Do what we teach and teach what we do -

Do what we teach and teach what we do

Article by Mark Powell

Very often you will come across examples in scuba education where what is taught doesn’t match up with what divers do in real life. Sometimes an instructor will acknowledge that what they are teaching is not what they actually do themselves. How many times have you heard an instructor say “I have to cover this but it’s not how it really works” or “the manual says this but in the real world we would do something different”.

It is even worse when the instructor insists that a procedure is absolutely essential but when they go diving for themselves, they skip it or do something completely different. This is a very dangerous trend in teaching. If you are teaching one thing but doing another then it undermines the confidence that the student has in other aspects of your teaching. If you tell a student they should never do something but then they see you doing that same thing it calls into question all the other things you have said they should never do.

If you don’t ‘do what you teach’ and ‘teach what you do’ then one or the other is incorrect. If what you are teaching is correct, but what you are doing is incorrect, then change what you do. However, if what you are doing is correct, but what you are teaching is incorrect, then change what you are teaching.

A good example of this is the way that we teach buddy checks. All agencies teach that divers should do a buddy check before each dive. There is plenty of research from aviation, medicine and many other areas that having a ‘checklist’ approach is one of the most effective ways to spot potential issues before they occur. Yet most divers drop the idea of a buddy check as soon as they finish their training. One of the reasons for this is that most instructors do not perform a buddy check when they are diving and even if they do a buddy check it is very different to the one they teach in a class. They do not ‘teach what they do’ and ‘do what they teach’. This leads to the situation where a buddy check is seen as something that is only done in training or is only done by inexperienced divers. This completely defeats the object of teaching a buddy check. Everyone should do a buddy check before each dive. As you become more experienced you may get complacent and forget a basic step so buddy checks are still essential for the most experienced diver.

The problem is that we don’t teach “realistic” buddy checks. We don’t teach what we do. Some agencies insist on a rigid buddy check in order to help the student remember the process. Unfortunately, this leads to a rigid, formulaic approach that is not realistic. I remember one instance where I was teaching a Course Director course, and the potential CD started to demonstrate a buddy check. This Course Director was a very experienced diver and instructor as well as being a very experienced technical instructor. I had seen him do plenty of effective, realistic buddy checks in the past. However, as soon as he started demonstrating the buddy check he turned into a robot going through a very rigid and unrealistic process that I had never seen him do in real life. Afterwards I asked him why he had demonstrated it that way and he said “I thought that was how we were supposed to teach it”. He recognized all the disadvantages of teaching it that way, understood that it wasn’t effective and agreed that it caused divers to drop the practice as soon as they finished their course but thought he had to do it that way anyway.

The other disadvantage of this approach is that it focuses on the procedure rather than on the intended result. The intended result of a buddy check is, of course, to spot any potential problems. The diver and their buddy are so focused on following the procedure that they often do not spot obvious problems. Real examples I have seen is the diver saying “my drysuit inflator is here and is working” when the hose is not even attached. I have seen divers point to their BCD belt buckle while saying “this is my weight belt”. I have also seen a diver doing what appeared to be a perfect buddy check without them or their buddy realizing that their air wasn’t turned on. Finally, I have seen divers complete a buddy check, turn around and jump in the water without either them or their buddy noticing that their dry suit was open or in one case that they were not wearing any fins. They completed the procedure but completely failed to achieve the objective.

One technique I use when teaching is to encourage my divers to start thinking of a buddy check as a game. Assume your buddy has made a mistake with their equipment and your challenge is to find it. It can become quite competitive with the divers being extremely careful to check their own equipment before the buddy check to make absolutely sure that there is nothing for their buddy to pick up on while the buddy looks at every bit of kit with eagle eyes in the hope of finding a mistake that has been overlooked. This has the advantage of building the right mindset in both divers. You end up with divers who are very careful about putting together their own kit and do a buddy check on themselves. However, you also develop divers who are constantly looking at other diver’s kits and will often identify problem in divers other than their buddy.

I also show students how I would do a buddy check in the real world and how I would deal with the real-life challenges. For example, what if you are buddied with a diver that trained with a different agency and uses a different acronym? I am lucky to have trained with a number of different agencies and dived with divers from even more, so I have come across ABCDE, BAR, BWRAF, GUE-EDGE, SEABAG and many other approaches to a buddy check. It would be great if we all had the same way of doing a buddy check, but this is not the case. I am happy to follow the process or abbreviation the other diver prefers if that makes it easier for them as most of the approaches cover the main points.

I also add in my own final sanity check of considering what hasn’t been checked and finally giving the diver a thorough look from head-to-foot to spot anything that just doesn’t look right. What if you are on a boat and cannot stand right in front of your buddy to do the buddy check? Many divers are taught to pick up the components of their buddy’s kit and physically test it. This is fine when you are in close contact but what if you are on the other side of the boat? In addition, some divers do not like other divers touching their equipment and are not comfortable with this approach. I do not mind who is checking the equipment as long as I am confident that it has been checked.

By adopting this approach, I have found that divers are much more likely to perform buddy checks and are happy doing it with divers from different agencies. It also means that if I am diving with any of my students, they see me doing what I taught them.

Another good example of ‘do what you teach’ and ‘teach what you do’, or rather a good example of breaking this approach, is solo diving. For years some instructors have taught that solo diving is bad and should not be done under any circumstances. Then on their days off, they have gone solo diving. Divemasters on dive boats have dived down on their own to tie in a line or release a line. Instructors are told that it would be unsafe to dive alone but they can take in a student on their first dive and that is perfectly safe. If instructors, divemasters and experienced divers are doing this on a regular basis in private why do those same divers insist it as unsafe in public?

Despite teaching one thing they are clearly doing another. This is hypocritical and does not meet the ‘do what you teach’ and ‘teach what you do’ approach. If instructors genuinely believe that it is acceptable for them to solo dive, then they should stop telling their students that it is unacceptable. Rather they should be explaining that solo diving has a number of risks and is not for inexperienced divers, but these risks can be mitigated by an experienced diver with the right experience, training and equipment.

On the other hand, there may well be instructors that do believe that solo diving is not safe and teach that divers should always dive in the buddy system. In this case, those instructors need to specify that diving in the buddy system is more than just diving with a random buddy. A buddy should be able to assist you in an emergency, have a similar dive plan and have a similar equipment configuration.

The key point to remember is that if you don’t ‘do what you teach’ or ‘teach what you do’ then one or the other is incorrect. If what you are teaching is correct, but what you are doing is incorrect, then change what you do. However, if what you are doing is correct, but what you are teaching is incorrect, then change what you are teaching. Otherwise, you are undermining everything that you are teaching your student.

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