South African Coaching Framework: Scoping report

Recognising the central role of sports coaching in the delivery of an active and winning nation, SRSA and SASCOC have agreed to the establishment of a Coaches Commission. This Commission, operating within SASCOC, has been charged with the responsibility ‘to investigate a coaching system for South African Sport’ and to include the evaluation of other systems across the world. As part of this work, the Commission has the support of the Technical and Administrative staff of SASCOC. The Commission has also examined issues relating to coach education through a Task Team involving representatives from the University of Johannesburg and Stellenbosch University. Delegates from SASCOC; SRSA and the Coaches Commission attended the global conference of the International Council for Coach Education (ICCE) in Vancouver in November 2009. The event outlined recent developments in the European Framework for the Recognition of Coaching Competence and Qualifications and the proposed development of a global framework as part of the draft strategy of ICCE. At the Vancouver conference, discussions occurred with the Professor Patrick Duffy on the issues associated with the development of a South African Coaching Framework. These discussions continued following the conference and a scoping visit was initiated with the support of UK Sport as part of its London 2012 International Inspiration Programme

“Who cares about fireworks?” – A Study on Digital Coaching, Gamification and Exercise Motivation

Digital coaching systems offer users support in their physical training through insights and advice based on the individual’s activity data. Often these systems utilize gamification mechanisms to motivate users. In this study we conduct interviews with digital coaching users to understand how digital coaching systems are used to motivate physical activity, what kind of a role gamification plays, and how digital coaching systems should be developed further to better motivate users. We find that data itself is more motivating than gamification mechanisms, that players use data to play their own, internal games; and that data is also used for social purposes. We find that the benefits from digital coaches today are limited and mainly related to accurate exercise tracking and visualization of user data. Gamified elements are used on a low level and not perceived as value-adding by the users; deeper understanding of motivation theory and promoting intrinsic motivation is needed

Knowledge construction and personal relationship : insights about a UK university mentoring and coaching service

This article examines interview data from twelve mentors/coaches and eight of their clients, in order to explore a mentoring and coaching service among UK university staff. Both mentors/coaches and clients were administrative or academic employees of the Institute of Education or affiliated colleges at London University, UK. Their roles related to the administration for, or leadership of, teaching programmes as well as educational research and consultancy projects pursued by the Institute. The mentors/coaches in this Service aimed to construct or co-construct knowledge with their clients rather than to transmit advice to them. In this article, the author explores the learning of mentors/coaches and clients, conceptualizing their ‘co-construction’ of knowledge as either collaborative construction or as participation. The link is examined between the construction of knowledge and personal relationship, considering the personal relationship both of mentor/coach with clients, and among mentors/coaches themselves. Additionally, the author draws on the divide alluded to by Fielding (1996) between functional and personal. She concludes by considering implications from the findings about mentoring and coaching. Emphasised is their potential to play a subversive role within the established functional systems of an institution, if mentoring and coaching prioritise personal relationship

From mirroring to guiding: A review of the state of art technology for supporting collaborative learning

We review systems that support the management of collaborative interaction, and propose a classification framework built on a simple model of coaching. Our framework distinguishes between mirroring systems, which display basic actions to collaborators, metacognitive tools, which represent the state of interaction via a set of key indicators, and coaching systems, which offer advice based on an interpretation of those indicators. The reviewed systems are further characterized by the type of interaction data they assimilate, the processes they use for deriving higher-level data representations, and the type of feedback they provide to users

The coaching ripple effect: The effects of developmental coaching on wellbeing across organisational networks

Background It has been argued that the quality of daily interactions within organisations effects the wellbeing of both individuals and the broader organisation. Coaching for leadership development is one intervention often used to create organisation-wide changes in culture and wellbeing. Leadership style has been associated with employee stress and wellbeing. Coaching has also been shown to improve individual level measures of wellbeing. However, almost all the research into the effectiveness of coaching interventions assumes a linear model of change, and expects that any flow-on effects are also linear. In other words, much of the research assumed that any change in the leader has relatively uniform effects on the wellbeing of others, and that these effects can be adequately accessed via standard linear statistical analyses. We argue that linear approaches do not take the complexity of organisations seriously, and that Complex Adaptive Systems theory (CAS) provides a useful non-linear approach to thinking about organisational change and the wellbeing of individuals embedded in these systems. The relatively new methodology of Social Network Analysis (SNA) provides researchers with analytic tools designed to access the relational components of complex systems. This paper reports on changes observed in the relational networks of an organisation following a leadership coaching intervention. Methods An AB design coaching intervention study was conducted across an organisation (N = 225). Wellbeing measures were taken for all employees and a social network analysis was conducted on the degree and quality of all organisational interactions. Twenty leaders (n = 20) received 8 coaching sessions. Individual self report measures of goal attainment as well as 360 feedbacks on transformational leadership were assessed in the control, pre and post intervention periods. Results A significant increase in the goal attainment, transformational leadership and psychological wellbeing measures were observed for those who received coaching. Average change in the perceived quality of interaction improved for those who received coaching. However there was a decline in the perceived quality of the interaction others believed they were having with those who were coached. It was also found that the closer any member of the network was identified as being connected to those who received coaching, the more likely they were to experience positive increases in wellbeing. Conclusions This research highlights the influence of leadership coaching beyond the individual leader, and has important implications for organisational wellbeing initiatives and how we measure the impact of interventions aimed at organisational change. Our findings suggest a more nuanced approach is needed in designing interventions in complex adaptive systems

