1st Edition
Learning in Sports Coaching Theory and Application
The facilitation of learning is a central feature of coaches’ and coach educators’ work. Coaching students and practitioners are, as a result, being expected to give increasing levels of thought towards how they might help to develop the knowledge and practical skills of others. Learning in Sports Coaching provides a comprehensive introduction to a diverse range of classic, critical, and contemporary theories of learning, education, and social interaction and their potential application to sports coaching. Each chapter is broadly divided into two sections. The first section introduces a key thinker and the fundamental tenets of his or her scholarly endeavours and theorising. The second considers how the theorist’s work might influence how we understand and attempt to promote learning in coaching and coach education settings. By design this book seeks to promote theoretical connoisseurship and to encourage its readers to reflect critically on their beliefs about learning and its facilitation. This is an essential text for any pedagogical course taken as part of a degree programme in sports coaching or coach education.
1. Introduction: Towards a Theoretical Connoisseurship of Learning in Sports Coaching (Lee Nelson, Ryan Groom, and Paul Potrac) Part 1: Behaviourist and Social Cognitivist Theorists 2. Burrhus Frederic Skinner: Environmental Reinforcement in Coaching (Ryan Groom, Lee Nelson, and Paul Potrac with Andy Coyles) 3. Albert Bandura: Observational Learning in Coaching (Gethin Thomas, Kevin Morgan, and Kerry Harris) Part 2: Experiential Theorists 4. John Dewey: Experience, Inquiry, Democracy, and Community in Coaching (David Day with Jackie Newton) 5. Donald Schön: Learning, Reflection, and Coaching Practice (Christine Nash) Part 3: Humanist Theorists 6. Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Coach and Athlete Needs (Tristan Coulter, Megan Gilchrist, and Clifford Mallett with Adam Carey) 7. Carl Rogers: Person-Centred Learning in Coaching (Chris Rowley with Callum Lester) Part 4: Constructivist Theorists 8. Jean Piaget: Learning and the Stages of Athlete Development (John Toner and Aidan Moran with Laura Gale) 9. Lev Vygotsky: Learning Through Social Interaction in Coaching (Paul Potrac, Lee Nelson, and Ryan Groom with Kenny Greenough) 10. Yrjö Engeström: Coaching, Learning, and Activity Theory (Robyn L. Jones, Gareth L. Thomas, Irineu A. Tuim Viotto Filho, Tatiane da Silva Pires Felix and Christian Edwards) 11. Ivor Goodson: Narrative Coach Learning and Pedagogy (Jennifer McMahon and Brett Smith) Part 5: Critical and Post-Structural Theorists 12. Paulo Freire: Problem-Posing Coach Education (Lee Nelson, Paul Potrac, and Ryan Groom with Claire Maskrey) 13. Jack Mezirow: Transformative Coach and Athlete Learning (William G. Taylor with Leol Collins) 14. Robin Usher: A Post-Structuralist Reading of Learning in Coaching (Luke Jones, Jim Denison, and Brian Gearity) Part 6: Social and Ethical Theorists 15. Herbert Blumer: Coaching and Learning as Symbolic Interaction (Lee Nelson, Ryan Groom, and Paul Potrac with Phil Marshall) 16. Jean Lave: Learning in Coaching as Social Praxis (Christopher Cushion with Robert Townsend) 17. Peter Jarvis: Lifelong Coach Learning (Pierre Trudel, Diane Culver, and Jean-Paul Richard) 18. Nel Noddings: Caring, Moral Learning, and Coaching (Laura Purdy, Paul Potrac, and Rūtenis Paulauskas) 19. Conclusion: Recognizing the Dimensions and Tensions of Learning in Coaching (Lee Nelson, Paul Potrac, and Ryan Groom)
Biography
Lee Nelson is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Edge Hill University and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hull, UK. His research and teaching interests include micro-politics, emotions, and pedagogy in coaching and coach education contexts. Lee was the lead editor for the recent title Research Methods in Sports Coaching (Routledge).
Ryan Groom is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Program Director for the MA/MSc Exercise and Sports degrees at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. A lead tutor on the MA Coaching Studies degree, his main teaching and research interests focus on the use of qualitative research methodologies and social theory to explore power, identity, education and interaction. Ryan was a co-editor for the title Research Methods in Sports Coaching (Routledge).
Paul Potrac is a Professor of Sports Coaching at Edge Hill University and an Honorary Professor at the University of Hull, UK. His research and teaching interests focus on exploring the social complexity of sports coaching and coach education, with a particular emphasis on the political and emotional nature of practice. Paul has led and contributed to the completion of a number of book projects including Research Methods in Sports Coaching, The Sociology of Sports Coaching, Understanding Sports Coaching, the Routledge Handbook of Sports Coaching, and Sports Coaching Cultures (all published by Routledge).
"Overall, this book strengthens a growing appreciation of learning as central to sports coaching and, importantly, should serve to encourage scholars and students to push past simplistic understandings of learning and deepen their consideration of, and reflection on, a variety of theoretical perspectives. Students may prefer to use the book to find out about particular theories as directed by their needs, while practitioners may benefit from reading more widely around the commentaries and critical questions." – Anna Stodter, Anglia Ruskin University, Sports Coaching Review
