THE EFFECTS OF THE COACHING PROCESS FROM MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES 1

The Effects of the Coaching Process from Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of coaching from multiple

perspectives, including that of an educator and of a student, and how this can potentially

contribute to the education system as a whole. For this process, 2 participants representing the

educator and student perspective from the Houston Metropolitan area were selected to work

alongside the researcher, who was in this case also the coach, to improve on a specific area

regarding with the use of technology. Each participant met with the coach to set goals that were

relevant to their context, and throughout the process discussed, and reflected on their progress

during a span of 7 weeks. The idea was to analyze the significance of the coaching in terms of its

effects and impact, if any, on both the individual and in their learning organizations. The results

of the study concluded that the impact of the coaching process and targeted technology

integration was significant to the individuals involved but also had the potential to impact their

organization at a larger scale.

The Effects of the Coaching Process from Multiple Perspectives

In recent years, technology has become an increasingly innovative toolbox that has

permitted our society to evolve and educational communities and lives to grow and develop more

efficiently. The impact of technology and the way it affects our daily lives is directly connected

with our context and relevant application of the many tools technology has to offer. Similarly,

collegial coaching has also gained popularity over the years and although the context in which it

is used varies, it has a significant effect on the overall learning community, whether it is coming

from the teacher or student’s perspective.

Research Questions

It is evident that learning about technology and ways to implement it appropriately is

essential in this modern world. Nonetheless, the methods in which this learning can be acquired

along with the diverse goals to be set vary widely given the individual. According to Delany &

Arredondo (1998), collegial coaching is a way to actively involve the participants of the learning

community, thus building a pathway towards reforming our school system and culture from

within. In other words, participants are viewed as capable professionals that have skills that

complement each other and can contribute to a positive change through collaboration rather than

with traditional training, in which employees are sometimes perceived as needy of assistance

from an outside expert, thus undermining their own preparation, knowledge, and experience.

Furthermore, it is not just from the pedagogical standpoint that coaching can be

significantly beneficial, but also from a student’s context in their own applications. As Jones &

Andrews (2019) explained, the coaching process is only effective if the coaching outcomes are

of value to the coachee, and in the executive coaching environment, also to both the coach and

the organization. Therefore, this raises the following questions:

1. How does the coaching process affect an individual from a different perspective

standpoint?

2. How can working with educators and students through the coaching process make a

significant difference in any learning system?

Methods

For this process, the collegial coach located 2 participants in different settings in the

Houston Metropolitan area. To exhibit both perspectives, Participant 1 is a first-year educator

and Participant 2 is a college freshman. Both participants met with the coach twice a week for

45-60-minute meetings for 7 weeks. The first meeting consisted of individual goal setting and

consequent meetings consisted of both reflection, discussion, and establishing new specific

targets within the overall goal. Both components are fundamental as Davis (2021) states that

positive coaching relationships involve self-directed learning and ongoing reflection. The

coachees’ progress was monitored through regular observations and active formal and informal

discussions. Considering the meetings and formal/informal observations of the coaching process,

the coach dedicated an approximate of fifteen hours to each participant.

Participants

Participant 1 is a first year on-level mathematics teacher at a local public high school. His

responsibilities include teaching a very diverse population and preparing them for the upcoming

standardized testing season along with creating assigned instructional materials to fit lessons that

accomplish the goals of the curriculum’s scope and sequence. One of the greatest strengths that

Participant 1 possesses is his enthusiasm for learning new skills, patience, attention to detail, and

comfort level when it comes to technology.

During our first goal-setting meeting, he explained that he wanted to incorporate different

technology platforms to increase the levels of engagement and motivation from his students.

Thus far, he had been using a few gamification platforms such as Kahoot and Quizziz but wished

to diversify the tools used. In addition, because he is a first-year teacher, he explained there is

also an element of inexperience when it comes to the implementation part. Anunpattana and

colleagues (2021) explained that gamification in conjunction with quizzing when designed and

used adequately to fit student needs can increase the levels of engagement and curiosity, while

reducing the level of student resistance, hence giving educators an insight on how their students

are learning. Consequently, his goal focused on the addition and implementation of new

technology tools to gamify the math classroom.

On the other hand, Participant 2 is a freshman college student. Throughout the tenure of

her grade school career, she managed to maintain a solid 3.5 grade-point average and receive

acceptance to college. Her goal is to obtain a graduate bachelor’s degree in Biology and to

accomplish this there is a crucial importance in keeping her grades up. During the initial goal-

setting meeting, she explained she has been struggling with keeping up with her assignment

deadlines and study times, which is overwhelming her. The lack of self-organization is a concept

that has severely impacted many students across the country, according to Gorban & colleagues

(2022), as the long lasting Covid-19 pandemic interrupted students’ learning structures and the

development of self-organization skills, necessary to thrive in the higher education academic

settings.

Participant 2’s technology proficiency is advanced and because navigating through the

digital platform is a strength, the coachee and coach decided to employ that strength towards her

main goal. The main goal for Participant 2 was to utilize her technology skills to organize her
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responsibilities and schedule study times that will provide her with the flexibility she needs to be

successful academically.

