FINDINGS

The participants evaluated current assessment practices based on their experiences and participated in discussions to assess their effectiveness in coaching learning. As a result, four higher-order themes emerged from the analysis, reflecting the critical factors considered foundational for efficacious assessment. These are contextual understanding, learning environment, coaching knowledge, and consistent practices. Each higher-order theme comprises lower-order themes, which categorised the participants’ perspectives. The higher-order and lower-order themes are shown in Table 1. The numbers cited next to each theme correspond with the number of participants referring to the themes. The following section describes each of the higher-order themes in more detail.

Contextual Understanding

This theme captures the context wherein Special Olympics sports programs and coaching take place, and focuses on understanding the social norms and values, the desired impact of coaching, and the complexities coaches deal with due to the stigmatisation of people with ID. The lower-order themes Understanding Disability, Inclusive Coaching Practice, and Role of The Coach reflect the most influential factors related to contextual understanding.

Understanding Disability

All participants highlighted that understanding different types and gradations of ID is essential to effectively coach athletes with ID. In particular, creating an understanding of how limited cognitive abilities and adaptive behaviour require coaches to adapt their practice design and coaching based on different ability levels and needs. For example, participant 3 said, “for me, it’s the ability to adapt your session based on the needs of the athletes, just like in mainstream sport, you do the same thing but in adapted form to make it easier to understand.” Participant 1 was more direct in his approach by saying, “without understanding Intellectual Disabilities, you can’t become a Special Olympics coach. You will need to know who you are coaching, what they [athletes] can and cannot do.”

Inclusive Coaching Practice

Inclusive coaching practice relates to promoting social inclusion and the social nature of the coaching context. Most participants explained the term inclusive as “sports being accessible to anyone, regardless of ability, age, gender and race.” Participating in meaningful involvement was seen as an essential aspect of inclusive coaching. Participant 1 explained that “each coach should know how to group athletes based on their ability level to maximise their learning experience and joy.” Meaningful involvement from this perspective is seen as creating an equal playing field based on gender, age, and ability. Inclusive coaching practice was generally assessed based on the coaches’ ability to design and deliver drills where everybody gets to participate. Participant 4, when referring to managing new coaches’ expectations, said, “I am taking the sharp edges away, slowing them down a bit. Most coaches join Special Olympics because they think it is about winning. It is not. It’s about doing something meaningful, that is making sure each athlete is involved.” Participant 5 mentioned that the concept of inclusive coaching practice was not yet established in every country by saying, “inclusive coaching is very new in [my country]. We are experimenting and learning on the way. I think we just need 2-3 years to pilot inclusive coaching courses to understand the impact”, which indicates that this concept is still emerging in the broader disability sports community.

Table 1 breaks down the 4 higher order themes in lower order themes that emerged from the data analysis and reflect the critical factors considered foundational for efficacious assessment. The preliminary themes capture the participants’ perceptions of the lower order themes and were used to develop the principles of good assessment.

Role of The Coach

The role of the coach was frequently explained as being more than a coach. From a practical viewpoint, this could be understood as the coach as a multi-tasker, as Participant 1 explained: “Coaches do everything. They are like teachers, umpires, team managers”, and added that this multi-faceted role complicates coach education by saying “it is too much to squeeze into a two-day coaching course, but we have no choice.” The term more than a coach also indicates that some coaches consider their role as agents of social change. For example, participant 2 explained, “coaches are more than sports instructors. They usually become friends with athletes and family members. They support athletes beyond the field, like providing food, bringing them home after training or buying them shoes if their family cannot afford it.” When inquiring about how shaping the coaching process was reflected in coach education, Participant 3 responded, “We don’t actually. I know where you are going, but we are just not there yet.” Participant 4 responded similarly by saying, “we have debated this for years, and it is still like a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. I haven’t it figured out myself, to be honest.”

Learning Environment

Coach educators should understand the characteristics of the coaches they train. The lower-order themes Coaches Biography, Connection to the Movement, Learning Strategies, and Desired Outcomes cover coaches’ backgrounds, motivations, and personal beliefs captured in their coaching philosophies, which helps to understand their values associated with learning.

Coaches Biography

Prior life, learning, and coaching experiences were perceived as positive by most of the participants. Participant 2 said, “especially special needs teachers or family members of athletes understand the coaching context better than anyone else; they pick things up rapidly.” However, a coach’s biography also comes with challenges. Participant 1, when referring to curriculum design, said, “It is difficult because you never know who you get. We usually make a basic framework and go with the flow.” Participant 4 referred to prior knowledge as “coaches are not empty vessels. In terms of their knowledge, we will start a course at different levels and assess at different levels.” All the participants agreed that a pre-course assessment of prior knowledge and coaches’ philosophies is a helpful tool for group coaches based on what they already know and want to learn. Participant 3 suggested, “you can’t expect everyone to be at the same level, you encourage them to follow the coaching pathway. You’re bringing in the values and the role of the coach, and these things are building up to their qualifications.” Participant 3 suggested, “A pre-course introduction helps to get to know the people you are dealing with. You could say that this is the first stage of assessment; it helps to create a baseline and understanding their backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge.”

