Coaching Psychology in Schools

Enhancing Performance, Development and Wellbeing

Mark Adams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317648871
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Counseling

Coaching psychology is a distinct branch of academic and applied psychology that focuses on enhancement of performance, development and wellbeing in the broader population. In Coaching Psychology in Schools, Mark Adams demonstrates how psychological principles and approaches can be applied in schools to enhance the performance of education practitioners, teams and settings, with corresponding benefits for the children under their care.

Coaching Psychology in Schools aims to put psychology in the hands of the reader, imparting psychology-informed coaching strategies that can enhance effectiveness in supporting others to learn, change and develop. The book challenges traditional notions of how psychology can contribute to education and illustrates how better outcomes for children can be achieved by helping adults to unlock and utilise their resources. The book covers how coaching psychology can be applied to:

Develop classroom practice

Improve teacher performance

Support Continuing Professional Development

Enhance practitioner and team performance, confidence and wellbeing

Support practical problem-solving

Develop individual and organisational resilience

Real-life case examples are used throughout to illustrate practical coaching methods and techniques that are underpinned by established psychological approaches, including solution-focused coaching, cognitive-behavioural coaching, motivational interviewing and many more.

Coaching Psychology in Schools will be essential reading for coaches, psychologists, and education practitioners who have an interest or investment in helping others to move forward, including school leaders, teacher coaches, CPD co-ordinators, advisors and consultants. It will also be of interest to those working in other professional contexts who are interested in finding out more about coaching psychology and its potential applications.

Part 1
Foundations

Chapter 1
Introduction

I have almost invariably found that the very feeling that has seemed to me most private, most personal … has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many other people. It has led me to believe that what is most personal and unique in each one of us is probably the very element which would, if it were shared or expressed, speak most deeply to others.

(Rogers, 1961, p. 26)

In the very first chapter of his classic work On Becoming a Person, Carl Rogers, an eminent psychotherapist and arguably the most influential psychologist of the twentieth century, observes how hungry people are ‘to know something of the person who is speaking to them or teaching them’ (Rogers, 1961, p. 4). This is an observation that I was at first determined to ignore while writing this book, querying the place of my voice and electing instead to write in third-person journalspeak that would effectively keep me out of the picture. However, as the book has developed, the need to engage you, the reader, through the use of a personal voice has become increasingly apparent to me. This realization has also coincided with the emergence of a growing belief that my giving away of something of my personal experience is something that will add value to this book and make it more engaging. Take this introduction, for example. In order for you to understand the purpose, context and spirit of this book, there are certain core questions I need to address:

• What is the value of psychology?
• How can psychology be applied in education?
• What is coaching?
• How is coaching used in education?
• What is coaching psychology?
• How can psychology inform coaching practice?
• What are the aims of this book?

Of course, I could readily cover those themes through the provision of some basic facts and a series of concise and impersonal bullet points; however, while that approach may have its merits, I believe that in doing so I might overlook a valuable opportunity. As Rogers notes, sometimes it is that which is most personal and unique in each of us that speaks most deeply to others, and I believe that there are aspects of my own experience in relation to the above questions that, if shared, may resonate with something inside you. It is therefore with Rogers’ advice in mind that I open this book with something of a personal introduction.

Psychology: a subject for life

Psychology – the scientific study of how we think, feel, behave, learn, interact and develop – has been the subject of my heart since I was 17. I find psychology fascinating because it speaks to us about our everyday existences, what it means to be a person, and how, for better or for worse, we function and interrelate as human beings. While I was first attracted to psychology by an interest in pathology and dysfunction, over time I have become increasingly drawn to what psychology has to say about what is right with people, our strengths and qualities, and the conditions under which we can perform to our optimum potential. Indeed, psychology has much to tell us about such matters. But the value of psychology extends beyond mere description, however interesting that description might be. In offering us theories, lenses and language that can support us to make sense of and navigate the messy, complex and dynamic world of human experience and interaction, psychology is a subject that equips us for life itself. And it is here where the true value of psychology lies – in its potential to make a positive contribution to lives and society through real-world applications. This is what drives my passion.

A broader impact of psychology in education

Psychology can be applied in any number of the domains of life and work, from sports contexts to businesses to clinical settings. Personally, I work as an Educational Psychologist, which means that I apply psychology in my work with schools and families to support them to improve the quality of educational experience for the children under their care. Sometimes this involves doing assessment work with children; often, it involves supporting the planning of interventions for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities; however, it also sometimes involves work with teachers and schools in order to support them to improve the quality of their provision on a broader scale. I find this latter form of work particularly satisfying since it greatly increases the numbers of children who can benefit from my efforts: apply psychology to support a teacher to improve the quality of their practice (e.g. how they develop a constructive learning environment, how they facilitate learning, how they motivate the children, or how they manage behaviour) and it thereafter potentially benefits every child that teacher comes into contact with. What is more, the added bonus is that the teacher may then become more effective at providing support to their colleagues. As you can see, the potential benefits of such work are significant in terms of their ripple-effect impact on the overall capacity of the organization to provide for the children under their care; therefore, as an emerging psychologist in the early 2000s, I was keen to develop this aspect of my practice. It was with this mind-set driving my ambitions that I discovered the practice of coaching.

What is coaching?

