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Overview of Cognitive CoachingSM

Cognitive CoachingSM:

  • is a supervisory/peer coaching model.
  • capitalizes upon and enhances cognitive processes.
  • enables people to modify their capacity to modify themselves.
  • allows the thinker to evaluate what is good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate, effective or ineffective, etc.
  • mediates thinking and enables the thinker to become metacognitive.
  • helps to convey thinkers from where they are to where they want to be.
  • is a powerful approach to enhancing performance and building learning organizations.

Art Costa and Bob Garmston, the co-developers, define Cognitive CoachingSM as a set of strategies, a way of thinking and a way of working that invites self and others to shape and reshape their thinking and problem solving capacities.

Cognitive CoachingSM is based on the following four major propositions:

  1. Thought and perception produce all behavior.
  2. Teaching is constant decision-making.
  3. To learn something new requires engagement and alteration in thought.
  4. Humans continue to grow cognitively.

It is not enough for a person to behave in a certain way; what's important is the thinking that goes on behind the behavior. A large part of the role of a mediator is based on trust and rapport with the person being coached.

At the heart of Cognitive CoachingSM is the concept that each of us has resources that enable us to grow and change from within. Costa and Garmston call these resources "States of Mind." The coach mediates States of Mind allowing the person to use inner resources more effectively. There are five States of Mind:

  • Consciousness
  • Efficacy
  • Flexibility
  • Craftsmanship
  • Interdependence

Overview of Cognitive CoachingSM Training

Cognitive CoachingSM training focuses on the maps and tools needed to mediate another's thinking in a dynamic, individualized way. Coaches are equipped with maps and tools which they use to assist the person being coached in "navigating" the territory of thinking.

The three maps of Cognitive CoachingSM are:

  1. Planning
  2. Reflecting
  3. Problem-resolving

Each map has identified regions, and they interact with each other. A coach can "navigate" within and among maps to mediate thinking.

The main tools of Cognitive CoachingSM are:

  • Rapport
  • Mediative questioning
  • Response behaviors
  • Pacing and leading

The training focuses on learning these tools and using them with the maps. A major focus of the training is trust and rapport.

Specifically, a person will do the following in Cognitive CoachingSM training:

  • Build trust by developing physical and verbal rapport.
  • Facilitate thinking through questioning and developing greater precision in language.
  • Develop a person's autonomy and sense of community by increasing their sense of efficacy and self-awareness.
  • Distinguish between coaching and evaluation.
  • Rehearse coaching interactions that are congruent with a variety of styles.
  • Apply coaching skills which enhance the intellectual processes of performance.
     
 

"Cognitive Coaching Seminars®" is a registered trademark and "Cognitive CoachingSM"
is a service mark owned by the Center for Cognitive Coaching.

Copyright © 1999–2012 Center for Cognitive Coaching

This page last revised 7–4–2012.
Center for Cognitive Coaching
P.O. Box 630860
Highlands Ranch, CO 80163