Working in education can be difficult – you don’t have to do it alone.
Welcome to and thank you for diving deeper into coaching practices with us! This course and textbook were authored by a small collection of educators and student advocates. Our expertise ranges in years and in subject, but we all have one thing in common: we are incredibly passionate about helping our students, as well as sharing our knowledge with others. In this book, we have come together to organize and disseminate our perspectives on working one-on-one with students.
With this book, we aim to provide you with practical advice, actionable suggestions, and a myriad of resources you can utilize during your interactions with students. Topics in this course include the following units:
- Coaching Foundations
- Promoting Student Resilience: Coaching Students Toward a Growth Mindset While Building Failure Immunity
- Advocacy Strategies: Empowering Student Voices
- Mental Health: Supporting Student and Educator Concerns
We were inspired to create this course as a way to provide support to fellow coaches and student advocates from all walks of life. In the education profession, one-on-one coaching and student support are often skills expected of educators, but not necessarily skills that are directly taught or discussed. It is sometimes assumed that these skills will be naturally picked up while teaching in the classroom; however, that assumption sometimes leaves educators feeling underprepared or alone. At other times, educators are supplied with the theoretical basis for advocacy, but not necessarily provided with concrete suggestions that they can apply during their work day. This course aims to remedy this problem by filling the gap between theory and actual application.
Things to keep in mind while reading:
- When we use “we,” it is referring to faculty members who coach students.
- This book includes some direct resources within the University of Arkansas network. However, we have included external and more general resources for non-UArk educators.
- “Students” refers specifically to any student you work with or coach inside or outside of the classroom.
- UArk educators reading this book may have access to a complementary online course, which will provide a digital space to discuss these tips and reflect on experiences and struggles with working with students. The reflection and discussion portions of each chapter refer to assignments in this digital space.
We hope you enjoy exploring and thinking more about these principles of coaching, and we hope that participating in this course makes you feel less alone!
Thank you for reading!
From the University of Arkansas Coaching Connections Team!
Kristen Karpinski
Lynn Meade
Dene Wamsley
Toby Phebus
Carson Rein
Thanks to Deb Korth for allowing us to pursue this project, to Trevor Francis for sponsoring this project and to Christine Rickabaugh at the University of Arkansas Libraries for providing resources and support.
