Skills delivery

EDIP.  This is short for Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice.

Explanations

 Explanations will cater for everyone but will be the main source of input for the auditory style of learner.  If the explanation
is rushed or unrehearsed it will have serious impact on the auditory learner’s ability to carry out the finished drill.  Delivered in
exactly the same way as theory explanations, for any given skill we will explain a few steps at a time.  That way, we don’t overload
the short term memory.  So you would explain two or three steps of a drill only rather than the whole drill all at once. 
 As soon as two or three steps of a drill or skill have been explained, a
Demonstration is given.

 Demonstrations will be of particular interest to the visual style of learner.  Again, even small errors that the instructor believes went
‘un noticed’ will have been picked up and mentally copied by the visual learner so demos always need to be accurate and clear. 
As an instructor your position may change throughout a demonstration so that at all times the students can see which parts of the
equipment are involved and how they are to interact with them.
 The demonstration must contain the same information visually as was presented in the explanation as the next step for a student
will be
Imitation.

 Imitation of any skill in small steps lends itself to the hands on or kinaesthetic learners.  Up to this point, you may have only gained
input with two thirds your students and so for the instructor to watch the imitation of the two or three steps is vital.  This will
immediately identify if that part of the skill has been carried out successfully and it will allow the instructor to move on.  The
process of explaining, demonstrating and the students imitating will continue in small stages until the skill or drill has been
completed.  On completion we carry out confirmation of the skill.
Practice

 The practice of a skill as part of the instruction follows a sequence that allows the students to take gradual ownership of that
skill whilst allowing an instructor to observe and fault check as appropriate.
 Practice phases are broken down into a
 Talk through
 Reminds
 Word of command
The Practice
 

Talk Through

 100% of the information is being presented to the student in a verbal manner with the student expected to carry out each stage of
a drill as instructed.  The talk through should mirror your explanation stage in that the skill or drill is broken down into the same
small parts.  What you are aiming for is concise instructions of what to do followed by students carrying out that part.  Avoid talking
over the top of their drills; instead take the time to observe as part of your confirmation that they are doing it correctly, wait until
they are all at the same stage then continue with the next steps to complete the skill.
 Once the whole skill or drill has been talked through the next practice is with
Reminds

 Reminds are smaller amounts of information presented on the same skill.  It will be the important, often forgotten parts to a skill or
drill that will form the basis of your reminders.  In a way, this is like giving 50% of the instructions and expecting the students to
recall the other 50% from memory although 50% is not a rule of thumb.  For a skill with fewer steps, the reminders can be given for
the whole of the drill at once.  For more complex skills with many stages, the reminders may still break the drill down and for this;
the last part of your reminders should be where you want the students to go up to before reminding about the next step.  For
reminders to be effective in confirming a skill, we should ensure that they do not repeat the talk through.  Only by omitting
information can we ensure that the student is using recall to fill in the gaps.  If we leave no gaps to fill in, there is no confirmation.
 The reminds phase is an ideal time to observe and check for faults as it will be the first time the students attempt to carry out a skill
without 100% of the information.
 Once reminders have been effective, we need to confirm that the student is capable of carrying out the skill with no further input
other than a
Word of Command

 The student is now expected to recall 100% of the information and carry out the skill unaided.  Only with good observation and
meticulous fault checking will you know if the skill has been assimilated; a lapse in fault checking at this stage can be as counter
productive as accepting an incorrect answer to a question.