Coaching For The PGCLTHE
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Abstract: Since the 1990s the field of coaching has grown in professionalism, and now affects most business sectors. Having taught in Higher Education since 1998, in 2009 I trained as a life coach. Drawing upon the work of Kerslake, Whitmore, Parsloe & Leedham, and Draper this presentation offers a reflective consideration of implementing coaching practices. With a particular interest in facilitating group work in seminars, the presentation considers how exploiting learning and personality styles, and offering encouragement, improves student engagement with the process.
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Coaching For The PGCLTHE
- 1. COACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: HOW TRAINING AS A LIFE COACH HAS AFFECTED THE WAY I TEACH Dr Bex Lewis Bex.Lewis@winchester.ac.uk
- 6. Greater Awareness & Responsibility Whitmore, 2009, 54
- 15. Learning Styles
- 29. ‘ 6 Thinking Hats’ (Edward de Bono) http://mappio.com/mindmap/ajwilcox/six-thinking-hats-by-edward-de-bono
- 32. Techniques
- 38. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME QUESTIONS?
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Abstract: Since the 1990s the field of coaching has grown in professionalism, and now affects most business sectors. Having taught in Higher Education since 1998, in 2009 I trained as a life coach. Drawing upon the work of Kerslake, Whitmore, Parsloe & Leedham, and Draper this presentation offers a reflective consideration of implementing coaching practices. With a particular interest in facilitating group work in seminars, the presentation considers how exploiting learning and personality styles, and offering encouragement, improves student engagement with the process.
- So, in a slightly “flying” visit, I want to look briefly at what defines a successful coach, and then particularly at those techniques that are applicable to group-work!
- As Parsloe & Leedham indicate, since the 1990s, the field of coaching has expanded hugely – part of a change in focus in many organisations to ‘employee empowerment’ and becoming ‘learning organisations’ – less focus on directatorial management styles of command & control, more on releasing self-knowledge & potential that everyone possesses!
- As universities are ‘learning organisations’, it seems entirely appropriate to use coaching techniques amongst our toolkit of teaching methods. Love Buckingham’s “Strengths Finder” – focus on building up your strengths, rather than trying to fill in for your weaknesses … for record, am Achiever, Ideation, Learner, Arranger, WOO! If all of us improved our strengths by 5%, believes can transform society… In this presentation I particularly want to look at understanding how learning & personality styles affect behaviours in class/group work, and how training as a coach has encouraged a recognition of factors that can enable us to make the best of each other…
- Just to clarify the sense in which I am using the idea of coaching, and how it is differentiated from mentoring, although the terms are often used interchangeably. A mentor is likely to be someone who you may be working with ( e.g. Steven Allen from Film Studies is my mentor for the PG ), but the significance of “off-line” here is that it is likely to be taken outside of the role… and your mentor is likely to be someone who is more experienced than you in a field that you want to develop in. As a coach, you may not be an expert in e.g. the subject , but will be an expert in drawing out the best from your coachee. So, for example, I have 5 FYP students – in every tutorial with them I am looking to draw out the best of what they can do/are capable of, asking the questions that will help me to understand where they want to get to, where they may be now, and how we might bridge that gap (or whether that’s the wrong direction)… I don’t necessarily know all the debates surrounding their topics, but can help in pushing them towards taking responsibility for their own work… Different from counselling? Counselling =making peace with your past Coaching = accepting who and where you are now – and the past that brought you here – but recognising that there’s a gap between the life you currently have and the life you really want
- Whereas Old Fashioned Management has all been about Direction Control Coaching is about action, about Self-development Self-responsibility Accountability Chart by Sir John Whitmore, one of the founding fathers of coaching (making the transition from motor sport to business coaching) demonstrates that coachees are likely to develop increased awareness of their own input, which will raise their interest, recall and therefore improve their performance, learning and enjoyment. One thing I am very keen on is in getting the students to take responsibility for their own learning, recognising that they have a personal choice in being at university, and it’s up to them to make the best of it – I won’t be chasing/spoon-feeding, but for that they need to be clear on the boundaries/criteria and agreed behaviours… Once they start to take responsibility for their own learning, they start to take more ownership of their work, and feel more confident and inspired to contribute to debates and their own work…
- Our first exercise on the life coaching course was to think about the traits that identify a successful coach, and I hope you’d agree that these are many of the traits that we’d look for in HE lecturers – especially in looking to bring out the best in in our students, whatever we may think of them… keep believing that there’s something there, and trying to find a way to make that connection… idealistic, maybe, but what do we lose otherwise? We all know the stats that building a rapport with others is 55% body language, 28% voice and 7% the words you use, and it’s trying to remember that whilst teaching, that students will pick up on what you do, rather than what you say – and they can tell if you’re really interested in them or not… if you genuinely are, then they are more likely to respond!
