Academic CoachingAcademic coaching is more than just tutoring and is suitable for students of any age. When we focus on tutoring, we are actually approaching learning from a deficit model that looks at ‘fixing’ various aspects of learning. Academic coaching is more of a partnership that focuses on the metacognitive processes of learning. With an Active Mind’s learning coach, students are challenged to go beyond the traditional tutor/tutored roles and examine their learning styles, habits of working, and current difficulties or barriers to success. In short, coaching is about students seeing themselves as learners and believing that they can succeed.
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Coaching therefore creates a relationship between the coach and the learner. This relationship then works to develop and put in place more effective strategies that aim to create an awareness of what it takes to achieve academic success. Important components of the coaching process include helping students to understand how they learn, how their effective use of time and levels of organization impact their studies, developing effective study habits and skills, and developing a strategic approach to critical thinking and problem solving, and learning to work effectively with others. Academic coaching focusses on success, and success and confidence go hand in hand in the development of effective, critical and lifelong learners.