A Holistic Approach to Pilot Technical Training

The University of Newcastle's Aviation programme has adopted various teaching philosophies over its formative years, to its current holistic emphasis on the development of cognitive structures in the student pilot throughout the programme. The development of appropriate tertiary educational precepts to satisfy the requirements of academic endeavor and the needs of the aviation industry has provided an opportunity to develop from carte-blanche an emerging discipline of career aviators. The paper argues for the adoption of a holistic approach to the needs of the graduate, the aviation industry and of academia, as a necessary basis for a University Aviation programme and proposes an integrated treatment of the technical training curriculum structured on schema development. The advantages of this approach are considered in terms of its implications to aircrew situation awareness and problem solving ability, examined from the perspective of the development of expertise and of skill proficiency in aircrew.