with removing the second stage from your mouth, understanding builds on the rote
skill. Now the student learns to point the mouthpiece down so the regulator doesn’t
free-flow.
In the Application step, your student learns to use the information gained during Understanding. We start to add reasons. “Point the mouthpiece down so the
regulator does not free flow because in cold water the free-flow may not stop.”
Everything you teach must have an Application step, otherwise your student will
not have any practical reason to learn or remember the skill. Application provides
ownership.
Correlation is the Holy Grail in our education system. This is our goal as we create thinking divers. Correlation means your students can use the information they
learned previously to solve or prevent a problem. In other words, they can associate
a learned skill with another operation. Using the example of removing a regulator
from your mouth, now your student knows that if he/she is donating that regulator
to an out-of-air diver and the regulator starts to free-flow because the mouthpiece is
not pointing down, it might freak out an already stressed diver.
Correlation is thinking through a situation and applying Rote, Understanding, and
Application to that specific event. Correlation is thinking. Correlation is our goal.
It has always been UTD’s mission to create “thinking divers.” This means your
students will have the ability to think their way out of a situation, rather than just
mechanically react. We can’t train for every possible scenario, but we can prepare
a student to stop, breathe, and
think before they act.
This is why we teach correlation. Next month we’ll look
at how we teach correlation
using critical skills training.
UTD Instructor Trainer Ben Bos (left) at an IDC at Rivemar Dive
Center in southern Spain.
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A UTD INSTRUCTOR, CLICK HERE.
TM