Instructor to student ratio - what's ideal?

[Phoenix]

I don't like more than 1:4, if you get even one diver who guzzles air then you end up having to try and rush the sessions. This obviously isn't good, either for you or the students, I think the PADI limit of 1:8 is too high.

Ian

[MattS]

I voted other. It depends on the students and the lesson.

In the pool I prefer 1:1 for all but lifts and rescues. Most of the skills are personal skills, so there is no problem making sure the student sees the demonstration. At this stage it is vital that the student gets as many opportunitites to repeat the skill as possible. If you are teaching two people time constraints mean they only get 1/2 the practice. The very worse case is having a very quick student alongside a nervous student. The quick guy ends up sitting there whilst you try to do the remedial work with the nervous one.

For open water lessons 2:1 works well for most students, most of the time. In the early lessons I still like 1:1. It is sods law that the moment you trun your attention to one student, the other will decide to lose buoyancy control or wander out of reach. Once they have proved that they are capable of staying where they are put and not drifting to the surface the moment you look away, I move onto 2:1

For CBLs in OW two instructors and two students diving as a team works well. One instructor can stay at the bottom with the student that is watching the CBL demo. When the student comes to practice one instructor stays at the bottom of the line while the other is on the surface. The instructor on the surface can then make sure that the drill concludes with the rescuer inflating both their own and the casualties BC.

[vulcan]

I've always believed 1:2 is the ideal. Instructor can observe both trainees at once, trainees learn to dive as a buddy pair and don't become 100% reliant on the instructor.

I'm with Jen on this one......we know an Instructor can often manage more but usually at the expense of the students who sometimes miss out on Instructor attention when the class gets too big.

[Tom Winters]

You would think that 1:1 would be a foolproof ratio, but back in the early 90's, I knew an instructor in Hawaii who still managed to kill his student during her o/w checkout dives.

[wreckweasel]

Ratios vary depending on learning objectives and environment.

1:1 isnt always good in as much as the students focus on a student/instructor relationship, when you're trying to teach them skills and buddy/team practise.

1:2 works for most, but represents a poor cost profile.

1:3 works well when teaching OHE etc

1:4 can work well for rescues....especially if its a full scenario

larger groups start becoming interesting for control....

Theres many ways to skin a furry mouse chaser!

[jlwarlow]

I've always thought 1:2 is the best, when doing skills you can demo on one while the other watches, and then you get them to practice on each other while you watch to make sure they DIR Any higher ratio and then the instructor is task loaded trying to keep an eye out on the students and it must increase in difficult to get the students to practice the skills when there's a lot more of them. Just my pennies worth.

[Decodiver]

1:2 is good for me, needless to say conditions may prescribe that this is adapted.

I like 1:2 because the student can watch his buddy perform skills and can offer feedback also.

Cheers

Dave Cooper

[hopper]

I did my O/W course 1:1 at the time it was very reasuring as I had encountered problems on a try dive with mask clearence, however that said I did find it strange the 1st time I was buddied with someone who was not the instructor. That is probably true of most courses though, it was strange when I got in the car on my own after always having a driving instructor with me.

The one thing about 1:1 was I didn't have time to "worry" about the mask clearence whilst others did it (I hadn't informed my instructor about my misgivings) I had to just get on with it.

All that said, I see other learning in thier pool sessions and see them encouraging each other to complete the tasks. So I would probably have to conclude that the ideal ratio will vary depending on the ability of both the students and instructor.

"I sit on the fence do I"

[TerryH]

Well it is 1:2 no question and no none of the others work. Why?

1:1 Sounds good but has two fatal flaws (You and the student). How are you
going to properly demonstate, technique/grips etc. if the person you are
teaching is 100mm away from your face!

By having a second diver you can demo on one and rotate, so everybody
can see what you doing. It's also safer. Without a DM or assistant who is
looking at your student when you are mask clearing? At least with another
pair of eyes in the water you may have a chance of doing something.
What of FF. I know of one occasion where both Instructors + students
regs FF. Use the pony you say, well that FF as well. At least you'd have
another air source.

1:3 Far to busy. Unless it's clear, warm or very advanced courses this ratio
will always put a student in danger. Try CBL/AAS? Two divers doing it
third watching. Ok position the 3rd so you can see him through the arms
of the other two. Now you start the lift. Say it goes wrong. You can
control the pair, but not the 3rd "spare". Now you have three on the surface
and one "lost" on the bottom. Even at Horsea this can be fatal.

1:4 Forget it unless you are in the pool and even then it takes to long. Get an Assistant and then you are 1:2 again.

No matter how you look at it optimum is 1:2

TerryH

[D.D.J]

hi
i voted for 1:2, but i think that it depends on the students and what they are like in the water...especially in cold water where there are many students learning for the first time to dive in drysuits...which can be a bit tricky until you get th knack of it, but very rewarding when you can. turns out though that i di myy open water 1:1 simply because i was an egger beaver and all the others that were on my course wanted to do it at a later which i wasn't really after waiting for ages to be certified, but all my other courses since have had other students on,all with different ratios.