Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference Conference Proceedings, Sydney, 2003

Driving instructors have a critical role in providing high-quality learning opportunities for novice drivers. Traditionally, driving instruction tends to be characterised by teacherfocussed approaches, typically when developing skills for vehicle control. Yet higher-order cognitive skills such as risk awareness, hazard perception, and decision-making are known to have a major influence on driving. Educational research has shown that many higherorder thinking skills are best acquired through teachers/instructors who exhibit studentfocussed approaches to the teaching process and who consequently provide active learning experiences. Despite the critical importance of their teaching situations, very little information is available on driving instructors’ approaches to teaching. This paper reports work in progress to explore differences in teaching approaches among Australian driving instructors.