Student Support as Coaches
Getting to the Root Cause of Student Problems
The problem is rarely ever the actual problem, but unless staff are trained in knowing how to move beyond the surface level, the root cause never gets sorted, leading to bigger unresolved challenges.
No more ‘accidental counsellor’
Too often staff become ‘accidental counsellors’, handing out “you should” advice.
Well intentioned as it is, this disempowers students and limits their decision-making abilities and never gets to the heart of the problem.
Upgrade to Coach
By upgrading your student support teams with coaching skills they become experts at:
- asking the right questions
- finding the root cause of the real problem
- empowering the student find solutions for themselves
Plagiarism or what? case study
We recently engaged with a student who’d been pinged for plagiarism. Instead of going down ‘the rules say’ path, we:
- engaged her in conversation about her standards (true ‘mission impossible’ level)
- about ‘comparisionitis’ (how her journey is not the same as anyone else’s) and
- about her ‘life formula’ of all doing and no balance that created her perceived ‘need’ to copy.
She left feeling strong, with actionable strategies that she co-created – all because we asked different questions.
And now, rather than avoiding these types of conversations, she knows that her student support coach is on her side, with proven human behaviour tools.
