Canadian ski teaching has made great leaps ahead in the last number of years. The evolution of content and training is largely driven by course conductors who are committed to a better understanding of skiing, learning and teaching. Over the years their voices have been heard through committees and through the CSIA field staff.
In spring 2009 the Steering (now Education) Committee created a vision statement to guide future programs and certification.
Drawing heavily on survey information from Snow School Directors, members, and course conductors, the program vision includes:
- Accessible training – in shorter regional training blocks
- Real-world training – “competency based” training and evaluation
- An evaluation system that reflects what we understand of short and long term development
- Expanded training content and on-line resources.
With these priorities, the CSIA is looking at other ways to train and certify its members. Certification could eventually be the accumulation of “credits” in shorter, focused training modules. These training blocks could potentially be combined with real world credits accumulated in snow schools.
“Testing” to pass levels is another issue. The current evaluation of teaching is “peer teaching” in imposed scenarios. This may work for entry instruction levels, but makes it hard to evaluate real world skills. One possibility is testing in “real-life” situations. At the very least, advanced teaching exams should reflect the decision making and a realistic time frame.
This season sees a few first steps towards the program vision. There is now the option of Level 2 as two independent 3-day blocks, offering easier access while expanding the content. A family of interactive on-line training is being developed, with some in place already. These e-preps are designed as course pre-requisites, but they are of interest to any member. And the Level 3 teaching exam format has been changed from 2 short teaching scenarios to one long one, in the interest of evaluating in a realistic scenario.
While the final form is still unknown, the future path to certification could be more complete and “real world” oriented – increasing the value of good instructors to snow schools across the country. Yet for the members it must remain fun, engaging and accessible. This will ensure the future of our organisation and our position as leaders in ski teaching.
John Gillies
Eastern Program Director
