Coaching and critical dialogue in educational psychology practice

Although the value of continuing professional development is widely accepted, observable changes in professional practice are difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. Even educational psychologists, it would appear, are not immune to the problem of ‘professional inflexibility’. Coaching and critical dialogue are approaches which can help educational psychologists to explore their management of professional problems more thoroughly, to gain insight into their personal/professional performance in problem situations and use this information to improve their skills and knowledge in consultation. In this paper, the processes of coaching and critical dialogue are examined and relevance to EP practice is considered. Conceptual links are made between coaching and critical dialogue, and a number of contemporary and powerful ideas/models from psychology.