By Ray Garner, Programme Director at The British School of Coaching
In the late fifties, early sixties, when I was a
knowledge-hungry schoolboy, it was common for my class-mates and I to dip into
the many do-it-yourself diagnostic tests published in the popular press –
things like Eysinck’s “Test Your Own IQ”. We would then strut our self-imposed
labels – and ground our emerging misconceptions about our own learning and
personality styles – with all the certainty of youth. It took me quite a long
time to debunk my view that “I do not have a ‘mathematical brain’”. And,
perhaps my slight scepticism about diagnostics comes from the perception that I
always seemed to be at the extreme poles of every continuum, and yet managed to
operate in a more or less normal sort of way.
It seems to me that the importance of VAK as a ‘predictor’
of learning behaviour has gained ground recently, in the descriptors for the
‘understanding’ elements of the executive coaching and workplace coaching
courses I’ve been tutoring on recently, for instance. Just like my youthful
friends and I, candidates are still very happy to label themselves. “Oh, I’m a
kinaesthetic learner, you know – I’ve just got to get up and move every ten
minutes!”
There is some evidence from research to suggest that we all
have a leaning to one, or two, of the modalities. Evidence to suggest that our
learning is seriously impaired if we do not receive input in the preferred way,
or to show that learning is significantly improved by a match of presentation
to learning preference, is very thin on the ground. It has always seemed to me
that, as learners, we just get on and use what is available at the time. We may
use a preferred style to revisit the learning afterwards. It’s the same with
other forms of ‘preference testing’ – I’m (perhaps) not a natural
‘completer/finisher, but, as a manager, I’ve tied up many a loose end and
enforced not a few deadlines.
For me, as an educator, what is important is the way that
learners seem to instinctively match a learning style, or, more often,
integrate aspects of two or more, to the learning task. Why would a ‘Solution
Focused’ coach expect less – the answer lies, always, with our clients. I’ve
observed this ability in very young learners – adults sometimes have to regain
the ability.
So, as a coach and a coach-educator, how do I respond to
these musings? I don’t think it is rocket science – it may be as instinctive as
the learner’s use of styles. I try to make sure that I listen for clues about how the client wants to proceed, as well
as clues about goals and feelings and meaning and significance. And, I ask,
frequently, what would be the best way to record our work together to achieve
lasting learning support – “is this working for you?” I like to ‘latch on’ to
metaphor or visualisation used by the client, and employ it to enhance our
session. Having drawing paper and colouring pens, and maybe even Playdoh, in
the toolkit can be useful. In presenting our courses, I’ve noticed that
candidates seem to appreciate and enjoy a wide range of learning style
opportunities and, from my experience, engage equally well in those that they
might not have chosen as a preference.
I don’t play golf, but I’m told that, those who do, fear
‘The Yips’ – a falling off of performance associated with thinking too much
about what should come naturally. Coaching, it seems to me, is every bit as
much ‘skilled performance’ as golf is. I certainly welcome the richness and
rigour that academic study brings to my thinking about my profession, but I
would also wish to guard against reifying its paradigms and taxonomies.
Contentious as it might seem, in the current climate, there’s a bit of me that
approves of ‘flying by the seat of your pants’. Perhaps this is why we put so
much emphasis on ‘doing, contextualising and reflecting’ on our coaching courses?
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Ray
is an ex-Head Teacher with forty years experience in education and
using coaching as a mechanism to transform organisational culture.
To find out more about the work Ray is doing visit www.britishschoolofcoaching.com
