Learning Journeys helps you become a more effective learner by helping you help yourself. But it would be a mistake to think it’s something you do completely on your own. Learning with other people is an essential part of the process. In fact, the development of your Learning Power depends on it.
Coaching is an important part of utilising Learning Journeys to become a better learner. It helps to foster your sense of belonging within your learning community. A learning community is a group of people with a shared commitment to learn, improve and do better. That means, belonging is knowing you’ve got someone to turn to when you need support or encouragement. Knowing you’ve got people around you who you learn well with gives you confidence in your ability to achieve.
Across the University of Technology Sydney, several faculties have utilised different coaching strategies to ensure learners are supported in the creation, interpretation and implementation of their Learning Power Profiles.
Nursing employed peer mentoring to grow and develop learning relationships. Partnering with U:PASS, a group of students were trained in this role to guide first year Nursing students on their learning journey.
In this training session, mentors were encouraged to think about essential coaching qualities, such as being an active listener. They also used fictitious student archetypes during focus groups to role-play engaging in conversations around a student’s Learning Power Profile. These archetypes were created in a way that allowed the mentors to identify with the fictitious student and relate aspects of their learning identity to their own experiences. They were then provided with possible strategies to address areas of challenge and plan action for change.
Mentors were also made aware that it is essential the learner leads the interaction and is empowered. One way this can be achieved is by asking open questions, such as: What do you think of your profile? How much do you agree with it? What do you want to focus on first?
A mentor’s job isn’t to provide answers, advise or fix challenges a learner might be facing, but to act as a guide through the learning journey.
The mentors were then able to facilitate conversations around how learners could actively implement what they’d learnt about themselves as learners from their Learning Power Profiles as well as what action (if any) they planned to take.
Students and staff at the University of Technology Sydney also used coaching triads to foster learning relationships and help learners build on the areas of challenge.
Coaching triads involve three team members - learner, coach and observer. The learner is the centre of the conversation. The coach’s role is to challenge the learner to stretch their learning goals while affirming their strengths. The observer takes notes to record key reflections and strategies for change, so the learner can refer to them later.
The roles were switched at intervals, so each member of the coaching triad had the opportunity to benefit from acting in each position. It’s not compulsory for the participants to share their Learning Power Profiles with the rest of the group.
The focus is on encouraging and supporting the formation of self-directed strategies for ongoing learning.
These types of learning relationships promote collaboration. Learners who are strong in this learning dimension can solve problems by talking them through with others, generate new ideas through listening carefully, make suggestions and respond positively to feedback.
The coaching triads also gave the participants the opportunity to practice managing the balance between being sociable and personally responsible for their learning at the same time. They used collaboration to talk through their challenges and together reflect on possible strategies for change.
Coaching relationships are important in developing Learning Power as they enable learners to draw on each other as resources, as partners and as sources of support. They strengthen the understanding that inter-dependence is key in lifelong learning and that being part of a learning community can improve your capacity to learn.