You're listening to the Driving Confidence podcast for drivers who want to be calm and confident on the road. We will be sharing tips, stories and advice to beat driving nerves and anxiety and build your driving confidence. Whether you are just starting out as a learner or have had your driving license for years, if you want to transform how you feel about driving, this podcast is for you. We've got some content here for you that's a little bit different. And the reason for that is because when we created it, we weren't thinking about the podcast. We were actually creating this as training materials for driving instructors. So yeah, so we want you to listen to this season from a different perspective. We want you to hear things Slightly differently, because we're talking to driving instructors, predominantly in this. you might hear the phrases slightly differently. So it will give you a different perspective of what we're trying to say as well. Now of course, because we were talking to driving instructors, we've used some of the lingo. So you might hear us say phrases like ADI or PDI, and that just means an approved driving instructor or a potential driving instructor. Yeah, other words that you will hear us say are part two, Part three and standards check. And here we're just talking about the tests or the assessments that people have to take to become a driving instructor or to stay a driving instructor. So really it's a bit like the equivalent of the driving test. We hope that you enjoy listening to things from a fresh perspective. And remember that while we are talking to driving instructors in these episodes, we are talking to them about how they could help you. We are going to talk about gaps in knowledge and understanding. So gaps in knowledge and understanding is something that we, me, we've mentioned quite a lot and. It's really important to find out if a student has gaps in knowledge or understanding. So why is that? Why do we need to find out? So if you think of, um, you are teaching a student and you are teaching a student on a first lesson and you teach 'em everything and you know they do it, and you, you, you go to them, say, well, what help would you like for me this time? And they say, yeah, can I go on my own? And you go, yeah, that's fine. Can you remember what we did last time? Yeah, I got it all. Know what I'm doing? Okay, fine. Give it a go. So what happens is they move away, but what they don't do is do the safety checks. They don't check around to make sure it's all safe. So if you are thinking about why do we need to find out if there's any gaps or knowledge missing, that's one of the reasons. 'cause if they can't remember from two minutes ago, what will they be doing once they've passed their test? So we need to find out. Where the gaps are gaps to then be able to fill those gaps to help them understand what's the reason they're doing what they're doing. Yeah. So I mean, it's got real safety implications in terms of learning to drive, hasn't it? Because that gap should be a crucial piece of information. Um, that's really important. So that's one reason why we need to find out, is to make sure that they know. What to do and that there aren't any gaps, anything missing that's gonna have safety implications. And then one of the other reasons is that we've mentioned a few times before is it's a common cause of nerves and anxiety when it comes to driving because. If people do have gaps, if they do have information that's missing that they don't know or they don't understand, then it's that sense that the brain hates uncertainty. It hates doubt. So if a student has that feeling of I don't know what to do, then they're gonna feel nervous and then they're gonna feel anxious. So that's another real reason why we need to find out. What are the gaps in knowledge and understanding, and I think it's not just students as well, you know, people that have passed their test and they've been driving for some time, but never really drove on dual carriageways or motorways. I. It might be because they never really understood how they work. They never understood, um, what was gonna happen, their knowledge of what do I do? So it causes that stress, and I think this is where we as instructors need to. Just find out some more information. Yeah. You always need to be keeping an eye on what are those gaps, doing that detective work as we like to say, because if you don't find out specifically what the gap is specifically, what information is missing. Then how do you fill that gap? Yeah. And how do you help and support that person? So that's another reason for why do we need to find out how can we help someone? How can we support someone if we don't know what it is that we need to help them with? So what questions could we ask? And we've devised the, the nervous drivers, calm care, haven't we? And part of that is being a detective and asking questions that enables you to follow a flow chart to get to a solution for that problem. So what sort of questions could we ask? So this give us scenarios. We do this in a scenario way where you're gonna be doing a a roundabouts lesson and. Student gets in the car and you ask how they are, fine. What are we gonna be doing today? So today we're gonna be doing, um, roundabouts. How do you feel about the roundabouts? Yeah, I'm feeling a bit nervous. So already we've asked a few questions, but now we've got to the point where the student has mentioned a feeling to you. And what we want to be doing is now asking a question. What is making you nervous about today's lesson on roundabouts? Listen to the answer and potentially what you're gonna get back is, um, they're, they're busy. Okay. So what is it about the busyness that's making you feel nervous? I. What is lots of cars now? So far you've got two answers, the busyness and lots of cars, but we still haven't got to the root cause of what that nerves are created by. So the next question would be, when you mentioned busyness and cars and you're feeling nervous about them, what is it that makes you feel that way? Well, I don't know how to judge the gap. So what we've done there is we've found a lack. Or a missing part of that knowledge. We don't know how to judge the gaps. So now you know what information you need to fill in and you know how to help someone. Yeah. And how to support them because you've drilled down to find out, okay, what specifically. Is causing the problem. And we could have guessed that probably four or five