Resources to help people drive to the standard     An introduction to changing driver behaviour

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					People's driving behaviour (how they choose to drive) results mostly from what they think and feel: it has less to do with what they know or can do. To change how people drive you must change how they think and feel. Broadly speaking, you can change how people think and feel with two approaches. In the first, you let them see and hear those behaviours you believe accompany appropriate thoughts and feelings. Describing the thoughts and feelings will help. Then you either reward people when they repeat these behaviours, or you cause them to anticipate discomfort if they stop behaving the desired way. With the second approach you stimulate people to uncover flaws in their current thoughts and feelings. Then you guide participants towards discovering valuable alternatives You can use these approaches separately or together. The first approach (seeing and hearing the behaviours) relies heavily on your being able to influence the person's environment. To succeed, the influence must apply from the first time they see and hear the desired behaviours until long afterwards. Some people call it a behaviourist approach. It's similar to how you might train an animal. This approach has the advantage that so long as the person behaves appropriately, the accuracy of the thoughts and feelings you desire them to have are less important. If you have little control over the person's environment, you will need to rely more on the second approach. The second approach relies heavily on your teaching the person how to observe, question and better understand his or her own behaviour. People learn when they are motivated to discover and frequently ask themselves the right questions and seek out the answers. Some people call this approach to changing behaviour a cognitive or humanist approach. Here are some examples of questions that could contribute to a person changing their behaviour, Why do I feel comfortable driving through this intersection at 50 km/h when I know I could not stop if another driver ran the red light? Why do I accept higher levels of risk - an increased chance of hurting myself or someone else - when I respond to emergency cases? Why do I feel awkward when someone gives me feedback about my driving? Why is that, in spite of knowing I should check my vehicle when I start my shift, I sometimes don't, even though I have enough time? Do not think for a moment that simply providing people with good information will change how they drive. Many of the resources on AmbulanceDriving.com are just information. They will help people understand the driving standard and begin to learn how to demonstrate parts of it. But this in itself is not learning. Ultimately, a permanent change in the person's normal driving behaviour must occur. When using the resources keep this in mind. For ideas and help in changing people's thoughts and feelings through training and education read Be guided by research themes. The Quick Reference for Driving Instructors will give you more ideas on how to help people ask themselves questions and change the way they drive.				Resource

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