How is Coaching Different?
How is Coaching Different?
It’s fair to say that academic coaching is pretty unique. However, you may wonder how coaching is different from other forms of educational support, such as counseling, tutoring, or advising. Well, you’ve come to the right place as I dive in to explore.
Let’s start with Counseling.
Emotions naturally occur when students meet with a coach to make sense of their thoughts and discuss their challenges. However, a professional coach knows the boundaries between coaching and counseling. Rule number one: coaches are not trained counselors or therapists. Sure, they want to listen and help you make sense of how you are feeling. But unless they have undergone specific training, they are rarely equipped – nor ethically permitted – to provide counseling or therapy. As a professional coach, I look for signs that might tell me a student could benefit from counseling. I will then suggest this as an additional resource. Of course, it is completely up to the student if they wish to take up this offer unless I suspect that their personal health or safety is at risk – and then a different path is taken. Understanding the professional boundaries that coaches must set to protect everyone involved is always helpful.
What about Tutoring?
Did you know that tutoring dates back to the Ancient Greeks, when the greatest minds of the time (think Socrates) would meet with scholars to share philosophical ideas? Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Today, tutoring is often a form of peer support, where students work with their classmates to support them with the content of their subjects. So, how is this different from coaching, you ask? Good question. Tutoring is often focused on deepening students’ understanding of specific course material. This could be a math problem, verb conjugation, or a confusing concept. We’ve all been there! Coaching, on the other hand, focuses on students learning across courses. It is not limited to a specific subject. The challenges students discuss in coaching often affect them across courses, whether that’s time management, staying focused, taking good notes, studying effectively, or wanting to build their confidence. So, work with a tutor if you are looking for support with subject content and an academic coach if your challenges are happening across subjects.
And Finally, Advising
Advisors are great forms of support. They are often the “go-to” person for various topics, such as registering for classes and ensuring you stay on track. A high school guidance counselor may also do some of these things. An Advisor also knows specific policies and procedures and helps students graduate on time. It sounds a bit like coaching, doesn’t it? Well, coaches don’t usually “advise” students. Instead, coaches focus on your studying and learning – helping you find effective study strategies, create concrete plans, and set realistic goals. Advisors may also do some of these things, but their role is usually broader than that. Advisors and guidance counselors often have a larger “caseload” of students, meaning they could work with 100-1,500 students in their care! That’s a lot of people. Coaches often work with fewer students but meet more regularly to keep track of their progress.
I hope these differences are helpful. Sure, there are many other professionals who overlap with coaches: career advisors, disability specialists, and teachers/faculty, to name a few. However, ending it there will spare you a much longer blog. Feel free to reach out if you’d like more information on how coaching relates to other forms of support – I’d love to hear from you!