questions ago, as soon as someone says, I feel nervous about roundabouts, our assumptions are that that is what it's gonna be. But we, we, we don't know. But what it is, is just ask questions that target what the, the student. A-D-I-P-D-I, whatever it may be. That's making them feel nervous. That gives us a great starting point to help with that lack of knowledge. Yeah, you know what you're working on, which makes it so much easier 'cause you can even do it before you set off. So let's look at that then. Let's look at gaps. Maybe not just at roundabouts, but let's look at gaps when you are turning right. Or joining a new road. How do you judge the gaps there? What are you doing? How can we use those skills that are then gonna transfer to those roundabouts that are busier, that do have lots of cars? And that again, is just making that person feel that, well, yes, I know what to do there. Is it the same skills? They may not have done it. They might have been something happened before, but just asking questions and not telling them. Can actually give you a fantastic opportunity to help your learner better. Yeah, so don't make assumptions about what it might be and ask those questions to really identify what is the gap. So let's look at what is knowledge? Yeah. Because we're talking all along about sort of like gaps, missing information. The gaps in knowledge and understanding. So what are it? What is it that we really mean? So knowledge and understanding are different things. Yeah. See, I think knowledge is all about the process. It's the process of mirrors, signal, position, speed, gear look of, you know, noticing a parked car up front and knowing who has priority. That's knowledge. Yeah. It's the knowing what to do in that specific situation. It's the knowing what that road sign means. Yeah. It's the knowing what those road markings mean. It's, it's knowing that that is a one-way street because that's my local area and I know that's the one way street. So there's that, that what should I do in this very specific situation? It's the what? Yeah. Yeah. And it's, that is very different to understanding because if someone says, I've got the knowledge of this, I know what to do. Fantastic. But that's the first starting point. Yeah. And this is a bit like when you read through, I'm gonna use the competencies as an example. When you read through the 17 competencies and you think, yeah, I knew them. I've read them so many times before I, you know, each time I read them it's like, yep, I know that one. I know that one. Yeah, I remember that one. I know that one. So you might know the competencies, but that might be a little bit different to understanding how to use them. So what is understanding, we know what the knowledge is now, but understanding it's the why, so. Why do I do that? Why do I do that in a specific situation? So you have the knowledge, I know what to do, but do I know why I am doing that? What's the reason behind that? Yeah, and I think that's the, the key to this. Is you might have the knowledge, but without the understanding you can't sometimes take it to another level. Yeah. Well, what you can't do is you were talking about that. Okay, let's look at gaps on the way to the roundabout when you know you the gaps in different situations. If you don't understand the why. Then you're not able to transfer those skills to different situations. What it means is that your knowledge gets stuck in one particular situation. You know what to do there at that roundabout or that junction, but if you don't understand the why, it makes it very difficult to take that knowledge and transfer it into different situations. That's where the understanding comes in. Let's take this a step further. So if they got the knowledge and they tell you they understand what the reasons behind what they're doing, let's think of this a little bit more. So let's think of a road sign. It's my favorite road sign where it's got a picture of a tractor on it. So it's a wor in sign, a red triangle pointing upwards with a tractor in it. What's the knowledge there? The knowledge is beware of tractors. Yeah. There's warning in you potential tractors on the road, but what's the understanding behind that side? There might be tractors up ahead. Yeah. What else? So what taking it that extra step? Taking the thinking that step further. You know it, the tractor might well have been on the fields, it might have been raining, there might been mud. Now we've got mud on the road. There might be the tractor on coming towards you, people overtaking them. So now we have a slow moving vehicle on our side of the road and we're approaching a bend. What's the understanding about whether to under overtake him or not? So, you know, these are the things that we want to really touch on when we're teaching, but when we're ADIs and you've got either or pdis in, when you are coming up to your standards, check part three. How much understanding do you have of that form that you're being assessed? We've got the knowledge we, yeah, I know. I can read that. I know what that means. How do we understand that? Could you explain it to someone else? Yeah. And this is often the test point. If you can explain something to somebody else, then you, you have the understanding and if you struggle to explain it, then you, maybe you need to find out a little bit more. Yeah. You know, put it in the scenario, put that competency in a scenario and explain it to someone. If you did this, this is how it would be marked in that box. And that's a great way of thinking about your knowledge and understanding. So the whole point of talking about identifying these gaps in knowledge and understanding, helping people, asking the questions to identify them and then filling those gaps is because once somebody has filled in those gaps in their knowledge and understanding, they know what to do and they know why they're doing it. That's when they begin to start to trust their own driving decisions. And that's the point that you want somebody at when they're going for their test. So that post-test, they trust their driving decisions and they're able to drive safely and independently. Yeah, and it's just putting all those pieces together, big peel with the big picture, not just that little picture of that one roundabout. Thank you for listening. Find out about the different ways that you can work with us on our website www. confidentdrivers. co. uk and begin to transform the way you feel about driving.