Education
Life Coaches Serve to Address the Whole Student – Not Just the Grades
A life coach is a person who is professionally trained to address and guide students’ concerns, stress about grades and relationships, anxiety and to help them move forward on a path that makes sense.
A life coach is a person who is professionally trained to address and guide students’ concerns, stress about grades and relationships, anxiety and to help them move forward on a path that makes sense.
Schools are now looking at hiring life coaches as it serves to address the whole student – not just the grades. Its aim is to help build a solid foundation of self-awareness, organisation, responsibility, and inner motivation so that students can thrive in school, college and beyond. Through individually-tailored one-on-one sessions a life coach will bring to light different areas of a student’s life and how they are interrelated. Students work through various activities that develop systems for note taking and studying, address relationships with family and friends, explore core motivation and learning styles, create a personal mission statement, and develop leadership skills.
Some of the issues that life coaches help overcome include but are not limited to:
Organisation
Self-esteem issues
Apathy
Peer pressure
Substance abuse
Stress
Fear
Relational difficulties
Time Management
Life coaches can help not only the student, but also parents, teachers and school staff tackle problems. They help with intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, helping people better understand themselves and those around them.
They can greatly minimise stress levels for both students and parents. With so many different lifestyles, opportunities, and possibilities, it is easy for a student to become distracted by, or hyper-focused on things that are counterproductive for attaining long-term goals. A sense of failure can easily cause a young person to become discouraged. Life coaches help discover what students want to achieve in their academic, professional, and personal lives. They not only help students devise plans to attain their goals, but also oversee the students as they travel down their outlined paths. Additionally, a life coach can help mediate family issues and problems that often arise during adolescence.
Effects of life coaching on students:
Over the years, there has been a drastic increase in research related to life coaching and its effects on student achievement and overall well-being. Students who have experienced life coaching in school or with an individual coach has shown an increase in:
- Cognitive functioning related to more flexible thinking styles and the ability to see alternate solutions.
- Academic success.
- Ability to manage stress and develop action steps for success.
- Overall well-being and positive outlook.
Effects of coaching on schools and school staff:
While the effects of integrating life coaching concepts into work with students is widespread, so are the effects of introducing life coaching as a means of ongoing professional development for school staff. Research done by the Annenberg Foundation for Education Reform and Elena Aguilar have found a number of positive outcomes from these types of programs in schools, including:
- Life coaching encourages collaborative and reflective practice in teachers, which reflects in their work with both students and fellow educators.
- Effective and embedded professional learning promotes positive cultural change of a school or system.
- It promotes accountability between colleagues and the implementation of improved learning methods.
- Supports collective leadership and exchange of ideas across a school system.
Life coaches help tackle the barriers that stand between students and their goals. In regards to academics, they can create plans and schedules to help students learn organisational skills and time management. A student can be coached on how to budget time for projects, studying, homework, and papers. They can help pinpoint areas where tutoring might be of assistance, as well as help students identify what clubs and other after school activities would best showcase and compliment their abilities and talents.
At a very young age, a student may feel pressured to have a concrete idea of what course of study he or she would like to pursue. Teenagers often desire to distinguish themselves from their peers and are often burdened by the pressures associated with achieving high grades, keeping up socially, being involved in extracurricular activities and sports, preparing for exams, and remaining focused on the college application process. This is indeed a stressful time for the majority of students, and the guidance of a life coach can be invaluable.
A life coach can offer individualised, one-on-one advising far beyond the realm of what a high school guidance counsellor can provide. The benefits are undeniable, and the future of life coaching in education seems to be nothing short of bright.