Is there an instructor crisis?

[boulderjohn]

Yet an issue as applied to scuba seems to be the re-calibration you mention. For the SAT, AP, etc, evaluation is done fairly centrally and based on a piece of paper. This mean gold-standard graded reference-essays can be inserted into the workflow of evaluators marking batches of current year students. So evaluator calibration drift (or laziness) can be easily detected and rectified.

Yes, this is indeed the problem with scuba. I have talked abut that many times before. The vast majority of of instructors work for dive shops, and in theory, that is where the problem should be handled. Dive shop management should be monitoring their pool of instructors to ensure that they are acting within standards. Some shops do that. Most don't.

The solution you advise would be outrageously expensive, calling for a massive increase in agency personnel to do that monitoring. If senior dive shop personnel would simply monitor instruction--as they should--it would be cheap and easy.

But it isn't going to happen.

I know this because as an educator, I participated both as a teacher and an administrator in the extremely thorough and outrageously expensive process of teacher evaluation in public schools. Every school is required by law to evaluate teachers and ensure that they are constantly improving in their craft. Sometimes it happens. Usually it doesn't. Almost every school has at least a couple terrible teachers despite this expensive and legally required system.

Years ago I was on a research team that investigated what was going on in 10 schools in a large school district. These 10 schools were doing a great job, with students outperforming what would normally be expected in view of their demographics. (Some were relatively low performing schools whose students should have been doing much worse.) In our investigation, every member of the team said we had never seen any school performing the way these were. We were highly impressed. We identified what they were doing differently from everyone else.

Please read what follows carefully.

When we were done, our results were presented to the school board, the administrator who presented them noted this irony: The good news was that everything we found coincided perfectly with another major research project--Effective Schools. The bad news was that everything we found coincided perfectly with another major research project--Effective Schools. In other words, the process for creating effective schools is well known already. In the schools we studied, the local leadership (principal) was aware of that research and was working to implement those concepts. For almost all of the rest of the schools in the district, local leadership was paying no attention to that and doing whatever they damned well pleased.

In other words, the tools to improving instruction are well known, and all that is required is for local leadership to implement those tools.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Following the thread, I doubt whether OW student proficiency is defined as 'mastery,' 'marginally competent' or what-have-you has much impact on the supply and availability of recreational diving instructors in the U.S. It's like 'Son of all the threads debating PADI's Master Scuba Diver cert.'


That would add time and cost to the OW training process, and create a video evidence record that could be contested in liability suits. How many posts have we seen lamenting how little OW instructors average/hour or in total for the work they do?

I don't think that's going to aid instructor retention. I'm retired from (mental) health care, where (at least in the inpatient setting) one has to deal with requirements from CMS (Medicare/Medicaid), Joint Commission (technically voluntary participation, but that's a discussion in its own right) and OIG (Office of Inspector General), plus if you're in a state facility meddling from the department you fall under. And people in health care are ever concerned about liability issues. Guess what the bureaucrat response to alleged deficiencies and liability risk (neither of which is ever permanently gone) is?

More technical requirements. More paper work. More formal certifications. Things I sum up as 'put the screws to them.' Occasionally a mandated change in process produces improvements (not unlike others described training OW in horizontal trim rather than on their knees), but a lot seemed to be part of the problem.

I don't think it's practical, it might not do much good and could create problems (e.g.: in a lawsuit the plaintiff's attorney get an expert witness to dispute the results of your video; even if he's wrong, the jury isn't sure).

On a related note, have you guys bought a washing machine, a dryer or similar appliance at a Sears or similar lately? Some salesmen are capable and superficially friendly, yes, but I get the feeling they're tightly micromanaged living under the threat of less-than-perfect customer surveys. I would not want to live that way, desperate for great reviews. How many recreational dive instructors want to be constantly closely monitored and nitpicked?




So far it seems (to me) the perspective has been on health of local dive shops, quality of newly minted OW divers and viability of business models.

What about from the perspective of people interested in scuba diving? If there's an instructor crisis, is it a crisis for them?

