Investigating Computer Science Students' Perceptions of Team Coaching

This research-to-practice full paper explores the effectiveness of coaching interventions with the goal of enhancing teamwork and project management skills among students in higher education. The paper reviews related studies on coaching practices aimed at developing students' professional skills as part of their higher education. It proceeds by investigating computer science students' perspectives on selected team coaching interventions. These build upon agile practices are targeted at facilitating and accelerating students becoming professional and productive - a ubiquitous need in the industry. To assess the efficacy of introducing team coaching in a project management course of the faculty of computer science at a large mid-European university, the researchers employed a method triangulation consisting of a pre-survey, focus groups, and retrospectives. The pre-survey assessed students' prior experience with teamwork, perception of project success factors, and interest in coaching interventions. Besides conducting a one-hour coaching workshop for all course participants, two out of eight student-teams expressed particular interest in participating in regular coaching sessions conducted remotely and in-person throughout the semester. The coaching sessions introduced students to various frameworks and approaches, including the Tuckman stages of team development, and focused on improving communication, organization, and task distribution within teams. Regular retrospectives allowed teams to reflect on their progress, identify areas for improvement, and implement action items for the next milestone. At the end of the semester, in-person retrospectives and focus groups illuminated students' experiences and preferences regarding coaching and teamwork. Results of the study indicate that optional team coaching interventions have the potential to improve students' team projects, application of agile practices, teamwork, and organizational competencies, given that students are open and willing to invest their time. Thus, this paper seeks to build a basis from which to spark curriculum designers, educators, educational researchers, and administrators to consider ways to include targeted team coaching interventions into undergraduate computing curricula.