Cognitive Coaching: Shifting “Organizations for Learning” Into “Learning Organizations”

Introduction: The Importance Of Cognitive Coaching In Higher Education

Traditionally, higher education has been one of the most stable institutional sectors in society. The core structure of higher education has remained essentially unchanged for decades and, arguably, even centuries. However, higher education is facing numerous unprecedented challenges in terms of increased marketization of postsecondary education, falling public revenue sources, increased competition from non-traditional postsecondary sources of training, increased student mobility globally, shifting demographics of the postsecondary student population, and many others. These changes are requiring institutions to identify and master new approaches to teaching and curriculum development. Addressing these changes is called “organizational learning,” and it requires a fundamental retraining of higher education staff and faculty (Boyce, 2003). Traditional coaching and mentoring models are a common approach to this need for retraining and professional development.

However, given these extreme changes in higher education in the 21st century, solving immediate challenges (also known as “single loop learning”) may not be sufficient. Organizations need to fundamentally shift their underlying beliefs and assumptions (double loop learning) and, even further, they must “learn new ways to learn” (triple loop learning). Organizations that consistently engage in triple loop learning are known as “learning organizations” (Senge, 1990). The aforementioned unprecedented challenges facing higher education will require colleges and universities to become learning organizations.

Learning organizations will in turn require individual faculty members and administrators to continually develop new skills and knowledge, and fundamentally shift how and what they teach.This will demand professional development that goes beyond traditional training workshops. It will require a new approach to coaching that helps faculty navigate a continually changing, stressful, and chaotic environment.

Given this context, a cutting-edge and appropriate approach to coaching is Cognitive Coaching, a coaching model co-developed by Arthur Costa and Robert Garmston in 1984 that focuses on developing the self-directedness and cognitive complexity of leaders and learners (Costa, 2016). With demonstrated effectiveness in developing and empowering educators (Costa, 2016, Chapter 14), Cognitive Coaching has for many years been a well-respected and highly sought-after program for professional development for administrators, teachers, consultants, and coaches in K-12 education. More recently, the Cognitive Coaching model has been introduced and successfully used in higher education to encourage critical reflection about teaching and support faculty development (Bair, 2017). It has also been used to support English language teaching through its reflective teaching approach (Akyildiz & Semerci, 2016).

The focus of this chapter is on the Cognitive Coaching experiences of forty-eight faculty, staff, and administrators who came together for eight days of Cognitive Coaching Foundation training (four full days in the spring of 2017 and another four full days in the spring of 2018) to engage in skills, strategies, and practices that promote self-directed learning and mutual respect among participants. As a coaching model, Cognitive Coaching is still quite new to postsecondary education.

At the center of Cognitive Coaching is the belief that each person has the resources and the capacity to grow and change. Cognitive Coaching identifies five major states of mind that are integral to each person’s holonomy or wholeness in managing the polarity between autonomy and interdependence as members of a community. These five states of mind include: consciousness, efficacy, flexibility, craftsmanship, and interdependence. It is through these states of mind that a coach can support or mediate a person’s thinking through planning, reflecting, and/or problem resolving conversations.

The main tools of Cognitive Coaching include rapport building, paraphrasing, pausing (wait time), mediative questioning, pacing, and leading. Cognitive Coaches are trained to use these tools as they navigate between coaching maps that support planning, reflecting, and/or problem-resolving conversations.