Month: May 2022

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Post-Evoking awareness-Showcase post

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). Also, Gallwey (1997) points out that coaches should be able to surface the interference to learning and explains the relations between experience, performance, and learning. 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. For example, suppose the coach wants to maximize learners’ learning potential. In that case, the coach has to be highly aware of the obstacles that each learner is experiencing and offer proper help to reveal their barriers.

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 cognitive biases and bridge understanding and knowledge for them. More, Bluckert (2006) elaborates a set of sound coaching principles to ensure successful learning outcomes, with awareness and responsibility being the third principle. By being aware of their attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral patterns, people can be clearer about the choices they will make or the change they decide to make (Bluckert, 2006). 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

Bluckert, P. (2006). Psychological dimensions of executive coaching. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

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

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LDRS 663 Peer Coaching Session

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.

 

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Small Group Facilitation

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.