I offer, as an example of this eighth principle, a coaching program that was implemented at my graduate school, under the capable leadership of Marilyn Taylor. The graduate school over which I preside (PSP) is geared primarily to mature and accomplished adult learners who wish to obtain Masters or Doctoral degrees in clinical or organizational psychology. These are very busy men and women, who must somehow fit a demanding graduate program around their own lives as leaders, parents, spouses, friends and (often) caregivers of older parents. Their educational enterprise requires planning, as well as the integration of course learning at PSP with the challenges of their work life and, more generally, their career.
Taylor created a “conspectus” process that encourages students to reflect on their past learning experiences and to plan for their academic work at PSP. The conspectus also enabled students to relate their academic work to longer term learning objectives, to engage in and reflect back on their learning at PSP, and to learn much more about themselves as learners (“second-order” learning). This is not easily done. To support this challenge, each PSP student was assigned a “learning coach” who assisted this retrospective, planning and reflective process.
The learning coach was a peer at PSP who had already completed their own conspectus and received training at PSP as an executive coach (the program I described above: Principle Two). The conspectus process took the place of traditional comprehensive examinations and regimented internships. With the assistance of their coach, the PSP student could identify and engage in learning experiences that relate directly to their career and life goals, and can reflect back on these experiences and gain much more insight into how this process of learning might successfully continue over a lifetime.
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