‘You Don’t Need Me Shouting Here’: When Instructors Observe Learners in Silence

Figures & data

Figure 1. Standard 20 × 40 dressage arena. Copyright: howtodressage.com.

Extract 0. 20220425–1 Instructor A 2–03.54

Table 1. Instructor talk vs. silence across the data set.

	Total instruction time	Time filled with talk, incl. silences up to 2 seconds	Silences of 2 seconds and longer	Initial directives followed by more talk	Directives followed by silence for the duration of the instructed action
20220329 Instructor A	35 m 04s	26 m 43s (76.2%)	8 m 21s (23.8%)	84 (82.4%)	18 (17.6%).
20220330 Instructor B	28 m 59s	20 m 1s (69.1%)	8 m 58s (30.9%)	65 (69.1%)	29 (30.9%)
20220331 Instructor B	34 m 58s	27 m 17s (78%)	7 m 41 m (22%)	55 (62.5%)	33 (37.5%)
20220425–1 Instructor A BEGINNER	29 m 13s	28 m 9s (96.3%)	1 m 4s (3.7%)	88 (91.7%)	8 (8.3%)
20220425–2 Instructor A JUMPING	17 m 57s	14 m 41s (81.8%)	3 m 16s (18.2%)	25 (96.2%)	1 (3.8%)
20220523 Instructor C JUMPING	28 m 35s	21 m 49s (76.3%)	6 m 46s (23.7%)	21 (80.8%)	5 (19.2%)
20220525 Instructor C	32 m 37s	27 m 26s (84.1%)	5 m 11s (15.9%)	26 (89.7%)	3 (10.3%)
20220527 Instructor C	33 m 26s	27 m 58s (83.6%)	5 m 28s (16.4%)	40 (87%)	6 (13%)
20220605–1 Instructor D	48 m 52s	35 m 23s (72.4%)	13 m 29s (27.6%)	47 (69.1%)	21 (30.9&)
20220605–2 Instructor D	34 m 27s	26 m 1s (75.5%)	8 m 26s (24.5%)	41 (68.3%)	19 (31.7%)
20220706 Instructor D	46 m 21s	29 m 4s (62.7%)	17 m 17s (37.3%)	38 (52.8%)	34 (47.2%)
20220724–1 Instructor E BEGINNER	22 m 58s	21 m 7s (91.9%)	1 m 51s (8.1%)	36 (75%)	12 (25%)
20220724–2 Instructor E JUMPING	43 m 51s	38 m 35s (88%)	5 m 16s (12%)	55 (93.2%)	4 (6.8%)
20230207 Instructor F JUMPING	24 m 35s	16 m 41s (67.1%)	7 m 54s (32.1%)	7 (70%)	3 (30%)
20230228 Instructor F	26 m	19 m 17s (74.2%)	6 m 43s (25.8%)	61 (83.6%)	12 (16.4%)
20230327 Instructor A	37 m 41s	32 m 41s (86.7%)	5 m (13.3%)	79 (89.8%)	9 (10.2%)
TOTAL	8 h 45 m 34s	6 h 52 m 53s (78.6%)	1 h 52 m 41s (21.4%)	768 (78%)	217 (22%)

Extract 1. 20220331 Instructor B 1–16.31

Extract 2. 20220330 Instructor B 1–8.55

Extract 3. 20220527 Instructor C1–8.19

Extract 4. 20220329 Instructor A 2–6.16

Extract 5. 20230207 Instructor F 1–9.43

Extract 6. 20220605–1 Instructor D 1–10.00

Extract 7. 20230228 Instructor F 2–9.54

Extract 8. 20220329 Instructor A 1–1.03

Extract 9. 20220329 Instructor A 1–2.48

Extract 10. 20220706 Instructor D 2–4.15

Extract 11. 20230327 Instructor A 1–19.07

Extract 12. 20220724–2 Instructor E 3–3.09