- If we take this to the next level of ‘brilliant coaches’, we can see that authenticity is at the top of the list, which I have always deemed to be important. Maybe people don’t achieve all these skills every time, but it’s important to know what ‘excellence’ (rather than perfection!) looks like… The course gave me the confidence to understand that a lot of my natural traits had a value, and that much of the standard ‘sage on the stage’ lecturing I experienced was not the only way things had to be done, and that the idea of ‘the guide on the side’ is a growing one, where qualities such as empathy, insight, curiosity, willingness to offer feedback in order to improve the experience for the student have a true value (and can make a difference )
- And that search for meaning is important… We’ve all heard of IQ, which deals with the linear, logical, rational Emotional Intelligence has also had a great development, with a focus upon: self-awareness, management of self in relation to others/environment Spiritual Intelligence is an idea that has grown in the last 10 years, that the search for meaning, integration, authenticity is important. Parsloe & Leedham, 2009, 68 Brian Draper, a local man, has been a great inspiration to me with several coaching-style conversations over a coffee, in encouraging me to think about the ways I have been living my life, whether I am making a difference (which I think all tutors with a genuine interest in their students do)… Identifying Own Goals & Values: Learning Helping people make choices/move forward Talking/Discussing/Interactive teaching Challenge & Adventure Working with people who WANT to be there, and are working WITH me Achieving, breaking through a barrier
- A lot of that thinking had been done whilst travelling around the world… where it was clear that I like trying new things and have a sense of adventure, so it becomes a question of how do I recreate some of that in the classroom, whilst retaining the best experience for the students. Become more confident to experiment (one of assignments will be on getting students to talk to me in class using various different methods!), and focus more on the positives of what I’m doing, accepting that I won’t always get it right – and being prepared to ask for help and feedback. In Coaching College, we were advised to prepare properly, show up (and be fully present), do your best (you can do no more), and afterwards evaluate – both the positives and the ‘areas for development’...
- This is an approach I can also take with my students, both in class and in giving feedback on their assignments. There is no point bewailing what they HAVEN’T DONE, but look to how we move on from where they are now (and can be a key point to get across when a student undertakes some research that doesn’t really work, they can assess what has/hasn’t worked, and think about what they may do next time – and this may be appropriate for them to submit as an assignment)
- As I said earlier, I am not looking to spoon feed, and am looking to encourage the students to take responsibility for their own learning. In Assignment Feedback “ Areas for Development” rather than “you got that wrong” As much positive commentary as possible (I know it can be hard sometimes!) In tutorials (particularly for FYPs, but also works at a lower level), look to gain the student to offer their own solutions, and help them develop those solutions… offers them more ownership of their own work, and they are more likely to put the time into it…
- So are they going to put the time into it? Well, there’s a big study in motivation I’m looking forward to there… Not about mind-over matter, but about finding what works for you NOW! Many coaches will say “all you need is a positive mindset”, but I don’t entirely go with that – sometimes it’s about choosing between 2 levels of crap, and trying to find the least bad pathway – and encouraging people who are going through tough times! However, you do need buy-in ! Essentially – to really get someone to go with something – we need them to be in one of the first 2 modes of thinking, otherwise they won’t do it unless forced (interesting earlier this week, talking about new course coming through for Media Studies which will offer 5 weeks of tutor-led teaching, and then tutors will be available as experts to the students who CHOOSE to come and ask… believe this improves motivation, responsibility & therefore the learning curve!)
- So – now we come to learning and personality styles in groups…
- There’s many different theorists on learning styles, most famously Kolb, but I wanted to work with the material I had learnt as a coach… So I want to look at the three main ‘learning styles’, and identify the behaviours that may be exhibited in class, and how that may affect your teaching style… Look out for ‘predicate’ words, e.g. see, hear, feel…, which give an indication of an individual’s learning style
- Visual learners – most numerous, although judging by number of students who go straight to the back, maybe none of them are… They will… So, if they’re looking out of the window, can you show them something that will recapture their interest?!
- Auditory – less numerous, but a significant number (and bearing in mind that many lectures are presented only in an auditory style!) – if the ‘co-ordination’ point seems a little odd, it’s more a signifier for identification… So, if they’re humming away, what can you give them to hear that will recapture their interest?!
- And the smallest group, although we tend to hear people say that ‘learning by doing’ is the way to learn… They will… So, if shifting all over the place, what can you get them to do that will recapture their interest?!
- I don’t think the need to take breaks is restricted to kinaesthetic learners… It’s all too easy as classes get larger to forget that they are individuals – next semester I want to start classes with more ‘who are you’ type exercises, but within large lectures I do deliberately break up sessions to offer different options (partly because I recognise that the average attention span is around 20 minutes), and as you can see – I use a lot of images! Within a longer session would set exercises…
- So the role of the facilitator is “Making things easy” Set the Scene Small Talk Build Rapport Describe objectives in a way likely to appeal Establish credibility by connecting to students concerns/jargon, etc.
