In a perfect world with a perfect pupil being trained by the perfect trainer in the perfect area there would be no need for plans to be adapted or changed - but the real world isn't perfect and I can't envisage a driving lesson that goes perfectly to plan!

I think the most important word in the ADI 1 statement is "adapt"; and adapting the lesson is very different to "changing" the lesson; we have to be able to do both if necessary - but they are definitely very different things! I think of adapting the lesson as a "temporary diversion" to the plan, something that means a change of focus until it's been dealt with and then the focus will revert to the original goals. These diversions can be created by a variety of things but most often they'll be caused by driver error or the pupil asking you a question either verbally or by way of their demeanour and body language.

So these adaptations are caused gaps in the pupils Knowledge, Understanding or Skill which we have to recognise and then deal with before we can continue with the agreed goals for the lesson. A pupil's questions could be simply related to knowledge but more often will relate to understanding or skill and should be managed in the same way as we'd deal with a driving error and generally whatever the gap that we're "plugging" it will be possible to relate it to the topic of the lesson.

For example let's imagine a lesson where the topic was related to Pedestrian Crossings and you have to take control because the pupil was exceeding a speed limit. On questioning the pupil you establish that they didn't know what the speed limit was because they hadn't seen the speed limit sign; it's a simple matter to explain the importance of seeing all signs and in relation to crossings we normally only see signs when the crossing itself is difficult to identify so the warning signs are particularly important. The way we identify road signs is the same for whatever the topic is so the identification element of the MSPSL routine can be developed during the whole drive not just when there's a crossing ahead.

So, most of the time these adaptations will be fairly short lived in duration and not have a major effect on the course of a lesson; but if you've misjudged the pupil's stage of learning or the route planning hasn't been effective (for whatever reason) you may have to make major adaptations such as changing the route without changing the aims of the lesson e.g. if the lesson was about emerging at T Junctions and the pupil couldn't cope with making the decision about when to emerge because of the volume of traffic it might be enough to simply move to an area where there were some more appropriate junctions.

It wouldn't be necessary to change the lesson topic in the above example and it would take a serious misjudgement of the pupil's ability to make it necessary to do so e.g. if the selected lesson topic were roundabouts and the pupil could only move off from a stationary position at a very slow pace and this was preventing them being able to get into gaps because of a lack of skill in using the controls the lesson theme may have to be changed to focus on developing the control skills until the pupil was able to deal with the problem of moving off at varying speeds.

Major adaptations or changes to the original plan could come about as a result of poor planning as I've exampled above but they could also come about as a result of the pupil simply under performing. Most of you will have experienced your pupils making errors or decisions that they wouldn't normally make and it can happen for a variety of reasons and when they do it's important for you to manage it properly for two main reasons:

• Firstly; errors, no matter how they're caused should be managed in the same way; we need to be aware of the 3 instructional aims that we cover in the instruction module and regardless of technique (coaching or instruction) have a conversation with the pupil to get an understanding of what's going wrong and discuss and agree how to fix it.
• If we don't do this it may not be possible for your examiner to understand why things went wrong - they don't know how good or bad your pupil is normally or whether under normal circumstances the lesson topic and route would have been appropriate. So by going through your instructional routine as you would do for anything else that went wrong you'll solve the problem and won't be penalised for it arising in the first place!