On December 7, the NSS-CDS Board of Directors approved a second set of Standards and Procedures revisions. These focused primarily on updates and revisions to our instructor development process. These are changes you need to be aware of.
A change embraced throughout the new leadership standards is the use of industry-standard titles and terminology. This way, most divers will know what an NSS-CDS professional can do, just by his or her title. These titles include:
Cave Divemaster
As the name implies, a Cave Divemaster may:
- Organize and conduct guided dives for certified Cavern and Cave Divers.
- Act as a teaching assistant in NSS-CDS courses.
This is the first step in the NSS-CDS instructor development process. Instructor candidates must complete this step before beginning any further training or internship.
Any Active-status NSS-CDS Instructor authorized to teach to the full Cave Diver level or beyond may teach the Divemaster course. You can learn more by consulting the latest standards. We will also describe this program’s features and benefits in a future article.
Assistant Cave Instructor
This is the second step in the NSS-CDS instructor development process. To achieve this rating, candidates must complete a program of self-study, followed by a two-day Instructor Development Course (IDC). With the Training Chairman’s authorization, either two Instructor Evaluators or one Instructor Evaluator and one Instructor Trainer may conduct this program.
An Assistant Cave Instructor may do everything a Cave Divemaster can, plus conduct Apprentice Cave Diver course training dives or individual training exercises, providing they do so under direct Cave Instructor supervision. Even though it may be the Assistant Cave Instructor who is conducting the dive or exercise, it is the supervising Cave Instructor who must evaluate final student performance.
Apprentice Cave Instructor
The third step in the NSS-CDS instructor development process is Apprentice Cave Instructor. As the name implies, these instructors may conduct all non-specialty CDS courses leading up to Apprentice Cave Diver, including:
- Cavern Diver
- CDS Basics Orientation
To achieve this rating, candidates must:
- Complete all requirements for Assistant Cave Instructor.
- Observe, assist with or co-teach at least two additional Apprentice Cave Diver courses.
The final step in the process is to teach a complete NSS-CDS Apprentice Cave Diver course under the direct supervision of either two CDS Instructor Evaluators or one Instructor Evaluator and one Instructor Trainer. If the evaluators are satisfied with candidate performance, he or she will receive the Apprentice Cave Instructor rating.
Cave Instructor
This is the final step in the instructor development process. To achieve this rating, candidates must:
- Meet all requirements for Apprentice Cave Instructor.
- Independently teach at least four Apprentice Cave Diver courses.
- Observe, assist with or co-teach at least three “full” Cave Diver courses.
- Teach a complete NSS-CDS “full” Cave Diver course under the direct supervision of either two CDS Instructor Evaluators or one Instructor Evaluator and one Instructor Trainer.
Again, if the evaluators are satisfied with candidate performance, he or she will receive the full Cave Instructor rating.
A new approach to evaluation
In the old standards, Instructor Sponsor was considered a leadership level. In the new standards, the term sponsor refers to something you do, not something you are.
Starting with Assistant Cave Instructor, every candidate must have at least one sponsor who submits a letter attesting to the candidate’s readiness to proceed to the next level. This person will also act as the candidate’s mentor, shepherding him or her along every step in the process.
To act as a sponsor, a CDS Instructor must hold one of two ratings:
- Instructor Trainer: This is an NSS-CDS Instructor who is authorized to staff IDCs and instructor evaluations.
- Instructor Evaluator: This is an NSS-CDS Instructor who is authorized to conduct IDCs and instructor evaluations with the Training Chairman’s approval.
As much as possible, we are trying to get away from relying on traditional two-day Instructor Evaluation Institutes. As anyone who has staffed or conducted such programs knows, these institutes create an environment which bears little resemblance to real-world teaching. As such, they do a poor job of reflecting candidates’ actual teaching ability.
What we are moving to now is having evaluators watch Apprentice and Cave Instructor candidates teach actual courses. This provides for a much more realistic assessment of candidate potential.
What about Crossovers?
Our goals in updating NSS-CDS instructor development standards include making the process easier to comprehend and making it easier for leadership candidates to understand where they stand. In so doing, we hope to increase the number of candidates taking advantage of this opportunity.
In the meantime, however, the fact remains most instructors who join the CDS do so by crossing over. The new standards address this.
Prerequisites for crossing over include holding the equivalent of full NSS-CDS Cave Instructor certification from a diver training organization recognized by the NSS-CDS. This includes being evaluated by at least two different Instructor Trainers/Evaluators. Additionally, candidates must have:
- Taught at the full Cave Instructor level for at least one year.
- Conducted at least three Cave Diver courses resulting in the certification of at least five students.
- Passed an NSS-CDS Standards and Procedures exam.
Our preferred method of conducting crossovers is to have either two Instructor Evaluators or one Trainer and one Evaluator observe the candidate teach a complete course equivalent to NSS-CDS Apprentice Cave Diver. Even though we are crossing instructors over at the full Cave level, we chose the Apprentice course as it is more skill-intensive.
If the crossover candidate performs satisfactorily, he or she receives their NSS-CDS Cave Instructor rating.
Questions?
You will most likely find the answers to any questions you may have regarding NSS-CDS leadership training in current Standards and Procedures. If you cannot find the answer there, contact the Training Chairman.