Regardless of training level, part of learning to dive is learning to apply critical thinking – a higher order mental skill in which students apply learned information, skills, concepts, principles, experiences, and feelings to make decisions, form judgments or create solutions. Critical thinking always has a specific purpose, and it is not the application of a learned procedure. For example, if your regulator suddenly doesn’t deliver air, switching to a buddy’s alternate second stage (rec) or your secondary (tec) doesn’t require critical thinking – you already know what to do and have presumably practiced it.

Critical thinking comes in when there is no existing basis or incomplete information for a decision, or when you must create a solution, by applying what you do know and reasonable speculations/inferences. So, planning a dive usually does require critical thinking, because while there are general procedures and steps, you have to weave in good judgment and make decisions based on incomplete information. The need for critical thinking tends to rise as situations become more complex (such as at dive pro, tec, or public safety diver levels), because you’re more likely to need to make choices, create solutions and/or take action in circumstances for which there are no specific procedures already in place. But as an instructor, this raises a question – if critical thinking involves solutions and decisions that don’t exist already, how do you teach it?

You can’t.

Well, you can’t in the sense that you can’t teach someone to ride a bicycle the way you can teach other skills. For a comparison, think about teaching how to clear a regulator – put it in your mouth, blow sharply or block the opening with your tongue while pressing the purge button. That’s a straightforward procedure, and as you’ve likely seen, most beginning divers do it on the first try, because, having heard your explanation and seen your demo, they know everything they need to know to do it. In essence, they learn it before they do it (although they still need to do it, of course).

Learning to ride a bicycle differs in that very few people can do it (or at least do it well) on the first try, no matter how much you describe and demonstrate beforehand. You can’t really explain how to ride while balancing on two wheels – one can only learn that by doing it. What we call “teaching someone to ride a bicycle” is providing techniques, demonstrations and giving advice that absolutely help, reduce risk and greatly accelerate the process. So yes, you are teaching, but ultimately complete learning requires actually riding a bicycle.

Critical thinking is much the same – you can provide techniques, tips and demonstrate it, but to learn it, your students have to do it.

Fortunately, there is a very effective technique for teaching critical thinking through guided discussions with your students. You can apply it at any level, but it is particularly suited to practical application sessions in tec dive and upper-level dive planning. Interested? Click here to learn more by viewing Teaching Divers to Think Like Divers, a membership benefit (no fee) webinar on the PADI Pros’ Site for PADI Professionals. Teaching Divers to Think Like Divers explains and demonstrates teaching critical thinking, primarily using tec diving for background and examples, but again, it applies to any training level – and even teaching critical thinking beyond diving.

A final thought – teaching critical thinking requires critical thinking, so while the webinar will get you headed in the right direction, you should now know when you’ll actually learn to teach that way. When you do it, of course.

Karl Shreeves
PADI Education Content and Development Executive

PS: By now someone’s jumping up and down, because they know someone who got on a bike for the first time and rode it like they’ve been doing it their whole life. Yes, there are people like that. When you teach critical thinking, you’ll find many students already do that well, too. This doesn’t negate the point – in either case, the students had to have already developed the underlying skill by doing it in another context.

The post Thinking Like a Diver – How to Teach It appeared first on PADI Pros.

Training, member benefits, teach diving, teaching tips, webinarPADI Pros