The Thinking Driver School Bus Instructor Program is an eight to ten day intensive training program designed to prepare your in-house instructors to deliver Thinking Driver Classroom theory as well as Practical in-vehicle coaching sessions and driver evaluations on a school bus. This course focuses on the development of competence at training and evaluating drivers.
Participants review the Five Fundamentals of Defensive Driving and basic traffic law, laying the foundation for good safe driving.
The Five Fundamentals:
- Think and Look Ahead
- Anticipate Hazards
- Keep Your Options Open
- Manage the Risk
- Control with Finesse
This is followed with instructional techniques and methodology, the principles of adult learning, communication and listening skills and how to evaluate fairly and consistently. Covering off the elements of a good evaluation route, participants will learn to create their own route and use it to coach and evaluate a trainee in-vehicle.
Course Objectives
Participants will/will learn:
- Understanding and teaching The Five Fundamentals in class and on the road
- Stress Management
- Psychology of Driving
- Driver attitudes and risk tolerance
- Demonstrate excellence in bus operation
- Demonstrate knowledge of traffic rules and regulations as related to both traffic and vehicle operation generally and school buses specifically
- Design and deliver an on-road demonstration and training session
- Design an evaluation route
- Conduct a coaching session demonstrating effectiveness in coaching technique
- Detecting and correcting driving errors
- Conduct an evaluation using the Thinking Driver “Global Skills” score-sheet
- Debrief a candidate driver
Bonus:
NAPT 202C Presentation Skills
NAPT 405C Student Needs & Management
Materials included:
- Instructor Manual
- Thinking Driver workbook
- DVD support materials
- Instructor Certificate