IMPACT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE BEHAVIOR COACH TRAINING FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS, SOCIAL WORKERS, AND PSYCHOLOGISTS

Children’s social and emotional skill deficits can be predictors of a lifetime of academic and behavioral challenges and mental health concerns. Young children with challenging behaviors are at a higher risk for substance abuse and school failure. Behavior coaching is a current focus in many schools and is being utilized to support school-wide systems and teachers in relationship to students with behavior and mental health concerns. The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to investigate the impact of interdisciplinary collaborative behavior coach training for school counselors, social workers, and psychologists in a Midwest suburban school district. Interdisciplinary collaborative behavior coach training is a product of at least two partners of expertise using the interdisciplinary collaboration model. This model consists of five core components including interdependence, newly created professional activities, flexibility, collective ownership of goals, and reflection on process. In order to establish and maintain a successful Multi-tiered Systems of Supports for Behavior (MTSS-B) implementation, leadership teams must develop a behavior coaching network. Behavior coaching encompasses two different types of coaching styles including systems coaching and collaborative coaching. Behavior coaches support teachers and administrators by providing tier one social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum professional development, leading the collaborative problem-solving process, and prompting reflective thinking about teaching practices to change student behavior. Behavior coaching was a new responsibility for school counselors, social workers, and psychologists; therefore, examining the impact of professional learning brought awareness to areas of strength and weakness of behavior coaching. Analyzing impact can be useful in order to improve an intervention, in this case behavior coaching training sessions, and to make decisions about continuing, replicating, and expanding the training sessions. The results of this study informed future professional development in the research district

Can Coaching Help Community Partnerships Promote Health Equity, Community Engagement, and Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes? Results From an Evaluation

Foundations and other entities have increasingly funded coaching and technical assistance to support multisector community partnerships to promote health and health equity. However, much remains to be learned about how coaching can best support these partnerships. As part of its efforts to build a culture in which everyone in the United States has a fair opportunity to be healthy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute to provide structured coaching to strengthen the capacities of community partnerships. The foundation contracted with Mathematica to evaluate the coaching program, focusing on whether it had an effect on strengthening the capacity of partnerships to prioritize policy, systems, and environmental changes; promote health equity; and increase community engagement. The evaluation found that the coaching program provided valuable support to many partnerships, helping some focus on policy, systems, and environmental changes. Integrating health equity and community engagement into a general health-promotion coaching model might be best suited for partnerships just beginning to develop a strategy to improve health equity. Partnerships that already have a strong understanding of health equity might benefit most from intensive, specialized technical assistance to address inequities. Some partnerships reported that coaching shifted their thinking around community engagement, but none reported increasing engagement as a result of coaching. To advance health equity and engage communities, we propose that funders consider investing in partnerships that already prioritize leadership of community members most affected by inequities. Specialized technical assistance may help leaders not affected by inequities to think critically about their community’s history and structures of power, ongoing racial and power dynamics, and their own personal stories and levels of privilege

Instructional Coaching: Teachers‘ Perceptions of Practice and Effectiveness

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate K-12 teachers\u27 perceptions of instructional coaching. Specifically, this researcher assessed the perception of instructional coaching as a whole, support for hiring practices for instructional coaches, the value of instructional coaching for improving teaching practices, the value of instructional coaching for improving student achievement, and the perception of instructional coaches being in supervisory role. Participants in this study were located in three different school systems in Northeast Tennessee. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to 848 teachers resulting in a 62% return rate with 536 participant responses. Research reinforced the view that more research needs to be conducted to determine the effectiveness of instructional coaching. The data from 5 survey questions measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale were analyzed using one-sample t tests. Results indicated that teachers differ on their perception of instructional coaching based on grade level and their years of experience. No group had a statistically significant positive support for instructional coaching

Essential Coaching

The purpose of this thesis is to define the elements of a model I describe as Essential Coaching. The core principles that drive the model: authenticity, positivity, a focus on strengths, active listening and mindful questioning, are introduced individually then revisited throughout as they inform subsequent elements of the model. The framework is presented, illustrating the placement of coaching within the framework of a larger systems model; followed by the model for Essential Coaching, which outlines the basic elements of the interaction between coach and client within that larger system. The three layers of the Essential Coaching model are theory—predominantly client-centered and positive psychologies; methods--process and tools; and competency. A summary is presented, highlighting the next steps for Essential Coaching