The assessment of professional judgement and decision-making competency in complex environments – a study of expert adventure sport coaches

This article considers the epistemological chain in adventure sports coaching through personal experiences of undergraduate adventure students using semi-structured interviews and qualitative thematic analysis. Findings showed many observable practices utilised by adventure sport coaches were epistemologically sophisticated. This included personalising sessions, reflective practice, nurturing relationships and demonstrating adaptive expertise towards risk/challenge. Autonomy aiding behaviours were observed, allowing participants freedom where there was little recognition of a hierarchy between coach/participant. However, a dichotomy was revealed where naïve epistemological approaches were taken when safety and environmental factors were prioritised and when delivering a national governing body curriculum. Outcomes indicate that coaches who deliver lower-level adventure sports provision demonstrate an autonomy supporting culture which utilises sophisticated epistemological approaches, creating confident and independent minded participants. However, this autonomy is influenced by participant competence, logistical factors such as a prescriptive curriculum, time limitations and the dynamic external environment, unique to adventure sports.

Coaching adventure sports is part of the core work of many adventure educators but has been largely neglected in the adventure studies literature. This is the first book to link contemporary sports coaching science with adventure sports practice. It examines the unique set of challenges faced by adventure sports coaches, such as the dynamic natural environment and the requirement to train athletes to levels of high performance outside of traditional structures of competition, and explores both key theory and best practice. The book covers key topics such as: Skill acquisition and skill development Models of learning and teaching Performance analysis Tactics and decision-making Training principles Mental skills techniques Goal setting and progression Risk management Each chapter contains applied examples from a range of adventure sports, including mountaineering, rock climbing, canoeing, kayaking, surfing, and winter sport, as well as practical coaching techniques and a guide to further reading. Written by a team of authors with wide experience of coaching, teaching, researching and high performance participation in adventure sports, this book is invaluable reading for any student or practitioner with an interest in adventure, outdoor education, sports coaching or lifestyle sport.

This study of adventure sports learners expands on earlier work on adventure sports coaching. We examine learners’ perceptions of their coaching and its effect on their self-efficacy and independence as adventure sports performers. We utilise a convergent mixed approach that deploys the Outdoor Recreation Self-Efficacy Scale, pre- and post-coaching, and a reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate improved self-efficacy and greater independence as a result of the coach’s practice, supporting our initial conjecture that the adventure sports coaches in this study developed independence as a definable outcome of their coaching practice.

This paper presents a mixed-method investigation of client’s perceptions of a good adventure sports coach. Semi-structured interviews were analysed thematically, and the findings used to inform a subsequent larger survey that sought to verify the importance of the themes identified in the interviews. The findings draw an alignment between the attributes of good coaches in traditional sports, as reported in previous studies, and those of adventure sports coaches. However, they also identify three additional attributes that are critical for good adventure sports coaches: (1) in-depth knowledge of the adventure sports environment, (2) a very high degree of individualisation, and (3) an explicit focus on developing the participant’s confidence. The implications for training adventure sports coaches are discussed.

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study presents the view that coaching practice places demands on the coach’s adaptability and flexibility. These requirements for being adaptive and flexible are met through a careful process of professional judgement and decision-making based on context-appropriate bodies of knowledge. Adventure sports coaches were selected for study on the basis that adventure sports create a hyper-dynamic environment in which these features can be examined. Thematic analysis revealed that coaches were generally well informed and practised with respect to the technical aspects of their sporting disciplines. Less positively, however, they often relied on ad hoc contextualisation of generalised theories of coaching practice to respond to the hyper-dynamic environments encountered in adventure sports. We propose that coaching practice reflects the demands of the environment, individual learning needs of the students and the task at hand. Together, these factors outwardly resemble a constraints-led approach but, we suggest, actually reflect manipulation of these parameters from a cognitive rather than an ecological perspective. This process is facilitated by a refined judgement and decision-making process, sophisticated epistemology and an explicit interaction of coaching components.

This autoethnography commentary critically examines the experiences of an adventure sports coach turned academic as they consider the ethical considerations of real-world research in adventure sports coaching. These considerations centre around two self-perceived challenges facing researchers in adventure sports: maintaining rigour and the practicalities of researching in adventurous environments. Through discussion of these challenges, limited guidance is offered for those seeking to research adventure sports.