Connection to the Movement

Like different biographies, most participants recognized coaches’ other connections with Special Olympics, affecting their learning motivations. Links can be categorised as professional and emotional, according to Participant 5, and he said, “I see parents who want to coach their children, they are emotionally connected. I also see special needs teachers getting certifications because it is part of their job.” Participants 2 and 3 had similar views and shared, “everybody joins with different intentions, and my job is to help them prepare them for coaching in the right environment” (Participant 3), and “usually, family members or schoolteachers want to help as an assistant coach. Coaches from mainstream want to be head coach, they want to go to World Games” (Participant 2). Responding to the author’s suggestion that coach developers have an essential role in shaping Special Olympics’ workforce, Participant 1 said, “yeah, we basically recommend who is a good fit and who’s not”, and Participant 4 explained, “I always ask myself why is this person here? Where are they at in terms of their coaching? What are their mindset and behaviour like? We need to try and impact on that during days we’re working with them.”

Learning Strategies

No age-specific entry requirements were reported for coaching practicums, but coaches are generally adults. Therefore, adult learning principles were considered a helpful guide for curriculum development, pedagogical strategies, and assessment. Participant 5 mentioned, “if we ask coaches to understand their athletes, we also need to understand the coaches we train and teach them how they want to be taught.” Participant 3 argued that “Special Olympics tends to be very prescriptive when it comes to coaching and learning, like the online modules, they are prescriptive. Practicums should not be prescriptive but allow coaches to learn by doing, by exploring and forming their own opinions.” Learning through interaction with peers was frequently mentioned as a preferred method to learn, or as Participant 4 highlighted, “coaching does not happen in isolation so yeah, I really encourage them to work together” and Participant 2 said “I sometimes step back and ask them to assess each other’s drills. They seem to be more comfortable with that.”

Desired Outcomes

Desired learning outcomes focused on developing authentic coaches and stimulating the development of “their own coaching style” (Participant 4). Participant 1 explained that “a course is an opportunity for coaches to develop something like their toolbox, with the tools they need to coach.” Participant 3 explained this “I think the idea of a development program is not to create a robot, a robot system. You know, we produce every one that talks the same, and we all do the same thing.” Also, increased confidence was an important outcome. Participant 2 said, “it’s all about making sure they feel confident when they coach special athletes.” Participant 4 approached desired results through a personal development lens and highlighted that “we aim to train coaches as better persons, who treat special athletes as persons, as members of society. So, we ongoingly reflect on coaches’ behaviour: How do they interact with other people?”, followed by “essentially, we want coaches to be confident and able to manage a safe environment for vulnerable groups of athletes.”

Coaching Knowledge

The author used Côté and Gilbert’s (2009) conceptualisation of integrated coaching knowledge and skills to unpack desired coaching knowledge, capturing Professional (sports specific), Interpersonal (relational), and Intrapersonal (self) dimensions of coaching practice.

Professional Knowledge

The participants had different views on whether coaching practicums should focus on developing sports-specific coaching knowledge, or whether this should be a prerequisite for participation so that coaching practicums can concentrate on developing sports-specific expertise in context. Participant 3 said: “Most coaches already have a decent technical foundation; there is no point teaching what they already know.” Participant 4 mentioned, “I don’t think we should assess sports-specific knowledge; we should assess how they use their knowledge in context.” Therefore, professional knowledge acquisition and assessment focused on coaching methodology, particularly teaching skills and practice design. As highlighted by Participant 2, “Teaching and instructing are key skills. Coaches are like teachers; they help athletes learn new skills.” When asked what these essential skills were, “the ability to adapt drills and games, patience, and safeguarding” was mentioned by most of the participants. Participant 1 endorsed this by saying, “safeguarding is incredibly important. I am preparing coaches to work with vulnerable groups.” Two other important aspects of professional knowledge were understanding Special Olympics sports principles, such as “Unified Sports and Divisioning”, as well as understanding specific competition rules, and equipment requirements.”

