By Peter Kray

One of the best things about being an instructor is that every day you spend on snow, you learn something new – about winter, your students, and especially yourself. Basically, you get to learn as you teach.

Putting all those skills together and training for your next level of certification is a great way to test what you know. Just remember that each certification exam, and especially the feedback each candidate receives, is also an essential part of the learning process.

“Everyone who is getting an assessment is going to receive feedback,” said PSIA-AASI Education Development Manager Angelo Ross. “That’s regardless of the outcome of your assessment. How open-minded you are to receiving that information, and assimilating it, is all about how you get better at your job and create a better experience for your students.”

Any snow pro who’s ever had a cert experience where they didn’t reach their goal – and there are plenty of stories of instructors who had multiple tries before they did – knows that feeling of disappointment. But according to Ross, to call any assessment “unsuccessful” would be a mistake.

“I think at whatever level you are, knowing and preparing yourself to hear how you improve is what makes it a success,” he said. “And every instructor at every assessment receives exactly that.”

Trust the Process

The reality is that some people aren’t receptive to feedback, including some students and some educators who have predetermined standards about how they want to teach a class. And that’s a mindset they take before they even hear feedback. Maybe it’s inherent in some aspects of instruction, wanting to have all the answers before the question is even asked.

“We talk about teaching all the time, but maybe sometimes we don’t stress how that is directly connected to learning enough,” said Ross. “To me that’s about taking new information and Integrating it into your existing practice, which takes real effort. You have to be willing to incorporate new ideas or practices in with what you already thought worked best.”

But that’s really the beauty and design of PSIA-AASI’s assessment and certification process. The more you know about how to ski, ride, and teach better lessons, the more you can see what you want to know next because the increased knowledge gives you more tools to identify and understand it.

“Which means that you’re incorporating it into your long-term memory,” said Ross. “When you look at our scoring scale, with instructors who are getting a four, five, or six at the top levels, it really does show a higher level of skill development. All this information is easier for you to access and explain because you’ve put in so much time and effort working on it.”

Ross adds that when you see instructors who receive higher scores for assessments, you know they’ve taken ownership and really become autonomous with the skills and ideas. These instructors can process ideas and actions at a faster pace.

The Community Works

The reality is that examiners don’t want to hold other instructors back. They’re part of the community of snowsports instructors, too, and have seen their own long winters of successes and setbacks. But they also want to see good teaching and riding and will reward that.

“As you reprocess, reformulate, re-access, and reframe all this stuff you’re learning, you consolidate it even further into your long-term memory,” said Ross. “You also see more connections you can make in PSIA-AASI and opportunities to learn more through so many resources.”

The humanness of those involved in the process is another uniting, powerful aspect of the certification and assessment loop according to Ross. “Yes, I love my pins; I like having them,” he expressed. “But that isn’t what I do. What I do is the human stuff.”

Ross maintains that putting in the effort to pay attention and listen to candidates, examiners, and especially what happens during the assessment itself makes a difference. You can then use what you’ve learned to provide candidates with information they can build on, whether it’s for another exam or season, or simply for their own interest in learning and teaching others.

“That’s what makes you a pro,” said Ross. Then you reflect on “How are you going to use this with your students moving forward? How will it make you a better skier or snowboarder? How do you incorporate this into the craft?’ That’s what makes it professional development.”