The latest edition of Fundamentals of Medium/Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicle Systems is here!

Wondering what there is to look forward to in the second edition? Not only has it been updated to align with the latest ASE Medium-Heavy Truck Program Standards, the second edition includes six new chapters that reflect the most up-to-date technological innovations in medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses. 

In the previous post on teaching students about shop safety, we discussed how to reinforce safety practices around vehicle lifts. But do your students know what to do in the event of an accident, injury, or emergency?

Our brand-new e-learning platform is here! 

Safety.

It’s not the most exciting subject in the automotive classroom, but it’s certainly one of the most important. Even if your students aren’t eagerly awaiting your lesson on how to use eye protection or the importance of inspecting equipment, you know how necessary it is for students to absorb and follow safety guidelines. All it takes is one accident to ruin a person’s day, week, or even their entire life, which means skimping on teaching safety is not an option.

Students hate taking tests and instructors hate grading them. So why should you spend more time than necessary dealing with testing?

Many students (and at least a few instructors) might wish they could skip test-taking altogether, but the truth is that tests can be valuable indicators of a student’s progress and skills. They can also help instructors and students identify gaps in knowledge and pinpoint what still needs to be learned. 

Over the course of our strategy-based instruction series, we’ve verified the skills students need and the best options for teaching them. We’ve explored how to help students learn through coaching and how to make sure their practice time is well-spent. Most of all, we’ve established that the “customer” instructors should have in mind is the student’s future employer. 

In strategy-based diagnostics, the final step is to verify that the concern has been addressed. When it comes to strategy-based instruction, the instructor can’t consider the process complete without verifying that a student has learned the skills their employer will need. 

In the previous post in our strategy-based instruction blog series, we walked through some best practices for coaching students to help them learn more effectively. In this step, we’ll focus on how you can help students apply and practice new skills without hindering their self-learning. 

During the previous parts of our strategy-based instruction series, you’ve established that your customer is the employer and verified the skills your students need to learn. You’ve also explored the best way to teach with the resources you have. Now, it’s time to actually teach those skills.

Even if you don’t have a strong education background, there are a few simple strategies you can rely on to make sure your students do well. 

In the first two parts of our strategy-based instruction blog series, we explained the basis of this teaching method and explored how to verify the job skills that students need before entering the workforce.  

Once you’ve determined what skills and behaviors your students need to learn based on what employers need, it’s time to figure out the best way to teach them. This is where both new and experienced instructors encounter a common problem. How do you cover all the material students should learn with limited time and resources? 

In part one of the strategy-based instruction series, we talked about the basics of this technique. We also noted how, when it comes to education, the employer is the customer, not the student. Once this is understood, there is a simple way of tackling the first step of strategy-based instruction: verifying the job skill.