Collaborative Reflection

This study investigated collaborative reflection within practical settings on a university-based coach education program. Data were collected through focus group interviews with undergraduate sports coaching students and individual interviews with module instructors.

The sample consisted of 17 sports coaching students (14 males, 3 females, mean age=24.24, SD=3.01) enrolled on the first year of a sport and exercise undergraduate degree at a UK university. The university instructors were three males (mean age=38, SD=11) with an average of 8.33 (SD=4.73) years of experience teaching in higher education.

Focus group and individual interviews were conducted using a semi-structured design which provided a general framework of questions whilst enabling the flexibility to probe into responses and gain detailed descriptions of thoughts and experiences (Hall & Getchell, 2014). The focus group interview guide was devised by drawing on relevant literature with open-ended questions that address the research topic in terms of experience, behaviour, and context (Smith & Sparkes, 2016). The individual interviews were based on analyses of focus group data in addition to key concepts arising from relevant literature.

Interview data were transcribed and analysed thematically using Braun and Clark’s (2006) six-step process: (1) familiarisation with the data; (2) Generation of initial codes; (3) Searching for themes; (4) Reviewing themes; (5) Defining and naming themes; (6) Producing the report. By adopting a reflexive process of moving forwards and backwards through the data, the analysis was produced through the intersection of theoretical assumptions, disciplinary knowledge, research skills and experience, and the content of the data themselves (Braun & Clarke, 2016). Adopting an abductive approach to data analysis, we considered both the impact of data on theory, and also the impact of theory on data (Partington et al., 2015), as the thematic analysis enabled the flexibility to explore transcripts for surprising data, whilst the generation of themes was informed by extant research.

Data analysis revealed three main themes and six sub-themes as follows: reflective processes (evaluating peers’ experiences, collaboration through shared knowledge); social support (effort and advice, emotional support); and engagement (task engagement, pressure of assessment).