Applying coaching practices to leadership and team management learning in computer science: a practical experience

ESPERANZA MARCOS MARTINEZ; JUAN MANUEL VARA; VERÓNICA A. BOLLATI; MARCOS LÓPEZ SANZ

Overcoming Challenges in Software Engineering Education: Delivering Non-Technical Knowledge and Skills

IGI Global

Año: 2014; p. 18 - 34

This chapter summarizes the experience of applying coaching techniques to the teaching of leadership and team management, which is taught as part of the project management course in the Computer Science degree at a large public Spanish university. These skills have, until now, been taught through lectures. However, there are some key strengths or abilities that a good leader or team manager possesses, such as the ability to work well in a team, communication skills, etc., which a student cannot learn in a lecture hall. The authors have therefore decided to change the teaching method to one in which the student is converted into the protagonist and the professor takes on the role of the coach, thus becoming a facilitator for the student´s learning process. The classes were organized in workshops, carried out in seminars outside the usual lecture room, and each workshop was dedicated to a specific skill or ability. In the first session, the students felt disconcerted and a little shy and were reluctant to participate in some of the professor´s proposals. Nevertheless, during the five workshops of which the experience consisted.