https://youtu.be/aasbKmpPn_o

Critical Reflection

I did the peer coaching session with Chelsea Onyango, and the blog we reviewed was a post for one of the learning activities in Unit 3.

Before the session, I read her post several times and wrote down the ideas and thoughts for Chelsea’s post, including the questions I wanted to ask her in the session. Then I organized my thoughts and put them in sequence to talk about in the session. In the session, confirming the connection quality of our zoom meeting was the first thing I addressed as there were several times that the zoom meeting stopped due to the power issue or other problems. Before discussing my opinions towards her post, I appreciated her writing and made sure she understood that all the opinions were not personal; she could also keep her thoughts or discuss them with me when she had a different opinion. I think coaches must recognize the ideas and perspectives held by learners and encourage them to share. Then, I gave her the opinions for connecting paragraphs so that they would not simply look like responding to different questions. Also, I suggested she add more of her understanding in her post to make it a better learning experience for herself, such as restating the definition in her own words, making examples of how she would apply it to her context, and reflecting on how she understood. Coaches need to make every learning moment meaningful for learners and help them build their understanding and go through the learning process in a way they are willing to learn. At last, I sought feedback from Chelsea and her thoughts. It is important to acknowledge her ideas and feelings in the coaching process, and she mentioned that all the opinions I gave her were useful and constructive.

Reflecting on my coaching session, I think I have addressed most of the critical points in the coaching. However, I should prepare more questions or maybe make a list in a word or note to make it clear for learners to see the suggestions. Also, offering follow-up coaching for learners if needed to make sure they gain enough support in their learning would be constructive.

https://youtu.be/_UfHUKg0-zQ

Critical Reflection:

I picked two topics for unit 5 in LDRS 662: implicit cultural bias and privilege. I believe these two topics are important for coaches and facilitators to addressing as we all have some level of bias that is hard to be aware of. Also, one of the coaching competencies is evoking awareness, and coaches need to be highly self-aware (Carden, Passmore, & Jones, 2022). Therefore, raising the level of our self-awareness and cultivating self-awareness in our learners is crucial for facilitators.

In the facilitation, I tried to invite participants to share their thoughts and experiences as much as they could. By asking questions, I wanted to make sure every learner was included, every voice was heard, and their contributions were recognized and respected. When sharing my screen with them, there was a technical issue that they could not see my screen. We waited for about three minutes, and I stopped the sharing and apologized. I deem that when problems happen, facilitators need to stay calm and keep the learning process going. I also learned from this accident that we need to be calm, patient, and prepared for all kinds of situations that could happen during the facilitation. At last, I gave them the assignments to reflect on what they had learned. But I think I can do better by demonstrating how to do the assignments, which I learned in the facilitation of my learning pod participant Chelsea.

Our learning pod also talked about that technical problem in the debrief session, and I asked the other two participants’ opinions and what they would do if sharing screen only worked for part of the students. Clifton mentioned that the students who cannot see the screen might feel inferior and left out if the facilitators keep the learning process going. We all realized that it is crucial to detect and learn about our learners’ feelings and thoughts throughout the learning process. We need to stay calm, reassure our students when an accident happens, and prepare enough learning activities and materials as a backup plan. At last, our learning pod has agreed that the learning process should be learner-centered, accompanied by support from coaches.

Q1: How would you define the coaching competency?

The ICF defines coaching competency as the skills and approaches used in the thought-provoking and creative learning process where coaches can inspire learners to be creative and maximize their personal and professional potential (ICF, 2022). Reflecting on the work triangle with “performance at the apex, and experience and learning at the base angles” (Gallwey, 1997, p.3), I think coaching competency should bring out the potential performance of learners in the learning process and enrich their learning experiences from which they can grow and benefit in the future learning.

The core competency I chose is evoking awareness. ICF’s definition of evoking awareness is to facilitate learners’ insight and learning “by using tools and techniques such as powerful questioning, silence, metaphor or analogy” (ICF, 2022, p. 23). To help learners be fully aware of what they think, value, need and believe in the learning process, coaches themselves should be highly self-aware to work effectively with students (Carden, Passmore, & Jones, 2022). Therefore, I define the competency of evoking awareness as the ability of highly self-aware coaches to raise self-awareness in learners’ internal states, such as emotions, cognitions, and physiological responses, in the facilitation and coaching process through adjusting coaching approaches, inviting them to share, and asking guiding questions.

