Elaine Cox

Adult learners learning from experience: using a reflective practice model to support work‐based learning

The learning achieved by individuals through their work‐based activity is unique and differentially experienced. It involves a combination of intuitive reasoning, inference and inductive thinking which is normally tacit and not available for analysis. In this paper I present research undertaken with groups of adult students training to work as mentors on a community mentoring project, in an attempt to explore how they learned from their mentoring encounters through the use of reflective practice. Each mentor was asked to keep a reflective diary using a specific model of guided reflection. A number of models of reflective practice are discussed in the paper and the briefing and debriefing methods used to help students understand the concept and processes are presented. Results from questionnaires and focus groups, in which mentors were asked to reflect on the efficacy of the reflective practice model, are also used. In addition, a discussion of earlier work with groups of students undertaking work placements in industry is also included in order to illustrate how the use of a model of structured reflection can have relevance for work‐based learning in a variety of contexts.

For better, for worse: the matching process in formal mentoring schemes

Attempts to emulate the serendipity and subsequent rapport that occurs between mentors and mentees in informal mentoring relationships frequently challenges the organizers of many formal mentoring schemes. Using qualitative evidence from a community mentoring project, research is presented that suggests that, through careful mentor selection and appropriate training, the matching of mentors and mentees, except perhaps by geographical location and time availability, is unnecessary. Often, as is shown here, it is not until some way into the relationship that totally unanticipated coincidences between mentor and mentee are discovered; and often these associations are ones that mentoring scheme organizers could not have anticipated.

Factors in the selection and matching of executive coaches in organisations

Abstract The objective of this paper is to explore factors that impact on the selection and matching of coaches with executives in organisations. Selection of coaches is seen to be of utmost importance and a number of different stakeholders are invariably involved in the selection and matching decisions. This conceptual paper uses critical analysis and discussion of a wide range of literature in order to explore the issues at play. The paper positions selection and matching within a conceptual framework and offers a systemic perspective on the organisational processes involved. It thus widens the debate on which actors exert influence. The paper argues that organisations should focus on preparing the executive to be better equipped to maximise their potential for being coached, focusing on selecting coaches, rather than being distracted by the matching question.

Individual and Organizational Trust in a Reciprocal Peer Coaching Context

This paper explores organizational and peer dynamics that impact the potential for productive, trusting peer relationships. An in-depth phenomenological study of five peer coaching dyads was undertaken to examine the establishment and maintenance of peer coaching. Joint interviews were used to promote co-construction of responses. Findings suggested that formation of trust is impacted by values-based attachment, confidentiality, and the capacity of peers to make themselves vulnerable. Individual bonds are important at the start of coaching, but trust is further strengthened through contracting and reciprocity within the relationship itself and by an open culture within the organization. Organizational culture was found to influence trust and the need for a combination of benign organizational support, transparency, and non-intervention was seen as vital.

Theoretical Traditions and Coaching Genres: Mapping the Territory

The Problem The interdisciplinary nature of the theoretical base of coaching creates practical approaches that are strongly influenced by organization-friendly theories, and fields such as counseling, psychotherapy, and philosophy. This eclectic use of theory creates uncertainty and sometimes leads to criticisms of coaching as being atheoretical and underdeveloped empirically. So, it is a difficult task for human resource development (HRD) professionals and particularly buyers of coaching to judge the relevance of numerous traditions of coaching and evaluate them for their HRD agenda. The Solution We highlight the theoretical foundations of coaching and develop a structural analysis of coaching engagement to indicate the potential interplay between organizational and individual agendas and to help HRD professionals become better informed about the value of coaching in the context of wider HRD paradigms. The Stakeholders HRD professionals, external coaches, internal coaches, and line managers who use a coaching approach, peer coaches, and leaders will benefit from the content of this article.

Rewarding volunteers: A study of participant responses to the assessment and accreditation of volunteer learning

Abstract This article is concerned with the assessment and accreditation of learning for volunteers in the United Kingdom. It acknowledges the perceived need for training in the voluntary sector, but presents evidence that many volunteers are not motivated by the need to obtain qualifications. The study outlines the current policy context for the trend towards providing certificated training for volunteers and identifies four accredited training schemes, each sharing the same completion and retention dilemmas. Values distinctive to volunteering are discussed and evaluated in the context of economic prosperity and educational expectations.

How an Evolution View of Workplace Mentoring Relationships Helps Avoid Negative Experiences: The Developmental Relationship Mentoring Model in Action

In this paper, we explore how the use of a specific mentoring model focusing on the evolution of the relationship between mentor and mentee, may influence the incidence of failure. In our research we employed a case study methodology to examine a regional public service mentoring scheme in the UK where a developmental relationship mentoring model had been developed and used to guide practice. Findings indicated toxicity and negative outcomes may be positively influenced by mentor motivation and emotional intelligence, and can be avoided when there is awareness of how relationships develop and evolve. For example, the use of contracting in the early stages can limit the mismatched expectations that provoke disappointment, but equally mentor actions at other stages play key roles in reducing potential failure. Our study has implications for the enhancement of mentor training and scheme coordination as well as contributing to the understanding of negative mentoring relationships.

Coaching Understood: A Pragmatic Inquiry into the Coaching Process

INTRODUCTION Elaine Cox is a principal lecturer and director of Masters and Doctoral level coaching and mentoring programmes in the Business School at Oxford Brookes University (p. viii). Cox defines coaching as “a facilitated, dialogic, reflective learning process, and its popularity reflects a need arising in society driven by complex situations and the individual nature of problems affecting people” (p. 1). In terms of dialogue, Cox sees coaching not as “an everyday two-way communication”, but as involving “an element of soliloquy in the response from the client” (p. 157) – evidenced, for example, when “coaches encourage clients to tell their stories without counter-narrative interruption” (p. 41). For Cox, “the client has total ownership of the content and agenda” in a coaching alliance (p. 158). Taking a pragmatic approach to coaching, the theories and arguments that Cox draws upon in the book are based on her “professional background and experience”, but “[m]ost, if not all of them have never been examined empirically in a coaching context” (p. 160):

Innovative Ways to Research Coaching

Each coaching relationship is reliant upon the unique and special connection between the coach and the coachee. In this paper, which is an adaptation of the talk I gave to the „Coaching meets Research” conference in June 2010, I want to suggest that because of that unique connection we need approaches to the research of coaching that reflect the distinctiveness of the relationship. I want to argue that researching a confidential relationship is challenging. It is hard to know what really happens between two people because the very methods we use to study the relationship interfere with that relationship. The aim of this paper therefore is to consider three quite specific research methodologies that are, I suggest, particularly suited to the study of coaching.

Is Targeted Funding up to the Mark

Abstract In order to determine the allocation of money for projects in continuing and vocational education, government agencies in the UK are providing more and more opportunities to bid for targeted funding. This article provides an overview of recent changes in funding policy in higher education and examines how such changes have impacted on continuing education deparatments in higher education, pointing up the increasing pressure to bid for UK government and European Union funds to develop provision which was once outside their sphere of operation. There appears to be little or no theoretical account of the effects of the growth in competitive tendering on continuing education, and so the impact of this relatively new funding strategy on staff and institutions is studied in order to assess its efficacy and significance for the sector as a whole. This study contextualises the familiar differences in culture between liberal adult education and vocational endeavours and between continuing education and ‘mainstream’ higher education. It also reinforces recent calls for a coherent policy of funding for continuing education. [1] An earlier version of this article was presented at the Society for Research into Higher Education Conference in December 1996.