The Best Ways to
Ensure Mastery, Continued
Mastering Affective Skills
Where the average dive educator can tell you where cognitive learning takes place (in the classroom and through self study), and where psychomotor learning takes place (confined and open water), few can tell you exactly how, when and where affective learning is supposed to occur. The answer is simple enough: It’s all of the above.
Affective learning — the shaping of students’ attitudes and beliefs — begins before students even meet you and continues throughout the learning process. Factors that can affect students’ attitudes and beliefs before they sign up for training include:
- Movies, television and other media.
- Discussions with friends and family members who dive.
- Looking through dive magazines.
- Introductory scuba experiences (such as at dive resorts).
- Contact with other dive retailers (i.e. shopping for training).
- Discussions with your staff, visits to your store website, reading your promotional material.
Usually, this sort of preliminary contact will help shape the attitudes and beliefs you want. Occasionally, it does not. (Does your store’s website and promotional material promote the same attitudes towards diving that you want to reinforce in class?)
Of course, the core of many individuals’ attitude and belief systems is established long before they become interested in diving. The type of person who:
- Does not like to read, listen and follow directions…
- Is inconsiderate of others…
- Seems oblivious to the world around him…
…is not likely to have an epiphany simply because he signs up for diver training. Nevertheless, diving can be a life-changing experience for some. Occasionally, exposure to the right role model (perhaps you?) may all it takes to initiate profound changes in people’s behavior. It’s worth striving for.
Once class is under way, every aspect of a student’s contact with you — whether in the classroom, pool, open water or elsewhere — helps shape their attitudes and beliefs about diving. Specific ways you can impact affective behavior include:
- Being a role model (i.e., being on time, showing concern, using up-to-date equipment, following rules, etc.).
- Clearly communicating expectations (i.e., “You need to be to class on time, have homework assignments ready to turn in when due, be a conscientious buddy, follow safety rules and show respect for the environment”).
- Relating, through stories and personal examples, experiences that helped shape your attitudes and beliefs.
While training materials can help shape students’ attitudes and beliefs, the single most effective way to transfer affective skills is contact with an instructor whom students respect and listen to.
This is yet another reason why computers and the Internet are not likely to replace personal interaction with a qualified diving educator any time soon.
What exactly is computer-aided instruction? »
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