A2.8 Unit 7 Continuously Improves Performance
Expanded Performance Descriptor. The competent instructor / evaluator should continually seek to benchmark his performance and improve the knowledge and skills required to maintain and advance his qualifications.
Unit 7 closes the framework with the instructor's responsibility to themselves. Where Unit 6 operated continuous improvement at the course-and-system level, Unit 7 operates it at the individual level. Two Elements: evaluating one's own effectiveness (A), and sustaining personal development (B). The Unit is short by Element count but operationally important: it is the Unit that protects the instructor and the approved training system from the long-tail decay that all skilled professional roles are susceptible to.
Element A. Evaluates effectiveness
The first Element is the self-evaluation Element. Three Desirable Behaviours.
Desirable Behaviours
a) Encourages and welcomes feedback on performance as an instructor.
b) Evaluates own instructor's performance and learns from the results.
c) Actively seeks feedback on the training course from trainees and peers.
The three behaviours decompose self-evaluation into the receptive posture (a), the analytical work on the data received (b), and the active solicitation of new data (c).
Behaviour (b) is the self-evaluation work proper. The instructor takes the feedback received (and the recurrent-evaluation results from senior evaluators, and the trainee outcomes their training has produced) and learns from them: identifies patterns in their own performance, identifies improvement targets, and feeds those targets into Element B's personal development work. The framework rewards the instructor who shows evidence of having drawn lessons from the data, not merely the instructor who stored the data.
Behaviour (c), actively seeking feedback, is the proactive counterpart of (a)'s receptive posture. Receiving feedback when offered is the floor; the framework asks the instructor to also go and ask for feedback, from trainees (who experienced the training first-hand) and from peers (who can compare the instructor's practice to their own). An instructor whose feedback inflow is purely reactive will have a sparser and biased dataset to learn from than one who actively solicits.
Element B. Sustains personal development
The second Element is the development-action Element. Four Desirable Behaviours.
Desirable Behaviours
a) Maintains required qualifications.
b) Strives to increase and updates relevant knowledge and skills.
c) Demonstrates continuous improvement of instructor and evaluator competencies.
d) Demonstrates high standard of performance during personal training and checking events.
The four behaviours form a layered staircase from the regulatory floor up to the personal-improvement headline:
| Behaviour | What it asks | Failure mode it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Maintains required qualifications | The instructor keeps their licences, ratings, instructor authorisations, and any required recurrent training current | An instructor whose authorisations have lapsed cannot legally instruct or examine; this is the absolute floor |
| (b) Strives to increase and updates relevant knowledge and skills | The instructor keeps their own technical and instructional knowledge current as an operator's fleet, courseware, regulations, and industry practice evolve | An instructor who teaches a stale version of the approved procedures or a stale generation of the relevant aircraft systems |
| (c) Demonstrates continuous improvement of instructor and evaluator competencies | The instructor's instructor-side and evaluator-side competencies (the rest of this framework) measurably improve over time | An instructor whose technical knowledge is current but whose instructional and evaluation skills have plateaued or decayed |
| (d) Demonstrates high standard of performance during personal training and checking events | The instructor performs to a high standard when they are the trainee or examinee, in their own line training, recurrent checks, and instructor-skill recurrent | An instructor who teaches to a standard they no longer meet themselves |
The four behaviours of Element B are the things the instructor does to sustain themselves; the three behaviours of Element A are the postures and practices through which the instructor learns what needs sustaining. Element A produces the targets; Element B delivers against them.
Connections
- A2.7 Unit 6 Perform Course Evaluation. The previous Unit: continuous improvement at the system level, of which Unit 7 is the individual-level counterpart.
- A2.9 Appendix 1 Facilitation Competencies. The next file: the companion appendix at the end of this framework, the five facilitation competencies for LOFT debriefing.
- A2.1 Introduction and Framework. The framework's overall shape: Unit 7 is what closes the loop on the framework's "individual instructors and examiners regularly self-evaluate" use case.
- 12.21 Self-Analysis and Improvement. Self-analysis and improvement; Element A in full.
- 12.22 Maintains Required Qualifications. Maintaining required qualifications; Element B Desirable Behaviour a operationalises that discipline.
- 12.16 Instructor Feedback. The feedback-handling discipline behind Element A.