- The facilitator needs to remain aware and focused on the session, observing behaviours, looking to identify underlying motivations, and looking for ways to move the group towards their objectives… I want to go through each of the participants identified here, and clarify that there may not just be negative reasons for motivation, may be misunderstandings and positive reasons... WE DON’T KNOW BUT CAN START THINK AND ADJUST BEHAVIOUR – Can I have a few suggestions as to what you think the motivations are for each behaviour? As I put up the behaviours… 30 second poll on each… Observation vs. inference – can’t make assumptions that ALL students who are missing are nursing hangovers, and need to be aware of drawing too many conclusions on the basis of behaviour
- So the student may be exhibiting the following behaviours… Possibilities? Possibilities for why: Unconfident Bored Indifferent Confused Fear of negative reaction to exposure Not taking control of own destiny Lacking confidence in a new group
- With my experiments last semester I definitely found that many thought that their response was stupid or wrong, and that if they had a chance to ‘practice’ it on me, they were more prepared to share it as a whole group… Often get them to work in small groups for 2-3 minutes before feeding into the whole group.
- We’ve all had one of these… and to begin with breathe a sigh of relief that someone is talking, then realise they are stopping other’s contributing… Possibilities? Possibilities for why: Wants to show that they know it Needs to disguise ignorance Passionate about the subject Frustrated that others aren’t speaking Lack of flexibility on own view
- In some ways, I find these the most difficult to deal with – I’m good at encouraging quiet students to participate, as I was originally one myself (believe it or not!). If bringing them to a halt, it’s all about ensuring that they don’t stop talking altogether and you recognise the positive contributions they have made. I need to use more of these… but I have been very strong in saying that in group presentations they need to work on tactics within the group to ensure that all will answer questions!
- So, do we see these students as a pain, or raising legitimate issues? It’s their time they are spending – are they justified in this? Possibilities? Possibilities for why: May be a cry for help May fear changing/set in their ways May have legitimate objections May be defensive (hiding ignorance) May not see the value of the subject in hand.
- I think there’s some excellent suggestions here (I haven’t really needed to use them, we seem to have quite a docile bunch of students who are very concerned with getting things “right”), but at all times we need to remember that we are responding to the behaviour, and not to the person. We may end up having to deal with them in a similar way to the overly talkative students…
- One tactic that is suggested for what negative voices are dominating the agenda – is to ask people to put on different hats.... I’m not going to go into this in detail, but it’s the idea of asking people to think in a different way – e.g. make them focus upon the positives!
- An increasing problem? So why do we think they might be on their phone, staring into space, asleep – and particularly, distracting others… Possibilities? Possibilities for why: Not interested Not willing to change Think they know it all Fearful of being exposed as a fraud May be taking notes May have finished May have other things on their mind (e.g. bereavements, etc.)
- I appear to have become slightly infamous amongst the 1 st year historians, for having drawn attention to a group that was talking at the back, then reiterating that I wouldn’t put up with it the following week… I’m really interested next year to look at getting their buy in on setting up rules of engagement, so I can indicate “well, you agreed to it” – again, in the vein of getting them to take responsibility!
- So, finally, we come to some particular techniques which may come in helpful in gaining a useful, workable group…
- At Manchester I was part of an ‘active learning’ group – essentially group coaching – where solutions aren’t offered, but questions posed. As a result 3 of us left the institution, and although this may appear to be a “poor result”, in fact it allowed us to leave an institution that didn’t work for us, allowed us to move on to more suitable positions, and allowed the University to re advertise the positions for others who would suit the role better. Within a classroom setting I believe that it’s incredibly important to focus upon whoever is speaking (and to ask others to focus to), so that the speaker has a real space in which to make themselves feel fully understood. Again, it’s so difficult to get to know the individuals, but the more they speak, the more we can start to ‘pin’ particular remembrance points onto them and reclaim them as individuals…
- There are many ways in which poor listening can be recognised, including… Important to be aware of our own habits in this, but also recognise it amongst students and consider whether you need to change tactics in your teaching style to re-engage them!
- Asking a mix of the ‘right’ questions is so important, including Open Questions What do you think about this? What will happen if we do this another way? Reflective Questions What stops you from taking action? How will you know when you’ve reached your goal? Closed Questions Do you agree? Why Questions Often leads to need for self-justification It’s our job as facilitators to ensure that the conversation holds together, ensuring that what one says is layered upon what another says, always bringing the conversations back to the POINT, to the learning outcomes – often students may not engage fully until they understand why they are learning something. One particular aspect I have been working on remembering is to thank students for their contribution and finding positive ways to respond, when all you may want to do is say “what?!”. One I need to work on next year is getting the non-volunteers involved…
- A very important skill that was identified was the ability to ‘sit with the silence’, and not being so worried that the conversation is going nowhere that you ask the same question in another way, or move onto the next question before the student is ready to respond. Some people take a while to think, so look for ways to facilitate giving that space, whether that be thinking time, pair work, mini-group work, or just allowing a space. May become necessary to ask if the question is clear, in which case wait a little… trust your gut instinct as to whether you need to try something else..
- There was MUCH more information in these texts… Tom Minter inspired me to look into coaching approaches, and much of the material has been extracted in some form from material provided as part of my course by The Kerslake Company….
- So… thanks – questions…