In today's episode, we thought that we'd have a little chat about understanding. So this is a subject we talk about quite a lot. Isn't it. Kev, checking into people's understanding. Of their driving, what they need to do and why. Exactly. I think it's, it's one of the fundamentals to learning as well. What short understanding. Of the way you learn and what you're actually learning and the reasons behind that. Yeah, because we know the, if people have a gap in their knowledge or their understanding, Then that creates nerves and anxiety and confidence issues. We also know that if somebody doesn't understand how to do something or why to do something, it slows down their progress. When they learning to drive. And that can make it stressful as well, because they don't feel that the. Moving forward. And I'm guessing. This is when something unexpected happens on a driving test. And then because they didn't. Understand why or how to deal with something. They failed the driving test. Yeah. And I can give you an example And we spoke about this the other week, if you're driving down a road and you see a warning sign. So it's a red triangle. We have a tractor in it. Most people would say I've got to be careful of tractors. And that's a hundred percent correct. You've got to be careful of tractors. But what is your understanding of that sign? Because it's not just about the tractors. It's about where the tractor's been, wherever the tractors go in. If they've been on the fields. And it's been raining, what's going to happen to the road condition. How wide are these tractors? And how slow moving attractors, you know, you might get some that are actually quite quick, but the warning sign is be aware of tractors, but it's what that actually means that sign. What does it actually mean? And what's your understanding? Yeah, so. When you're on a driving lesson care and you see attractor sign, we'll stick with that example. What is it that you say to your students? So for me. We've got highlight. What have you noticed? What have you noticed up ahead? And they all say, oh, I can see the sign for a tractor. And then we say, How will that about affect your driving? Well, I've got to be careful of tractors. My favorite question. What else? And again, Um, this is where I check in with my students to see their face. What happens to their body posture? When I ask that question, because again, if there's a lack of understanding in there, they might well close up. They might go. You know, tense up. You can see it. It's like, oh, I don't know. I've just answered the question. Cause that's what was in my theory. So my theory test said Beware of attractors. But then I say, is it. So my question to people now is. What does that mean to you as a driver? How will that affect your driving? And I think that's the deeper understanding of what that sign is trying to tell you. Yeah. And I suppose when we see a track to sign and then we never see a tractor. Yeah. Hey, happy days. No problem. But then if we have got a muddy road, Or a tractor pull it out really slowly around that blind bend. Or we get stuck behind a tractor. That's where we need that understanding that we're talking about. What do I do next? And now this is, this is the whole point of road signs and road signs are there to warn you. But. It's also about what that sign. I keep banging on about what that sign actually means. And then we can take some action because it's the action that's going to make our driving easier. And we start anticipating all of those facts that we know. They might be muddling the road. It's been raining. You know, I might not see a tractor. But it might have picked the track two might've been on that road 10 minutes before us. So now I'm dealing with mud. And those. Especially this time of year, we've been to January. It's big clumps of mud. That you might have to swerve to avoid. Yeah. You know, so again, it's, it's, it's not so different. I suppose what I'm trying to say. There's lots of different reasons and your understanding of a sign. Has to be okay. What does that actually mean? I'll give you another. This is again, quite a common one is a 20 mile an hour sign. Everyone spots them. But what does it mean? Most people will say it's the maximum speed of 20. Great. Fantastic. The knowledge. That is brilliant. But what's the understanding. How does that affect our driving? Why, what is the reason it's a 20 mile an hour zone. So now we start thinking, okay, when it might be a school. Okay. So what is it about a school that might affect our driving children? Parked cars. A lollipop person, to traffic calming measures. You know, there's lots of different things that might happen. All from one sign that says 20 miles an hour. Yeah. It's to give you information to help you. Make better predictions. About what might be coming up ahead. Now one of the things that reminds me was. Studying with the open university. And I would put in an assignment and I'd be really happy with my assignment, with all these facts and. Things that I thought answered the question and my tutors would come back and go, great fact. So what. I won't be devastated. What you mean? So war. But. Okay. That's a great fact, but what does that mean? What comes next? And it's, it was always about having to take the thinking. A step further. So instead of that shallow level of this means that this. Um, so what next, what does it mean? What else. Yeah. That is the question. What else does that sign mean? Yeah. So it's just thinking a little bit deeper, a little bit more about. What it really means. Yeah. It's again, it's just not signs as well. You know, there's other things as well. Just your understanding. Of the highway code and you might have well passed your test a long time