About Coaching | Coaching Skills Training Program

While there are many ways to describe coaching, the following definition captures what coaching looks like within higher education:

"A one-to-one conversation focused on the enhancement of learning and development through increasing self-awareness and a sense of personal responsibility where the coach facilitates the self-directed learning of the coachee through questioning, active listening and appropriate challenge in a supportive and encouraging climate."

International Centre for Coaching in Education (ICCE, 2012)

Elements of Coaching:

Coach as Partner
Coaching emphasizes the relationship between coach and student, with a focus on the coach being a partner with the student as opposed to an “expert”.

Positive Orientation
The coach espouses a coaching “way of being” rooted in curiosity and unconditional positive regard for the student.

Empowerment
The coach helps to empower the student by utilizing effective coaching techniques, including powerful questioning, reframing, challenge, goal setting, and accountability.

Student-Guided Conversations
The student drives the conversation and the identification of options for success. The coach provides guidance and suggestions as necessary to support the student in their identified goals.

Rooted in Equity
Coaching is rooted in equity, asserting that each student is an expert in their own life, with unique skills, values, interests, and lived experience.

How is a “coach approach” beneficial to students?

Studies have demonstrated that coaching can:

Improve student retention and persistence (Bettinger & Baker, 2014; Farrell, 2007)
Increase student academic performance (Robinson & Gahagan, 2010)
Deepen student engagement with academic and student services professionals (Vaccaro & Newman, 2016).
Result in higher graduation rates for coached students when compared to students who have not been coached (Bettinger & Baker, 2014).