Educational coaching consists of a series of useful, concrete, and tangible techniques and tools that the teacher coach uses to bring out the best version of their students. It is not focused on teaching, but on enabling better performance.
Educational Coaching, Objectives
The fundamental objective of educational coaching is that first the student becomes aware of their individual reality (self-knowledge), then, of their potential for change (to carry out that change, one must know where to go, which is why a specific goal is established) and finally, takes responsibility for the achievement or non-achievement of their objectives (through their action plan)
During this conversational process, one of the most important moments are the first two sessions in which a deep reflection of the current state, the starting point, is made and the objective along with the action plan is defined. For this intrapersonal analysis always carried out by the coachee through the powerful questions of the teacher coach, the Academic Wheel of Life tool is of great importance. Training in educational coaching is essential to apply these techniques effectively.
Tools for Educational Coaching
This tool used in educational coaching processes derives from an academic adaptation of the “wheel of life”, used in personal coaching or life coaching.
The academic wheel of life is used in Phase II, immediately after Phase I (reception, agreements, rights and duties, and confidentiality) of the educational coaching process to establish the objectives and action plan to be followed by the student. This tool is based on proactivity and is a kind of X-ray that helps us know how the student is doing in each area so that the coachee, accompanied by the coach, can set improvement actions.
Academic Wheel of Life
The student must score themselves on a circumference divided into 10 sectors or areas that directly condition and influence the results of their academic or school life, which are:
1) study environment (conditions and place where they usually work),
2) order and update of the school agenda (organizational and planning capacity),
3) order of the backpack and school supplies (binders, notebooks, loose-leaf paper, folder, organization of documents on the PC hard drive, USB drive, etc.),
4) total time dedicated to work/study (should be evaluated along with time dedicated to leisure and extracurricular activities),
5) time dedicated to practical study (project work, cooperative/group work, experiments, etc.),
6) time dedicated to theoretical study (use of study techniques such as multimedia resources, diagrams, outlines, highlighting, concept maps, graphic organizers, timelines, etc.),
7) intrinsic motivation (willpower and perseverance, ability to overcome problems, self-control/self-regulation, personal leadership, and class participation),
8) external support (help from family, peers, private tutor, remedial classes),
9) interpersonal relationship (with teachers and peers)
10) self-evaluation (constructive self-criticism regarding the general level of satisfaction with oneself).
In this numerical self-evaluation (from 0 to 10, with 0 being the center of the circle and representing maximum dissatisfaction, and 10 being on the perimeter of the circumference and representing maximum satisfaction), the student must express their own level of satisfaction and success at the moment they complete the wheel. To score themselves, the teacher coach will maintain an open dialogue with powerful questions with the coachee, who must provide tangible arguments and evidence to justify their score.
Examples of Open or Powerful Questions
Why do you think this area is important? Do we need it?
What do you have and do well in this regard?
What do you lack or have too much of in this area?
How do you think you could improve in this field?
This is 100% coaching, that it is them, the students, who through their own reflection specify and define -accompanied by the teacher coach- the activities to improve that area. Through the Master’s in Educational Coaching, the teaching professional will learn the importance of students being protagonists of change.
Examples of the Academic Wheel of Life
Another possibility for creating the academic wheel of life is, once all areas have been scored, for the student to visualize themselves at the end of the course, after the university entrance exam, within a year, but imagining that they have had an “excellent” course, so much so that if the student were to complete the wheel of life again, their score in all areas would be 9/10.
From this visualization, the questions that the teacher coach would ask would be of the type:
What has happened during this course for you to score so high in this area?
What actions have you taken or stopped taking to raise that score so much?
How and in what way has your behavior changed to elevate that area?
Have you received external help for this or not?
Educational Coaching Approaches
Finally, when a student was doing poorly, for example, in mathematics or English, what did their parents do? Sometimes they would enroll them in an academy, sometimes they would get them a private tutor for those subjects… Well, the educational coaching approach based on positive psychology and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences proposes working on the student’s strengths to improve/overcome their weaknesses. When working on a strength, a leverage effect is produced in the other areas, because it improves their self-concept and, with it, raises self-esteem, confidence, and self-assurance, thus enabling them to face their personal challenges with different energy and attitude.