AUSTRALIA APSI Teaching Approach

By Derek Tate

Delivered by Nick Jones

  

This was my first on-snow workshop of Interski 2023 and Nick did a great job explaining and illustrating the Australian Teaching Approach. He clearly presented the 9 lesson essentials, Multimodal Communication and the What, Why & How all of which are underpinned by the APSI Customer Service Model – CARE. And we got plenty of opportunity to put this approach into action with other workshop attendees. It was fun skiing with and getting to know everyone.

Nick's initial point for the workshop was that in Australia their guests have to travel a long way to go skiing and much further than in some other parts of the world. We were tasked with riding the first chairlift of the day with someone we did not know and finding out how far away they were from their local ski area. The answers were, not surprisingly, very varied but the point about this discussion was that the Australian Teaching Approach is structured in a way that ensures that guest experience is everything and that by following a relatively simple model instructors can make sure that the 'experience' is worth the effort of travelling a long distance.

The 9 Lesson Essentials
These are simply the nine steps that every instructor should follow to ensure a good lesson is delivered. The first two steps are 'Introduction' and 'Identifying Students and Their Goals'. By following these two initial steps the instructor can then move into a cycle of six further steps which include 'Planning the Lesson', 'Presenting Information', 'Demonstrating' (from different angles), 'Practicing', 'Movement Analysis', 'Feedback and Correction'. The idea here is that this 'cycle' can be repeated as many times as necessary/time allows within a lesson.

These six steps seem to be a repackaging of the EDICT model – Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, Correction, Trials/Testing. I can remember this original model from the 1980's when I was training as a ski instructor and it is included in the Ski Instructor's Handbook – Teaching Tools and Techniques which I co-authored with Andrew Lockerbie and was published in 2012. https://books2read.com/SIH-Teaching Of course there is nothing wrong with 'repackaging' as this is how our sport evolves and is how different nations can craft their methodologies to suit their audience. And the six steps that have some similarity and crossover with EDICT sit within the nine overall steps. And the final ninth step is the 'Lesson Summary'.

 

Multimodal Communication
This is about catering for different learner types. The multimodal model is a holistic way of communicating that includes visual, auditory, feeling and reading/writing. By following the aforementioned 9 lesson essentials the instructor can ensure that learners with different preferences i.e., those who need to see demonstrations, those who need clear explanations, those who need to get on and do it, those who need to use their senses and feel hear etc. are all catered for. Again this has a lot of crossover with the well known learning styles acronym VAK which stands for Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic. This learning styles model has been widely used in sport and again was part of my education as a ski instructor with the British Association of Snowsport Instructors (BASI) and Snowsport Scotland (SSS).

 

What, Why & How
This is a way of keeping communication simple in relation to setting and doing tasks. What needs to be done? Why are you doing it? And how do you do it?

I have always stressed to instructors that I train that the learner should know why they are being asked to do something and how it will benefit their performance. In other words what is the purpose of the drill. By identifying what needs to be done and then clearly explaining the why and how the learner is more likely to buy-in to the process and thus enjoy greater success.

To view the APSI Teaching Approach handout click here.

 

APSI Customer Service Model – CARE
While we did not go into this model in detail during the workshop the key message was that APSI customer service is about going above and beyond guest's expectations and this is done by attending to four core principles:

 

C. Culture

 

A. Authentic

 

R. Relate

 

E. Empathy

 

What this model shows is that APSI are very serious about creating unforgettable and fantastic guest experiences and the model provides the depth of information that instructors need in order to develop their customer care skills and put the teaching approach into action.

To view the CARE model click here.

 

 The cool kangaroo logo on the Australian uniform

To view all the APSI Interski materials go to www.apsi.net.au/interski2023

 

Key learning outcomes
1.     The Australian Teaching Approach is a simple structure that instructors can follow. And for the less experienced instructor this is very helpful. Greater depth can be added as their knowledge increases and experience is gained. By following the structure, and continually returning to it, instructors can ensure that they deliver great lessons.

2.     While the teaching approach could be seen as a repackaging of previous theories and models (as highlighted earlier) the APSI have created a structure that is designed for their culture and the perceived needs of the Australian guest.

3.     The Australian Teaching Approach is underpinned by a detailed and comprehensive customer service model that ensures instructors can really develop their skills at creating experiences that are unforgettable and go above and beyond expectations.

 

What others from team Australia said
Paul Lorenz, Demo Team Head Coach and APSI General Manager said, “Interski 2023 in Levi, Finland, has set a new benchmark for Interski congresses. The conference facilities, slopes, and organisation were world class and really contributed to an outstanding experience. All Nations presented very well, and I see the world aligning more closely on many aspects of Snowsport instruction. It was the first Interski for many of the Australian team members and their passion was incredibly inspiring. I am very much looking forward to working with this Team to process the information gathered at Interski and evolve our organisation!”