by Keanu Respess, Academic Service Officer II, Warrior 360 Success Coach (for L2 Certification)

Academic Coaching is an emerging practice that serves the purpose of establishing relationships with students to cultivate holistic academic success. Academic coaching can be conducted within a department, in a central area with other student success services, or as a stand-alone program revolved around coaching services. Academic Coaching and Academic Advising are practices that can have several commonalities but also serve students in distinctly different ways.

This article will discuss factors that define academic coaching and promote the continuation of coaching methods to further improve student success efforts. Discussion points will be centered around the exploration of three journal articles and one web article on the field of Academic Coaching. The three journal articles are published by the Innovative Higher Education Journal and the web article by the National Academic Advising Association.

Academic Coaching as an Advising Approach

Jeffrey McClellan’s (2011) article “Advising as Coaching” articulates academic coaching as an approach advisors can use. A lens that views promoting student learning, development, and growth in a one-on-one setting to foster decision making and accountability being the same goal for both coaching and advising (pg. 161). Agreeably, an advisor can use coaching methods as their advising approach, but with limitations. The concern of the frequency an advisor would see a particular student or peek registration times limiting the intentionality of non-major topics being continuously discussed can be a hindrance for some advisor. These same limitations would differentiate and promote that coaching and advising be separate entities to not reduce value of either service. Having separate advising and coaching services gives professionals the ability to master approaches in their areas and reference out as needed rather than having the pressure to becoming both for students at any given time.

Academic Coaching and Student Metacognition

Howlett et al. (2021) article “Investigating the Effects of Academic Coaching on College Students’ Metacognition” establishes academic coaching as dialogue with students to promote autonomy and development in the areas of goal setting, self-reflection and self-regulation, acknowledgement of their strengths and weakness, and effective study skills (pg. 193). This study explores the impact of academic coaching on student’s metacognition using pre and post survey data collection through the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory assessment. The study’s results indicated that students who participated in coaching sessions had a significant increase in their post survey scores compared to the non-coaching control group. The developmental aim and self-guidance nature of coaching stimulates students to take ownership of their academic success which can ultimately promote increased metacognitive skills.

Academic Coaching At-Risk Students

Alzen et al. (2021) article “Academic Coaching and its Relationship to Student Performance, Retention and Credit Completion” defines the different roles of academic coaching, academic advising as well as counseling. Academic coaching as personnel that have smaller student caseloads but meet frequently to focus on students’ academic and personal goals through formal and informal support. A high focus on academic skills and persistency. Academic Advising as support staff with large student caseloads that meet periodically to provide degree planning, major expertise, academic planning, understanding of academic polices and registration needs. Lastly, Counseling as mental health professionals that assist students with mental/well-being assessments, diagnosis and interventions (pg. 541).

Defining each role highlights the distinct goals of their provided services but also illustrates the common theme of equipping students with the necessary tools to approach barriers to their academic success in and outside the classroom. This study focuses on the effectiveness of academic coaching for students with cumulative GPA below 2.0. The research study results concluded that students who participated in one or two coaching sessions had an increase in GPA and retention in registering for the next semester compared to students that did not participate in coaching sessions at all. In addition, the GPA and registration for next semester increased at a higher rate for students that participated in three or more coaching sessions.

Capstick et al. (2019) article “Exploring the Effectiveness of Academic Coaching for Academically At-Risk College Students” also researches the effectiveness of academic coaching for students with below a 2.0 GPA within the Academic Coaching for Excellence (ACE) pilot program. ACE was designed for students that had fallen below a 2.0 GPA within their first 59 credit hours. Student participants were required to meet the coach bi-weekly for the intervention semester. The research study results reported that all student's GPA’s increased whether they participated in the ACE coaching sessions or not. Nevertheless, students that participated in coaching had a ½ point higher increase in GPA compared to non-participants. The higher outcome suggesting that students gain understanding of academic demands, emotional support and study skills from coaching that assist in positive progression out of academic warning status (pg. 226)

Academic Coaching Effectiveness

Takeaways from the articles represented share common defining factors that make up academic coaching. Coaching can have a variation of a general definition to accommodate flexibility needed to address diverse goals or barriers students can obtain. Capstick et al. (2019) and Alzen et al. (2021) both focus on coaching impact for academically struggling students whereas Howlett et al (2021) focused on a metacognitive skills coaching can impact. In all, these articles can serve as a baseline to begin understanding the purpose and effectiveness of academic coaching. Most of the articles alluded to the limitation of available research in the field of academic coaching. Despite academic coaching being established and continuously developed in higher education since 2000 (Alzen et al., 2021) it remains an emerging field due to the need of more awareness and further research on best practices to aid student success efforts. Nevertheless, the research results from the previewed studies show effectiveness in coaching providing evidence to drive future research. With continuous academic coaching modeled in higher education and future conducted research, the illumination of coaching as a collaborative effort alongside advising and other student support services can be advanced.

 

Bibliography

Alzen, J. L., Burkhardt, A., Diaz-Bilello, E., Elder, E., Sepulveda, A., Blankenheim, A., & Board, L. (2021). Academic Coaching and its Relationship to Student Performance, Retention, and Credit Completion. Innovative Higher Education , 539-563.

Capstick, M. K., Harrell-Williams, L. M., Cockrum, C. D., & West, S. L. (2019). Exploring the Effectiveness of Academic Coaching for Academically At-Risk College Students . Innovative Higher Education, 219-231.

Howlett, M. A., McWilliams, M. A., Rademacher, K., O'Neil, J. C., Maitland, T. L., Abels, K., . . . Panter, A. (2021). Investigating the Effects of Academic Coaching on College Student's Metacognition. Innovative Higher Education, 189-204.

McClellan, J. (2011, November 18). Academic Coaching. Retrieved from National Academic Advising Association: https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/Academic-Coaching.aspx