Driving is a complex task that requires drivers to systematically process information and execute timely, low-risk decisions. Historically, driver education was conceived to teach drivers how to manipulate the vehicle, with little emphasis placed upon the decision making process. When the crash history of drivers is reviewed, we find that more than 99 percent of the drivers that are involved in automobile crashes have the skill to operate the vehicle. However, the element that is often lacking is effective and consistent information processing. To improve the quality of novice driver training, there is a need to have driver education teachers become more effective and capable of teaching risk-prevention behavioral patterns. Traditionally, driver education teacher preparation fails to give driver educators adequate training in the science of driving. Many teacher preparation programs are conducted during too short of a training period to allow the instructor candidates to evaluate and formulate risk-prevention behaviors into their own style of driving. Often, driver education teachers are prepared to teach the classroom phase under the illogical fallacy that a teacher candidate already knows how to drive by virtue of having a driver’s license. Such structuring results in the teacher’s in-car preparation falling short of acquiring and learning how to teach necessary risk-prevention behavioral patterns. Our philosophy is different.
      The science of driving is composed of many habitual actions that a driver must acquire over a period of time. The science of driving is highly orchestrated under a very deliberately structured taxonomy incorporating vision training and decision-making skills. The odds that a driver will learn to acquire a lifelong style of empowering driving habits without having had formal education is as likely as winning a state lottery. Drivers need to receive effective risk management behavioral training. Such training can only occur when instructors learn to perform a systematic method of driving that must become their internal style of driving.
      To meet the current needs of helping novice drivers-- as well as all drivers-- to reduce the risk of driving, the National Institute For Driver Behavior has proposed a new five-tiered structuring of how driver educators are to be trained and certified.