Realisation of coaching
A coach familiarises himself/herself thoroughly with the dialogical methods and the corresponding method cards and plans coaching either by himself/herself or together with the group. Coaching can take the form of training, work shops, dialogue cafés, tutoring and peer guidance in learning communities, student groups, teams and work groups. The coaching begins with the members of the community jointly surveying their current dialogical actions and making their development needs transparent. Coaching helps the participants to create a concrete and practical overall view of dialogic learning and knowledge creation. Dialogic competence is constructed piece by piece through practise that takes place with the help of the dialogic method cards, either individually or in a group.
Questions about coaching
When the coaching programme for dialogical learning is carried out, it is important to take the following issues into consideration:
- what is being practised (steps and levels of dialogic competence)
- why does practise take place (to make dialogical learning and knowledge creation truly happen in communities; to achieve better results)
- how does practise take place (systematic work that proceeds step by step or work with the help of the method cards that takes place only once or infrequently; new forms of dialogic collaboration are achieved when the various actions described in the method cards are combined)
- when does practise take place (upon the beginning and continuation of collaboration in a learning community, team or work group, during each time when a temporary group meets; conscious and systematic practise and work with the help of the method cards can be discontinued when the participants learn and create knowledge dialogically without problems)
- where does practise take place (in the learning community while small/larger groups work, in situations where teams and work groups collaborate, during meetings, in general in various communities where people interact either face to face or online)