After having to cancel their book launch due to the fuel crisis, Hayley Pells and Tom Denton sit down to chat with PMM ’s Kieran Nee about learning and the automotive industry and what their aims for this textbook were.
At a whopping 578 pages, you can get a fair idea of the scope of the second edition of Automotive Technician Training: Theory just by looking at it. Indeed, authors Tom Denton and Hayley Pells freely admit the level of ambition behind the book, telling me the textbook is designed to accompany the young learner from the beginning of their automotive journey, through to their last days of college, finishing up with a Level 3 course in automotive repair.
While Tom is a seasoned professional when it comes to textbook writing, having served automotive apprentices well since 1993, this is the first time Hayley has made the jump from articles into book-length content. “I am proud of what we’ve achieved,” she tells me, “it is a great feeling to have your name out there on a published book – especially one that will help the next generation.”
Learning focus
Indeed, both Hayley and Tom will be familiar names to anyone reading, not least because both have contributed extensively to the pages of PMM, including Tom’s recent series of articles on learning within the automotive industry. Newcomers to the industry will now be familiar with the pair as well, even if they don’t quite know it themselves at first.
Unable to put petrol in our cars and deprived of an in-person launch to the industry, we turn to the firmly 21st Century solution of the video call, which promptly lets us down. It seems the apex of computer technology, of which both Tom and Hayley seem to be connoisseurs (leaving me, my pencil and notepad and my handheld recorder firmly behind), and two years’ worth of practice can still throw up obstacles at the last moment. Tom’s voice comes through as though from the bottom of a well. We switch to a more universally accepted platform and, to much delight, Tom can once again be heard perfectly.
Hayley fills me in on the commercial reception to the book so far: “The presales have performed really well. Tom is particularly popular in Australia, which means he has to wake up really early in the morning to deal with. It’s also doing really well in India, which was surprising. It’s nice to be international authors isn’t it, Tom?” she adds with a smile, to which Tom wryly replies: “Don’t worry Hayley, the novelty soon wears off!”
Jokes aside, Tom and Hayley’s motivation behind the book clearly has more to do with the classroom than any prospects of a movie deal, and their joint concern regarding the best way to convey the right information to the next generation of automotive technicians is inspiring.
“The really unique thing about this textbook is its capacity to deliver a blended learning experience,” Hayley explains. “There is an accepted situation within the industry that there are a lot of undiagnosed problems, mostly based around learning and reading. To hand someone a great big book with all the information in can be incredibly daunting. So that’s why Tom emphasises a blended learning approach to be delivered through a Further Education facility, incorporating wraparound support to ensure that the message is understood.”
Blended approach
Ever since Tom began authoring textbooks in the early 90s, when still a teacher, he has been focussed on pushing the boundaries of learning beyond the confines of the textbook, even incorporating the internet in its early days. “Alongside studying lots of technology, something I’ve always tried to do is studying education itself. I find it’s important to take an approach that’s part way between the two strands – technical information and methods of learning. We need to provide information to people in a way that can be consumed easily.
“I’ve seen many changes within education, including people saying textbooks are dead and that everything has to be done online,” Tom continues. “Then all of a sudden, people realise that doesn’t work, for various reasons. As I’ve been saying in PMM recently, a blended learning approach is the best way. Keep education and learning at the forefront, rather than an ideology on how to teach.”
Learning, it seems, is coming full circle. As the UK wakes up to the fact that it is lacking in technical skills, schools are beginning to reintroduce hands on subjects that haven’t been seen at young ages since the 60s. Within the one conversation, Hayley tells us about a college she visited recently that had a workshop with 20 lathes inside, and also about how she recently gave an online lecture from her own home to 250 different schools. On the face of it these two things seem at odds with each other, with one looking backwards to the methods of the past and one towards the future and the often unerring belief that nothing else matters quite so much as digital technology. Of course, the coming together of these two things at the same time speaks volumes about the efficacy of Tom’s blended learning approach.
Lesson plan
“The most effective lesson plan in the world is the most basic one,” Tom explains. “Tell the students the same thing over and over, but each time use a different method of teaching. Explain it to them, have them read it from the textbook, use the internet and videos, prepare practical demonstrations, discuss it. Not only do you reinforce the message, but you cover all the different styles that people learn in.”
“Throughout this learning journey,” Hayley chimes in, “which ideally incorporates a number of methods, I think it is incredibly reassuring to have a textbook like this. One of the fantastic things about the automotive aftermarket is you can carry your learning up to the point that suits you and you can go at your own chosen speed. There aren’t many textbooks within education that can support you from the start to finish, taking you through 3 or 4 years of learning. That sounds like excellent value to me, if I may say so myself!”
