CFI Blog Post 3 Due 04/18

With a brand new student, my expectations talk should be a serious conversation because it is going to set the tone for the entire time that student trains with me. It is also the ideal time to instill good habits from the very beginning. After greeting's and some background, I would ask the student what his or her goals were in achieving the rating. Then begin discussing the expectations of a professional environment. I would start with what the student can expect of me. I will try my best to be consistent and fair with my teaching. I will come prepared for the lesson and if there is something I don't know. I will find the correct answer and get back to them. That good communication between us is essential for progress, so we should exchange schedules and dates of availability in advance. I am willing to work around schedules to meet on non regularly scheduled days. I will do my best to cover material clearly and concise. If he or she did not understand something, ask questions. Explain that the beginning stages of flying will set up good habits that he or she can use in flying for the rest of there life. From there lead into what I would expect out of them. Explain that the amount of progress is going to greatly depend on there motivation. They should be on time to the lesson and prepared by completing any homework assignments prior as well as what the lesson is going to consist of for the day. Explain that we will brief and post brief the lessons to determine strong areas, weak areas, and what to look into for the next lesson. State in advance that there is going to be days of bad weather and canceled flights, on those days we can still meet and cover relating topics on the ground. After the big items were covered, I would start getting more information on a personal level to determine personality type and build trust with the student.

CFI Blog Post 2 Due 04/06

After receiving a new student from another instructor, I am going to look into his/her folder to see where they are at in progress to the course. I will look and see if they are part 61 or 141 and what lesson the student is on. Next I will go through all of the logs for that students previous flights and read comments about each flight. This will help me to determine trends in the student’s progression. What he/she has been struggling with and excelled in? Which instructors left those comments and so forth? I would ask the previous instructors questions pertaining to the folder about unclear comments. I would ask the instructor how motivated they thought the student was. Is he/she on time for flights and prepared for the lesson? What have the instructor and student been focusing on recently? How often did that instructor and student study ground together? What are the student’s strong points and weak areas? To figure out where the student is at in ground knowledge, I would start by asking the student how they felt about a topic, what they felt comfortable with, and what they felt were weak areas. Asking the student questions or giving a quiz on the PTS for the specific rating to determine prior knowledge can be useful as well. Then we could start to assess the chapters/topics that the questions came from? I could also use the stage check topics and questions from the problem areas on stage checks to further estimate the student’s ground knowledge. Assigning homework for the next meeting can be used to judge students motivation.

CFI Blog Post 1 Due 03/14

If your student is beginning to experience a learning plateau with landings before a stage check, as an instructor you can do several things to help that student overcome the aviation challenge. The first thing that I would do is try to keep my student focused on the fun in flying and not to stress the landings. Enjoy the sights from the skies and the feeling of flying. They have grasped the basics and feel for the aircraft, now it might be time to let them take a break and let the student regroup. Be honest with the student about a learning plateau and motivate them. Encourage the student to be positive because they’re moving to the next step in their training. Now they understand the basics and just need to practice and gain the time. Let them know that they are still showing progression even though it may not be as noticeable. There are also some different techniques the instructor can do so the student can gain more experience in the critical phases of flare, landing, and rollout. Having the student fly several low approaches but not actually touching down could be one method improving the sight picture and feel of the aircraft configuration. Another would be during the flare, hold the airplane in ground effect above just above stall. This increases student experience during the last critical seconds of landing. Anticipate the float and brake down the landing into 3 steps. I wouldn’t tell my supervisor about the situation unless it was something that was continuing to take place after several flights and I had tried every different way of teaching that I know of and I had the student also fly with different instructors and received feedback from them as well. When having the aviation talk with a student, I don’t feel that there are a set number of hours needed for the student to have. Each case is different between instructor and student. I would start leaning toward this talk and considering it after no progress had been made after about 15 flights.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

FOI Blog #4 (Visualization, Mastering the Touchdown, Training Future Captains)

All the these articles provides good techniques and insight. One thing from the visualization article that I can use in my teaching is chair flying. My instructors have told me to do it in the past and it is a great way to gain muscle memory on the proper techniques to emergency procedures. Sitting in a chair and visualizing the cockpit the student can establish a flow on preforming the memory items of the checklist and repeating this over will increase the probability of staying calm in the aircraft and preforming the checklist quickly and efficiently during an emergency. This technique can be used on any flying maneuver if the student will take the time to sit down and really chair fly. Making the Touchdown offers some good points about landing by discussing the approach and separating the round out into 2 phases (level-off and flare). Again I have noticed these techniques before in my training and I will use them on my students.  A 5 minute ground session about the steps to land and letting the student know what is going to happen before the flight can really boost the confidence in a student during the high workload of approach and landing. I will also explain to the student about vision and gaining the mental picture through rehearsal. In my training, I never had a instructor fly a series of low approaches above MCA to ease anxiety and allowing the student to become more comfortable at low altitudes. I think its a good idea and after a few approaches if the student still seems to be really nervous it is a good tool to help the student. Training Future Captains offers a lot of good points to flight training. The article discusses confidence issues and how they relate to flying. This is something that i have noticed with anything in life. If you are not confident and have a bad attitude, your only setting yourself up for failure. Airline captains and first officers are considered equally qualified because they are. The captain might have more time, but the first officer also earned his seat as well. When teaching your student, allowing them to make executive decisions about the flight lets the student view the instructor as a co-pilot and not a superior. This builds confidence. What I've taken away from the article is that it all goes back to day one flight. Instilling proper techniques in analyzing weather, radio communication, checklist usage from the beginning is going to help the student  for the rest of his/her career. The article said flying is as much attitude as skill. Skills come with time, but a good attitude from the start will encourage success and the students desire to fly and hone their skills to perfection.

