Melanie Bliz (Learning and Instruction)

Zoom Link https://buffalo.zoom.us/j/97760007452?pwd=OEM1ODFqZElaSy9CU21vTzVqSHJKdz09

Many athletic departments have created academic mentoring or coaching programs to help student-athletes with skill enrichment, learning strategies and overall academic achievement. The purpose of this study is to discover the learning strategies used by academic coaches with student-athletes in an academic coaching program in a Division I athletics department at a research University located in the Northeast.  The study explores results from fifteen academic coaches who completed a mixed methods questionnaire. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Overall, academic coaches implement multiple learning strategies and can adapt strategies for the diverse learners on their caseload. The coaches identified ways in which they measured academic success with their mentees but were least confident in knowing if the learning strategies they implemented were effective. Implications suggest training academic coaches on how to assess to ensure strategies are successful. Considerations for future research and limitations are also provided. Guiding this study are the following research questions:

1.     How do academic coaches perceive their roles as an academic coach for student-athletes to become more independent learners?

2.     What strategies do the academic coaches utilize to promote student-athlete learning? This question aims to see types of pedagogies and pedagogical strategies the mentors have used.

3.     What are the potential barriers, if any, have they experienced when coaching student-athletes?

4.     How, if at all, did the learning strategies differ during face to face versus online coaching meetings?

Keywords: college student-athlete, academic mentoring, academic coaching, learning strategies, study skills, higher education