RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
personal tutoring and academic advising in
UK Higher Education, highlights difficulties
in directly mapping such definitions and
distinctions onto the environments which
interest us. Here, it should be noted, we
are concerned with the staff-student
relationship, as opposed to staff schemes
of professional development, academic
programmes of study in coaching or
mentoring, or student-to-student peer
mentoring schemes, whether supported by
staff or students’ unions 3 . We also
recognise that evidence consistently
supports the view that social-emotional
factors impact upon performance,
including academic performance. The
final report of the first phase of the What
Works programme (Thomas, 2012: 10), for
example, reported ‘a compelling case that
in higher education, belonging is critical to
student retention and success’.
All of that said, in terms of the UK HE
context, evidence in relation to the impact
of coaching or mentoring approaches in
institutional policy documents is sparse at
best. A survey of twelve such documents
from across the sector – in essence an
‘opportunity sample’ – did not include
either term. Where it is to be found on
institutional websites, for example at
Manchester Metropolitan 4 and Reading 5
Universities it does not appear as a central
feature of provision. And where the terms
are used and defined 6 ‘much crossover’
between them is acknowledged. Similar
issues, related to the overlapping usage
and the lack of clear conceptual
boundaries between these terms and their
relationship to tutoring are noted in the
literature (see e.g. D’Amato et al., 2003,
Irby et al., 2018). These are confirmed by
Pleschova and Macalpine (2015) in a
systematic international literature review.
For our purposes two perspectives may be
useful to foreground by way of
illustration.Wisker et al. (2008: 8) refer to
‘Coaching, mentoring and Personal
Tutoring’ (my emphasis), suggesting that
coaching and mentoring sit alongside
tutoring rather than operate as approaches
within it. They equally assert that broadly
similar behaviours are required in each
role and that the terms coaching and
mentoring are often used interchangeably.
Notwithstanding this, coaching is defined
as:
‘non-directive, encouraging the
coachee to take charge of his or her
own development – to identify and
meet goals, improve skills and
develop discipline and motivation.
The coach guides the coachee in
dealing with current situations and
planning for the future.’ (Wisker et al.
2008: 9).
3
See e.g. https://gpod.orgdev.coventry.domains/
and https://www2.aston.ac.uk/currentstudents/get-involved/mentoring-at-astonuniversity
. The benefits of peer mentoring in
particular have been demonstrated, (see e.g.
Collings et al., 2009; Warren and Leben, 2017)
and recognised within institutions as a means of
supporting student engagement and enhanced
levels of student support. (See e.g.
https://studentmentoring.southwales.ac.uk/stud
ent-mentoring/ ).
4
At
https://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/personal_tutoring/c
oaching.php.
5
At http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/ATS-a-
Guide-for-Tutors-Sept-2018.pdf page 5
6
See e.g.
https://www4.ntu.ac.uk/adq/document_uploads/t
eaching/196275.pdf
50