Are a lot of people who want to take an OW course unable locally because the LDS's are closed? Are more people traveling farther to take an OW course? Or are OW divers having to travel to take AOW courses?

I think if someone really really wants to learn how to dive they will seek out a way to make that happen. I look at people who want to take GUE fundies will cross states to do it and sometimes planning vacations out of the country to make it happen.
What it means for local dive shops not having a reliable instructor supply is the casual person who walks into the dive shop looking for wetsocks or snorkeling gear sees the scuba section and wants to sign up for OW. The dive shop may not be able to accommodate that person.
It’s the casual diver that they will lose. And for many of those that casually want to learn to dive, not fervently, they will just wait until they get to their vacation spot to take OW if doing it locally becomes too much of a pain in the ass.
This will have long term consequences on the dive shop if they cant be a one stop shop any more.
Maybe unless they have a list of independents that they can refer the person too? But they will not be getting any revenue from that either.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is a scuba related follow-up to my last post.

Let's look at two aspects of scuba instruction, two aspects that I feel have the greatest impact on student performance.

1. Teaching OW students while they are neutrally buoyant and in horizontal trim make a huge difference in student performance. As mentioned earlier, at least two major agencies are on the edge of requiring it. PADI promotes it (and should require it). Students taught this way finish the pool sessions looking like seasoned divers.
2. Swimming while neutrally buoyant during the pool sessions dramatically improves student skill. The longer they do, the better they are. Standards call for several swimming sessions, but they do not specify time (for obvious reasons). With most good instructors, the time spent on this depends upon how much of the available pool time was needed for the required skills.

In the shop where I first developed the neutral buoyancy approach, the Director if Instruction watched the process, decided it was great, and required all instructors to use it. I thought our instructional quality was great.

I had to move to another shop for several reasons. Here is what happened there.

1. The Director of Instruction agreed that teaching students while neutrally buoyant and in horizontal trim was most effective way--no doubt about it. He said, however, that it was not his place tell other instructors how to teach. All the rest taught student on the knees.
2. The shop rented pool time in a local recreational center, and the time they booked was all that was needed to give all but the most problematic student a quality experience. Because I believed in the importance of neutrally buoyant swimming, I always wanted the last student to be climbing the pool ladder the second our time was up. In contrast, most of the other instructors got into a kind of competition among themselves to see who could get their OW classes done the fastest, and doing that meant doing the absolute minimum of free swimming.

Think how little effort it would take for that Director of instruction to issue this one sentence directive: If you want to instruct for this shop, you will teach students while they are neutrally buoyant, and you will make full use of the pool time we are paying for by giving students as much swimming practice as possible

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The way I see the term “Mastery” used:
When I was an auto body collision tech the pecking order of “titles” was as follows.
1. Apprentice - first 4 years of work from sweeping the floors up to the point where you can complete a repair on your own but with advice if you need it.
2. Journeyman - 4 years and on (up to ten years)
Can complete collision repairs to pass all quality repair standards and safety requirements as outlined by BAR, ASE, and ICAR.
3. Master - 10 years and over. Some journeymen never get to this level. Master means the technician has mastered every facet of the collision repair industry (minus estimate writing) from frame repair, electrical, suspension, computer systems, all the way up to refinishing and everything in between. If you are a master then you are it, people come to you for top advice and there is no one higher, you’re the guy.
So a guy that has been in a shop pounding on metal and slinging bondo for three months and can straighten a panel reasonably well is very far from being a master at anything in the shop IMO.


This is my idea of what a mastery is, not someone in a pool that finally learned to pull off a mask and replace and clear without freaking out.

 

[boulderjohn]

So availability of local dive sites has something to do with divers traveling for AOW even if they’re willing to do it “at home.”

You pretty much can't do the AOW deep dive in Colorado. Some people do. I don't think they do it within standards.

