Manager Coaching Skills: Development and Application

The concept of “manager as coach” is increasingly popular in the management literature as a mechanism for improving employee involvement and performance. This paper summarizes a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a “coaching skills” program for sales managers. The program began with a five–day coaching skills course and was followed by on–the–job activities that called for application of the coaching skills covered in the course. The study used telephone interviews with managers' subordinates to collect data regarding managers' coaching effectiveness prior to the program. Follow–up interviews were conducted three months later. The interviews focused on the eight coaching behaviors identified by Schelling (1991). Quantitative analyses showed statistically significant increases on the follow–up ratings on five of the eight coaching behaviors. Further analysis revealed that subordinates who had not worked with their supervisors long tended to give lower ratings. Additionally, those managers with fewer subordinates often received higher scores on the eight coaching behaviors.     

The Training of Coaching Skills: an implementation study

In this study, the implementation effects of a programme for the training of coaching skills with Dutch school counsellors are described. These school counsellors are expected to provide help and support to primary school teachers. Coaching is a form of in‐class support intended to provide teachers with feedback on their own functioning and thereby stimulate self‐reflection and self‐analysis in order to improve instructional effectiveness. To assist school counsellors in their attempts to coach teachers, a training programme was designed: ‘The school counsellor as coach.’ A quasi‐experimental, treatment‐control group investigation was then set up to test the effects of this programme. Based on the pre‐ and post‐training ratings of coaching conferences, a significant treatment effect was found for the coaching skills concerned with the development of autonomy (empowerment), feedback, and purposefulness. The pre‐ and post‐training ratings from coached teachers showed no significant treatment effects. This was because the teachers were not accustomed to in‐class assistance and thus rated the coaching skills of the school counsellors quite favourably even at pre‐test.     

Research on mathematics teachers as partners in task design

Mathematical tasks and tools, including tasks in the form of digital tools, are key resources in mathematics teaching and in mathematics teacher education. Even so, the ‘design’ of mathematical tasks is perceived in different ways: sometimes seen as something distinct from the teaching and learning process, and sometimes as integral to it. Whilst task design has often been carried out by designers or mathematicians (perhaps as textbook authors), the focus for this review article is research that has involved mathematics teachers as partners in the design of tasks. The article provides a state-of-the-art review of relevant literature and is presented under three headings that consider, in turn, the role of mathematical ‘tasks’; the nature of ‘task design’; and the notion of ‘partnerships for task design’ in mathematics education. Subsequently, we present current research that is providing new insights into tasks, task design, and task design partnership. Based on this, we argue that ‘task design’ needs to pay particular attention to what to design, which tools are necessary or beneficial, and under what conditions; digital tools and task resources offer particular affordances that traditional resources cannot provide; and not only do teachers benefit from being partners in task design (in terms of their professional learning) but without their involvement some aspects of task design would most likely be neglected.     

Indirect Impact: How Early Childhood Educator Training and Coaching Impacted the Acquisition of Literacy Skills in Preschool Students

Learning to read becomes a difficult task for many children, particularly if they have not been reared in early childhood settings where literacy-based activities, interactions, or materials are prevalent. This study examined the impact that providing a college-level course in research-based instructional strategies for literacy development to early childhood educators had on the development of early reading skills in the preschool children they taught. In addition, impact on children’s rates of literacy skill attainment was examined when a coaching component (i.e., a Literacy Coach) was added.     

Education--a joint task for parents,kindergarten teachers and kindergarten student teachers

The aim of this research was to find out what kindergarten teachers, parents and kindergarten student teachers think about education and about themselves as educators. The basic question was: what kind of similarities and differences are there between these groups of educators? The sample consisted of 21 parents, 28 kindergarten teachers and 37 kindergarten student teachers voluntarily taking part in the study. The data were collected using thematic interviews and an open-ended questionnaire. The approach used to analyse the material was phenomenography. The results show that the groups of educators between themselves had quite similar conceptions of education and of being educators of small children. However, some differences were also found. The division of the conceptions of education was: education as a societal function or socialization, education as a way of supporting a child's development, education as care, and education as work and action. All groups, but especially parents, regarded education primarily as a societal function. All three groups paid rather little attention to education as a function of becoming a human being. Education as a function of care occurred in the conceptions of some educators. The conceptions of being an educator were linked to characteristic features of educators, to working with children, to commitment and self-confidence at work and to demands on and responsibility of an educator. In particular, parents paid attention to the demands and responsibility of being an educator. Kindergarten teachers and kindergarten student teachers emphasized working with children and commitment to education.     

大学生职场语言表述技巧研究

无论工作还是生活,我们都需要使用语言来进行沟通。语言是人们传递思维、表达感情、交流思想的工具,语言是艺术,也是力量。语言表达能够体现人的综合能力,需要技巧。对于涉世未深、无丰富职场经验的大学生来说,培养良好的职场语言表述能力尤为必要。同一场景下,不同的语言表述会关系到求职的成败,甚至会改变一个人的职场人生。在分析语言功...     

