Multiple Instructor one course

[andydiver06]

Its may happen mostly during you Divemaster course that one day you are with one instructor and another day you are with another. They way they teach their OW students are quite different as their perception of demonstration quality skill demo varies but you are on point basis. So you keep on juggling between your instructors and trying to figure out how this guy last showed it. Have any of experienced that?

 

[paolov]

nope. not during my DM training tho.

 

[kidspot]

I've had that happen in other disciplines. Everyone percieves things differently, and each instructor (within agency limits) may place more emphasis on one area than another - In my current DM program I am working with 3 different instructors (possibly 4) Each has a different approach to dealing with situations. Which means I get to glean 4x as much info than if I only dealt with one of them. As far as skills, perfect them and there shouldn't be too much of an issue. Also they will all see different areas of improvement for me to make, thus helping me become more well rounded in this role.

Aloha, Tim

 

[andydiver06]

Yeah you are right. It gives you more experience on how to deal with different instructors.

 

[AndyNZ]

Yes, this does happen. There's nothing more demoralising than demoing a skill at instructors request, then being picked up on "that's not how I do it"!

After a while, you start to work out your own "style" of doing things - skills, positioning etc. The particular idiosyncrasies of a given instructor become a little less obvious once you start being in a good place at a good time.

 

[ScubaCrow]

During my DM internship, we purposefully worked with several different classes and instructors. This taught me to always speak with the instructor before hand on what he expected from his DM.

 

[Lead_carrier]

It gives you a good perspective as to who leans in what direction. I have a couple of DiveCons that work with me. On occasion they do a skill differently, word a phrase differently, or whatever. I will usually demo the skill my way making sure the students understand, that as long as it is safe, they can do it either way. Other instructors may not see it that way. With some, it is my way only. With phrasing, sometimes people use the word "dump" instead of releasing air when referring to releasing air when descending or ascending. I'll usually make a polite correction with a joke that the proper terminology in my class should be releasing air.

Working with different instructors should be nothing but beneficial. I consider you lucky.

 

[nkydiver]

Our shop has several Instructors that rotate different classes. Each one has their own teaching style and even ideas on what the role of the DiveCon is to them. I have found it very beneficial to work under several of them since it allows me to see how different styles work in classes and with different people. Where one Instructor's method is more hand's off and let the student practice the skills for themselves, which works great with some of our students, another Instructor is very hand's on with his students, and this works great with other students. It's all a matter of experience and learning which style works best with which person in your class.

Now in the past, to Lead Carrier's point, we've had different Instructors and DiveCons use their own terminology or demonstrate skills in different ways than the other Instructors. That is something we are working on now so everyone is on the same page and a student won't get confused if they have a different Instructor for open water or pool session than they had for classroom.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Having a discussion with the instructor before class about how they want things done will really help. Most instructors are incredibly busy right before the class so if you can have that conversation way before the class it works out even better because the instructor has more time to explain exactly what they want from you.
Ber :lilbunny: