Introduction
Instructors need more than subject expertise; they must understand human behavior and effective communication. This understanding is crucial because teaching isn’t solely about sharing knowledge; it’s about inspiring and guiding individuals toward deeper educational experiences.
Attention and Motivation
Think about the last time you learned something new. What made it stick? Was it the way the information was presented, or perhaps the connection you felt with the instructor? Understanding the ‘why’ behind these moments can transform the learning experience from mundane to memorable.
Objectives
After this lesson, the learner will be able to describe:
- How human needs can inhibit learning or act as a powerful motivation.
- The defense mechanisms humans use that inhibit learning.
- How an instructor can help alleviate learner anxiety and stress in aviation training.
- The basic elements of communication.
- The barriers to communication that inhibit learning.
- How to develop communication skills.
Lesson Presentation
Risk Management
- Recognizing and accommodating human behavior
- Barriers to communication
Resources
- Aviation Instructor’s Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9):
- Chapter 2, Human Behavior
- Chapter 4, Effective Communication
Schedule
- Lesson Presentation (0:20)
- Review and Assessment (0:15)
Equipment
- Whiteboard, markers, and erasers
Review and Assessment
This lesson concludes with a combined informal assessment and review of the main points.
Additionally, the instructor ensures:
- All of the learner’s questions are resolved.
- The learner is made aware of his or her performance and progress.
Completion Standards
This lesson is complete when the lesson objectives are met and the learner’s knowledge is determined to be adequate for the stage of training. Ultimately, the learner must meet or exceed the Practical Test Standards.
Lesson Content
What is Human Behavior?
Human behavior can be defined in many ways:
- The result of attempts to satisfy certain needs.
- The product of factors that cause people to act in predictable ways.
- A distinct set of physical, physiological, and behavioral features associated with each phase of life.
Instructors study human behavior to understand learner actions and learning processes.
Human Needs and Motivation
Human needs are the things humans require for normal growth and development. These needs can be basic, like the need for food and water, or more intricate, such as the need for recognition and acceptance.
Instructor Responsibilities
- Learner Readiness: Instructors should confirm that learners’ fundamental needs are met before commencing a lesson.
- Learning Environment: A conducive learning environment minimizes frustrations for learners, enabling them to focus more effectively.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow developed a pyramid-style model to illustrate human motivations and needs. This model organizes motivations into distinct levels. As individuals fulfill the requirements of one level, they aspire to achieve the next level.
- Physiological (1): The need for air, food, water, and maintenance of the human body.
- Safety and Security (2): The need to avoid pain and injury.
- Love and Belonging (3): The need for social approval. This involves love, affection, and a sense of belonging.
- Esteem (4): The need for self-respect and respect from others. When met, the person feels self-confident and valuable. When unmet, the person feels inferior, helpless, and worthless.
- Self-Actualization (5): The desire to make the most of one’s abilities. Maslow described it as “the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.”
Note: Maslow later acknowledged that the hierarchy’s order is not fixed, and individuals can experience higher levels of motivation even if their basic needs are not fully met.
Self-actualized people are characterized by:
- Having a deep concern for personal growth.
- Not being afraid of the unknown; rather, they embrace it.
- Incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life.
Needs Added in Later Years by Maslow
- Cognitive: The desire to know and understand. When learning occurs, the brain reinforces this need by releasing dopamine, resulting in a sense of reward.
- Aesthetic: The desire for things around the person to be aesthetically pleasing. Aesthetics can enhance positive motivation and contribute to a successful learning experience.
- Transcendence: Needs that extend beyond one’s personal self, such as engaging in acts of service, pursuing scientific endeavors, or expressing faith.
Note: Cognitive and aesthetic needs were placed immediately before self-actualization (between 4 and 5 in the pyramid). Transcendence needs were placed at the top of the pyramid.
Bodily Reward Systems
- Basic Needs: Meeting basic human needs brings about a sense of satisfaction, also known as satiation. For example, the motivation to eat arises from hunger. Once the need is fulfilled, motivation decreases.
- Growth Needs: Complex motivations, such as the desire for personal achievement, are rewarded by a release of dopamine in the brain. As growth needs are satisfied, motivation increases.
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are subconscious reactions that protect a person from anxiety arising from unpleasant situations. The reactions can be biological (due to fear) or psychological (due to unacceptable thoughts or feelings).