Q2: Why is this competency important?

Destin points out a significant fact in learning that we all have cognitive biases, which will tremendously affect what and how we learn (SmarterEveryDay, 2015). Also, the two main themes of coaching for learning are to increase learners’ awareness of their internal resistance to new knowledge and how to realize their potential capacity to maximize learning (Madland & Macklin, 2022). Hence, I deem that the competency of evoking awareness is effective for coaches to help learners notice and identify their coginitive biases and bridge understanding and knowledge for them. More, raising students’ awareness of their minds, thoughts, and emotions will ensure they know what they are processing and make the learning process effective and efficient.

Q3: What set of integrated knowledge, skills, aptitudes and attributes help define, in more detail, how to successfully perform the job to be done?

1. The coach should be able to transform the coaching conversation into something meaningful to the learners;
2. The coach should be highly self-aware and able to build conversations to help learners know about themselves;
3. The coach should always be aware of the idea that they are not the center of the topic or conversation; it’s the learners;
4. The coach should present behaviors that fall into three domains: asking questions, communicating, and being silent when it’s needed;
5. The coach can help learners explore go beyond current thinking to think about something they have never thought of before;
6. The coach should be able to raise questions that allow learners to go deeper to think and reflect;
7. The coach should share their observation, thoughts, and perspectives without attachment;
8. The coach should know how to invite learners to respond in the way they want;
9. The coach should be able to remain silent and hold the space for learners for them to be free to talk and share (International Coaching Federation, 2020).

References

Carden, J., Passmore, J., & Jones, R. J. (2022). Exploring the role of self‐awareness in coach development: A grounded theory study. International Journal of Training and Development.

Gallwey, T. (1997). The inner game of work: building capability in the workplace. The Systems Thinker, 8(6), 1-5.

International Coaching Federation. (2020, December 10). Updated ICF core competency 7: Evokes awareness. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7tTmRRYGAQ&list=PLMBtOVpaN5DjRt-VAJIa0Xe0MLuA-LZNk&index=

ICF. (2022). ICF core competencies. International Coaching Federation. https://coachfederation.org/credentials-and-standards/core-competencies

Madland, C & Macklin, S. (2022). Unit 4 Coaching for learning [Lecture notes]. TWU Moodle. https://learn.twu.ca/course/view.php?id=23412&section=1#tabs-tree-start

SmarterEveryDay. (2015, April 24). The backwards brain bicycle – Smarter every day 133. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0&t=7s

The learning activity I picked up is to consider how could I use the Liberating Structure to guide a group discussion that would help learners learn a Unit.

The key takeways for me after reviewing the learning materials are:

1.The Liberating Structure has to be simple;

2.Everyone can use everyday;

3.The liberating moments are the ones when everybody can participate and make contributions;

4.Focus on the engagement of everybody (McCandless, 2020).

Kimball (2012) uses the metaphor of Jazz and points out the importance of the underlying rules in Liberating Structure for participants to collaborate. To help learners learn a unit, we need to begin with the learning purposes and outcomes and, in turn, work with the designs that have liberating structures to channel the learners’ energy and keep the learning activities moving productively. As a facilitator, I would facilitate self-organized conversations and interactive dialogues throughout the learning process for every learner to engage in and contribute.

We can apply some practical methods to building an inclusive learning environment for the group to feel safe and open to discussing and sharing opinions. Using stories and presentations together, guiding learners to listen when others are sharing, reminding learners to focus on the topic, and providing feedback constantly (Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2010) are recommended as constructive methods to prompt interaction in the group discussion. I would like to use storytelling as the icebreaker to open the conversations, connect every learner, and build mutual understanding for them to understand other people’s experiences. Storytelling can make “the abstract more concrete, diverse facts more understandable, and arouse interest in learning as students become engrossed, not only in the story itself but in the cultural or social context in which it is told” (King, 1993, p. 2). Learners who do not feel comfortable sharing personal stories are welcome to share their feelings after hearing others’ experiences, or they can offer the kinds of topics for others to brainstorm.

