Coaching and training

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Boshuizen, Henny and Kirschner, Paul (2004). Coaching and training in integrated electronic learning environments (IELEs). In Jochems, W., van Merriënboer, J., & Koper, R. (Eds.) (2004). Integrated E-Learning: implications for pedagogy, technology and organization. London, UK: RoutledgeFalmer.
Chapter 12: Coaching and training in integrated electronic learning environments (IELEs)
Keywords: Training, coaching, train, trainer, coach
Quotes:

• Both coaches and trainers help either an individual or a team to develop skills, strategies and tactics. Moreover, both coaches and trainers determine goals, assess ability and performance, measure the gap between the present state and the required or desired performance levels, and develop plans on how to bridge that gap. The difference is that coaches focus on the whole, including attitude, mental fitness, lifestyle, diet and so on. P164
• Trainers, on the other hand, concentrate on developing isolated skills and tactics, or they deal with one aspects of the player’s well-being (they are the dietician weight trainer or masseur, for instance) and they do this primarily between the matches played. In other words, trainers focus on a part of that competency that has to be trained separately. P165
• In human resources management, a couch is like a big brother or sister who counsels a trainee or a new employee with respect to all aspects of work, while a trainer usually gives specific courses (hence the name, “training”) on specific aspects of a job. P165
• …training and coaching make up a two-tier system in competency based education. First, academic, professional and personal knowledge, skills and attitudes in a specific domain have to be developed, as do the soft skills which have so often been neglected… Second, these all have to be integrated into competencies which allow the learner to make use of the knowledge, skills and attitudes to make satisfactory, effective decisions in a specific setting or situation. P165 –166
• Competencies are not learnt, but are acquired through sufficient practice in a variety of situations, Competencies, along with their constituent knowledge, skills, and attitudes are best acquired rich learning environments. P166
• Although it is not possible to immerse the learner in a practitioner environments (VBeL) and meaningful experiences help learners learn an expert’s ways of knowing. P166
• …the teacher becomes the learning process coach. P167
• The model used in this volume (4D/ID) explicitly focuses on competency acquisition via whole-task training (which requires coaching), sub-skill training (which requires training), and just-in-time information and supporting information (both requiring primarily teaching in the classical sense). All four of these components need to be planned and prepared as well as possible. The kind of support needed during the learning process depends not only on this level of preparation in advance, but also on how well the four elements can be separated, prepared and trained in isolation. P 167
• Once the designer has been made and all the necessary materials have been collected and made available to the learner, the role of the trainer in face-to-face situations is basically to demonstrate the skill to the students and five feedback on the way the skill is performed by the learner. P168
• Patrick (1992)differentiated between four types of guidance (adapted from Hodling, 1965):

Physical guidance, particularly in the field of motor learning, and including physical restriction.
Demonstrations, including modelling situations in which a learner learns by observing or imitating an expert
Verbal guidance or advice, such as explaining and prompting to help selection of a correct or adequate response
Cueing, whereby the learner is made aware of signals and their relevance. P168

• Coaching is a social process P169
• These cognitive and affective aspects of coaching mean that a coach must fulfil the following functions in an educational situation:
• Tutoring, involving a large range of situations that help learners gain knowledge, skills and competency.
• Mentoring, for helping learners develop such things as savvy, understanding how culture affects choice, and insight into how to advance oneself.
• Confronting or Challenging, so that clear performance standards are stablished actual performance is compared against those standards, and performance that does not meet those standards is addressed.
• Counselling, to help the learner recognize, talk about, gain insight into, and solve either real or perceived problems that affect performance. This also involves dealing with frustrations, insecurities, anger, resentment and lack of commitment. P169
• IELEs add an extra dimension to these questions since they include cases where students and teachers interact primarily or exclusively through communication channels that are much narrower than those in face-to-face interaction, and which are asynchronous with respect to learning and training or coaching. According to Moore (1993:20), this transactional distance – thepsychological and communications space between learners and instructors –can lead “to a psychological and communications gap, a space of potential misunderstanding between inputs of instructors and those of the learner”.P170
• In general, the coach can choose one of two roles, stimulator/facilitator or advisor/assessor…. When the coach stimulates and facilitates, the student’s experience is the point of departure for action and the coach is a stimulator and as such is process-directed, while when the coach advises and evaluates, the coach’s experience is the point of departure for action, the coach is an expert and as such is product- directed. Cf. P171
• …coaches and trainers carry out a number of activities in their work. Among those activities are in the first instance designing, delivering, observing, collecting information, diagnosing, giving feedback, advising, guiding or restraining (with respect to learning strategies and problems). Further activities include providing safety, creating or demanding commitment, building mutual trust, asking questions and stimulating reflection. The question is then whether IELEs are capable of carrying out these functions (the answer is both yes and no). P172

Further reading

• Moore (1993:20). Theory of transactional distance, in Theoretical Principle of Distance Education, ed D Keegan, pp 22-38, Routledge, New York.
• Patrick (1992). Training: Research and practice, Academic Press London.
• Vygotsky, L (1978). Mind in Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

Alberto Ramirez Martinell