Results

In the case of Participant 1, the collegial coach and the participant worked collaboratively

in introducing 2 new tools: Gimkit and Blooket. The process of incorporating these tools started

with overviewing the goals of the lessons planned for the unit. Different gamifying platforms

have different goals in mind and should be used accordingly and strategically given the goals of

the lesson and features of the program. For example, Quizziz and Kahoot focus on general

accuracy as students are presented with a set of questions and consequently have a single

opportunity in most rounds to answer each correctly. On the other hand, platforms such as

Gimkit and Blooket use concepts such as repetition of questions to help students practice and

memorize facts. The effectivity of the incorporation of the software is very dependent of the

intention behind the activity, thus making the goal of having the end in mind is essential. The

implementation of these resulted in opportunities to use gamification at different places

throughout the 5E lesson cycle, breaking the lesson component routine and achieving to maintain

engagement levels from the beginning to the end of the lesson.

For the upcoming unit, Participant 1 would be creating a set of review lessons in his

classroom. For example, in the first lesson, quadratics, an important element of understanding

quadratic transformation behavior is remembering what each variable in an equation in vertex

form has a significant effect on the parent function. Blooket was the chosen tool to provide a

refresher, as this is something that he reflected on as a strong skill for his class with a need of a

brief warm-up review. Gimkit was used to practice rules of exponents and with the mechanism

of not being able to earn any points if the student answer is wrong, students were forced to pay
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closer attention to avoid penalties. The goal with using this mechanism was to refine students’

observation skills and support their learning. The coach made regular in-class observations and

noticed students were more engaged in the learning aspect of the lessons and seemed to have a

heightened level of intrinsic motivation to continue. The competitive nature of the game posed

students with a challenge and yet also adjusted to their needs given the content. Participant 1

reflected at the end of the process that he felt more confident when implementing these platforms

successfully and believed to be more prepared to employ these at different stages of his lessons.

With Participant 2’s level of technology and goal in mind, the participant and collegial

coach decided to work on some of the software that facilitate her organizational skills using

google apps. Moreover, with the understanding of the goal, Participant 2 first reorganized her

google drive creating a folder for the semester and subsequent folders for each course. This step

was taken to minimize the time that she spent looking for some of her files. Organizing the

digital space, like any other physical space, is important in maintaining balance and order.

Once the files were organized, Participant 2 entered in all her assignment deadlines, test

reminders, and other activities into the google calendar. Considering the time constraints, the

coach helped the participant built in anticipated deadline reminders and study time timeslots to

ensure that the time allotted gave her enough leeway to work even if there were any

unanticipated events. Maximizing time but also utilizing efficiently will allow the participant to

make a more structured schedule with sufficient time to allocate for college and personal

responsibilities.

Because the observation circumstances were different in this context, the monitoring of

progress was through a digital to-do list. Participant 2 maintained a record of the relating

activities of the day and time at which these were completed. Upon analyzing the data, reflecting,
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and discussing, some of the positive takeaways included a more structured schedule, increased

academic performance on assessments, and a decrease in the level of stress and anxiety.

The process of this study helped develop a clearer insight into the posed research

questions. On an individual basis, the collegial coaching process helped both participants become

more effective in their individual tasks, whether it was teaching a group of students through

technology engagement or increasing the individual academic performance through digital

organization. In the holistic perspective, collegial coaching for educators is impactful as further

developed pedagogical practices provide better quality of education and prompt high levels of

engagement and performance from students, which has a significant impact on the classroom

environment, educator, and overall learning institution. Coaching for students may have impact

at a lower scale, nonetheless, students who are benefiting from coaching can develop higher self-

efficacy skills apart from the skills acquired, which can prompt to higher levels of retention and

hopefully lower drop-out rates, which contributes to the success of a learning institution.

Coach’s Personal Reflections

In my perspective, collegial coaching is a new approach to professional development that

not only empowers both the coachee and coach, as it provides a learning experience in which

both parties are mutually benefitted. Establishing a relationship with both of my coachees to me

was one of the most important aspects of the coaching process. I think that building trust opens

the door to being comfortable with sometimes having difficult or awkward conversations through

honest and respectful communication. Before this experience, I shared my thoughts on how my

personality affected my coaching style and some of the positives and negatives that came with

that. Moreover, although I continue to seek and acquire practice, I feel I have further evolved and

grown professionally throughout that time. What I valued the most out of this experience was the
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opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and create a bond that enhanced the

learning environment while at the same time, redefines the culture of professional development.

Many times, I found myself learning more about how to enhance my own classroom or work-

management system through the observations and discussions I was having with my coachees,

which without a doubt left me with many takeaways that I will be keeping in mind for future

endeavors.

Conclusion

The collegial coaching process is an experience that enhances the learning environment

for both individual and collective levels and transforms the way in which we are learning,

collaborating, and growing alongside each other. With the help of collegial coaching, institutions

allow their own faculty to become leaders within their learning community and share with others

their ideas, strategies, and pedagogical practices with the goal of adopting a unified “we” attitude

when it comes to learning and accomplishing. Moreover, the power relies in the fact that

coaching does not simply rely on someone telling someone what to do but instead creates

experiences in which both parts can learn relevant skills that will make an impact in their daily

lives and potentially in the lives of those around them. This includes understanding that

coaching can be relevant to both teachers but also students. Similarly, students can also be

benefited from the coaching both directly and indirectly because in the end education systems are

only as effective as the sum of all its parts. Even though it may take some time in implementing

this model effectively in institutions, as challenges may arise, the potential rewards of collegial

coaching programs outweigh the obstacles as the impact could be significant. Although the

implementation of collegial coaching is just the beginning towards transforming our education

system, it would be one of many steps to improve the quality of education of the future.
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Delany, J. C., & Arredondo, D. E. (1998). Using Collegial Coaching and Reflection as

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Academic Capitalism Perspective. Academy of Management Learning &

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