CFI # 3 (Assessment Article)

  "Formative assessment refers to measurements and conclusions that are made during the course of a learning program (Course Reader)." This means that it is a way for the the instructor to evaluate weather the methods being used for teaching are effective or there needs to be changes in order for the student to retain the knowledge he or she is learning. This is done before all the material in the course is finished being covered. An example of this would be to ask the students questions during the lesson about previous information, then making adjustments. "Summative assessments refers to measurements made at the end of a learning unit or learning program (Course Reader)." This means that a test over several lessons or chapters is given in order for the instructor to evaluate the effectiveness of learning for the student. This test will weigh more or have a larger influence on the students grade. If modifications are made it will be for another course and different student.
  "Criterion referenced assessments are intended to determine whether or not a learner an objectively set level of competence (Course Reader)." This type of assessment is the bar exam for lawyers. Experts have agreed this is pertinent information that everyone in the field should know. The evaluation can consist of simulated and actual performance. Norm referenced assessments are the opposite because there is no agreement on the specific information the student should know. Grading for the student is composed of comparing each individual to others in the class when all have been taught the same content. An example of this would be a music class and how different classes will spend more or less time than the other class on different topics. One class could focus on theory and the other on history. Grades in one class are irrelevant to the other class, but students in the same class are compared. "Self referenced assessments are used when the learning goals are personal (Course Reader)." This s used when it is not necessary for the instructor to compare or grade the student. The assessment is the student formulates their own opinion of the topic and there is more than one answer. An example of this would be a student taking a course to start a hobby such as an art class.
  Self-directed learning is the form of learning where the individual can be considered open minded. They have the ability of postformal thought. "Meaning thinking across theoretical systems, integrating feelings with thoughts, accepting contradiction in what is known, and addressing problems for which there is no single final solutions (Course Reader)." This type of learning requires a smart student who sees the instructor as if there on the same level, an outside opinion. They want learning and assessment activities on formative and summative levels.  

CFI Blog # 2 Continued... (Characteristics of Adult Learners)

  The demographic characteristics  that relate to adult learners are their past experiences, opinions, values, and behaviors. These must be respected because there are characteristics that can be taken offensive. Adults learn differently because they voluntarily come to class with a personal goal and usually have a better awareness of responsibility. This will affect my teaching because it will be critical to find out what these goals are, how they are relevant, and what is the time frame for achievement. This is so I can orient the material in a manner that has a purpose to the individual. The best way to do this is going to be through Individualized or Experiential learning because adult learners want input and a typically self directed. Feedback will be very important to these type of students.

CFI Blog # 2 (Selecting Methods)

  An example of using a role play method in a brief lesson for my student and I would be going over his or her flight plan before a cross country and role playing different "Radio Transmissions". Going over how to open and close a flight plan on a RCO vs listening on a VOR, role play reporting a Pierep instead of lecturing the steps of a reporting a pierep, or flight following. I would execute this  by having the student talk me through there flight plan and they could even chair-fly or just sit in the simulator for a better atmosphere.
  The 4 categories of Instructional Methods are: Instructor-Centered, Interactive, Individualized, Experimental. Instructor-Centered breaks down to lecture, questioning, and demonstration. This means that the majority of information is being given to the student from the instructor by either transmitting a lot of knowledge in lecture or physically showing the student what to do in the aircraft. Questions as long as worded correctly are a good way to measure the knowledge retained by the student and promotes more student interaction. An example is showing a landing to the student for his first time in the pattern. The Interactive method uses class discussions, discussion groups, peer teaching, and group projects. Interaction promotes involvement from the students by speaking in different ways such as to the entire class, each other in smaller portions, or individually. The information comes from the students and is guided by the instructor instead of the he or she just giving answers. An example would be having students discuss/teach each other on different sub topics of a chapter. Individualized learning has the techniques of modularized instruction, independent projects, and computerized instruction. This is primarily for learning at different paces and requires a lot of feedback from the instructor. this can be done by an evaluation of a project or discussing an assigned reading. On the computer, questions that pertain to the reading and can be looked up can be formed as well as discussed in person as well. Experiential involves doing and using the psychomotor domain. The student learns by actually going through the motions and can be done in various ways such as clinical methods, role playing, simulations, laboratory methods, and drills. An example would be having the students hands/feet on the yoke and rudders while you preform the landing.
  The content is related to selecting methods for instruction because as the instructor, we need to be able and analyze our students accurately and chose the best method so the student gains the most from a topic. Our goal is to help them learn and we want it to be effectively so they continue to pursue. Choosing the wrong method could be putting up a roadblock for the student.