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He specifically said DAN in the original posts, the ones that triggered this thread. If you look at the first post in the thread, it talks about DAN only and asks other to provide information about other companies.

Here is an explanation of the PADI 130 foot limit. It is not a legally enforceable limit. It is different from the other limits because it is the end of the line for NDL diving. If using the PADI tables, that is where the tables end, except for contingency. After that, you are in the realm of...

What tables do you use? Do you provide any training on using computers as well? What are they instructed to do in places like Cozumel where following a DM is required by law?

No. The AOW deep dive is limited to 30m/100 feet.

The limits for dives are requirements for training only. I believe that PADI wording is intentionally vague on this, and that vagueness causes confusion. They will tell you that the limits for deep AOW and deep dive specialties are 100 and 130 feet, but those are in no way enforceable in your...

In a recent thread, a poster related a story about having to correct someone's misinformation about dive accident insurance. That misinformation has been repeated often in ScubaBoard threads. The correction is well buried in a long thread, so I thought I would create a dedicated thread that...

Bell curve thinking is problematic in instruction. The bell curve in theory describes the abilities of the overall general population. Here are some problems applying that thinking to education. You rarely have a class that includes all of the general population. The lowest levels are not...

Yes, there are exceptions. When I was teaching in the mode where students were given physical books and told to complete the work, including the knowledge reviews, before arriving at class, we occasionally had students arrive who admittedly had not even looked at the books. They assumed I was...

There were some posts on ScubaBoard about a decade ago about a certain scuba instructor, considered a star in his agency. In the thread, it was said it was because he was so demanding. The common saying was that "[Instructor name] teaches a [course name] that [instructor name] cannot pass." As...

In my training for becoming an instructor, I had to read a number of historical documents related to the development of instructional technique. One of them showed that a major impetus was the realization that a large percentage of instructors were bragging about their really high percentage of...

Research has clearly shown that the worst way to communicate critical information to students is through a lecture. It is inefficient, taking loads of time, there is a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding, and students forget a lot of it. When I was one of the editors of a technology in...

I watched it go by Pompano Beach this afternoon. It was quite a sight.

I don't know what you mean about Thailand being a "diverse factory." Do you mean it has a mix of different ethnicities (diverse), or do you mean it is churning out unqualified graduates, like a factory for cheap goods (divers factory)? When I dived in Thailand, it sure did seem as if they had a...

This was apparently commonplace in the early days of instruction, when many instructors had learned originally in the military. The History of NAUI tells about first meeting of independent instructors in Houston in 1960, the meeting that led to the formation of NAUI. The NAUI founders were...

I think a lot of the skill in instructing comes to play in this, and experience plays a part. 1. You begin with a good briefing on the skill. Over the years I learned what the most common problems are likely to be with each skill, and I tried to head them off in the briefing. 2. When an...

1. The first scuba diver I saw was my older cousin in the early 1960s. Decades later, I asked him about his training/certification. He was never certified. His training was a 5-minute explanation by the salesman in the sporting goods store where he bought the equipment. 2. It is possible to be...

One of the problems with teaching instructors to use good instructional skills is that a lot of people don't agree with what are the best instructional skills. Here are two examples. 1. When I was a young English teacher, I transferred to a new high school in our district, and as usually...

I, too, was a career educator--both teacher and administrator. I would like to offer one (and only one) aspect of what is really a complex question. The large school district in which I worked experimented with a writing assessment given on one articulation area at grades 4, 8, and 10. I was...

Compared to when? Are you comparing a college course to a non-college course again? What has been taken out from scuba classes and when? Why is what was taken out valuable? Remember that I asked you to be specific.

Is it your opinion that all courses taught in the late 1970s were done through college classes? Are you aware that colleges still offer scuba as classes today? How does this show that current instruction has been "watered down?"