In this month's installment, I'll be reviewing the Teaching Process. One could argue I should have started the series with this overview. Some of the points I'll make this month have been introduced in previous articles, some are new. The notion of Preparation covers a wide range of activities including understanding human learning, learning how to teach, curriculum development, and lesson planning; all topics I have touched on in one or more of my previous articles. What I would like to add to the list of preparation activities is the notion of becoming much more of a subject matter expert. It was not until I started working on my instructor rating that I began to realize how little I understood about flying gliders and the knowledge required as pilot in command of an aircraft. Believe it or not, over the previous 30 years, I had earned private pilot privileges in airplane single-engine land, an instrument airplane rating, a glider category rating, and commercial privileges in airplane SEL, airplane SES, and glider before learning of the existence of documents called "Practical Test Standards."I had very little understanding of Chapter 14 of the Federal Code of Regulations, nor an appreciation of the fundamental nature of its components. I remember being at a seminar where an FAA official asked how many in the audience knew the different between 14 CFR Part 61 and 14 CFR Part 91.The silence was broken with his humorous but effective explanation: "Part 61 describes how you get your pilot certificate; Part 91 describes how you lose it." It was a clever way to make a point and I never forgot it.
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