(08/01/10) During the learning process, the training of a future diver has different stages in the relationship between instructor and student. On how these stages evolve and develop, the stability and safety of the diver to himself will depend to some extent, and it will especially affect his future ability to fully enjoy the underwater activity.

    As we will see, a successful development of the training process will be key to manage the anxieties appeared in this activity in particular, and in any training process in general. That is what these lines are about: to see how, in this wonderful process of relationship, one becomes (or not) a real diver in the future.

    As in any relationship between a teacher or instructor and a student, objectives and goals to achieve must be well established. Also the differences between them must be clear. When starting the classes which will allow the student to get knowledge about techniques of using tools and accessories of the scuba gear, we will be in a situation in which we have no knowledge on the subject.

    From this moment the work of the instructor begins. She or he, unlike the student, has more practical experience and all the theoretical and practical tools to speak at length in the best way and to make the student be able to understand what he is explaining.

    All teachers, both in the field of diving and in any other, must have certain characteristics such as having teaching ethics, put themselves in the student’s place, be serious and have a exemplary behaviour in all circumstances, be patient  when their students have doubts or uncertainties, since in all educational levels students also have different levels, they are not all the same, they do not have the same personality, hence they get knowledge in different ways at different time, some faster, others slower.

    The most important aim in all teaching through the training courses is that the students get the maximum knowledge, interpret and incorporate it, and then they are able to put knowledge in practice, in this particular case knowledge on diving in the water depths.

Very important: the relationship between them

    We know that in the process "teaching- learning" many factors affect the success or failure of it, and that they will determine the quality of the results. In the interaction of the process two crucial elements participate: the teacher (instructor or similar) and the student, who, according to their expectations toward learning, will develop a good or bad relationship.

    The instructor as a leader and coordinator of activities will encourage the student to acquire overcoming feelings of personal value, esteem, self-concept; or just the opposite, feelings of worthlessness, frustration, apathy and inadequacy. The instructors, as an essential part of the educational relationship, are required to promote an optimal environment to generate good instructor-student relationships based on trust and mutual respect.

    For example, recent research about the phenomenon of desertion in educational centers, have shown that teachers of mathematics, physics and chemistry (subjects highly related to our activity) have better profile to teach the subject. But they are who have the greatest problems in educational achievement of their students. It was observed that they have the lowest score in personal training in didactic aspects.

    “One aspect of the educational dialogue is the lack of empathy from the teacher and an inadequate relationship between him and his students.” Having previous research as basis, it is observed the need that the teacher has to learn and implement the theories of motivation in teacher-student relationship as a motivator of learning.

Underwater autism

    We can consider that in the first moment, the strong psychological impact when breathing under water with the regulator, in either a confined water environment -such as a pool- or in an open water environment -such as lakes or similar- makes the future diver pass through a stage called “temporary autism.” It is because of the strong disorientation that she or he feels with the new experience in a different environment from the daily one, leaving the person very attentive to bodily sensations he feels in the new status, and paying very little attention to the surroundings.

    This phase can last minutes to be extremely short, and it is overcome when the student recognizes the instructor and pays attention to him, and establish with him a link of trust that leads to the next step. Here it also is important the student’s attitude in front of a new scenario. Fears exist, but we can eliminate quite a lot of them if we face everything new with a positive attitude.

Instructor- student symbiosis

    When the student begins to trust the instructor, he recognizes a protective capacity in the instructor, establishing a relationship of trust that the future diver feels as guarantee of his safety and learning. In this moment the relationship begins. In it, if it follows a positive channel, instructor and student stimulate each other; the learner perceives, acts and learns through his instructor, and the instructor tries that the student enjoys his new experiences, and acquires the skills necessary for the activity.

    Students are not yet able to perceive and differentiate between their own feelings, such as anxiety, and the new sensations that they are feeling which are specific of the activity itself, and they need the instructor to differentiate them and get the necessary tranquillity. The students at first will react with extreme sensitivity to the instructor’s answers, not just rational but also emotional. An anxious, phobic or obsessive instructor can transmit his own fears and anxieties, compromising their education.

    We have to bear in mind that at this point the students give many signs of how they are living the process of formation. On how and to which answers the instructor reacts, it will also depend how the future divers will be, as they will adjust their behaviour according to these selective responses. We can state here that instructor’s personal and formative touch will have a great influence on how future divers will be and behave.

The detachment

    There is a moment when students start to separate from their instructor, stop being passive to his strict orders and ventures to small raids, but without losing sight of their source of security. If the two previous stages have been successful, students can gradually leave “the protector halo” of their instructor, and they will successfully complete the formative stage, enjoying the new world of sensations that appears before their eyes.

    The purpose of this process is to get, at the end of the formative stage, a feeling of technical ability, but also emotional, and that allows students to evolve progressively in diving. Once this is achieved, students are able to develop autonomously.

    The process can end with the initiation course, (Open Water or similar), or need added time. Instructor and student must know that, sometimes, the end of the course does not imply an autonomous operation, but in any case media must be provided for the process of detachment to exist, and that students do not remain “hanging” from their instructors, which implies a complete dependence to dive.

    During this stage, there is a moment when the future diver no longer needs the instructor exclusively as a source of security and encouragement, but as someone who offers himself to maintain a communication that enhance and / or module conveniently  the entitled diver’s behaviours develops. At the end of this process future divers see themselves also as independent, self confident, if they have internalized an adequate emotional restraint and technical training from instructor.

    Any diver has to know that a correct formation and develop means to be able to dive enjoying and without intense anxieties, farther than the one needed to get an optimal level of mental activation needed in an activity when we have to pay attention to what we are doing.

Some conclusions

    As we can see in the "theory of motivation”, attitude and treatment of the teacher (instructor) is essential for the construction of a good educational relationship between him and the student. It is advisable that instructors are alert to avoid homogenize and standardize the students.

    As educators, instructor must always try to have a positive attitude, not individualized and then behave as if they are working with subjects and not object. There cannot be authentic educational activity without the teacher-student pairing, precisely because when educating there is an intrapersonal and interpersonal relationship.

    It is intrapersonal, because the educational process should originate and develop from within the people; interpersonal, because its purpose is the interaction of people. The genuine educator is the one who causes growth, because he is able to see, identify and assess the potential that lies in the interior of the pupil. This way, we not only will achieve good, responsible and self-sufficient divers, but also good people.

Text: Antonio Bermejo / Marcelo Pierini