What class?
LSAL 5513 - Foundations in Coaching (previously LSAL 5700)
Why is it cool?
Organizations today exist in an incredibly fast-paced environment, where change is the only constant. The tools of coaching are designed to help ourselves and others learn not only how to adapt to change but to embrace it in a healthy and wise way. Doing so is not easy, and requires each of us to develop competency with a wide range of skills and perspectives. While some of the needed skills are technical, much of what’s required to deal with change lays in the realm of personal development and effective interpersonal engagement, and that is the primary focus of this course. We know that our adult learners are on the frontlines of today’s fast-changing environment, and our commitment is to provide academically-rigorous, relevant courses to help them be effective in both their personal and professional lives. That is why we have the Foundations in Coaching class (and others like it!).
Foundations in Coaching was designed for students new to the coaching endeavor. Its goal is to familiarize students with the overall landscape in professional coaching and help them develop an understanding of the foundational principles.
This class is cool because students get to cover a really WIDE range of ideas and concepts, because it’s both theoretical and practical and because it applies to all aspects of one’s life! In this course, we explore ways to listen to each other more actively and to respond more insightfully. We explore what it takes to change our own behavior, as well as the behaviors of others, and to enhance our awareness of the external factors that shape us. It’s a highly interactive course, with fun (albeit challenging!) activities, fascinatingly complex concepts, and lots of discussion. The course is designed so that it allows students to pursue their own specific interests within the field, while also making sure we cover all the basic concepts. Most of all, our learning is tremendously enhanced through the variety of the life experiences brought by fellow students to our learning journey.
“I hope that my students come away with heightened enthusiasm for learning,” said current instructor Martha Banz. “My goal is to stretch them academically, and then to support and empower them to rise to that high level of expectation. When they leave my class, I want them to have read widely and reflected deeply, and I want to have fostered in them a profound sense of wonder that will fuel their enthusiasm for learning.”
No matter where one is in his/her life and career journey (entry-level worker, career-changer, top executive, stay-at-home mom or anywhere in between), the concepts we learn about in this course are relevant — not only to one’s work life but also to one’s family life and friendships. The beautiful thing about coaching is that there are always deeper levels of insight to be explored. We can always learn more and do better, and isn’t that what lifelong learning is all about, really?
See what else is being offered by the College of Liberal Studies.