Coaching is a way of working with people that focuses on supporting them to improve their performance, learn and develop, and/or experience greater wellbeing. It is, in essence, a form of helping relationship, where one person builds a relationship with another (or a team or group) with a view to supporting them to make positive changes in their life and situation. As a psychologist with an interest in helping people to unlock their strengths and apply their skills to everyday challenges, I was naturally drawn to coaching as a discipline. What I found was an area of practice that not only seemed to be effective in helping myself or others to move forward but was, moreover, closely aligned with my own core values and principles (e.g. respect, aspiration, appreciation, collaboration, individuation, and an emphasis on the importance of learning). Coaching and I were a natural fit at both the practical and philosophical levels.

What is coaching psychology?

At some point in 2003 I received a mailing from the British Psychological Society (BPS) asking members to vote on whether the BPS should form a Special Group in Coaching Psychology (SGCP) for those interested in this area of practice. I didn’t know what coaching psychology was, but I was enthusiastic about coaching and so did a little homework. It didn’t take much research to discover that coaching psychology was an emerging discipline of academic and applied psychology in which qualified psychologists would apply their skills in the context of coaching to support performance and wellbeing in the broader population. An area of professional practice that would align my passion for psychology, my enthusiasm for coaching, my core values and principles, and my desire to have a broader impact in schools? You can imagine my response. Thankfully, I was not alone in my views. The SGCP was formally launched in the autumn of 2004, and continues to provide a home within the BPS for those people (not just psychologists) who are interested in applications of psychology to coaching practice (www.sgcp.org.uk). From this point on, I also considered myself to be an aspiring coaching psychologist, and was soon fortunate enough to be able to begin delivering such services in my work with schools.

How is coaching used in education?

Coaching seems to have gradually permeated the educational landscape since the early 2000s, when it was advocated by the Department for Education and Skills as a strategy for supporting schools to increase their collective capacity for sustainable change and improvement. My first formal experience of coaching in education was in a specialist service of psychologists and teachers that used coaching methods and principles to support classroom teachers to develop their behaviour management skills. I was immediately struck by the ways in which coaching could have a positive impact on teachers’ performance and wellbeing, and how it seemed to have genuine practical value in helping teachers to make adjustments to their day-to-day practice that would benefit many of the children they came into contact with. However, coaching has much broader applicability. Throughout the 2000s, a number of publications emerged that indicated a growing recognition of the range of possible applications for coaching in schools, with school leaders noting that they might use coaching for a variety of purposes, including addressing pupil behaviour; improving teacher performance; developing lesson planning; supporting a new head teacher; creating an inclusive school; spreading good practice; and growing the organization (Creasy & Paterson, 2005, p. 19). Over time, the practice in our team developed and diversified until we were coaching about a broad range of themes with a number of client groups (e.g. developing motivational practices, coaching for wellbeing, and coaching for senior leaders).

Since then, the use of coaching in education has continued to grow and evolve, and as such it is likely that an education practitioner will encounter a variety of different coaching relationships. This could include formal coaching from an external specialist; in-school coaching from a trained coach in their own organization; a line manager or other professional adopting a coaching style; or peer-to-peer coaching from a professional in a similar role in their own or another school. Indeed, with the advent of ‘Teaching Schools’ and the increased emphasis on school-to-school and peer-to-peer support in the United Kingdom, coaching is now more relevant to education than ever. There is also a gradually accumulating evidence base regarding the impact of coaching in education, demonstrating a range of positive outcomes for children, young people, teachers and organizations, including increased goal attainment; reduced stress; enhanced wellbeing; enhanced resilience; improved performance; improvements in student attainment; and the implementation of new practices following professional development experiences (see van Nieuwerburgh, 2012, for a summary).

How can psychology inform coaching practice?

In the course of my work I began to note how my own practice as a coach was greatly enhanced by the application of psychological principles and approaches, such as an understanding of how people move through the change process or specific techniques and frameworks that could be used to support people on their developmental journey. Over the years I have been inspired and influenced by the person-centred approach, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, cognitive-behavioural psychology, Self-Efficacy Theory, the ‘stages of change’ model, Self-Determination Theory, Motivational Interviewing, positive psychology, and research into the factors that influence the outcomes of helping relationships. All of these influences have enhanced my practice and made me a more effective agent of change; my hypothesis is that they may make you more effective, too. Indeed, my contention is that these principles and approaches can be applied by a broad range of people and professionals to enhance their own personal effectiveness and their proficiency at supporting others to learn, grow and develop.

What are the aims of this book?

Ten years on from my first encounters with coaching I remain as passionate about and committed to the practice as ever, having repeatedly seen the impact it can have on practitioners and teams in schools. Indeed, one of my aims in writing this book is to capture some of that impact so that others can see what coaching and coaching psychology can offer to education. If you work in education, then I want you to see close-up the benefits and opportunities that coaching can present: to watch as a person grows in confidence as they discover that they do, in fact, have the personal and practical resources they need to achieve their goals; to see a teacher recognize and challenge the negative conclusions he has drawn about himself that give rise to anxiety; to see a team find the will and the way to create a new special educational provision from scratch for the children of their community. All these examples, and more, will be explored in Part 2 of this book. What I find most appealing about these examples is that in all cases change has come about by working with people in a way that respects their skills and experiences, demonstrates belief in their capacity to change, and empowers them to move forward with renewed confidence and vigour. My hope is that seeing the evidence of such impact will encourage more people in education to take up or make use of these principles and practices.

This brings me on to my broader aim: as well as demonstrating the impact that coaching and coaching psychology can have, I want to leave you, the reader, armed with a collection of psychological principles and tools that can inform your practice. Yes, I am speaking to psychologists here, but my intention is for these ideas to also reach beyond that audience. Coaching is a practice that has relevance to many roles in education, and psychology is a tool that can inform suc...