What is academic Coaching?

Academic Coaching is for students in the 7th grade and higher who are challenged by the following:

  • lack of motivation

  • poor study habits

  • disorganization

  • low self-confidence

  • procrastination

  • difficulty making friends

  • struggles with siblings and parents

  • situational anxiety

  • situational depression

  • time management

  • fear of failure

Academic Coaching is a relatively new method for empowering young people to become more self-aware, to trust themselves as the experts on themselves and their problems, and to take action and produce results.

Academic Coaching is not counseling or therapy. It’s not academic advising. It’s a unique method that flips the expert-paradigm on its head and trusts young people as fully capable of finding their own answers.

I have worked with several students with a variety of learning differences, such as ADHD and dyslexia. The idea is not to “cure” the condition, but create organic strategies that mitigate its impact.

Academic Coaching incorporates Positive Psychology, the Socratic Method, Cognitive Behavioral approaches, Motivation sciences, Emotional Regulation, and various Leadership frameworks.

An Academic Coaching session starts out with the question, “What do you want to work on today?” The student defines the goal of the session, such as discovering the reasons behind my procrastination; a new system of organization; a strategy for participating in class; exercises for building self-confidence, and ways to make friends.

Next, I choose appropriate coaching tools, such as Systems for Success, Core Motivation Types, and Signature Perspectives. All coaching tools are designed to raise a student’s self-awareness and produce insights.

Actions often bubble up naturally when students learn something new about themselves, and/or when they’re reminded of what they already knew. If an action is not readily apparent, I ask the question, “Based on everything we’ve talked about, what is one action you’re going to take?”

After creating an action that is bite-sized and 100% within their control, the student predicts ahead of time what might get in the way of taking the action, and we create reminders and a fail-safe.

Lastly, we set up accountability and communication (if the student wants it) in between sessions, such as a daily text or a weekly email reminder of the action(s).

At the beginning of the next session, the first question is, “How did the actions go?” If the student took the actions and produced a desired result, that’s a win, and we explore what it took to be successful. If the student did not take the action, and/or did not produce a desired result, this is fodder for coaching.

Often, what gets in the way of taking the action is exactly what there is to work on in the next session.

In an Academic Coaching relationship, if the student consistently takes action in between sessions, self-awareness grows, confidence builds, and desired results abound.