The Development of Coaches Survey: III. Influence and Learning

When we turn to the second question, the only two items that yield any significant differences in ranking concern the coaching of other coaches and the influence of one’s personal life experiences. Coaching other coaches ranks eighth on the first survey, and third on the second survey. One’s personal life outside coaching ranks third on the first survey and seventh on the second survey. As in the case of the mean score rankings, it seems that variance is robust: the amount of agreement on any one item remains essentially the same (at least in terms of rankings) over the six year period of time.

As I noted in the previous two reports. I look forward to exploring differences in these variance rankings with regard to several of the demographic variables that might contribute to differences in results from the two studies. Are coaches with extensive experience more likely or less likely to be influenced by personal life experiences than those with less experience. Do these differences in coaching background also account for differences in the influence of one’s coaching of other coaches. Are certain kinds of coaching (e.g. personal coaching) more or less likely to be influential among men and women or among those who are  young and those who are old? What about the impact of culture? Perhaps most importantly, what demographics (if any) account for differences in the ratings of the item in question two about the influence of working conditions on coaches?

Coaching Specialization

It is quite understandable that some of the items rated low and yielded high variance scores on both question one and question two. These are items that focus on more specialized domains in the field of professional coaching — such as coaching research and the teaching of coaching. Some coaches are involved in these activites and others are not. It is also possible, however, that these items are rated low not because coaches do not engage in these activities, but because these activities don’t have much influence in the overall or current development of these coaches. Our demographic analyses, once again, might provide some clarification.