The Power of Life Coaching

A Model for Academic Recruitment and Retention

Clough

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498286312
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

University adult programs are recruiting and retaining the fastest growing student segment in higher education. Yet, two of the biggest challenges faced by Christian colleges and universities today are declining enrollment and decreasing student retention rates. With adult learners, both on campus and online, as the fastest growing student market, schools need to adapt to accommodate this complex student population. The Power of Life Coaching: A Model for Academic Recruitment and Retention offers a how-to guide for faculty and administration of adult programs desiring to address these challenges while transforming the lives of students they lead and serve. Comparative research contrasting key missional alignment indicators at several universities determined that life coaching has the greatest transformational impact on the life of the student. In response, this academic coaching model was developed based on adult experiential learning, patterned after Christ's training of the disciples. This text is theologically and theoretically based, delivering a technique of coaching for student satisfaction, which will lead to increased retention rates. The Power of Life Coaching is a manual for assisting faculty members and teams to more fully embrace and live out their calling and faith.

1

Coaching Rationale for Recruitment and Retention

University adult programs are recruiting and retaining the fastest growing student segment in higher education, consistently increasing in the last three decades. A 2011 Department of Education report counted 17.6 million undergraduates nationwide—38 percent over the age of twenty-five and one quarter over the age of thirty. The number of adult students is projected to increase another 23 percent by 2019.1 The National Center for Education Statistics also states, non-traditional students have seven characteristics that are often evident:

1. Have delayed enrollment into postsecondary education

2. Attend part-time

3. Are financially independent of parents

4. Work full-time while enrolled

5. Have dependents other than a spouse

6. Are a single parent

7. Lack a standard high school diploma2

These characteristics pose challenges to student growth, retention, and graduation. The overall focus of this book is to experience development and growth of the adult student through a seamless recruitment and retention coaching model, which will yield a lifetime of fruitful service and ministry.3 It is proposed that transformational life coaching will allow students to respond to movement within their individual spirit. This, in turn, will inspire them to dream of the new passions that are experienced through going back to school as an adult. Life coaching meets the critical need of effective recruitment of this student through touch points of movement into the student retention processes, addressing the challenges. Incorporation of life coaching as a strategic process within student recruitment and retention will foster growth of a student developmentally through student-oriented advancement goals. Life coaching will also align with Christian higher education institutional mission statements.

Adult students pursuing education wish to improve their job potential, desire to accomplish an educational goal, and often seek to fulfill a calling on their life. They are making a paradigm shift in their lives by going back to school while carrying on with all their other responsibilities. An institution that desires to fulfill its institutional mission must reflect on how to have the greatest transformational impact on the lives of its students. This book reasons that a reproducible model using life coaching provides that support to maximize the adult student experience.

The problem is stated by Marc Wilson from Hesser College in regard to adult student retention at the 2010 Proceedings of the Association for Continuing Higher Education:

Given projections that predict that soon, 60 percent of higher education students will be non-traditional and the current national initiative to significantly increase the number of college graduates, and the reality that adults are twice as likely to fail to persist until graduation than traditional aged student, it seems clear that theoretical models must be developed and research undertaken that will positively impact adult student retention.4

The data, therefore, reflects that adult degree programs face the challenge of working with the complex lives of middle-aged adults. This education for enrollment and advising personnel includes training on life coaching techniques. As an advisor, you will be educated on the following points:

• Coaching techniques provide a method for service efficiency and seamless transition between the steps of the recruiting/retention processes.

• Coaching is driven by the student, delivered by the coach, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, establishing institutional trust.

• Coaching is highly advantageous for students, helping them work through issues and establish goals to be successful, thereby increasing retention and building bridges.

The literature review suggests that there is limited empirical work and a gap in research about adult undergraduate students returning to higher education. Findings have recommended future research in areas of adult identity and influence in learning.5 It has also been suggested “coaching psychology needs to develop and formalize a body of teachable knowledge that can sustain and advance this new and vibrant area of behavioral science.”6

Teachable knowledge is best presented with theoretical underpinnings in regard to adult learning and coaching theory. Wisdom is the key element in how adults learn. The following research on wisdom gives insight how to practically help a student process learning with advising through coaching.

Purpose

The purpose of this book is to lead academic advisors to develop a coaching based recruitment and retention process at a Christian higher education organization. The book focuses specifically on training Christian advisors. The model developed for this training is based on theological and theoretical comparative interviews of advisors from Christian Adult Higher Education Association member schools.

The question poses itself, “What if there were a seamless model”? Life coaching is a recruitment and retention tool proposed to align the prospective student with the institutional mission. It is a tool that allows admission, enrollment, and advisor personnel to come alongside the student and to develop a progressive relationship. This progressive relationship, according to Intelliworks, is the progression of a prospective student through the recruiting and retention process; it involves eight touch points of movement.7 This flow can be enhanced by conscious awareness of moving students through these steps with life coaching. Bringing a prospective student into an adult program means building a relationship. This relationship begins with the initial touch point with the institution. Depending on the touch point, movement progresses to the discovery step, which moves a prospect into gathering information and data analysis. Once the prospect has started to grasp the information, the process of educating him or her about the institution starts, and that is where the trust process goes into full swing. From this point the admission process progresses through the institutional channels of admissions, business office, financial aid, and registration functions.

There is a point at which the prospective student converts to being a student. I propose this is where life coaching plays a significant role. At this conversion point there are several progressive steps in which life coaching can be applied. These steps include focusing on prospective student needs, delivering on their experience, and establishing uniqueness within their journey. During the process of these steps, coaches are constantly anal...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Endorsement
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Coaching Rationale for Recruitment and Retention
• Chapter 2: Theological Foundation for Using Life Coaching
• Chapter 3: Theoretical Foundations of a Coaching Model
• Chapter 4: Training for Transformational Coaching
• Chapter 5: Life Coaching Model and the Advisor Role
• Chapter 6: Practical Application of Coaching for Academic Advising
• Appendix A: Project Evaluation
• Appendix B: Coaching Meeting Plan Form
• Appendix C: Model Implementation Program
• Appendix D: Model Implementation Semester
• Appendix E: Wisconsin Lutheran College Case Study
• Appendix F: Indiana Wesleyan University Case Study
• Bibliography