To help learners be able to communicate realness and respect, facilitators need to arrange the space and build an open physical setting (Lipmanowicz, Singhal, McCandless, & Wang, 2015) in which feelings can be expressed and accepted. Then, I would raise questions, such as what makes you feel different, why is that important, and what can we conclude from that (Liberating Structures, 2016), to guide the discussions and make sense of the learning facts. After dividing them into small groups, I will stay with each group for a while and offer guidance if necessary. Smith (2009) argues that the primary job of facilitators is done by their presence in the group, not their being the center of discussion or learning activity. And each group can be creative on how they want to display or articulate their findings. All kinds of forms are welcome, such as lectures, videos, songs, PPTs, etc. When closing up the discussion, I will help them identify what they need to commit to and achieve (Smith, 2009) and give assignments that could help them reflect and channel their feelings. In addition, tools, resources, materials should be pointed out to help them complete their assignments.

References

Kimball, L. (2012). Liberating structures: A new pattern language for engagement. Systems Thinker, 23(1), 2-6.

King, N. (1993). Storymaking and drama: An approach to teaching language and literature at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Liberating Structures. (2016). What, So What, Now What? W³. Liberating Structures Website. https://www.liberatingstructures.com/9-what-so-what-now-what-w/

Lipmanowicz, H., & McCandless, K. (2010). Liberating structures: Innovating by including and unleashing everyone. E&Y Performance, 2(4), 6-19.

Lipmanowicz, H., Singhal, A., McCandless, K., & Wang, H. (2015). Liberating structures: Engaging everyone to build a good life together. Communication and” the good life”(International Communication Association Theme Book Series, Vol. 2, pp. 233-246). New York: Peter Lang.

McCandless, K. [Keith McCandless]. (2020). Liberating structures: Simple, subtle, powerful. [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/364868276?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=102664514

Smith, Mark K. (2009). Facilitating learning and change in groups and group sessions. Infed.org. https://infed.org/mobi/facilitating-learning-and-change-in-groups-and-group-sessions/#cite

I defend the Interaction Equivalency Theorem. It is not just due to the birthday-defend group that I have been categorized in but also the call for distance and online education and the need for educators to change and increase learners’ educational experiences. There are two main reasons that I think the Interaction Equivalency Theorem can lead to promising education designs, benefit both educators and students, and maximize learning outcomes in this online learning/teaching era.

I think that Interaction Equivalency Theorem can effectively mitigate the fatigue stemming from too much online teaching and meetings for teachers. Educators and learners have been forced to learn, teach, and work online since Covid-19 hit the world in 2019; till now, distance and online education has become the predominant method of instruction. Zoom fatigue or teaching fatigue starts to represent educators’ feelings while they struggle with how to best interact with learners via Email, Zoom, online learning platforms, and Teams (Massner, 2021). Kanuka (2011) points out that the level of interaction determines the quality of students’ learning experiences regardless of how they process the knowledge. To help students better understand and interact with learning content, teachers can plan for more high-quality online content and provide more online materials beforehand (Toney, Light, & Urbaczewski, 2021). Therefore, when the preparation is sufficient and the class design is interesting enough to keep the interaction between students and content on a very high level, the teacher-student interaction will be broadly reduced and release teachers from the online teaching fatigue.

More, I deem that the Interaction Equivalency Theorem can effectively build knowledge of inquiry for students to learn in their own way in a large learning setting. The Interaction Equivalency Theorem can provide practical designs and mixes of interaction for educators to enhance distance education teaching and learning (Anderson, 2003). It also indicates that students will have more choices to discover their own way to communicate with peers, teachers, or content and achieve a high quality of learning experiences in distance education.  Given the large number of learners in each class in China, the Interaction Equivalency Theorem is perfect for achieving both course effectiveness and individual learning satisfaction. Also, Padilla Rodriguez and Armellini (2014) recommend that the design and delivery of effective online courses provided by the interaction equivalency theorem should rely on multiple types of interaction to ensure a more satisfying educational experience for a large group of learners and participants.

References

Anderson, T. (2003). Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 4(2), 1–14.

Kanuka, H. (2011). Interaction and the online distance classroom: Do instructional methods effect the quality of interaction?. Journal of computing in higher education, 23(2), 143-156.

Massner, C. K. (2021). Zooming in on zoom fatigue: A case study of videoconferencing and zoom fatigue in higher education. Liberty University.

Padilla Rodriguez, B. C., & Armellini, A. (2014). Applying the interaction equivalency theorem to online courses in a large organization. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 13(2), 51-66.

Toney, S., Light, J., & Urbaczewski, A. (2021). Fighting zoom fatigue: Keeping the zoombies at bay. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 48(1), 40-46.