The effects of a university coach education programme on coaching efficacy

Abstract

Efficacy is defined as the belief of an individual in their ability to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1997). Within sport it can be deemed as an athlete's ability to best judge and implement skills appropriate to the present situation (Moritz et al., 2000). This study examined the effect of participation in a university based coach education programme on coaches coaching efficacy scores. The programme consisted of 13 weeks of timetabled lectures for two hours per week and tutorial/practical sessions for one hour. Assessment required the completion ofr two comprehensive assignments to be submitted by week 14 of the academic calendar. As a course requirement, all students in Levels Two and Three must undertake a National Governing Body award of their choice during the course of the module. The coaching efficacy scale, which aimed to examine how confident they were in influencing the learning and performance of their athletes in the four dimensions (character building, game strategy, motivation and technique), was completed by the coaches three times: pre-education, post-education and as a follow up six weeks after their modular experience. A total of 47 students volunteered to take part in this phase of data collection (28 male, 19 female), at 3 different levels of study as part of undergraduate Sport and Exercise Science degree pathways. Data collection was followed up with a qualitative questionnaire, which was administered, via one-to-one interviews or via a narrative email response to the questions. An improved understanding as to where and why there was a change in efficacy as a result of the coach education course undertaken. The results showed a significant difference for the Developing group for the sub-scale of strategy and general coaching efficacy between the pre-education and retention conditions. A pre-education difference was found between the Developing and Advanced years of study for the sub-scale of technique, and a difference between the Introduction and Developing years of study for the sub-scale of strategy. A post-education difference was present for the sub-scale of Character between the Introduction and Developing years of study.

Date of Award	2007
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bedfordshire