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Criteria indicating achievement of objectives
- Team fulfils its performance targets.
- Project remains on schedule.
- Team members surveyed on ‘health of the team’ – outcome suggests people are
happy with the team dynamics.
- Incidence of conflict decreases.
- Confidence in managing conflict increases.
- Incidence of problems related to communication decreases.
- A communications strategy is documented and provided to the team.
Conclusion
The achievement of measurable improvements in your professional leadership and
managerial competency will be facilitated by developing your own personal learning
objectives, by participating fully in the peer coaching experience and by maintaining a
personal learning journal.
Boud and Edwards (1999) state that past experience influences all learning as
learners bring the totality of their life history to the learning setting. Learners construct
new meanings and understanding based upon their learning experiences. This enriched
understanding is highly influenced by groups and peers through the process of group
discussion. Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) describe this type of learning, which
encompasses both the physical and social contexts, as situated learning. Learning in
these authentic situations allows concepts to evolve because the new situation, and the
negotiations/discussions that occur with peers, recast the information into a more
densely textured form (Graham, 1996).
The content of your learning journals and Personal Action Plan forms a critical part of
the reflection that will take place between you and your peer coach. Your learning
journal entries provide a focal point for you to explore the content learned in the program
and its relevance to your individual and organisational contexts.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: WH Freeman.
Biehler, R. F., & Snowman, J. (1997). Psychology applied to teaching (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Houghton Mifflin Company.
Boud, D., & Edwards, H. (1999). Learning for practice: Promoting learning in clinical and
community settings. In J. Higgs, & H. Edwards (Eds.), Educating beginning practitioners:
Challenges for health professional education (pp. 173–179). Oxford, UK: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning.
Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42.
Damon, W. (1984). Peer education: The untapped potential. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 5(4), 331–343.
Graham, C. L. (1996). Conceptual learning processes in physical therapy students. Physical
Therapy, 76(8), 856–865.
Johnson, D. W. (1981). Student-student interaction: The neglected variable in education.
Educational Researcher, 10(1), 5–10.