Facilitating Discussions: Skills for Teachers and Students

In this article, the author addresses the problem of content knowledge dominating the school curriculum and the resultant marginalization of sociocivic and moral dispositions. Given the problems associated with teaching dispositions directly, the author offers four curricular aims that collectively develop the attitudes required of democratic citizens through deliberate employment in daily curriculum planning.     

大学生21世纪技能影响因素研究

随着计算机和网络技术的不断发展,新的知识和信息呈现指数增长的趋势,这既给大学生带来了不断提升自身能力的机会,又为大学生适应社会的发展带来了挑战。培养21世纪技能是大学生应对挑战的利刃,尤其是创造性思维、协作交流能力以及信息、媒介和技术素养。了解学生的个体因素和社会因素中有哪些会促进这些能力的培养对于有效地大学培养计划至关重要。通过对北京师范大学247名本科生、研究生的研究发现：个体因素中的性别和学科会对三方面技能有显著影响,男生在各个方面均优于女生,但值得注意的是文科生三方面能力均优于理科生;而社会因素中母亲学历与三方面能力呈正相关;与此同时,大学生的三方面技能存在显著的相关性,因此在培养过程中需要综合考虑。     

The Transferability of Sport Coaching Research: A Critical Commentary

ABSTRACT

The utility and applicability of research in sport coaching is widely reported to be problematic. This article offers a critical commentary on the factors impacting the potential transferability of research findings into coaches’ practice and into coach education, arguing that a more nuanced appreciation of these factors is necessary. The issue is conceptualized as one of knowledge transfer, and the article examines the roles of the researcher and the practitioner in facilitating research-informed practice. Single-focus disciplinary research, an absence of application research and the paucity of studies on coaching interventions are identified as limiting factors. A more realistic appreciation of the particularity of role, domain, and context is required, along with a recognition of their influence on coaches’ perceptions of the relevance of research findings. It is suggested that the inertia of academic publishing practice may continue to constrain more pragmatic and interdisciplinary research in this field.     

Distress Tolerance Skills for College Students: A Pilot Investigation of a Brief DBT Group Skills Training Program

This report outlines the evaluation of a brief dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) group skills training program for students presenting with serious psychological concerns (referral reasons included suicidality, self-injury, and substance use). Students were enrolled in distress tolerance groups ranging from 7–10 weeks. The majority of the students in the sample were receiving psychiatric medication, individual therapy, or both. All students (N = 22) demonstrated significantly improved scores on measures of emotion regulation and functional and dysfunctional coping. These results are the first to show that targeted skills training with DBT mindfulness and distress tolerance skills can produce beneficial outcomes in college students in the context of a short-term intervention.     

Communication Skills for Engineering Students: an integrative approach

This paper describes the development of the teaching of communication skills on Engineering Degree courses run by the School of Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Leeds Polytechnic from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. The development is seen as moving from the notion of Liberal Studies through Communication Studies to eventually the concept of Integrated Studies. The ideas behind Integrated Studies are described and the benefits and problems of this approach are discussed.     

高师院校师范生专业技能培养体系建构研究

提高教师教育专业学生的培养质量,增强学生就业能力和岗位适应能力,需要强化对学生的专业技能培养.师范生专业技能培养体系是高师院校人才培养体系的重要组成部分.专业技能培养应构建以技能要素培养与训练为中心,实施两类课程联动、三个平台同构、四段各有侧重、五种机制保障的培养体系,简称为"2345"专业技能培养体系.     

Developing Research Skills for Civil Engineers: A Library Contribution

A cowse‐integrated programme of library instruction has been developed for the School of Civil Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia; library instruction being one of the means selected to improve the research efforts of fourth year project students. The programme has been developed through consultation between the Civil Engineering Research Project Coordinator and the Civil Engineering Reference Librarian. Its aims are derived from those established for the fourth year research projects. Attention is focussed on the nature of the programme and the impact of instruction on fourth year research project students. Students who had received extended library instruction were compared with students from the previous year. Evidence suggests that the instruction has improved the information seeking behaviour of the students and their literature reviews.     

Effectiveness of Coaching Socially Withdrawn/Isolated Children in Specific Social Skills

Ladd demonstrated the effectiveness of the social learning method for increasing social interactive behaviour of ‘mildly’ withdrawn/isolated children with their peers. The present study replicated Ladd's investigation with two important differences:

1. the subjects were ‘severely’ withdrawn/isolated children, and

2. the training sessions, unlike Ladd's fixed time schedule, continued until the subject's level of performance reached the level of ‘average’ peers in each targeted social skill.

The findings indicated that the social learning method increased social interaction of ‘severely’ withdrawn/isolated children with their peers. However increasing their rate of behaviour in targeted social skills to the level of performance of their ‘average’ peers required approximately four times as many sessions of training as Ladd conducted with ‘mildly’ withdrawn/isolated children.     

大学教师服务学生初探

在我国，大学教师服务学生的意识淡薄，服务质量和水平还较低。然而作为一名大学教师，其主要职责是为学生服务。为此，大学与大学教师应当转变思想，树立服务学生的理念；提高教师素质，增强服务学生的能力；搞好教育教学工作，落实服务学生的理念；建立有效机制，提升服务学生的质量。