Article 1 of the Series on the topic of Education and Coaching
Technology and coaching can today provide a new value to individuals, groups and organizations: individual, private, regular and personalized coaching conversations.
Why does Higher Education need coaching?
Based on twenty years of experience in the Education space and since creating PocketConfidant we are aware of organizations seeking solutions to respond to students’ lack of soft skills. Students are entering the workforce without the behavioral and leadership skills companies and organizations require to be proactive, competent team members, aspiring managers and leaders. This deficit is impacting business.
In a world without frontiers and with an unprecedented volume of information to consume, very diverse talent and lightening speed of technological change, it has never been more important to refocus and develop the key social, cognitive and emotional skills that enable each individual to live and work successfully with others. The pedagogies, learning methods and learners’ habits being disrupted often and rapidly, force the education system to develop adaptability skills for learners and students to cope with the unexpected changes that occur through their academic and career journeys.
How can coaching and technology help Higher Education students and teachers at the same time?
For students who need support to reflect on their current goals, challenges and how their courses and learning apply to their current situations, the coaching technology helps them:
- learn how to frame and reframe their goals to make them more achievable
- put words on and frame complex feelings and thoughts to improve their relationship with themselves and others, and improve their communication
- prepare for stressful events such as interviews, difficult discussions, exams, courses etc.
- work on improving their critical thinking skills in the context of their academic journey, career path and personal life vision
- learn about their limiting language and thinking patterns
- increase their confidence, creativity, vista and proactivity
For teachers and program leaders needing to support each student individually and lacking time or capacity to engage students and reinforce their learning capabilities, the coaching technology is helpful to:
- create a culture of communication, sharing, listening, questioning, trust and benevolence
- offer each student a neutral and safe space to speak their truth and frame their challenges without the stigma of being judged
- offer each student a private and personalized sounding board to develop critical life and work behavioral skills such as self-awareness, self-management, self-organization, critical thinking, creativity, proactivity, communication, self-confidence, emotional intelligence etc.
- offer a service that works through time and adapts to the immediate and ongoing needs of each student
How does it work?
- Students can register on this page, fill in the form, and are automatically onboarded in their private coaching journey
- Teachers can email their students as they usually do, this time adding coach@pocketconfidant.com in copy in their emails to integrate and activate the coaching experiences automatically inside their own personal key communications to students (talking about learning goals, career goals, academic journeys or emails that education leaders send to engage and support students on various topics and ideas). The coaching technology is now here to support student engagement and the challenges they encounter.
What is AI technology for coaching?
It is a technology built from several frameworks and fields of knowledge bringing together the use of language, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and theories of learning and change to help individuals successfully navigate their transitions and learning journeys. Our coaching technology is designed to bring the dialogue and questioning experience that a coach and a coachee have together but with the use of an interactive conversational system (such as a chatbot or email service).
PocketConfidant technology for coaching offers individuals the comparable experiences of “mirroring”, being a “sounding board” or a “sparring partner” (a way to test thoughts and ideas) that a human coach provides, giving them a way to reflect and see more clearly their thinking, emotions, actions and learning mechanisms. In this way technology is becoming a tool for human wellbeing and productivity as well as for cognitive and emotional skill development.
PocketConfidant is building technology to democratize coaching. Ensuring our technology serves human beings in the most ethical and unbiased way possible is the mission of its founders and team. Here is a video made with students and PocketConfidant’s founder speaking about what self-coaching brings to student and the difference with Education.
If this article connects with your ideas and values, share it with your network, friends and colleagues, and join the democratization of coaching. Drop us a note for any question.