My last post was somewhat gloom-and-doomy (see “No Giving Up Allowed!“) regarding the fate of the ground school course which I was tapped to teach this summer. I’m extremely proud to report that one of my students passed his knowledge test with a 93. That’s right: niner tree!
This was a great lesson for me as a budding instructor. I can’t take all the credit for this student’s success because it was evident from the beginning that he was highly motivated to learn. Which brings up a new task: how can I motivate my students?
All of us who fly know that aviation is “a very pleasant mental disease”. A student pilot will occasional say he or she has “caught the bug” and has a new-found passion for flight. But is aviation really contagious? Are we born with a trigger in our brains that suddenly switches on when we have an aviation-related experience?
Most pilots I know fly for two reasons: work and pleasure. They earned their license because they had a relative who flew or someone introduced them to aviation and they were hooked. Sometimes a person’s job requires a great deal of traveling and the choice to earn a license and buy an airplane seems very logical. But this is where motivation comes into play.
I can honestly say that my motivation to become a pilot stemmed from a love of aviation at a very young age. My grandfather passed the “bug” on to me and I could talk someone’s ear off about airplanes. Doesn’t it seem like all pilots can do that?
Many of my ground school classes started with a definitive plan and ended up on some whacky topic about something that happened to me or someone I know. I love telling stories in the classroom as a way to bring the students into the same situation and have them think of how they would react. But how can I use storytelling as an effective motivator for students?
Each instructor has his or her own methods of conveying aviation knowledge to enthusiastic learners. This is where I hit the bump in the road. Not all of my students were motivated to learn and frequently showed this in the classroom. I can understand this, as aviation is not something you can “convert” someone to. The student needs to possess a genuine passion for flight in order to embrace the material that is being taught to them.
Which presents another problem – choice. The program I taught allows students to choose to be in the class. Granted, they’re in an air conditioned building with computers that are wired with yokes and pedals for Microsoft Flight Simulator. But is that their only source of motivation? If this is the case then we should just have a flight sim class.
I’m encouraging responses to this post from pilots, students, and instructors. 🙂
Aviation Musings 