Instructors: teaching neutrally buoyant

[wetb4igetinthewater]

We had endless debates on this issue on ScubaBoard about 9 years ago, and in it I pasted statements directly from PADI headquarters on the issue. If it was only 5 years ago, I would say that person was mistaken.

Well, it didn't matter to me, as what I was doing, they had no issue with. Carry on!

 

[boulderjohn]

Your story is a good example of something I mentioned earlier. Here is 100% of the wording of the hovering requirement from CW3:

Hover using buoyancy control for at least 30 seconds, without kicking or sculling.
​

Where does it say students need to start at the bottom? I frequently had them do it on the way down, more like it happens on a real dive.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Your story is a good example of something I mentioned earlier. Here is 100% of the wording of the hovering requirement from CW3:

Hover using buoyancy control for at least 30 seconds, without kicking or sculling.
​

Where does it say students need to start at the bottom? I frequently had them do it on the way down, more like it happens on a real dive.

It doesn't, but that was the "standard" way of teaching it, as that what was in the PADI demo video (if memory serves me right). I had a conversation with "he who shall not be named" (your co-author) and he taught it on the way down. Agreed that it made more sense. A little more complicated, but better.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would bet quite a bit that he was just plain misinformed rather than raising the bar. Many people refer to this exercise as "treading water" or "floating," although neither term is used in the standard. Since they have in their mind that the exercise is named "treading water," then, by golly, they had better be treading water. According to the standards, the only real requirement is not drowning. I used to tell students that if they drowned during the exercise, they automatically failed the class.

I would also bet the overwhelming majority of instructors are mistaken about at least one standard, and many are mistaken about more than a few. What happens is that whoever conducts the IDC that trains the instructors teaches them to teach certain skills the way the trainer does it. When they become instructors, they teach the way they were taught, and they get the idea that every step is required. The actual standards for most skills are written intentionally vaguely to allow different acceptable methodologies. A good example is the alternate air exercise, where the wording allows any of the normally accepted methods of sharing air.

Thanks. I thought it was something like that.
I guess the difference between PADI & NAUI is that the PADI standards are written somewhat vaguely as you said, to allow for different acceptable ways of teaching a skill. That's really not adding extra requirements. I read that with NAUI the instructor may add stuff to the course and make passing that stuff a requirement for certification. I favor the PADI way. That presents a level playing field for all students.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I favor the PADI way. That presents a level playing field for all students.

The downside is that different locations have different requirements. The NAUI/SDI way allow instructors to add requirements appropriate to the environment or extra value. Not as much as an issue with open water as it is with con ed.

 

[decompression]

Here is a video posted in a dive forum today. It is the students first pool session for the OW class.

Philippine Scuba Diving Skills Training & Experiences

Maybe those UTD guys know a thing or two......

 

[jadairiii]

Well, most students in my area are given 8 lb weight belts minimum for the pool. They are firmly planted on the bottom.

There in lies the problem with SCUBA instruction. Proper weighting should be the very first "skill" taught a new diver. It is also why, when you see new divers or divers in training, they have the trim of a moderately experienced seahorse.

Just planting the students to the bottom of the pool just shows how lazy or incompetent most instructors are.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

There in lies the problem with SCUBA instruction. Proper weighting should be the very first "skill" taught a new diver. It is also why, when you see new divers or divers in training, they have the trim of a moderately experienced seahorse.

Just planting the students to the bottom of the pool just shows how lazy or incompetent most instructors are.

There are two things. There is laziness. There is ignorance. There is apathy.

When I started teaching, I was one of those incompetent instructors who overweighted students, placed them on their knees, and for the life of me I could not figure out why they were corking to the surface and cratering to the bottom. There was never an emphasis on weighting. "This is how things are done." Who was I to challenge people who had been teaching since 1987?

Thank God for social media and scubaboard, as that is where my cranial-rectal inversion condition started to be addressed.

I'd say the biggest problem is lazy CDs/ITs, who should know better. It had been four years since @boulderjohn, @Peter Guy, and others published this article in PADI's training journal. Four. Years. http://utahscubadiver.com/wp-content/uploads/USJ2Q11.pdf. I blame my CD for not teaching us about this, not teaching us HOW TO TEACH instead of just getting us to pass the IE. This makes me want to bite a hole in my lower lip as I type this because @Peter Guy taught at a nearby shop! How could my CD not be aware or dismiss new and improved ways of teaching? They won't even try new ideas. I shake my head at that.

I feel a bit of guilt for how I taught my early students. Most don't dive. As my CRI condition was treated, most of my students continue to dive. In cold water. I offer my early students free remedial training and then some to compensate for this. I should never have placed them on their knees, but I was the president of the Dunning-Kruger club at the time.

There is the problem of lack of awareness. Once that is addressed, there is the problem of apathy. Apathy is due to things like aspiring to mediocrity, but also incredibly poor compensation from dive shops who offer race to the bottom course prices. My compensation when I taught at shops was always less than minimum wage. But because I have plans to open a dive center, I paid my dues to learn. I was lucky to have @Peter Guy help me in an early class. That was huge. I use a lot of what he taught me today. I have had virtual mentors that I have met here on ScubaBoard and on FB. I am extremely grateful to Peter and the others who have helped me.

I hope my CRI has been cured.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think another reason for the failure to change is something identified in educational theory by the National Staff Development Council more than 20 years ago. At that time I was on a team tasked by our very large school district to show the advantages of innovate teaching methodologies. Our leadership kept telling us that our message to the teachers should be "what you are doing now is fine; what we are showing you is better." Everyone of us said that was wrong; we knew that if teaches thought what they were doing now was fine, they would simply tune us out.

The National Staff Development Council published a study that confirmed out belief. If teachers do not get the uncomfortable feeling that they need to change because the change is that much worth it, they simply will not change.

So I am bothered by

• the fact that agencies that have realized the significance of the difference at the highest level (as I know is true for PADI) have not done more to promote it, and
• by the fact that on social media (like this) people who have not seen the difference for themselves keep saying that their powerful imaginations have told them that it does not make much difference.

 

[TMHeimer]

There in lies the problem with SCUBA instruction. Proper weighting should be the very first "skill" taught a new diver. It is also why, when you see new divers or divers in training, they have the trim of a moderately experienced seahorse.

Just planting the students to the bottom of the pool just shows how lazy or incompetent most instructors are.

I think the biggest reason students are overweighted and planted is that's just the way it was always done.