Supporting Growth Through Coaching and Reflection
Author
LAURA WATSON
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Lead
SRUC
Summary
Dundee and Angus College recognised that traditional staff development models often positioned academic development teams as experts rather than supporting reflective conversations. To develop relationships and foster professional growth, the college trained staff in coaching, expanding from its use in teaching observations into a GTCS-accredited programme now spanning student support, leadership development, and cross-institutional collaboration.
The challenge
With responsibility for supporting Career-Long Professional Learning, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Team recognised the challenge of supporting staff at different stages of their professional journey, with diverse experiences, aspirations and development needs. The team needed an approach that was compassionate, empowering and person-centred, while recognising traditional mentoring models can be difficult to scale and often position the mentor as the expert. Instead, the focus was on promoting trust, curiosity and professional growth rather than judgement.
The Approach
The team began by undertaking coaching qualifications, and coaching was initially introduced to support Learning and Teaching Observations. The intention was to create reflective conversations that supported professional growth, helping observations become something staff engaged in with, rather than something that was done to them. However, it quickly became apparent that the skills underpinning coaching, including active listening, powerful questioning, empathy and reflection, had application far beyond observations.
In 2023, the college launched Coaching for Success at D&A: Seeing the World as Others See It, a programme accredited with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) Professional Recognition. Initially piloted with lecturers in a Group Tutor role, the programme was aimed at supporting staff in navigating increasingly complex conversations with students while encouraging learner independence and self-efficacy. As interest in the approach grew, the coaching offer expanded to include wider cross-college participation and dedicated leadership programmes. Dundee and Angus College remains the only college in Scotland accredited to deliver this award.
Subsequently, the college developed two leadership-focussed coaching programmes. Open to both academic and professional services staff, the programmes brought together individuals who viewed leadership as part of their role, regardless of job title. This created diverse cross-college cohorts where participants engaged as people rather than roles. Through experiential learning, peer coaching and reflective practice, staff developed skills that supported communication, collaboration and relationship-building across the organisation.
The Impact
Through this focus on coaching approaches, staff reported significant changes in the way they approached conversations with students, colleagues and teams. Lecturers described moving away from solving problems on behalf of learners and towards supporting students to identify their own solutions, helping to build confidence, resilience and ownership. Participants also highlighted the value of coaching tools such as perceptual positioning, in supporting challenging conversations and relationships. By encouraging individuals to consider situations from different perspectives, coaching helped cultivate empathy, understanding and more constructive dialogue.
A significant and unexpected outcome was the development of cross-college relationships. By bringing together academic and professional services staff who viewed leadership as part of their role, the programme created opportunities for colleagues to develop a greater understanding of one another's experiences and contribute to a more connected and collaborative culture. The programme created space for relationships, conversations and shared learning that may not otherwise have occurred through day-to-day working practices.
The programme has subsequently been recommended by GTCS to other colleges. This led to an invitation to deliver the programme for Curriculum Managers at Forth Valley College across the 2025/26 academic year, providing opportunities to share practice, build networks and collaborate across the sector. What began as an attempt to create more developmental observation conversations has grown into a broader coaching approach that now influences leadership development, student support and professional dialogue across the College.
As the College enters the fourth year of its GTCS-accredited Coaching for Success programme, coaching continues to influence how staff learn with and from one another. Reflecting on the importance of attention in human relationships, Dr Ian McGilchrist quotes the philosopher Louis Lavelle: ‘Love is a pure attention to the existence of the other.’ Coaching creates space for that attention, encouraging staff to listen deeply, understand different perspectives and support growth through meaningful professional dialogue.