Becoming an Instructor

[Steve_C]

N
The internet today has a way of weeding out the good from the not so good

Somewhat. The internet is full of doctored information and fancy webpages. I have been in a number of dive shops when students showed up to get certified. Most were clueless and the choice of shops was being near, or saw an ad, or a coupon on groupon. Very few were based on careful study.

 

[The Chairman]

I sense a level of hypocricy in that supposedly people are expected to refrain from agency bashing (on this forum), but they will go after a student who is seeking professional training from a professional agency and intends to follow ALL the rules and requirements of whatever agency he might select.

I really haven't seen an 'attack' on the OP. He asked for input and he's getting just that. Just because you don't like the advice given or the tenor of it, doesn't make it an attack.

 

[The Chairman]

Somewhat. The internet is full of doctored information and fancy webpages.

But with forums you get a peak behind the curtain, so to speak. User generated information is far more valuable than the fancified stuff.

 

[Steve_C]

But with forums you get a peak behind the curtain, so to speak. User generated information is far more valuable than the fancified stuff.

True. Still need to get information from several users, examine your own situation, and make some reasoned judegements as to whether it applies to you.

 

[boulderjohn]

They will usually be picky about accepting students, won't pass anyone who doesn't earn it and tend to take substantially longer than the agency minima to finish courses. I believe @NetDoc and @boulderjohn are in this group among others.

I have done almost all (but not all) of my OW instruction while working for a dive shop, which means I have the same pool time and classroom time as all the other instructors. With me as an instructor while working for such a shop, my OW courses did not take any longer than anyone else's. But I do teach students to be neutrally buoyant and in horizontal from the very first time they are in the water, so by the end of class my students will invariably look like seasoned divers. They do all their later skills while hovering in mid water, including weight belt removal/replacement and scuba unit removal/replacement. They don't have to touch the bottom to remove and replace a mask. The most experienced instructors in the shop I last worked for have much more experience than I, and they refuse to make this change. They still teach the students while on the knees and grossly oveweighted, so their students have very poor buoyancy and trim when they are done with the class. It therefore looks as if my students are taking more time to finish, but they are not. Students learn the initial skills more quickly when they are in horizontal trim than when on the knees, so those parts of the class go much more quickly. This gives me more time to have students simply swim about while getting used to neutral buoyancy diving than the other instructors have for their students.

But I pretty much stopped doing OW instruction this year and stopped working with that shop. I am doing almost nothing but tech instruction now. I have no idea how much time my tech classes take in comparison to most other instructors. I am pretty strict abut teaching to all the standards, but it does not take students all that much time to meet those standards.

The fact that students take longer to get through your class than someone else's class does not mean it is a better class. As an obvious example, let's take the academic portion of any class. Old-timers rave about the good old days when students spent weeks attending lectures in which they received the information for a class. Lecturing is the absolute worst way to convey information to a student. It takes much more time than home study with a well-constructed instructional manual, and students who do that home study will remember much more in that lesser time. Better still is an online program that uses multi-media, built in knowledge checks, etc. That goes even faster than home study with a manual, and students have greater retention still. Taking weeks to learn less is not better than taking a couple days to learn more.

The same is true for skills. If you do a lousy job of presenting and demonstrating skills, it will take a very long time for students to master them. If your presentation and demonstration is well done, things go much more quickly. I had some experience with a tech instructor whose instructional sequence went like this:

1) Name a skill, have the student perform it, and then evaluate that performance
2) Mock that performance and tell them how crappy it was
3) Have them try again.
4) Mock them again--maybe get angry about continued incompetence
5) Sigh deeply and then tell them how to do it correctly
6) If really desperate, do a demonstration.​

In explaining why he did it that way, he said that in tech diving, he does not "hold your hand" the way PADI instructors do in their OW training. It took a very long time to complete his tech classes. In contrast, I do explain and demonstrate skills as needed,so it can take you less time in my class than in that instructor's class.

 

[Steve_C]

I have no problem with an experienced person wanting to do something. The thing I note is that the OP creates the impression that they feel they have nothing to learn in getting the card and thus they already know it all. They may or may not be a good instructor but they may well not be such a good student if that is their attitude. Just the impression created.

 

[tbone1004]

note ^that guy is a professor and a damned good one at that, so while he may not be a scuba instructor, rumor has it he knows a thing or two about teaching and helping to create teachers....

 

[tursiops]

Who's on first?

George Romney: "I didn’t say that I didn’t say it. I said that I didn’t say that I said it. I want to make that very clear."

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I really haven't seen an 'attack' on the OP. He asked for input and he's getting just that. Just because you don't like the advice given or the tenor of it, doesn't make it an attack.

Maybe the word "attack" is a little strong, but to indicate that an instructor who tries to gain certification in the most expedient and economical manner will result in him getting students who want to take "shortcuts" or ones who won't tip etc. seems to be rather "presumptuous".

There are tons of terrible instructors, I've seen more than a few PADI instructors who were just pretty bad divers - without even considering their ability to teach. The industry is full of people who want to do things as cheaply as possible. So everyone can continue to tell the OP just how inadequate the products of the various instructor programs are,

Personally I think that anyone who has any assets is borderline crazy to want to pursue scuba instruction - especially on a part time basis. If you have to teach in order to feed yourself, chances are you don't have that many assets and you have to do what you have to do. Rather than go on and on about instructional deficiencies, i think the idea of liability for a part time endevour, is possibly a more pertinant topic. Even though it might be slightly off topic, it is at least as relevant as a discussion of the attributes of the students he will attract if he gets certified quickly.

When I taught OW diving, i had a student (one on one), her and I. and she, for no reason, pressed (and held) the UP button on the BC - when she intended to press the dump button. One second she was next to me, 5 seconds later she was GONE and in 7 seconds i realized she was rocketing to the surface (still hammering the inflator button). That little incident caused me to re-evaluate the risk/reward relationship. Witnessing several scuba deaths afterward also helped take the fun out of being responsible for other people. Also the fact that liability insurance is so expensive, that if you don't teach a good bit, you will be losing considerable money each year on the entire venture. You got to teach a good bit to approach break even on the annual maintenance costs associated with keeping the instructor certification current.

These are the types of concerns a prospective instructor who is middle aged and is looking for "a new challenge" should be considering.

I think that for someone to pursue this type of endevaour on a part time basis, REALLY has to think they wil LOVE teaching, or they will be soon realize that an instructor rating was a waste of time.

 

[The Chairman]

Maybe the word "attack" is a little strong, but to indicate that an instructor who tries to gain certification in the most expedient and economical manner will result in him getting students who want to take "shortcuts" or ones who won't tip etc. seems to be rather "presumptuous".

Why? Why would you think that if you take shortcuts that you're going to come up with a superior product? If you just "get by", you really can't expect much in return. The more you put into becoming an instructor, both in time and quality, the better instructor you'll be. This is not an attack of any sorts, but simply you resenting someone who maintains a different ideology about dive instruction. This is where having a different opinion than you is characterized as an "attack".

There are tons of terrible instructors,

and most started by taking shortcuts. You get what you pay for. Often the payment is in blood sweat and tears: TIME.