Searching for a signature pedagogy in novice coach education

Despite the increased research interest in coach education there has been little consensus on how novice sports coaches should best be educated. For the coach developer this becomes problematic when trying to design quality-learning activities for novice coaches that provide a foundation for current and future learning. While the research available has focused on specific areas of best practice curriculum for coaches (e.g., planning; communication; coach-athlete relationships; leadership), there has been less interest in pedagogical practice of novice coach education. Signature pedagogies have been recognised as characteristic methods of teaching used by disciplines to organize the learning process into common elements to prepare future practitioners for their professional roles. For Shulman signature pedagogies scaffold the discipline’s habits of ‘head’ (content); habits of the ‘hand’ (skills); and habits of ‘heart’ (values). This suggests that deep understanding of the disciplines’ habits is necessary for the development of appropriate signature pedagogies that support novice learning. The purpose of this Insight paper is to explore the current literature for potential signature pedagogies that support novice coach learning and the coach developer in teaching. A reflective conclusion summarises the main points and considers the direction for future research.