Chapter 7: Planning Instructional Activity
How instructors plan training with a course of training, blocks of learning, a syllabus, and written lesson plans, including scenario-based training.
Chapter summary
The handbook places growing emphasis on the instructor's role as a teacher and mentor, not only as a capable pilot or technician. The learning that takes place is a direct result of the instructor's active lesson preparation, delivery, observation, and assessment. This chapter reviews the planning a professional instructor does around four key topics: the course of training, blocks of learning, the training syllabus, and lesson plans. It also explains how to integrate scenario-based training (SBT), aeronautical decision-making (ADM), and risk management into each lesson so that the instructor serves as an advisor and guide for the learner.
A course of training is a series of studies leading to a specific goal, such as a certificate. Once the overall objectives are set, the instructor identifies the blocks of learning that make up the whole. Like the blocks of a pyramid, each is an essential part of the structure, and extraneous blocks are expensive frills. Blocks should be fairly consistent in scope and represent units of learning that can be measured and evaluated, not a sequence of periods of instruction. Completing each block boosts self-confidence, and because people learn from the simple to the complex, a learner masters normal landings before short-field and soft-field landings.
A training syllabus is an abstract or digest of the course of training, with blocks of learning in the most efficient order and well-defined objectives and standards for each lesson. It should be used as a flexible guide, adapted to the learner's progress, weather, aircraft availability, and scheduling. When departing from its order, the instructor considers how the relationships of the blocks are affected. A syllabus also serves as a recordkeeping checklist, and a training folder for each learner keeps pertinent records in one place; records should be kept for at least 3 years.
A lesson plan is an organized outline for a single instructional period, and it should be written down so another instructor could conduct the same lesson from it. Every lesson plan should include objectives, content to support them, and completion standards. Well-planned lessons show unity, new content related to earlier lessons, reasonable scope, practicality, flexibility, a clear relation to the course of training, and the four instructional steps of the teaching process. The instructor should be familiar with the plan, use it as a guide, adapt it to the learner, and revise it periodically.
SBT uses a highly structured script of real world experiences to address training objectives in an operational environment. It rests on situated cognition, the idea that knowledge cannot be fully understood independent of its context. Maneuvers are still taught, then integrated into realistic scenarios planned by the learner. The instructor turns over planning and execution as soon as possible and becomes a mentor and learning facilitator once the learner begins making decisions. SBT also supports single-pilot resource management (SRM), the managing of all available resources so the successful outcome of a flight is never in doubt.
Main topics
- Course of training and its objectives and standards
- Identifying and sequencing blocks of learning
- Training syllabus format, content, and flexible use
- Recordkeeping with syllabi, lesson plans, and training folders
- Purpose of the lesson plan
- Characteristics of a well-planned lesson
- How to use a lesson plan properly and lesson plan formats
- Scenario-based training and the SBT lesson plan
- Duties, responsibilities, and authority of the aviation instructor in SBT
- Single-pilot resource management (SRM)
Key terms
- Course of training
- A complete series of studies leading to attainment of a specific goal, such as a certificate of completion, graduation, or an academic degree.
- Blocks of learning
- The necessary parts of the total training objective. They should be fairly consistent in scope and represent units of learning that can be measured and evaluated, not a sequence of periods of instruction.
- Building block concept
- The concept that new knowledge and skills are best based on a solid foundation of previous experience or old learning. As knowledge and skills increase, the base expands to support further learning.
- Training syllabus
- A step-by-step, building block progression of learning with provisions for regular review and evaluation at prescribed stages. It is an abstract or digest of the course of training and should be used primarily as a flexible guide.
- Lesson plan
- An organized outline for a single instructional period. It tells the instructor what to do, in what order to do it, and what procedure to use in teaching the material of a lesson.
- Completion standards
- The part of a lesson that defines when the objective has been met. The handbook notes that completion standards may also be called assessment, review and feedback, or performance evaluation.
- Unity
- A characteristic of a well-planned lesson: each lesson is a unified segment of instruction with limited objectives stated as desired learning outcomes, and all procedures and materials are selected to attain them.
- Scope
- A characteristic of a well-planned lesson: each lesson should be reasonable in scope. Too much material results in confusion, and too little results in inefficiency.
- Practicality
- A characteristic of a well-planned lesson: each lesson is planned for the conditions under which training will be conducted, including the kinds and quantities of instructional aids available.
- Training folder
- A folder for each learner that keeps pertinent data in one place, such as lesson plans, training requirements, instruction received, requirements met, and solo endorsements. Records should be kept for at least 3 years.
- Scenario-based training (SBT)
- A training method that uses a highly structured script of real world experiences to address aviation training objectives in an operational environment.
- Situated cognition
- The idea that knowledge cannot be known and fully understood independent of its context. It is the concept on which SBT is based.
- Pre-scenario planning
- Information the instructor and learner establish before SBT: for a flight scenario, the destination, desired learning outcomes, desired level of learner performance, and possible inflight scenario changes.
- Single-pilot resource management (SRM)
- The art and science of managing all the resources, both on board the aircraft and from outside sources, available to a single pilot before and during flight to ensure that the successful outcome of the flight is never in doubt.
Revision quiz
10 questions. Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why.
This page is a study aid written from Aviation Instructor's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9B), Chapter 7. The handbook is the authoritative source; read the full chapter in the official FAA PDF.
VectoredOps is not affiliated with the Federal Aviation Administration.