Definition
A principle of learning which states that a student learns best when they are physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to learn, and learns poorly or not at all when they are not. An instructor's effectiveness depends in large part on recognizing when a student is in a suitable state to absorb new material and on creating conditions that support that readiness.
Plain English
People learn well when they are prepared and willing to learn, and they learn badly when they are tired, distracted, upset, or uninterested. Teaching works best when the student is in the right frame of mind to take it in.
Context Anchor
Seen in aviation instructor training and flight lesson planning, especially when deciding whether a student is ready for a new task or flight activity.
Derivation
From the everyday word 'readiness,' meaning 'the state of being prepared.' The term comes from early 20th-century educational psychology (Edward Thorndike's laws of learning), which identified readiness as one of the basic conditions under which learning occurs.
Why Pilots Care
Instructors use it to confirm a student has the needed background and mental state before introducing new maneuvers, reducing wasted training time and confusion.
Intuition Check
Readiness does not mean simply showing up for a lesson. Also, law does not mean a regulation here; it means a reliable principle about how people learn.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor noticed the student was preoccupied with personal stress and, applying the law of readiness, shortened the ground lesson rather than starting a complex new maneuver.
Example Sentence 2
Pushing a fatigued student into new emergency procedures violated the law of readiness and produced slower progress with more repeated errors.