Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
12. ICCE Global Coach Conference, Tokyo, Japonya, 30 Ekim - 01 Kasım 2019
HOW
DOES A NEEDS FOCUSED LEARNING COMMUNITY PROGRAM AFFECT COACHES’ KNOWLEDGE AND
PRACTICES?
Effective
coaches need to consistently improve their athletes’ competence, confidence,
connection, and character (the 4 Cs). That requires coaches to continuously benefit from relevant scientific information.
However, the transfer of relevant sports science information into coaching
practices has been a vexing problem in many coaching cultures. Formal learning opportunities
fall short in meeting coaches' context-specific needs. They usually have the false
assumption that coaches have an adequate conceptual understanding of translating
the scientific information provided in their situation. Coaches value
informal ways of learning more, by which they can reach needed information,
understand, and translate into their situation. The potential of the Learning
Community Approach has been evidenced in recent coaching literature to effectively
bridge that knowledge gap. However, previous informal small-scale coach
education programs usually were not directly built upon coaches’ direct contextual
needs. More importantly, there is a need to clearly define the specific
pathways of coaches’ knowledge internalization process. The purpose of this
study was to evaluate the effects of a needs assessment-based learning
community program (LCP) on coaches’ perceived knowledge and practices. Six coaches from a competitive youth artistic
gymnastics setting participated in the study. In
defining coaches' professional needs, forty-five gymnasts and their
coaches from nine teams completed the adapted and validated form of a proposed measurement
toolkit that aims to measure youth athletes’ 4 Cs. The content of the LCP was
developed based on the 4 Cs framework and the identified needs in each outcome.
A five-stage knowledge internalization strategy was developed for the coaches
to effectively translate relevant scientific information. A video-recorded and
fully transcribed text of a six-week LCP, interviews with the facilitator and a
visiting sports psychologist, a focus group interview with the coaches, and
researcher field notes were qualitative data sources analyzed through thematic
analysis. The coaches perceived that LCP provided an excellent environment for
their reach and comprehension of relevant scientific information. Furthermore, they
became able to conceptually define and communicate their professional needs
with experts (e.g., sports psychologist), and, reportedly, started to improve
some of their coaching practices accordingly. The study has critical implications for developing
effective complementary coach education programs to facilitate coaches'
professional development in different coaching cultures.
Keywords:
Coach education, professional development, a learning community approach,
athletes’ outcomes, knowledge transfer, youth sport