinations, but if that is all a pupil has experienced so far in life, then who can blame them for treating the two similarly?

A key element of this exchange between our pupils and Driving Instructors is keeping discussions honest, objective, positive and meaningful. Rather than the traditional approach that many parents will have experienced 20-30 years ago when they learnt to drive, which involved the Driving Instructor leading the discussions, often negative in nature about driving faults the pupil has committed, instead, on the BIG TOM 5 Day Intensive Driving Course, we encourage our pupils to focus on the positive outcomes, experiencing a feeling of achievement and then building on that feeling to produce confidence, successful outcomes and a true sense of progressing towards the goal of becoming a competent driver who can handle driving independently on the roads.

So to summarise, this blog has dug a bit deeper into the question of how any Learner is able to assess how well they are driving. It recognises the fact that by nature, we are all individuals with different outlooks on life, and importantly have had different experiences of learning environments. But ultimately, what we attempt to provide on our intensive driving courses is a learning environment that our pupils are comfortable in and enjoy, where they feel respected, and can openly identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they feel like they are aware of how they can cope with the many challenges that will arise after they have earned their full driving licence.

BIG TOM Driving School provides 5 Day Intensive Driving Courses in all areas that use Grantham, Lincoln, Boston and Peterborough Driving Test Centres.   Telephone: 0800 689 4174

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