Defense mechanisms:
- Inhibit learning.
- Operate on an unconscious level.
- Distort, transform, or falsify reality.
- Alleviate symptoms, not causes.
A perceptive instructor can identify defense mechanisms and help a learner by discussing the problem. The goal should be to restore motivation and self-confidence.
Biological Defense Mechanisms
Biological defense mechanisms are physiological responses that protect or preserve life. They develop when adrenaline or other chemicals are activated, and physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate and increased blood pressure occur.
Example: When humans experience a danger or a threat, the “fight or flight” response kicks in.
Psychological (Ego) Defense Mechanisms
Psychological defense mechanisms were introduced by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939).
Psychological defense mechanisms are unconscious mental processes to shield from anxiety and negative emotions. People use these defenses to prevent unacceptable ideas or impulses from entering the conscious mind.
Example: Someone blots out the memory of being physically assaulted.
Types of Defense Mechanisms
Note: Denial and repression are the primary defense mechanisms.
Denial: Refusing to admit the existence or truth about something.
Example: An instructor discovers an unlatched cargo door before a flight. The learner denies having been inattentive during the preflight inspection.
Repression: Restraining thoughts or emotions by placing them into inaccessible areas of the mind.
Example: A learner may have a repressed fear of flying that inhibits his or her ability to learn how to fly.
Displacement: Putting unpleasant feelings somewhere other than where they belong (taking anger out on someone else).
Example: A learner is angry with the instructor over a grade received, but fears displaying the anger could affect the training. Instead, the anger is directed towards a family member.
Rationalization: A subconscious technique for justifying actions that otherwise would be unacceptable.
Example: A learner may justify a poor exam grade by claiming insufficient time to learn the information.
Compensation: Counterbalancing weaknesses by emphasizing strengths in other areas.
Example: A learner feels bad about not completing a reading assignment but compensates by highlighting knowledge in another area.
Projection: Blaming personal shortcomings, mistakes, and transgressions on someone else.
Example: A learner who fails a flight exam may say, “I failed because I had a poor examiner.”
Reaction Formation: When a person fakes a belief opposite to the actual belief because the actual belief causes anxiety.
Example: A learner who wants to fit in with the class but is not accepted by other members may develop a “who-cares-how-other-people-feel” attitude to cover up feelings of loneliness.
Fantasy: When a learner engages in daydreams about how things should be rather than doing anything about how things are.
Example: A learner spends more time dreaming about being a successful airline pilot than working toward the goal.
Obstacles to Learning
- Anxiety: Significantly impairs perception and insight development. Anxiety is arguably the most influential psychological factor impacting flight instruction.
- Perceived Unfair Treatment: Hinders learning when learners feel their efforts are undervalued or instruction is inadequate.
- Impatience: Leads learners to overlook necessary preliminary training, focusing only on the end goal. Instructors can correct this by presenting training in incremental steps, with clearly defined objectives.
- Worry or Lack of Interest: Emotional distress or disinterest obstructs readiness to learn. Concerns specific to flight training should be addressed by instructors.
- Apathy from Inadequate Instruction: Poorly prepared or contradictory instruction can lead to learner disengagement.
- Physical Discomforts: Temperature, noise, illness, fatigue, or dehydration can distract learners, slowing down their learning rate.
Learner Emotional Reactions
Stress
Stress is the body’s response to demands placed upon it. These demands can be either pleasant or unpleasant in nature.
Normal individuals react to stress by:
- Becoming extremely sensitive to their surroundings
- Responding rapidly, often automatically, within their experience and training (this underlines the importance of proper training before emergencies)
Abnormal responses to stress include:
- An absent reaction to stress
- Severe anger at the instructor or others
- Inappropriate reactions (e.g., extreme over-cooperation or inappropriate laughter or singing)
- Marked changes in mood on different lessons (e.g., excellent morale followed by deep depression)
- Actions that are random, illogical, or cause the person to do more than is called for by the situation
Anxiety
Anxiety is mental discomfort that arises from the fear of anything, real or imagined. It may have a potent effect on actions and the ability to learn from perceptions.
We feel anxiety so that we don’t have to feel pain. We feel pain to help avoid bodily damage.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
Some people affected by anxiety react appropriately, adequately, and more rapidly than they would without a threat. Others may become hesitant to act or be compelled to do something quickly, even if it is wrong. In more severe cases, chronic anxiety or other anxiety disorders can impair a person’s ability to function.
