Knowing Is Not Teaching: Closing the Instructor Gap in Aviation

By Debbie Curl-Nagy

WATS 2026, Cabin Crew Stream

Transforming subject matter experts into high-performing cabin crew instructors requires a competency-based, evidence-driven approach. 

When an organization needs instructors, it looks to its best performers. It’s a pattern repeated across industries, and aviation is no exception. The most experienced crew members, the technically proficient operators, and the people who have seen it all and done it well are the ones who get promoted into training roles.

This logic is flawed not because subject matter experts lack value, but because technical expertise and instructional capability are fundamentally different skill sets. Conflating the two can produce mediocre trainers and measurable gaps in knowledge transfer that show up on the line in safety outcomes, operational performance, and the quality of the passenger experience.

A more deliberate, research-backed approach for transforming subject matter experts into high-performing cabin crew instructors requires focusing on building core instructional competencies and a more deliberate selection and development process.

Expert Does Not Equal Instructor

The skills that make someone exceptional at a technical job are not the same skills that make them effective at developing others. High performers tend to operate automatically. Their decision-making is fast, intuitive, and largely invisible, and they often internalize processes to the point where they no longer notice the individual steps. This is precisely what makes them good at what they do, but it also makes them difficult to learn from.

The ability to engage a learner, structure content for comprehension, surface tacit decision-making, and provide targeted developmental feedback requires distinct skills that cannot be acquired through operational experience alone.

This isn’t a new observation in learning science, but it remains underapplied in operational training environments, particularly in aviation, where subject matter experts have historically been the default choice for instructor roles with limited additional preparation.

Five Skills That Close the Gap

Turning strong performers into effective trainers starts with developing five core competencies.

1. Structured task decomposition is the ability to break complex, automated skills into discrete, sequenced steps that a learner can follow. What feels effortless to an expert is often a dense chain of micro-decisions invisible to the novice. Making that chain visible and organizing it in a way that manages cognitive load, is a teachable skill.
2. Visible decision-making requires experts to narrate their thinking. Experts think quickly and implicitly. Effective instructors learn to externalize the considerations, cues, and judgements that inform a good decision in real time. This allows learners to develop not just procedural knowledge but genuine situational awareness.
3. Showcasing realistic scenarios in training is about knowing which scenarios to use, what information to include, at what point in the learning process to introduce them, and how to integrate them in a way that supports transfer to the operational environment. Used well, scenarios bridge the gap between knowing and doing. Used poorly, they add complexity without adding value.
4. Questioning over telling is one of the hardest shifts for subject matter experts to make. Experts are accustomed to being the source of answers. Stepping back and using questions to draw out a learner’s own reasoning can feel like an abdication of expertise, but in practice, it’s one of the most effective ways to consolidate learning and build independent judgement in trainees.
5. Providing targeted feedback looks like behavioral, specific feedback that tells learners exactly what they did well, what they missed, and how to improve. Developing this capability in instructors requires deliberate practice and coaching.

Three Considerations for Selecting and Developing Instructors

Broaden the criteria for instructor selection. Though technical competence remains necessary, it’s not sufficient. Organizations should also look for communication skills, adaptability, and a genuine orientation toward helping others develop—qualities that can be assessed to predict instructional effectiveness more reliably than operational track record alone.

Resist the temptation to develop all skills at once. Focus on three to four core instructional skills and build from there. Overloading newly appointed instructors with comprehensive training programs before they’ve acquired foundational capabilities is a common and counterproductive mistake.

Observe instructors in action and provide structured feedback and coaching on their instructional performance. Though resource intensive, this is where the greatest gains are made. This requires time, trained observers, and a culture that treats instructor development as an ongoing process rather than a one-time induction. Instructors who receive regular, targeted feedback on their teaching consistently evolve their approach. Those who don’t tend to revert to their default mode: telling, demonstrating, and hoping that their expertise is contagious.

From Delivering Information to Fueling Transformation

Delivering expertise informs learners but translating that same expertise through training transforms them. The difference isn’t the depth of the subject matter expert’s knowledge; it’s the quality of the instructional process through which that knowledge reaches the learner.

For organizations in the simulation and training sector, this has direct implications. Realizing the full value of investments in high-fidelity training environments, realistic scenarios, and advanced assessment tools requires the instructors operating within those environments to transfer what they know. Technology creates the conditions for effective training. Instructional capability determines whether those conditions are used well.

Instead of selecting instructors by asking who knows the most, start asking who helps others perform. This small shift can produce substantial outcomes on the line and in the cabin.

This article was inspired by Debbie Curl-Nagy’s presentation on “Transforming SMEs into High-Performing Cabin Crew Instructors: A Competency-Based, Evidence-Driven Approach” at the 2026 World Aviation Training Summit.

A Transformation Solution Partner at TiER1 Performance, Debbie Curl-Nagy partners with aviation leaders to drive organizational strategies and to activate solutions that support safety, customer experience, and operational excellence.

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