Coaching

Already in my school and university years, I’ve pondered how we can enhance the learning experience in educational institutions which is pretty simple, really. You have to make it fun, interesting, and tailored to the individual.

I believe in empowering, inspiring, and tailored guidance. I strive to help individuals uncover their strengths and passions through encouragement. By making concepts tangible through an individual and fun approach, I aim to ignite curiosity, igniting an inherent interest in learning and growth. Through witnessing their own progress, people realise their capabilities, building their confidence, increasing self-efficacy, and developing a can-do attitude.

I believe that digital learning aids like interactive educational platforms and CS50's duck debugger (ddb) at Harvard University are a valuable complementation to physical coaching. They offer a gamified learning approach, an adaptive learning experience, and individual feedback, while free up the hands of coaches and teachers to spend more time actually working with students.

I believe that coaches should be engaged as it fosters a rich and dynamic learning environment. Coaches who are involved or even participate themselves in exercises demonstrate that they are humans, that even the best can make mistakes, that there is no shame in making mistakes, and it makes them more approachable. It also helps with creating a lighter and more fun atmosphere, enhancing the learning experience, motivation, and thought process.

I believe in a diverse and non-linear approach. A divers approach not only prevents boredom, it also prevents learning patterns while stimulating learning the underlying principles and how to apply those to different use cases, therefore enhancing adaptability and problem solving.

I believe in the importance of experiential learning. The practical application of knowledge, ideally in a cases of personal interest or relevance to the student, enables the student to see the importance of the knowledge for personal goals, increasing the interest in the subject. While doing so, it raises awareness about the importance of learning, fosters problem solving abilities, and creates a drive for independent learning. In addition, it helps retaining the knowledge, lead to a deeper understanding, and promotes real life applications.

I believe that social interactions and working in a team are highly important. Often, collaboration and exchange of ideas stimulates the thought process and creativity, leading to new and creative solutions while also fulfilling social needs and leaving space for jokes, making learning more fun for most people. At the same time, it fosters crucial social skills and a better understanding of the subject matter by exchanging the understanding of the knowledge. A special case of social interactions is tutoring. Tutoring provides the tutor with responsibility and trust in the tutors abilities. It also leads to a better understanding for the tutor self.

However, I also believe in the importance of time alone, that people have different needs regarding the amount of social interactions, and that group work should not be forced, but rather stimulated and encouraged by for example offering options for collaboration, such as group rooms, while also providing quiet areas for independent study and demonstrating the value of working as a team. While interacting, it can also be balanced between in person interactions and interactions via technologies such as e-mail and skype. I regard providing the right amount of structure crucial, too.

I believe that it is important to let people discover solutions themselves and allow them to make mistakes. This teaches them to think independently and gives them confidence in their ability to find solutions. While doing so, it is crucial to provide guidance when needed to prevent a feeling of defeat.

I believe that a safe environment and teaching self-awareness are essential. Among other things, this concerns creating a socially safe environment, promoting gradual skill development, and implementing other safety measures when necessary without overprotection as overprotection may hamper learning experience. Additionally, it is vital to raise awareness about issues such as burnout and RSI and to put the necessary safety measures in place.

Finally, I believe to be an excellent coach, it is important to enjoy the subject matter oneself and be capable in the matter of question. Being enthusiastic about the matter, helps greatly to convey the enthusiasm through direct and indirect coaching to the students and makes the matter more fun for both, coach and student. I also believe that it is of great importance to take joy in the students success.