Academic development and coaching: Evaluation of faculty training on coaching conversations to support student success
Background/context. Coaching is an effective way to unlock one’s potential to maximise performance. Adoption of coaching in education has grown over the past decade, with positive impact on learners and stakeholders (van Nieuwerburgh & Barr, 2016). Coaching helps improve students’ sense of control over their studies, have better focus and work balance, increase confidence, and develop a wider perspective on issues (Lancer & Eatough, 2018). Integrating coaching into higher education can transform universities by making faculty more learner-centric, thereby raising students’ performance and wellbeing. To achieve this, coach training for faculty is needed. Equipped with a coaching mindset and coaching competencies, faculty can engage in coaching conversations with students.
The initiative/practice. For faculty, we have a practice-focused workshop contextualised to educational settings. Participants learn about coaching mindset, coachable moments, and coaching competencies, with practice sessions using coaching scenarios and role plays customised to academic contexts. A quiz is administered to test coaching knowledge. Participants demonstrate their coaching skills with standardised student-actors, with observers present to assess and share individualised feedback. Surveys and reflection exercises are also conducted.
Methods of evaluative data collection and analysis. Evaluation on the effectiveness of training programme was conducted, through surveys with 119 educators across different disciplines. Reflection surveys were analysed thematically to identify key learning takeaways.
Evidence of outcomes and effectiveness. The surveys indicated significant improvement (p < .001) in coaching mindset after the training. Participants reported several key learnings from the training: coaching conversation frameworks, active listening, asking coaching questions, and solution-focus approach over root cause. Many were able to suggest possible coaching applications when working with students. Beyond coaching workshops, developing an institutional coaching culture can be enhanced through peer learning platforms, such as Coaching Community of Practice and Coaching Circles, creating a coaching knowledge repository, and promoting academic coaching research.