Years ago a DM newly working for a shop in Arkansas started a thread asking about his shop's AOW policy. They told students that because it was such a long drive to a suitable AOW site, PADI had excused them from the deep dive requirement for AOW. They told students that when they were surveyed by PADI after the certification, they were to answer the deep dive question as they directed; i.e., lie. They said that PADI had given them the OK for this because of their special circumstances.

I immediately contacted the PADI regional Director for Arkansas. He confirmed that no one anywhere in the world has been given the OK to skip the deep dive for AOW, and he wanted to know the name of the shop. I contacted the DM privately, and he refused to name the shop. He was afraid they would figure out who had ratted them out and fire him. He disappeared from ScubaBoard immediately.

Once again, it is a case of local leadership screwing up the system.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

You pretty much can't do the AOW deep dive in Colorado. Some people do. I don't think they do it within standards.

Years ago a DM newly working for a shop in Arkansas started a thread asking about his shop's AOW policy. They told students that because it was such a long drive to a suitable AOW site, PADI had excused them from the deep dive requirement for AOW. They told students that when they were surveyed by PADI after the certification, they were to answer the deep dive question as they directed; i.e., lie. They said that PADI had given them the OK for this because of their special circumstances.

I immediately contacted the PADI regional Director for Arkansas. He confirmed that no one anywhere in the world has been given the OK to skip the deep dive for AOW, and he wanted to know the name of the shop. I contacted the DM privately, and he refused to name the shop. He was afraid they would figure out who had ratted them out and fire him. He disappeared from ScubaBoard immediately.

Once again, it is a case of local leadership screwing up the system.

The way the whole scuba cert system is structured leaves a lot of opportunity for fraud and corruption.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is my idea of what a mastery is, not someone in a pool that finally learned to pull off a mask and replace and clear without freaking out.

Once again, you can't take the definition for a word used in once context and apply that definition to another one. The definition PADI uses has been in use in educational environments around the world for over a half century.

You should probably contact all the major educational institutions in the world, including all the colleges and universities teaching education, and tell them they should switch to your definition.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It is the same can of worms. "Mastery" is till the standard.

No it’s not the same can of worms.
If I’m clearing a mask or doing an air share then yes, mastery if skill because there is essentially one way people will do it.
But fin kicks, I don’t agree with the bent leg feet up flipping your fins around by your ankles technique. I like the full kick from the hip alternate leg classic fin kick. And as far as trim, I don’t believe that laying in a sky diver position is the end all in what people consider good “trim”. My style is much more dynamic and athletic, more like freediving/skindiving techniques. I point my (straight) body towards to direction of travel and make myself into a torpedo. If I’m working then I usume whatever position I need to to get the job done.
So if I’m going to be graded on mastery of kicks and trim then my idea and the instructors idea could be two entirely different things.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Once again, you can't take the definition for a word used in once context and apply that definition to another one. The definition PADI uses has been in use in educational environments around the world for over a half century.

You should probably contact all the major educational institutions in the world, including all the colleges and universities teaching education, and tell them they should switch to your definition.

Whatever.
In the end it really doesn’t matter.

 

[Umpman]

I am toying with the idea of getting a DM cert, not because I want to work in the show or lead dives in the last part of my 50's into my 60's, but to have an exclusive card and presumably recognition of skills/proficiency. Personal satisfaction accomplishment. Lot of folks I meet seem to assume I am one simply because of greying hair, how I carry myself and the knowledge I dog and seek out to understand the nitty gritty details of my interests. May as well check the box so when asked I can say "yep". And the training program can't hurt my set of acquired dive skills.

But no, I don't ever really see myself moving past that to instructing...

I am doing the same thing. I earned my Master Diver card and then decided, why not go to the other side and become a DM. Not to necessarily work in the industry but to learn more and also be able to help when needed. Then I decided, why not just get the Instructor Certification. One of our boat captains here runs a non profit that teaches people with disabilities how to dive. With my DM/Instructor card, I can serve other people. It’s also helping me when I dive with less experienced people like my newly certified wife since I’ve learned how to recognize issues they may have and how to make them more comfortable