The purpose of the study was to develop an alternative coach education program by reflecting on the current coach education in order to improve it. For that purpose, first, current coach education was analyzed at both home and abroad to reflect on it ...
The purpose of the study was to develop an alternative coach education program by reflecting on the current coach education in order to improve it. For that purpose, first, current coach education was analyzed at both home and abroad to reflect on it along with incumbent coaches' experiences with coach education. After this an alternative coach education program was developed to improve it. Under the goal of producing whole coaches for the practice of whole sports-based youth sports, the alternative coach education offered a framework for objectives, content, methods, and evaluations and conditions to practice the alternative coach education program. As for methodology, literature study, surveys, and in-depth interviews were employed to gather and analyze data. Specifically, the investigator reviewed previous studies, collected a variety of data, and set up a conceptual foundation for the current coach education through literature study. Those efforts to gather and analyze data led to the following research findings:
First, the current coach education programs at home and abroad were analyzed along with incumbent coaches' experiences with coach education as part of the attempts to reflect on coach education. Representing coach education in Korea, short courses for judges and instructors were all the same regardless of the students and games and provided function-centered coach education as was reported in the previous studies. The coach education programs of other countries were divided according to levels but focused on delivering knowledge just as those employed in Korea. But it is noteworthy that their curricula placed interest on players' individual developments and skills for coaches to form relationships with players and provided educational content to cover them while emphasizing theoretical knowledge. As for coaches' experiences with coach education, they viewed coach education to be helpful for their individual growth, wanted to obtain new knowledge and information to improve their instructional methods, and had difficulties in participating in in-service training due to practical limitations. At the same time, they pointed out that knowledge-oriented educational contents and formal operations were the problems, which indicates that theory-oriented in-service training and collective in-service training that does not distinguish the students should be improved.
Secondly, the coach education program for the practice of whole sport-based youth sports had the vision of producing coaches for whole sport-based youth sports and the goal of cultivating technique and mental qualities. For the fulfillment of the goal, the program developed such practical strategies as understanding expertise, acquiring social skills, and reinforcing personality, as well as such concrete educational contents as instructor qualities, sports understanding, sports instruction, health and safety, and social skills. Its educational methods include problem-solving learning, case study, and mentoring by utilizing reading, speaking, writing, and watching in addition to lecturing. Also suggested were program evaluations given that a curriculum needs quality management of education through evaluations. Curricula as well as educational results were evaluated through such evaluative techniques as essays, checklists, and peer evaluations. And finally, three preconditions for such a coach education program to be implemented on the scene were suggested; they include education by the level, forming a learning community, improving treatments for coaches, and changes of coach educators. Highlighted was that such a program should include a curriculum fit for each age group of the students in order to address the problem with the existing coach education that provided collective education with no distinction among elementary, middle and high school. Also pointed out was a need to form a learning community in addition to a curriculum of coach education.