Aviation Instructor's Handbook
Chapter 4: Effective Communication
Communication takes place when one person transmits thoughts or feelings to another person or group; effectiveness is measured by similarity between that which is transmitted and received.
There are three basic elements of communication: Source, symbols, and receiver
The source is the speaker, sender, transmitter, or instructor. Effective instructors need to select and use meaningful language. It is the responsibility of the speaker or writer, as the source of communication, to realize that the effectiveness of the communication is dependent on the receiver's understanding of the symbols or words being used.
communicators consciously or unconsciously reveal information about themselves. Instructors should reveal positive attitudes about themselves, their students, and the ideas discussed. And they should use accurate, up-to-date, stimulating material.
Symbols are simple oral and and visual cues. The words in the vocabulary constitute a basic code, as are common gestures and facial expressions. Complex concepts are communicated only when symbols are combined in meaningful wholes as ideas, sentences, paragraphs, speeches, or chapters that mean something to the receiver.
An instructor should constantly monitor feedback from the learner in order to identify misunderstandings and tailor the presentation of information. Periodically asking the learner to explain his or her understanding of new information while it is being conveyed is one way to obtain such feedback.
The Receiver is the listener, reader, or student. In order to understand the process of communication, three characteristics of receivers need to be understood:
- Abilities: Does the student have any prior aviation experience? Or none whatsoever?
- Attitudes: Learners exhibit may indicate resistance, willingness, or passive neutrality. To gain and hold learner attention, attitudes should be molded into forms that promote reception of information. A varied communicative approach works best in reaching most learners since they have different attitudes.
- Experiences: Aviation learners usually have a significant amount of prior knowledge, many life experiences, and a number of decision-making skills.
The viewpoint and background of people may vary because of prior experiences or cultural differences.
Barriers to effective communication
Barriers to effective communication can include:
- A lack of common experience, which can cause words to mean different things to different people (for example, a "stall").
- Overuse of abstractions, relying on words that are general rather than specific; abstract words stand for ideas that cannot be directly experiened and do not call forth mental images.
- Confusion between symbol and symbolized, when a word is confused for a different concept than the one expressed.
- External factors or Interference can be a result of factors outside of the instructor's control, such as physiological (hearing loss, illness, injury), environmental (noise in aircraft), and psychological (fear, mistrust, lack of committment to communicate).
Communication Failures
CFI Matt is talking to a new student, Sarah, about some practical uses of small airplanes after she gets her pilot certificate. She's interested in taking some day trips with her husband. Matt says "You can fly to the lake from here in about an hour."
However, Sarah just recently moved to the area and has no idea what "the lake" is, how far away it is, or why she would even want to go there. But she's a new student, so she smiles and doesn't ask any questions. As a result, she has no idea how far she can travel on a day trip in a small airplane.
This communication failure is caused by a lack of common experience.
Matt can close this communication gap by saying "You can cover about 120 miles in an hour in one of these airplanes." Sarah knows that her uncle lives 200 miles away and realizes she can fly a day-trip to visit him.
CFI Fiona is talking about flight training with new student Amber, who is nervous about landing. Fiona wants to assure her that the risks are minimal during flight training, and that she will be trained to land safely before solo. "These airplanes just hammer away," Fiona says. "I just give it some welly if I get behind the curve."
For Amber, the words "hammer" and "curve" don't seem to have anything to do with airplanes. She's never even heard the word "welly," which is a loan-word from Fiona's father, who is English. As a result, Sarah still is nervous about landing, which will be a barrier to learning.
This communication failure is caused by an overuse of abstractions.
Fiona can close this communication gap by saying "These airplanes have very predictable flying characteristics. We fly slow on approaching to landing, but we use a combination of the wings' lift and our engine's power to ensure that we are stabilized, even at slow airspeeds."
CFI James is conducting a lesson brief with new student Rachel. Today's lesson is slow flight, and James explains that part of the lesson will include stalling the airplane. During the briefing, Rachel takes a phone call from her mother, and she uses the call as an excuse to cancel the lesson. As a result, Rachel is reconsidering her decision to take flying lessons, since she didn't think the engine would be intentionally turned off during flight.
This communication failure is caused by a confusion between symbol and symbolized.
James can close this communication gap by saying "When you hear the word 'stall,' you probably are thinking about a car engine that suddenly stops working. People who learn to drive stick-shift cars stall them all the time. However, in aviation a 'stall' means an aerodynamic stall. We aren't going to kill the engine. Instead, we are going to briefly interrupt the wings' generation of lift and then smoothly recover."
CFI Susan is flying with her student Brad, who has made slow progress through the school's syllabus. Every time they practice ground reference maneuvers, Brad rapidly builds altitude. Susan explains to Brad that he will need need to monitor his altitude during the maneuver, but Brad always climbs.
Brad is taking flying lessons because his father is an airline pilot. He expects Brad to be a pilot as well, even if he doesn't pursue an aviation career. What Brad won't tell anyone is that he has an irrational fear of flying. He chooses to suffer in silence as he endures every flight lesson.
This communication failure is caused by external factors, which can be outside of the instructor's control.
