When an instructor gets a new student from a previous instructor, there are many things that they need to find out about the student and their progress in their current license or rating. One good way to see where they are is to look in their student folder. Instructors should be keeping good notes on each lesson that they do, and also on the student notes page. If anything significant has happened (positive or negative), it is always best to make note of it in their folder. Also, now that we are transitioning into the new curriculum, many things will now be on ETA, and that has already started with writing comments in ETA after each lesson. This will also make it easier for other instructors to see the progress of the students.
When talking to the student's previous instructor, you will want to ask them a few specific questions. I think it is important to ask about their learning curve. Are they quick learners? Average? Slower? That will determine which way you should approach teaching them new concepts. Ask about how they handle difficult situations. Do they get stressed easily or do they keep their cool and work well in stressful situations? Also, just ask about any strong and negative points. The instructor will know what they are best at and what they may need more work on. This will help you to know which areas need more focus during your time instructing them.
When first talking with your new student, I think it is important to ask them how they feel about where they are; how comfortable are they with the progress they have made? Do they feel like they are ready to keep moving or do they want to do a little review? This may be something that their previous instructor didn't give them an option to do, so you want to make sure that the student does not have any outstanding concerns. You can also ask them about their old instructor. Ask them if there is anything the instructor did that they think really helped them improve their skills that they may want to continue doing with you as their new instructor. You can, of course, ask if they have any questions about your grading criteria or method of instruction, so that they are clear about how things will go in the future.
Finally, after talking with both the instructor and student about their progress, you can continue on with the lessons as the student was doing them. During these, a good way to test their ground knowledge is to quiz them periodically. When you meet with them for the preflight discussion, you can ask them various questions about the tasks for the day and the topics on the preflight discussion. Some instructors think that they have to get out to the plane ASAP, but I think it is helpful to spend at least 5-10 minutes talking with your student first about the tasks for the lesson and any other knowledge items you think are important. Also, ask them questions about the plane during pre-flight. This will keep them focused on the task at hand (making sure the plane is safe for flight) will still giving you a good idea of how well they know the airplane. Ask them various knowledge questions while on the transitions to and from Tooele, or whichever practice area you will be using. This is a great time to talk amongst each other and see what else they know, since the workload during this time is fairly low.
As I said before, getting a new student requires figuring out a lot about what the student already knows. They may be very proficient in one area, and not so much in another, and it is important to know where to go with each of these areas. Students may have also been able to get away with some bad habits with another instructor, so talking to both the student and previous instructor is definitely important.
-TB
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