I would agree with Gary. There is always going to be a range of experience and skills among the instructor cadre. The key for the CDIs is to match those skills with the needs of the students, which is a very complex and difficult undertaking, since they are not omniscient.Gary Burch wrote:Granted the approaches are different and the skill levels varied, but I would say every instructor in this club has something to teach a beginning driver or even an intermediate one.
It sounds like Toby's needs have not been met on some occasions, and that is understandable to me. The CDIs cannot be expected to know exactly where every student is in their development and make the appropriate assignment of an instructor. It would be helpful to them for students who recognize their own needs to be pro-active, and pre-arrange their assignment with an instructor they believe will be most helpful to them. This may not always be successful, or even possible, due to logistics or the conflict between overall student needs and the available instructor pool at any given event, but it is worth trying, and I have always found the CDIs will make every effort to accomodate specific requests.
Attempts to collect evaluation information on instructors based on student input have been ongoing in the club for many years.elcap00 wrote:I wonder if there is an accurate way to gauge the effectiveness of each instructor and rank them--
I think you are shortchanging yourself if you think that you have nothing to contribute to a beginning driver. Anyone with a dozen or more autox events under their belt and reasonable communication skills can help a newbie get through the day, and by contributing your talent and knowledge, even though you may believe it is limited in certain ways, would help the CDIs in making more appropriate matches in student/instructor assignments as discussed above. If you could take care of a complete newbie at each event, that is one more experienced instructor who might be matched to a more advanced student. You might even enjoy it, who knows? And it has been proven that teaching helps one learn.elcap00 wrote:It is my thinking that until I can add enough value to justify my 167lbs in the car I wont instruct.
TT