Susan may not be able to close this communication gap. However, she may decide to take a step back and ask Brad how he feels about flight training. She also may introduce some ground instruction to see if Brad shows any enthusiasm about becoming a pilot.
Developing Communication Skills
Communication skills result from experience and are enhanced by additional training. Communication skills need to be developed — they do not occur automatically.
Communication has occured when the desired result of communication is observed.
Communication begins with role playing during the instructor's training and continues into actual instruction.
Current FAA training emphasis has moved from a maneuvers-based training standard to what is called Scenario-Based Training (SBT). This method of instruction and learning allows learners to move from theory to practical application of skills during their training.
Instructional Communication
Instruction has taken place when the instructor explains a particular procedure and subsequently determines that the learner exhibits the desired response.
Principles of good communication include talking about deep knowledge and personal experience. The instructor should not be afraid to use examples of past experiences to illustrate particular points. An instructor's personal experiences make instruction more valuable than reading the same information in a textbook.
The instructor needs some way of determining results, and the method used should be related to the expected outcome. In the case of flight training, the instructor can judge the actual performance of a maneuver.
It is essential that students know the meaning of knowledge rather than facts and figures — for example, why an airplane stalls and how it stalls, rather than simply memorizing stall speeds.
Listening
Good instructors work to master listening ability and frequently self-evaluate in this area. Instructors can use a number of techniques to become better at listening.
The Instructor's Toolbox includes several listening techniques:
- Do not interrupt
- Do not judge
- Think before answering
- Be close enough to hear
- Watch nonverbal behavior
- Be aware of biases
- Look for underlying feelings
- Concentrate
- Avoid rehearsing answers while listening
- Do not insist on the last word
When the learner hears something being communicated, he or she may or may not comprehend what is being transmitted. On the other hand, when the learner truly hears the communication, he or she then interprets the communication based on their knowledge to that point, processes the information to a level of understanding, and attempts to make a correlation of that communicated information to the task at hand.
Instructors can help students listen as well. Rules of Listening for students include:
- Take notes
- Guard against daydreaming
- Listen for main ideas
- Be emotionally calm
- Listen to understand, not refute
- Be responsible for listening
- Be ready to listen
Nobody can remember everything. Note taking allows the learner to use an organized system to reconstruct what was said during the lesson.
Questioning
Good questioning also aids understanding. Instructors should ask both open-ended and focused questions. Open-ended questions are designed to encourage full, meaningful answers using the learner's own knowledge and perceptions. Closed-ended questions encourage a short or single-word answer.
Two ways of confirming that the learner and instructor understand things in the same way are the use of paraphrasing and perception checking. The instructor can use paraphrasing to show what the learner's statement meant to the instructor. In this way, the learner can then make any corrections or expansions on the statement in order to clarify.
Perception checking gets to the feelings of the learner, again by stating what perceptions the instructor has of the behavior that the learner can then clarify as necessary.
Instructional Enhancement
An instructor never stops learning. Knowledge of the subject material and skill at instructional communication are necessary to be an instructor. Increasing the depth of knowledge in either area makes the instructor more effective.
Flight Instructor Test Questions
Effective communication has taken place when, and only when, the receivers react with understanding and change their behavior accordingly.
To communicate effectively, instructors must reveal a positive attitude while delivering their message.
To be more likely to communicate effectively, an instructor should speak or write from a background of up-to-date, stimulating material, and not from technical expertise.
A communicator's words cannot communicate the desired meaning to another person unless the listener or reader has had some experience with the objects or concepts to which these words refer.
Student confidence tends to be destroyed if instructors bluff whenever in doubt about some point.
Airmen Certification Standards: Flight Instructor (Airplane)
Area of Operation I. Fundamentals of Instructing
Task A: Effects of Human Behavior and Communication on the Learning Process
Objective: To determine the applicant understands human behavior and effective communication, can apply that knowledge, manage associated risks, demonstrate appropriate skills, and provide effective instruction.
Knowledge: The applicant understands and explains:
- Elements of human behavior, including:
- Definitions of human behavior
- Instructor and learner relationship c. Motivation
- Human needs
- Defense mechanisms
- Learner emotional reactions, including:
- Anxiety and stress
- Impatience
- Worry or lack of interest
- Physical discomfort, illness, fatigue, and dehydration
- Apathy due to inadequate instruction Teaching the adult learner.
- Effective communication, including:
- Basic elements of communication
- Barriers to effective communication
- Developing communication skills
Knowledge: The applicant understands and explains:
- Recognizing and accommodating human behavior.
- Barriers to communication.
Skills: The applicant understands and explains:
- Give examples of how human behavior affects motivation and learning.
- Describe what the instructor can do to deal with:
- Serious abnormal emotional behavior
- Defense mechanisms
- Use effective communication in ground and flight instruction.
Oral Exam Questions
- What are the three basic elements of communication?
- Explain the three characteristics that instructors must understand about their students before effective communication can take place.
- What are the barriers to effective communication?
- How can flight instructors develop their instructional communication skills?
- Name several techniques instructors can use to become better at listening to their students.
- What is the difference between an open-ended and close-ended question? What is the purpose of each?