Using The 3 ‘C’s To Unlock Student Success: A Closer Look At A Coaching Approach To Personal Tutoring

An environment of high-quality personalised and successful personal tutoring supported through effective staff development, reflection, and evaluation can help universities to meet their regulatory requirements, such as the Office for Students’ B Conditions, specifically B1, 2 and 3. These conditions stipulate providers must establish practices which ensure “high quality, reliable and positive outcomes for all students” (Office for Students, 2022).The reflective process of coaching can help support students to address issues in their personal, academic, or professional life (ICL, 2023). Effective coaching can provide a forum for student stories to be turned into strategies, which will enhance the student experience, leading to success. The training of staff and delivery of this approach to personal tutoring across HE is varied and inconsistent. Through a synthesis of coaching theory and models, this paper takes a practical look at ‘how’ coaching practices can be applied within a personal tutoring session. It provides a practical framework and methodology for those wanting to adopt a coaching approach for the first time, based around the three ‘C’s – ‘Connecting’, ‘Contracting’ and ‘Conversations’. This framework has been adopted in what has become mandatory training for all personal tutors based at one UK HE institution and is used as a structure for interactions with and development of students.