Michelle Arredondo
50-50 Teaching Method in Aviation Maintenance
At Ascent Aviation, we are implementing a new model of Training where we can ensure the student can get a high level of knowledge and practice in order to increase the performance during their duties.
Competency-based training is one of the strategies that Ascent uses during the Aircraft General Familiarization Training, to increase the abilities of the student and perform some practices within the aircraft maintenance manual. During the training, the student can read and understand technical tasks and have the ability to explain them. With these skills, the student can be evaluated, and can develop and improve their competency.
Now, a portion of the time when the instructor is speaking in front of students is gone, and the class has transitioned to 50-50 environment. With this, the student is encouraged to participate during the class 50% of the time.
Some researchers show that the attention can be maintained completely just for 5 minutes, then if the instructor speaks during hours, the student will not pay enough attention to understand the information explained.
How can we mitigate this?
- More practice. The instructor can encourage the student to look for specific Technical Tasks, he/she reads can read them and explain them in front of the class. This encourages to practice with real information and the student can participate more.
- Speaking less. The instructor needs to speak only 50% of the class, if the instructor speaks more than this time, the class can become boring.
- Encourage to participate with questions (never say: somebody has questions). If you say: Somebody has questions, only a few percent of the group will make questions. Instead of this, you can make specific questions to specific students.
