Evaluation of professional development program designed for artistic gymnastics coaches needs

Date

2016-11-04

Author

Kılıç, Koray
İnce, Mustafa Levent

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The purposes of this study were to 1) determine coaches’ needs by examining athletes’ sport-related outcomes, 2) develop and implement a professional development program for coaches based on the needs arose, and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of the program implemented. For the first purpose, a valid and reliable measurement toolkit (Vierimaa, Erickson, Côté, and Gilbert, 2012) that measures athletes’ perception of “Competence”, “Confidence”, “Connection”, and “Character” was applied to 45 competitive artistic gymnasts who were between 12 and 17 years of age. In the second stage of the study, a five-week professional development program with 5 two-hour sessions was developed for coaches based on the data collected from the gymnasts. Then, the outline was given its last shape after asking for the coaches’ opinions on the program. The program was implemented with five coaches. For the third purpose, at the end of the program, the coaches’ views were evaluated by a focus group interview that lasted approximately 2 hours. Quantitative data were analyzed by using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics (arithmetic mean, ANOVA). Qualitative data were analyzed by using Thematic Analysis method. According to the data obtained from the gymnasts, the priority areas of need were “Competence” and “Connection”. Furthermore, coaches’ needs in other two areas were also determined and coaches approved all of the findings in the meetings. The data obtained both from the gymnasts and the coaches indicated that especially in the “Physical Skills” as a sub-dimension of “Competence”, and in the “Coach-athlete commitment, closeness and complementarity” sub-dimensions of “Connection” coaches needed for professional development. Accordingly, the program was designed by prioritizing the dimensions the coaches need for improvement more, continuing with the other dimensions. The design and the implementation processes of the program were grounded on “Adult Learning Principles” and “Attributes of Professional Learning Communities”. The results indicate the effectiveness of the program in developing coaches’ professional development. We suggest that future coach development programs be designed and implemented considering coaches’ needs (athlete outcomes), “Adult Learning Principles”, and “Attributes of Professional Learning Communities”

Subject Keywords

Professional development, Learning community, Coaching effectiveness, Artistic gymnastics, Positive youth development, Mesleki gelişim, Öğrenme grubu, Antrenörlük verimliliği, Artistik cimnastik, Gençliğin olumlu gelişimi

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/71484
https://www.sporbilim.com/UserFiles/File/14%20SPOR%20Bilim%20kongre%20book.pdf

Collections

Department of Physical Education and Sports, Conference / Seminar