Interpersonal Knowledge

The ability to communicate effectively with athletes was considered an essential skill. However, participants had different views on what effective communication entails, how it should be reflected in course curricula, or how it should be assessed. Participants 3 and 4 argued that “effective communication reflects coaches’ ability to give clear instructions and feedback” and highlighted that “encouragement and the tone of voice” are important. Participant 2 said, “soft skills are so important. Coaches need to learn how to work with special athletes, learning to be patient and not getting angry at them.” Participant 3 mentioned that “planning a course starts with inviting athletes to participate; otherwise, we have no reference point for assessment. It’s all about simulating that context; otherwise, we are just telling stuff they can’t relate to.” Participant 5 referred to the limitations of special athletes by saying, “coach educators might not be expert enough to teach or assess this component” and suggested involving subject matter experts – e.g. special needs teachers and parents – in designing course curricula and assessment criteria.

Intrapersonal Knowledge

“The ability to self-assess” was frequently mentioned when discussing how reflective practice could enhance learning. However, most participants added that “most coaches are not used to this.” Participant 4 said, “it is a cultural thing. When I deliver courses and I ask coaches what they think, they are either silent or just say what they think I want to hear; that doesn’t work.” “A willingness to learn” (Participant 1) and “open to feedback” (Participant 2) were considered as starting points for encouraging reflection and self-assessment. Participant 3 said, “I am sure every coach is doing self-assessment, but the question is, what are they doing with it? I promote the concept of plan-do-review to create reflective cycles and integrate their findings into the next practice.” According to Participant 5, “self-assessment can only be effective when the coach understands the requirements. So, coach developers need to understand that when they ask coaches to self-assess, they will first have to provide some kind of a reference point for self-assessment.”

Consistent Practices

Although all the participants felt their methods were effective, they also acknowledged that they operated based on implicit goals and what they think works best, indicating the need for a more structured and consistent coach development, and assessment system. These needs are reflected in the lower-order themes Continuous Process, Informed Assessment Decisions. and Framework of Reference.

Continuous Process

All the participants agreed that coaches’ assessment is a fluid and ongoing process. Fluid as “not prescriptive, but flexible” by Participant 3. Participant 4 said, “I guess the assessment and the reflection that we did for coaches would be: How far are we moving them towards our learning goals?” followed by his interpretation of ongoing assessment: “Assessing coaches is a process of constantly asking questions. Are players safe? Did they do risk assessments? Did they plan their session? How was their communication? Was the information consistent with what they’re teaching?” Although all participants realised the assessment included summative components, overall, they were convinced that learning should not stop after the final assessment. Participant 1 described, “I think assessment should be part of coaches’ learning journey, rather than whether you at a given time and a given location meet a standard.” Suggestions for continuous learning and assessment were “creating traineeships or extended practicums before certification” (Participant 3), “Communities of Practice” (Participant 1), and “annual fresh-up courses” (Participant 4).

Informed Assessment Decisions

The most common form of information gathering to make informed assessment decisions was through workbooks (coaches keeping a log) and checklists (coach educators keeping a diary). Participant 4 said, “it’s a lot of work when you have 40 coaches, but we ask them to update their workbooks all the time and review these each evening.” Participants 2 and 3 used checklists to “keep notes of how they progress (Participant 2) and “it summarises the curriculum and learning outcomes, which helps me to monitor how they progress” (Participant 3). Video recordings were suggested by Participants 1 and 5, highlighting that “videos allow for the most objective judgement” (Participant 5) and “it allows coaches to self-assess, seeing yourself on screen” (Participant 1). However, most participants mentioned that assessment remains a subjective practice, as Participant 3 explained “that one is the hardest part of assessment. It can change across assessors; if you have one assessor or if you have two assessors, they can assess someone completely different because we all have a personal bias.”

Framework of Reference

Most participants felt they had sufficient expertise to develop, deliver, and evaluate the effectiveness of coaching practicums. However, they indicated a need for a standardised framework of reference that communicates minimum standards for assessment and certifications. Participant 4 said, “Assessment can be more objective when administrators develop a standardised framework of reference, with input from coach developers”, when seeking ways to reduce bias. Participant 1 highlighted, “I learn new things during each course I deliver. Courses evolve all the time, I think they are getting better each time, but still I am not sure if I am doing the right thing”, followed by “everything we do works well, but I don’t know if it fits the bigger picture, what Special Olympics wants.” Participant 5 suggested that a reference framework should reflect Special Olympics’ values and be used as “a guide to inform new coach developers who are not so experienced in this field.” Participant 3 suggested, “I think you need principles as to why you’re assessing with objective measures tied to each of those principles. So maybe the development process looks different because we have different needs as coaches throughout the journey,” and added “we still need to make ourselves better as coaches. So that measurement comes back to a standard measure that you make based on the principles of what you’re trying to achieve However, it may just look different.”