Visually monitoring the surrounding traffic is key to safe driving. This article examines howtrainee drivers (TDs) enrolled in a Swedish driving school practice checking the blind spot,i.e., the lateral field behind the car not covered by its mirrors. Using multimodal conversationanalysis to examine a collection of blind spot checks (BSCs) drawn from an extended longitudinalcorpus of video recorded driving sessions, we identify how visually oriented instructionsare adapted to TD's driving skills as well as to local traffic demands. The findingsshow that although the BSC instructions are routinely embedded in a systematic “mirrorroutine”, numerous contingencies may force instructors to scale down the visual instructionsto only include the BSC. Furthermore, it was found in line with previous studies that instructionswere fewer and less detailed as the TD's driving progressed, to the point where theinstructions were altogether withheld. In this mode of training, that we term “unassisteddriving”, instructors would reorient their focus to noticing and correcting TD's problematicdriving behaviour, drawing in different ways on their joint interactional experience of previoussessions. The findings contribute to the literature on instructions in mobile settings aswell as to more general discussions of learning as a members' concern in situated interaction.

This paper examines the coordination of vision when formulating place in driver training. Specifically, the study examines the visual practices involved when jointly establishing where to change direction. First, it shows how visual availabilities are exploited in establishing the place for the instructed driving action, and second, how verbal and embodied instructions may be adjusted to new visualities as movement in space ongoingly change the visual landscape. In conclusion, place formulations are questions that seek to establish a mutual reference point. By showing how the parties secure joint visual access to a landmark and how instructions are reflexively related to a changing visual environment, the study highlights the role of shared perception for giving and making sense of directions.

Drivers rely on vision to navigate and interplay with other road users. However, the experienced drivers use of vision differs considerably from the novice’s, with the former having developed what is essentially a “professional vision” (Goodwin, 1994). This compilation thesis seeks to investigate how the ability to see and act in methodic ways is taught and learned in driver training. It takes a special interest in trajectories of learning as displayed in and through participants’ interaction.

Study I shows how the mirror routine, a standard procedure for visually checking the car’s surroundings, is taught and practiced during training. The analysis demonstrates the intractability of instructions and the prospective-retrospective character of members’ procedures for sensemaking as proposed by Garfinkel (1967). Study II shows how the blind spot check, essentially a component of the mirror routine, is introduced and later practiced during driving lessons. Results revealed how instructions are not only sensitive to changes in the surrounding, but also to the trainee’s developing levels of competence. Study III investigates participants’ work of establishing joint vision when deciding on an action point for an upcoming maneuver. It shows how seeing, as a social phenomenon, is an achievement that may require interactional work and coordination of embodied sensorial practices.

The participants’ orientation to the trainee drivers’ progression can be seen in different ways of orienting to learning as shared interactional history, as mutual orientation displayed through explicitly oriented talk, and as changing participation in an ongoing activity. Becoming a member-driver in the community of road users involves a perceptual restructuring of the world as perceived through one’s senses (Nishizaka, 2006). Sensoriality may thus be seen as crucial to processes of learning. In order to develop necessary skills for looking and seeing in traffic, trainee drivers should be given ample opportunity to practice those skills in the setting where the instructed practice will actually be produced.

Förare förlitar sig i stor utsträckning på seendet för att navigera och samspela med andra trafikanter. Den erfarne förarens förmåga att se skiljer sig dock avsevärt från novisens eftersom den erfarne föraren har utvecklat ett slags seende som är utmärkande för en kompetent bilförare (jfr professional vision, Goodwin, 1994). Denna sammanläggningsavhandling undersöker hur specifika praktiker för att se i trafik lärs ut och in i förarutbildning. Avhandlingen fokuserar särskilt på hur spår av lärande synliggörs i och genom deltagarnas interaktion.

Studie I undersöker hur spegelrutinen, en standardprocedur för att söka av den omgivande trafikmiljön, lärs ut. Utifrån tidigare observationer (Garfinkel, 1967) visar studien hur instruktioner är svårhanterliga som pedagogiska verktyg och illustrerar den retrospektiva-prospektiva karaktär som präglar människors meningsskapande. Studie II visar hur praktiken att kolla döda vinkeln, ett av de moment som utgör spegelrutinen, först introduceras och senare övas i trafik. Analysen visar hur instruktioner anpassas till såväl den omgivande miljön som till elevens framväxande kompetens. Studie III undersöker deltagarnas arbete med att etablera ett gemensamt seende när man ska bestämma en navigationspunkt för en körmanöver. Den visar hur seende, som ett socialt fenomen, förutsätter deltagares koordinering av olika sensoriska praktiker.

Tecken på lärande kan urskiljas i deltagarnas orientering mot lärande som ett resultat av samspel över tid, som ömsesidig explicit orientering, och som föränderligt deltagande i en pågående aktivitet. Att lära sig att se som ”en förare” innebär en perceptuell omstrukturering av den omgivande miljön (Nishizaka, 2006). Sensorialitet kan därmed anses utgöra ett centralt inslag i olika lärprocesser. För att lära sig att titta och se trafik behöver körelever därmed ges tillräckliga möjligheter att öva dessa förmågor i en miljö där dessa instruerade praktiker också tillämpas.

Although psychological states have been widely examined as social objects indiscursive psychology (DP), little is known about the interactional organisationof perception. This chapter is about joint sensorial activities in driver training.Specifically, we explore how neophyte drivers are being trained in identifyingand analysing kinetic information—including the car’s vibration, movementand direction—when performing routine car control operations. Throughmultimodal conversation analysis of four video-recorded examples, wedemonstrate how driving instructors gesturally enact sensations to invite theirstudents to “feel” the car’s kinetic status, how they jointly produce coordinatedsensory activities and how the sensoriality of the event is intersubjectivelyestablished through “feel enquiries”. Treating sensory perception asembedded—and embodied—in practical social activity, highlights the benefitsof including corporeality in future DP enquiry.

This paper uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to trace the instructed development of a practical skill (the ‘mirror routine’) in a driving school in Sweden. Focusing the interaction between instructor and student, it applies a micro longitudinal perspective by examining five video excerpts from a total of ≈15 minutes of one driving lesson with a single constellation of student/instructor. Detailed analyses show how, by deploying different instructional resources, instructions are adapted to operate under a range of mobile and infrastructural contingencies, distinguishing between stationary and mobile instructions while considering the reflexive relation between the two. By and large, learning the mirror routine is a complex task in which the participants must deal with issues of instructions, temporality and practical multi-activity at the same time.