Adverse responses to anxiety can be countered by:
- Reinforcing the learner’s enjoyment of flying.
- Having a plan and progressing toward the end goal.
- Treating fears as a normal reaction rather than ignoring them.
- Completing manageable yet challenging tasks to build confidence over time.
- Introducing learners to maneuvers with care so that the learner knows what to expect.
What is Communication?
Communication is the continuous, two-way exchange of information, whether verbal or nonverbal. Its effectiveness is measured by the similarity between the idea transmitted and the idea received.
Basic Elements of Communication
The communication process is composed of three interrelated elements:
- Source: The sender, speaker, or writer.
- Symbols: The words or gestures used.
- Receiver: The listener or reader.
Note: The channel is the method of communication.
Barriers to Effective Communication
Confusion Between the Symbol and Symbolized Object: Words and symbols might not carry the same meaning for everyone.
Overuse of Abstractions: Abstract terms may not elicit the intended images in listeners’ minds. More concrete (specific) terms are preferred.
Interference (External Factors): Disruptions in the communication cycle can truncate or distort the message.
Types of interference:
- Physiological: Biological problems that inhibit symbol reception, such as hearing loss, injury, or physical illness.
- Environmental: External physical conditions, such as the noise level inside many small aircraft.
- Psychological: How the participants feel. For example, a lack of commitment inhibits the flow of information.
Lack of Common Experience: This is the greatest barrier to communication. Instructors should tailor their dialogue to match the varying experience levels of different pilots.
Developing Communication Skills
Communication skills must be developed through experience and practice. For instructors, communication skills are developed through role-playing, the use of effective listening and questioning techniques, experience in actual instruction, and continued professional development.
Role-Playing Techniques
Role-playing provides aspiring instructors with experience in instructional communication. The instructor candidate assumes the teaching role, instructing their peers as if they were learners.
Listening Techniques
Hearing is a passive but constant process. Listening is an active process (hearing with comprehension).
Effective listeners:
- Take notes.
- Maintain eye contact.
- Listen for the main ideas.
- Guard against daydreaming.
- Listen to understand rather than refute.
Everyone has two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. They should be used in that order and proportion.
Guarding Against Daydreaming
Since most people can listen faster than someone can speak, listeners may start daydreaming. To counteract this, listeners can internally paraphrase or summarize what’s being said, leading to better information retention.
Types of Listening
- Reactive: Reacting to an attention-grabbing sound, the most basic type of listening.
- Intensive: Listening for shades of meaning in words, used when learning a new language.
- Responsive: Listening for a response to a posed question.
- Selective: Sorting through the sounds being heard for main ideas.
- Extensive: Trying to understand the information being communicated.
- Interactive: Involves communicating and listening simultaneously.
Instructional Communication
Instructional communication is used to inform the listeners in the teaching-learning process. This type of communication requires instructors to be knowledgeable about the subject matter and present content in a way that is engaging and tailored to the needs of their learners.
Suggestions to Enhance Instructional Communication
- Teach Familiar Subjects: Instructors should focus on topics they are knowledgeable about and confident in teaching.
- Incorporate Personal Experiences: Using personal experiences can make instructions more relatable, but excessive anecdotes or “war stories” should be avoided.
- Clarify “How“ and “Why”: It’s important for instructors to explain not just the procedures but also the underlying principles and reasons behind them.
Questioning Techniques
Effective questioning can determine how well the learner understands what is being taught. It also shows the learner that the instructor is paying attention and is interested in the response.
An instructor should ask focused, open-ended questions (“why” or “how”) and avoid closed-ended questions (“yes” or “no”).
Instructors should prepare relevant questions before each lesson, supplementing with spontaneous questions as the lesson unfolds.
Perception Checking
Perception checking is a questioning technique where the receiver verifies the correct interpretation of a message, significantly reducing the potential for misunderstanding and conflict.
Perception checking has three steps:
- Restate the message (e.g., “When you said […].”).
- Provide two possible interpretations of the message (e.g., “I think you meant […] or […].”).
- Request clarification (e.g., “Does that sound right?”).
Instructional Enhancement
Instructional enhancement states that instructors’ knowledge depth directly influences their confidence, engagement, and productivity in teaching. Aviation instructors can pursue professional development through seminars, membership in professional organizations, and online courses.
A good instructor never stops learning.