The power of coaching: How to motivate and inspire your classroom

​As different parts of the same coin, teaching and coaching are the main branches of education. Realizing this means understanding how the learning process is not only about transfer and give general knowledge about specific topics in different subjects. It is a complex mechanism, based on the co-operation of individual and collective work and also on emotive techniques that allow teachers to build a communicative channel with their students, in order to create a safe place in which they can develop their skills.

​This was the central topic of the latter edition of the course “Emotional intelligence and coaching inside the school and educational context” that took place in Palermo from 03/10/2022 to 07/10/2022. The participants came from all across Europe, with Dóra Farkas from Szegedi Nemzetközi Általános Iskola and Péterné Csanádi and Ilona KoczkánéRedele from Egri Balassi Bálint Általános Iskola in Hungary, Anabel Sampériz Corvinos from CPEPA Miguel Henrández in Spain, Diliyana Lefterova, Katalina Gogova and Viyara Peneva from Secondary Technical School "D-r Nikola Vassiliadi" in Bulgaria, Kathrin Grau from Q-Prints & Service gGmbH in Germany.

​First of all, the participants discovered the importance of emotional intelligence linked to the role of teachers. But this important skill cannot be developed without the right amount of self-awareness and without the help of useful tools to recognize our own emotions and deal with them. Two are the main basis of this process: communication and the right mindset, that has to increase the possibilities of growth inside the relationship with the pupils.  In this context, the whole group learnt how to face their daily tasks in classroom using healthy techniques to establish assertive communication and how to exercise leadership without being aggressive.

​But they learnt and practiced this through amusing activities like creative brainstorming, games about perceptions, playing with metaphors and roleplay in which they deeply understood teamwork through the behavior of geese. 

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​In the following days, the participants dug deep into the field of conflict management, a useful tool to deal not only with students but also with the educational environment that involves colleagues and families. Conflict should not always be seen as a negative experience: growth and positive outcomes can be results of the healthiers ways to develop a dialogue, with the aim to avoid misunderstanding and tensions in the workplace. 

​Further more, the group discovered the power of questions through positive and negative presuppositions. In the first case, questions have the ability to promote thinking and self-reflection, to create constructive answers and to motivate actions and the development of ideas. The “Solution Focused Brief Coaching” was the referential model, in order to promote a solution-based mindset into their students and avoid unhealthy tendencies like praising.

​This joyful and pushing week represented for the whole group a colourful path into the facets of the learning process, enriched by the different cultural contexts and the individual experiences that each participant wanted to share with us all.

Discover more about this course in: https://www.erasmustrainingcourses.com/coaching.html