It has been argued that a reality-based integrative approach is required for coach education in order to help coaches understand the complex and dynamic activity that is coaching (Cassidy, Jones, & Potrac, 2009); therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate graduate students’ perspectives on the effectiveness of a coach education program.
Method:
Thirteen graduate students who were involved in a coach education master’s program at a university in South Korea participated in this study. They were chosen from a list of 30 provided by the university for their experience as an elite athlete and as a coach of elite sports. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants. The program’s goals were reviewed in detail to the participants before the interviews, and each interview lasted 50 to70 minutes. During the first part of the interview, the participants were asked demographic questions and to comment on questions regarding what expertise is required for current elite sports coaches in South Korea. For the second part of the interview, the participants were asked to answer questions about how well the provided instruction met the goals of the program and how the program influenced students’ expertise as elite sports coaches.
Analysis/Results:
The analysis of interviews was facilitated by the computer-based qualitative data analysis software Nvivo 10. The data analysis was conducted by utilizing open and axial coding of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990); trustworthiness measures included triangulation and member checking. The results revealed that the graduate students of the program emphasized that the program’s curriculum needed to be reformed with consideration for how to improve its practicality. The participants acknowledged that the program’s curriculum included various courses related to sports science and that faculty members provided sufficient opportunities to discuss how to become a successful coach; however, they pointed out that it is necessary to learn how to apply theory to practice in coaching because graduate students recognized that their pedagogical knowledge for effective coaching had not noticeably changed while their content knowledge of sports science had grown through the program.
Conclusions:
In conclusion, the graduate students of the master’s program designed for coach education criticized the effectiveness of the program regarding the practicality of the program. The participants recognized that they were not able to apply a significant number of learned theories through the program to coaching practice due to undifferentiated approaches with other physical education graduate programs.