The teacher as coach: An innovative, longitudinal training for (bio)medical educators

In order to be impactful, to support students to become resilient, adaptive, and collaborative lifelong learning professionals in an ever-changing environment requires the teachers to have a specific set of skills and abilities. Teachers who are not taught these competencies struggle empirically and cannot coach students effectively in the modern professional world.

We developed a longitudinal programme for teachers, combining theory and skills training, and performed nine half-day hands-on training modules on campus. Special attention was paid to a common frame of mind, coaching techniques, and dealing with students' emotions and resistance.

All 16 participating teachers indicated their learning goals beforehand and their learning outcomes afterwards. Before and after finishing the course, participants completed a questionnaire in which they evaluated their own evolving coaching competencies. In the next academic year, students of both participants and non-participants evaluated their teachers' coaching competencies. Participants experienced the added value of coaching and understood how to coach. They reported being able to focus on fostering the student's development instead of being knowledge-transferring and advising mentors. Students recognised that coaching teachers (participants) provided less advice and focused more on students' responsibility.

To prepare teachers for coaching students in their professional development, early investment is recommended. A dedicated coach training programme, as outlined by us, can facilitate and stimulate the desired transition from a role-modelling, knowledge-transferring academic teacher, mentor, or adviser to a professional development coaching teacher. When translating to other curricula, we recommend to take into account the adaptation of generic content in the local learning environment.