Reflections on a coaching pilot project in healthcare settings

This paper draws on personal reflection of coaching experiences and learning as a coach to consider the relevance of these approaches in a management context with a group of four healthcare staff who participated in a pilot coaching project. It explores their understanding of coaching techniques applied in management settings via their reflections on using coaching approaches and coaching applications as healthcare managers. Coaching approaches can enhance a manager’s skill portfolio and offer the potential benefits in terms of successful goal achievement, growth, mutual learning and development for both themselves and staff they work with in task focused scenarios

Views of Coaching Practice Expressed by School-Based Coaches

This study reports on the views of coaching expressed by school-based coaches and coaching experts in response to observing the practice of a novice coach featured in a video. Researchers hypothesized that a coach participant\u27s observations about another coach\u27s practice would be a useful tool for examining participants\u27 beliefs about coaching. Researchers compared responses from school-based coaches to the responses of coaching experts and views expressed in leading coaching literature in order to examine the variation in school-based coaches\u27 views. Analysis of responses from both practicing coaches and coaching experts revealed eight themes that describe components of the videotaped coaching cycle: 1) coaching relationships; 2) the use of praise by the coach; 3) discussions of student learning; 4) how coaches respond to teachers\u27 questions; 5) how coaches prompt reflection; 6) how coaches address teacher knowledge and learning; 7) discussions of mathematics content; and, 8) facilitation of the coaching session. The analysis also revealed that these themes correspond to accepted domains of coaching knowledge reported in the coaching literature

Hooked on coaching

Coaching is widely used and recognised in Business as a driver for improved performance for some time now. Coaching has also been introduced to the Education sector and especially Further Education has embraced it through National Initiatives such as the Subject Learning Coaches Initiative of the Teaching and Learning Programme (Learning and Skills Network). However, while mentoring schemes are used and valued in Higher Education (HE), especially within PgCert Teaching and Learning programmes, Maddern (2010: 38) points out that coaching is not widely used in HE despite the fact that it has the potential to ‘be enormously beneficial in helping academics reconcile the often conflicting demands (of teaching, research and administration) they are faced with as well as optimising their performance, increasing productivity and helping them achieve their goals’. What follows is a personal reflective review and an exploration into coaching and its relevance and usefulness for academic development activities. It has been written shortly after I completed postgraduate qualifications in this area at the University of Oxford Brookes in collaboration with the Learning and Skills Improvement Service and at the University of Wolverhampton and it provides an insight into how my thinking and practice has been influenced by coaching

Fostering medical students' lifelong learning skills with a dashboard, coaching and learning planning.

IntroductionTo develop lifelong learning skills, students need feedback, access to performance data, and coaching. A new medical curriculum incorporated infrastructural supports based on self-regulated learning theory and the Master Adaptive Learner framework to engage students in reflection and learning planning. This study examines students' experience with a performance dashboard, longitudinal coaching, and structured time for goal-setting.MethodsFocus groups with first-year medical students explored performance dashboard usage, coaching and learning planning. We analyzed findings using thematic analysis. Results informed development of a 29-item survey rated strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) to investigate experience with the dashboard, coaching and learning goals program. The survey was distributed to one first-year medical student class. We performed descriptive statistics and factor analysis.ResultsIn three focus groups with 21 participants, students endorsed using the dashboard to access performance information but had trouble interpreting and integrating information. They valued coaches as sources of advice but varied in their perceptions of the value of discussing learning planning. Of 152 students, 114 (75%) completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 5 factors explaining 57% of the variance: learning goals development (α = 0.88; mean 3.25 (standard deviation 0.91)), dashboard usage (α = 0.82; 3.36 (0.64)), coaching (α = 0.71; 3.72 (0.64)), employment of learning strategies (α = 0.81; 3.67 (0.79)), and reflection (α = 0.63; 3.68 (0.64)).DiscussionThe student performance dashboard provides efficient feedback access, yet students' use of this information to guide learning is variable. These results can inform other programs seeking to foster lifelong learning skills

