Efficacy of Training in Solution-focused Coaching: Process Study of Learners’ Progress in Response Choices

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study the efficacy of coach training by investigating the changes in practitioners’ interactional patterns with their clients as they learn to practice Solution-Focused coaching. The heterogeneous roots of coaching have contributed to highly eclectic theoretical bases, ambiguous definitions, and a lack of process evidence for its efficacy––all of which are shortcomings that this thesis addresses by asking the research question: What changes in the interactional patterns of a practitioner learning to coach? To answer this, three video recordings of coaching conversations over the span of their Solution-Focused Coaching Program from three practitioners-in-training (PiT’s) are used. Their response patterns are analyzed using descriptive methods of Microanalysis of Face-to-Face Dialogue (MFD) and the Dialogic Orientation Quadrant (DOQ). MFD is used for content analysis of what PiT’s and their clients do; DOQ for functional analysis of how their interactions contribute to creating meaning together. The results show a higher rate of formulations––especially in the positive content––in their later sessions as well as a decreased rate of adding their own words over time, which is consistent with previous analytical studies on expert sessions. While the rate of asking questions did not show a consistent change, embedded presuppositions had a markedly consistent orientation toward positive content in later sessions for all PiT’s. This study is limited to short excerpts of sample sessions of three PiT’s yet contributes to the literature because it is the first to introduce DOQ––a meta-model of interaction––as a research tool. It is also the first process study to include both MFD and DOQ, and it provides a longitudinal and comparative analysis of PiT skill development. Implications of the study include supporting coaching practitioners and trainers by increasing their empirical understanding of efficacy; inviting researchers in MFD to consider the adoption of DOQ as an operational language of functional analysis; and encouraging the use of DOQ as a tool for various process research, outcome evaluation, and pedagogy of coaching.