What is Coaching?

What is coaching?

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:

• 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”.

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

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

• 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.

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