ago. Has the. Highway code changed recently. Yes it has, but what's your understanding of the highway code? And how many people would be able to tell us what it means you need to say. We just gives you rules of the road. What are those rules of the road? You know, what does it tell you? And so this is. Why. As a driving instructor, you're asking those prediction, coaching type questions all the time in lessons. Aren't you. You're asking things like what might be around that bend, what might be. Happening here and that sort of thing. So it is trying to improve that. Prediction type knowledge, the sort of scenarios that you even, if it doesn't happen, you can create the scenario in your mind's eye. So it's stored for later. Should you need it? And store that information there. Once it's there, we start noticing different things as well. So you start noticing more, think about the 20 mile an hour sign. You start noticing things earlier because you're already predicting what might happen. Things aren't so much as a surprise. And when we're thinking about confidence and stress and anxiety, How much more confident would you be if you are predicting? Because you're understanding. It's so much better. It's an area that we've really noticed. And it's something that we use in our one-to-one work. Isn't it we've asked people. We do that detective work that we talked about in a previous episode to really try and identify where are the gaps in somebody's understanding, because if somebody doesn't understand what to do in a given situation, Then of course, they're going to be. Nervous. Because they don't know what to do. And the minute you think. Oh, what do I do? That's it. You're going into fight flight, freeze your setting off a trick of response in your body. But if you can find those gaps in your understanding, And then fill them in, do the homework, do the research, ask a driving instructor, find out from somebody somewhere. If you know what to do, and you understand how to deal with the situation, you can be all the more confident. If and when it happens, one of our favorite podcasts was stalling. And we've mentioned it. We don't, I don't think we mentioned it enough, but. What is your understanding of the clutch pedal? Yeah. What you could probably tell me it's operated by the left foot. And I use it to change gears and I use it to use crutch control. And when I stop, I use it. Great. Yeah. What else does it do? How else does that clutch pedal help you in situations? Yeah. Cause I didn't understand how to put a work to do. We did that episode. And this is if you're getting, you know, In those early lessons. If you're learning, if you, if you're having lessons at the moment, just find out, you know, what happens when. What happens when I put my clutch down and the cars moving. What do you notice? And this, those type of things that you get to understand how the car works. What do you do to make that noise? It's finding out that information and building your understanding of how a car works. Yeah. Um, being curious, I guess, as well. You have to be curious to come up with questions in the first place. So you don't know what you don't know. It may well be that you don't realize that you don't understand something because. You've never thought about it. And that leads lovely onto the fore of someone not asking a question because they feel silly. Yeah. When in actual fact is, if you don't understand something, ask a question. Because it might help you later on when I'm almost positive, it's going to help you later on. Because if you want to ask that question, even if you think it's silly and then never is any silly questions. It's true just to either confirm. Or improve your knowledge. Yeah, definitely. You know, our skin. Whoa. When, where, how. All of those questions. And I think one of the questions that we like is. Looking at the things that make you feel stressed, looking at the things that make you feel nervous or anxious. Those are the things to ask questions about. So what is it that still puzzled in you about that? What's the gap. What's missing. Where do you need to improve your understanding? And I suppose that is a, you know, notice when you start to feel that. You know, if you're feeling stressed, when does that start? What is the reason behind you? Starting to feel nervous, anxious, stressed. Sweaty Palm time. You know, whatever it may be, what is it? That's missing. What is it that's causing that? Is it a four. Is it a feeling. Or is it something else and ask questions to yourself as well. Yeah. And this comes back to are reflecting that episode on reflecting. Reflect on your driving reflect on which things are making you feel anxious and nervous. Trying to pick it apart. Is it a lack of understanding? If you're journaling, if you use an, a journal, like in one of our previous episodes journal, the bouncer. Yeah. Getting it out there. Never a silly question. I ask it, even ask yourself. Make a note. And then. Maybe go and do some research. Yeah, definitely. As friends get friends involved, you know, when you say to people. What does that sign mean? You can even use the ones I've given you. And I bet they all turn around and say, it's 20 mile an hour zone. You can't go over 2012 now. What else? Yeah. What is the reason behind it? So 20 mile an hour zone. Great. So hopefully that's given you food for thought and if you've got any questions, then feel free to get in touch. All of our contact details are in the show notes as always. We love it. If you could leave us a review, if you found it helpful or maybe share it with somebody else who you think might find it helpful. And so until next time, have a great day, whatever you're doing. 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