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A large scale study involving 500 students, 18 schools, and over three years’ work has produced intriguing results, researchers say, suggesting coaching can have a significant impact on students’ performance in exams–and, perhaps–in life itself.
“The study shows the benefits of coaching when used as a personal development tool to support learning,” wrote the researchers, Jonathan Passmore and Andy Brown, in their report, published in most recent issue (2009, Volume 2, Issue 1) of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.
Beyond the improvement in test performance, the researchers from the University of East London found coaching played a key role in advancing the prospects of children from disadvantaged groups–suggesting that governments can employ coaching as a tool to “increase the number of children from lower socio-economic groups progressing to university.”
The study comes amid a boom in educational coaching, especially in the United States, where a previous study (Knight, 2008) found school districts hiring thousands of coaches, and in just one state, Florida, more than 2,600 full-time coaches were already at work.
What methods work best with students? To determine what kinds of coaching methods might help students perform better in school, the researchers went to the Sandwell local educational area in West Midlands, U.K., which has performed poorly compared to other similar areas: Only 60 percent of students were meeting predicted grades.
The researchers invited eighteen schools to join the coaching experiment, bringing in 47 coaches–predominantly in their 20s, and not yet fully qualified to teach in UK schools–who were, in turn given training in coaching skills, problem solving, learning, and group behavior.
Throughout the project, 1,987 students worked with the coaches over three years, with each coach, on average, coaching between 20 and 25 students, most between the ages of 15 and 16; coaches working with students weekly on study skills, work topics, problems and personal goals.
How did the kids do?
According to the study’s researchers, “They showed an…upward trend over the three years of the project, from 53% in year one, to 73.6 percent in the third year of the study.” Further, the impact of coaching appears to have intensified as the students saw their scores getting better and better.
“As students saw examination results improve, their belief in the program and what they could achieve grew.”
And the study found that as the students did better, so did the school district. “Sandwell’s performance improved above both local and national trends,” the report found. “By year three of the project Sandwell was broadly comparable with its regional neighbors and had made significant progress to close the gap with the national figures.”
The study’s authors report since the coaching experiment, three of Sandwell’s neighboring school districts have developed their own coaching programs in an attempt to improve academic performance. ”
Susan Howson, who was not involved in the research study, is a certified coach in Canada and a winner of the ICF’s PRISM Award for her “Kids Coaching Connection,” a program aimed at providing life coaching training to teachers and parents, all aimed at helping children become better prepared for life. She also teaches co-active coaching skills directly to students, who in turn coach other kids at school, home and in their communities.
“I can see how this study will increase the understanding of what coaching is as it relates to kids,” Howson said. “It will also give more credibility to this work for coaches which can be used when approaching schools and organizations for funding. Wouldn’t it be great if it also helped to determine policy direction, where funding for students should go!”
Howson, who was a finalist for Canadian Coach of the Year, says working with students is extremely rewarding for a coach.
“It…has an impact on the emotional intelligence of students, connecting students’ hearts with their intellect,” Howson said. “Students become more aware of what they value and are able to express themselves more effectively, are able to appreciate other opinions and perspectives without judgment.”
The UK researchers concede their work has limitations, including the lack of a control group. But they remain excited about the potential for coaching to improve not just students’ scores, but lives. “Coaching (students) may offer a double win, in both short term educational gains and the resulting opportunities which flow from higher educational attainment, but also longer term gains in personal development that may serve the individual well in later life.”
There are 10 Responses so far...
OMG-I am SO excited to see this article!!!! I, along with many others who coach kids/teens/young adults KNOW that it works! How absolutely fantastic to see some research proving it!!! I would LOVE to get a copy of the report and will definitely be using it in my dissertation on ‘Coaching Youth’! THANK YOU for sharing this!!!!!
-Sandi Lindgren
Excellent !
I love the idea of associating personal development and education – It would be so beneficial to have childern grow up with an understanding of their emotions and personal success blocks – this would create lifelong learners.
Thanks for the great news !
C.
Cedric and Sandi,
Great to hear from you. I’d love to know more about your personal experiences working with kids in a coaching environment, and whether there are lessons for coaches of all kinds!
Mark
Wonderful article. This sounds much like the model guidance done in Missouri (USA) schools in elementary – secondary schools known as “Model Guidance”. As a school guidance counselor I would teach (coach) students each week in all classrooms and in small groups on learning about self and others, study skills, career. ect. I now know I was “coaching”.
I knew it! My husband and I started a teen leadership group in our community. It has grown from 40 teens to nearly 400 in the past two years. We are constantly amazed at how much the teens can do when they have a the benefit of coaching. I have been exploring creating a “teen development center” so that more teens from any community can benefit from coaching and this article supports my thought process. I would love to offer this opportunity to communities with teens with lesser advantages than some. Our youth will take us into the future and we have to depend on them. Our contribution, for now, as adults, can be to give them our time and coaching so they can grap the reins with confidence and competence.
Nice work, Natalie. You are taking coaching to new levels!
I am a high school social worker in an inner city high school in South Minneapolis, MN. When I introduced ‘coaching’ to the students, it took a little while for them to ‘get it’. Coaching teens in high school seems especially productive as they are SO un-used to adults listening to them and asking them what they want. My best coaching with teens comes in 15-30 minute increments – “on the fly” as I like to call it. I will often do some group coaching in a particular class, have a extrovert volunteer to be coached in front on classmates on a particular issue – and then…WOW… they get it! The group coaching is much different from individual. We are in a small enough school where they mostly know each other and maybe are more brave in taking risks? Regardless, last year my ‘informal’ experiment of coaching our high school seniors (for the purposes of increasing our graduation rate) appears a success!
BTW- I am a PhD student at IUPS (International University of Professional Studies) and working towards my degree in Professional Coaching and Human Development. My hope is that my dissertation will be related to ‘best practices’ for coaching teens.
Please contact me if you are a coaching teens (or have), as I would love to include you in the research (it will be an online questionnaire).
Thanks!
Sandi Lindgren
Although the study isn’t generalizable, I do think, as others have said, that it is really interesting. Several years ago I started an in-school mentoring program with a co-worker and saw first hand how powerful a positive role model can be in a child and teen’s life. There are so many possibilities for supporting kids to be successful. Thank you for sharing the research!!
Fantastic to have ‘confirmed’ what many of us all ready know- that coaching and education go hand in hand. I have coached in schools within the UK for 6 years now and currently run group and individual sessions for cohorts ranging from 13-17 year olds as well as support staff,teachers, management tiers and various departments – the results have been fantastic at many levels including attendance, attainment, achievement, behaviour, progression to further education, well-being and personal development all with measurable results and proves the effectiveness of having two professional disciplines, teaching and coaching, working side by side towards a common aim
I like the article very much.
I’d like to know, do you make some differentiation between the coaching contract you do with grown ups and coaching with teens and children with coaching proficiencies.
What is the place of their parents and what is the contract there?
And last but not least, a question- who is the coach?
Is he/she a certified coach who studied coaching and has an experience in coaching, or is the person like teacher or student that somebody supervises him using some coaching tools.
I think these are very critical questions which influence the boundaries and heart of coaching as profession.
I am thinking a lot about that concept and I personaly believe that we can help children with coaching tools but can not really “coach” children.
Sunny