Discovering, applying and integrating: The process of learning in coaching

Professional coaching is a rapidly expanding field with interdisciplinary roots and broad application. However, despite abundant prescriptive literature, research into the process of coaching is minimal. Similarly, although learning is inherently recognised in the process of coaching, the process of learning in coaching is little understood and learning theory makes up only a small part of the evidence-based coaching literature. In this grounded theory study of coaches and their clients, the process of learning in coaching across a range of coaching models is examined and discussed. The findings demonstrate how learning in coaching emerged as a process of discovering, applying and integrating new knowledge, which culminated in a process of developing. This process occurred through eight key coaching processes shared between coaches and clients and combined a multitude of learning theories.

Haunting the knowledge economy

Review of Haunting the Knowledge Economy by Jane Kenway, Elizabeth Bullen, Johannah Fahey with Simon Robb. London: Routledge, 2006; for the journal of the Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australia.

What student attributes affect experience of PBL in Virtual Space?

Some Engineering Faculties are turning to the problem-based learning (PBL)paradigm to engender necessary skills and competence in their graduates. Since, at the same time, some Faculties are moving towards distance education, questions are being asked about the effectiveness of PBL for technical fields such as Engineering when delivered in virtual space. This paper outlines an investigation of how student attributes affect their learning experience in PBL courses offered in virtual space. A frequency distribution was superimposed on the outcome space of a phenomenographical study on a suitable PBL course to investigate the effect of different student attributes on the learning experience. It was discovered that the quality, quantity, and style of facilitator interaction had the greatest impact on the student learning experience. This highlights the need to establish consistent student interaction plans and to set, and ensure compliance with, minimum standards with respect to facilitation and student interactions.

Childhood and social interaction in everyday life : an epilogue

The epilogue pulls together the conceptual and methodological significance of the papers in the special issue exploring childhood and social interaction in everyday life in Sweden, Norway, United States and Australia. In considering the special issue, four domains of childhood are identified and discussed: childhood is a social construct where children learn how to enter into and participate in their social organizations, competency is best understood when communicative practices are examined in situ, children’s talk and interaction show situated culture in action, and childhood consists of shared social orders between children and adults. Emerging analytic interests are proposed, including investigating how children understand locations and place. Finally, the epilogue highlights the core focus of this special issue, which is showing children’s own methods for making sense of their everyday contexts using the interactional and cultural resources they have to hand.

Kids, counsellors and troubles-telling : morality-in-action in talk on an Australian children’s helpline

This chapter investigates one instance of ‘morality-in-action’, which transpires when children describe their troubles to the adult counsellors at Kids Help Line, an Australian national helpline that deals specifically with callers aged approximately 5-18 years. We focus, in particular, on how a young female caller who has forged a medical certificate in relation to a problem with school attendance, determines both what to report, and how this should be disclosed. Throughout the call, the moral implications of the troubles talk are delicately managed by both caller and counsellor. The call takes the form of an extended story (Labov & Waletzky, 1997) that includes a preface (‘I have some problems at school’), an orientation (“I was sick, went to the doctor, stayed home”), a complicating action (“I went back to school and photocopied my certificate from last time”), result (“I got caught”) and evaluation (“I don’t know why it happened”). As the account unfolds, we observe how both the student and counsellor seek to make sense of these actions. While this account is partly about deception, both the caller and counsellor delicately sidestep naming this action, precluding this implication. For example, the counsellor lets stand the caller’s main assessment of the trouble. He simply asks, “so what happened then,” when the caller reports that her forgery was discovered. The caller, from the very beginning of the call, seeks to find out why she could have done this, “you see I don’t know why it happened”. As the call unfolds, the counsellor follows the opening provided by the caller and they put forward motives for consideration. By agreeing that the motives are to be explored, the act takes on a character other than deception.

Chinese young children’s strategies on basic addition facts

Kindergartens in China offer structured full-day programs for children aged 3-6. Although formal schooling does not commence until age 7, the mathematics program in kindergartens is specifically focused on developing young children’s facility with simple addition and subtraction. This study explored young Chinese children’s strategies for solving basic addition facts as well as their intuitive understanding of addition via interview methods. Results indicate a strong impact that teacher-directed teaching methods have on young children’s cognitions in relation to addition.

Investigating feelings towards mathematics among Chinese kindergarten children

Prior to entering schooling settings, many children exhibit intuitive knowledge of mathematics and many have mastered basic addition combinations. However, often as a result of formal instruction, some children begin to dislike or fear mathematics. In this study, children at a kindergarten in China took a smiley-face survey to determine how their feelings and beliefs about mathematics were affected throughout their kindergarten years.Results suggest that even children in this study have a better number sense and mathematics achievement, they appear to develop mathematics anxiety in Chinese cultural context.

Cyberbullying : the new face of workplace bullying?

While the subject of cyberbullying of children and adolescents has begun to be addressed, there has been less attention or research on cyberbullying in the workplace. Whilst male-dominated workplaces such as manufacturing settings have been found to have an increased risk of workplace bullying, the prevalence of cyberbullying in this sector is not known. This exploratory study investigated the prevalence and methods of face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying of males at work. One hundred and three surveys (a modified version of the NAQ-R1), were returned from randomly selected members of the Australian Manufacturing Worker’s Union (AMWU). The results showed that 34% of the respondents were bullied face-to-face, and 10.7% were cyberbullied. All victims of cyberbullying also experienced face-to-face bullying. The implications for organisations of their “duty of care” in regards to this new form of bullying are indicated.

Geek goddesses go to school : A study of female pre-service teachers in information technology courses

Various reasons have been proffered for female under-representation in tertiary information technology (IT) courses and the IT industry with most relating to cultural moirés. The 2006 Geek Goddess calendar was designed to alter IT’s “geeky image” and the term is used here to represent young women enrolled in pre-service IT teaching courses. Their special mix of IT and teaching draws on conflicting stereotypes and represents a micro-climate which is typically lost in studies of IT occupations because of the aggregation of all IT roles. This paper will report on a small-scale investigation of female students (N=25) at a university in Queensland (Australia) studying to become teachers of secondary IT subjects. They are entering the IT industry, gendered as a “male” occupation, through the safe space of teaching a discipline allied to feminine qualities of nurturing. They are “geek goddesses” who – perhaps to balance the masculine and feminine of these occupations - have decided to go to school rather than into corporations or government.