Harness the Power of Frontline Supervisors to Turn HR Policies into Performance Gains

Key Findings: • Frontline supervisors play a critical role in implementing HR policies by developing employees and managing performance. • Coaching counts—one-on-one feedback from frontline supervisors increases the bottom-line by improving individual productivity. • Coaching alone isn’t enough. It is much more effective when combined with other management practices—for example, group incentives that enhance collaborative problem-solving and learning, and reinforce the lessons from individual coaching. • The resources and constraints of workplace technologies can affect the return on your frontline coaching and HR management strategies. Don’t overlook the level of process automation and rate of technical change on the job

Peer coaching in a school in Cairo, Egypt: Implementation, barriers, and pathways to effective adoption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how peer coaching was introduced in one school in Egypt and to identify barriers and opportunities for successful implementation. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology included semi-structured interviews with eight teachers, participant observation of their classes and meetings, and three focus group meetings with teachers and school administrators. Findings – Ladyshewsky’s (2017) five key aspects of peer coaching are considered in the findings: establishing peer partners, building trust between the partners, identifying specific areas to target for learning, training on non-evaluative questions and feedback, and supporting each other as new ideas are attempted. Each aspect of these is reviewed in light of the implementation process in the school. Practical implications – The study provides practical suggestions for teachers and school administrators that include considerations for implementation. Numerous connections are made to research on peer coaching that is relevant to the implementation of peer coaching in schools in Egypt and other countries in the Global South. Originality/value – The study provides an examination of the implementation of peer coaching in a school in Egypt. Thus, it contributes to the limited literature on peer coaching in the Global South. The discussion and conclusion sections consider further questions and research opportunities for effective practices in peer coaching in international contexts

How do business leaders learn in peer-group coaching?

Peer coaching has been established as a useful tool in educational learning. Peer-group coaching practice among business leaders is historically built on peer coaching practice and has received little academic attention so far. This study aims to understand the processes within peer-group coaching and the factors that participants experience as influencing their learning in order to develop a theoretical framework of how business leaders learn in peer-group coaching. The methodology employed to achieve this aim is grounded theory. Data for this research came from two sources, focus groups and interviews. The processes of peer-group coaching were explored in four focus groups and twelve leaders from two private organisations were interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach to investigate individual aspects of learning in peer-group coaching. The accounts of leader experiences were used to develop a theoretical peer-group coaching framework, conceptualising leaders’ learning, applying grounded theory coding cycles and strategies, and identifying, comparing and connecting different categories. Core aspects of how leaders learn during peer-group coaching included the sharing of information, various forms of self-reflection and emotional reactions. The matching of peers, group-dynamics, and specific peer-group coaching processes are considered as factors that shape learning through influencing the learning environment. Psychological factors, such as trust and respect among peers, openness, empathy, and motivation were also identified as inter-connected with the learning experience. The results of the learning from peer-group coaching were manifested in new behaviour in leaders’ daily work. This thesis contributes to the academic debates on the role of peer-group coaching in the learning of leaders. A proposed theoretical framework adds new elements to the currently accepted models of experiential learning. Furthermore, the findings of this study are used to develop specific recommendations for practice on how to increase leader’s learning and personal growth by introducing an extended definition of peer-group coaching and key methods for initiating peer-group coaching. A proposed framework can add value for practitioners and for organisations who plan to employ this coaching method for leader development. Further research is suggested to explore pragmatic conditions for peer-group coaching sessions and to understand what influences might jeopardise learning in peer-group coaching

The role of performance analysis in elite netball competition structures.

Coaches at both the International and top domestic levels in Netball have turned to performance analysis to assist in their decision making and provide reliable and accurate information to inform their coaching process (Jenkins et al, 2007). The role of the performance analyst in this elite environment is to provide key objective information on performances which can be transformed into relevant feedback to facilitate learning and effect improvement. However, the coaching process and use of performance analysis to support the specific process, is affected by the characteristics of the competition. Thus it is important to highlight the differences and constraints which occur as a result of the competition structure and identify how the challenges created impact the performance analyst and coaching process