COACHING AS EDUCATIONAL METHOD TO ENHANCE UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE

Modern society is actually named society of knowledge and is characterized by informatical and technological revolution (Castells, 1997). This moment requires new challenges that lead to a continuous and constant education, evolving to a society of learning.

In the education area, new teaching methods are required for people of nowadays. In this sense was created the European Higher Education Area in 1998. The European Union promotes participative teaching methods encouraged to ensure a high quality education in which students did not work only with data and acquire the ability to “learn to learn”. Thus, students would be able to look into a work area and, taking in account particular needs, deepen to be a professional. The idea is to prevent they memorize large contents, and that they learn to learn. In this new situation, the teacher is no longer a transmitter of knowledge but an enabler of the learning process, i.e., students concerns and needs are covered while other tools are also offered to help them to develop their own and personal learning process (Duart, Sangrá, 2000). Students would be trained to develop self confidence, which is essential to take decisions and responsibilities leading to successful completion of initial objectives. Subsequently, if students acquire skills and abilities but they are not joined with a self confidence, low productivity could be found. Because of that, techniques of coaching applied to classrooms could mitigate this issue, since its main objective is to encourage personal confidence that reflects the real potentials that the students have to achieve an aim.

Coaching is a well known strategy in other areas such as business, human resources or sports (Jiménez R., 2012). It is a communication process in which a coach (or driver, teacher etc.) helps a coachee (worker, athlete, etc.) to improve his work and reach that he wants to be (Núñes B., 2009). In the case of university students, coaching can be directed to open their professional horizons. So, students are aware of the real applications of the acquired knowledge, at the same time that they are able to planify and develop possible practical applications with the maximal performance.

Our proposal is that students of Biology or Biochemistry degrees may develop and defend (openly in a classroom) a histological/biochemical assay with clinical application, in order to highlight related human pathologies with the specific organ. They would choose from whose they previously learned. Besides, the students work would be split temporally in stages to facilitate coaching process.