Adventure sports coaches must make sound judgements and effective decisions to ensure they can manage the significant risks present in an operating environment that is hyper-dynamic and has significant environmental complexity (Collins & Collins, 2013). High-level stakeholders in adventure sports require coaches demonstrate competency to fulfill their responsibilities to look after their clients. Most adventure sports qualifications identify the importance of decision making, however, by using competence-oriented syllabi they may not provide effective methods to evaluate a prospective adventure sport coach’s decision making. This paper identifies the need for expertise-oriented evaluation of decision making and explores decision support tools and educational validity theories in the evaluation process. It also considers how Collins and Collins’ (2021) Big 5 style approach represents an exemplar decision support tool and may provide educational assessment validity, so presenting a sound methodology for coach educators to evaluate the quality of an adventure sports coaches’ decision making.

This chapter sets out to explore current knowledge regarding professional practice in an emerging sub-group of outdoor professionals, namely the adventure sports coach (ASC). This chapter will unearth the domain-specific mechanisms, challenges, context and dynamics of the Professional Judgement and Decision Making (PJDM) process in high-level ASCing. The literature-based findings of a series of previous positional and empirical papers (Collins & Collins, 2012, 2013, 2014; Collins, Collins & Grecic 2014) are summarised and implications considered. We have adopted an unconventional structure, on the assumption that readers will access these papers as providing the substance to our argument.

ABSTRACTThe primary objective of this research was to establish the range of interpersonal strategies, tools and techniques used by adventure sports coaches (ASCs) to influence participants’ actions and behaviours, and to determine where these strategies were acquired. An interpretative approach was employed using semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of expert paddlesport coaches (n = 4). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to get close to the data and identify salient topics. Five themes were subsequently identified as fundamental to effective coach–participant interaction: appropriate environment, stories told, knowing the participant, formal training and situational context. The implications are that whilst ASCs have well-developed intuitive social engagement skills, these are not consciously or declaratively employed in coaching sessions, and neither are they used at strategic levels to enhance participant development. Therefore, a multi-layer approach is recommended to help ASCs access and employ these skills that has consequences for the education, training and continued professional development of ASCs.

Adventure sport coaches practice in environments that are dynamic and high in risk, both perceived and actual. The inherent risks associated with these activities, individuals’ responses and the optimal exploitation of both combine to make the processes of risk management more complex and hazardous than the traditional sports where risk management is focused almost exclusively on minimization. Pivotal to this process is the adventure sports coaches’ ability to make effective judgments regarding levels of risk, potential benefits and possible consequences. The exact nature of this decision making process should form the basis of coaching practice and coach education in this complex and dynamic field. This positional paper examines decision making by the adventure sports coach in these complex, challenging environments and seeks to stimulate debate whilst offering a basis for future research into this topic.

In current medical area, it has become a common process that physicians obtain patients' clear consent after transfer of information on treatment to patients prior to start treatment, and there seems to be no problem in appearance. However, if the process to obtain patient consent is observed, it can easily be found that the process is merely a conventional process and, if the pattern obtaining the consents is more deeply reviewed, it can be found that requirements to be importantly treated in the process of obtaining consents are omitted. In the world of our medical society, the process that patients agree in treatment is hearing the information from physicians and signing on consent forms where such information is described in detail, at all. They believe that they have done their duties because patients read and signed and, therefore, requirements to be deeply considered in practice are not reviewed in the process to obtain consents. The author reviewed the requirements for patients' decision-making competence among the requirements for patient consent. Despite patients' decision-making competence is the precondition of consent, procedure or standard to measure competence is not yet established. If medical information is disclosed and signature on consent forms is asked with no confirmation whether patients have the competence to make decisions, such an action cannot be considered to fulfill the liability to respect for patient's autonomy that is the original purpose. Therefore, the author intend to introduce what are used as the standards for assessment of patients' decision-making competence in the Western and intends to review what kind of limits such standards have in assessment of patients' decision-making competence by reviewing the characteristics of patient's decision-making in practical medicine. While, one of the questions made by current medical area is that Western standards on decision-making are settled with exceedingly individual-centered decision-making, thus, there cannot be no limit in application in our medical area; this will also be reviewed together. Through the review of such limits, it will be reviewed how the physicians' standards on patients' decision-making competence should be settled, when physicians obtain patients' consent, for appropriate use in clinical practice and what requirements should be considered in assessment of patients' decision-making competence.

In this paper, an approach is proposed for assessing the performance of experts in the group from two perspectives: (1) individual consistencies and (2) deviations from the group decision. The quality of performance of the experts is based on combining the standard and rough analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). The statistical method CRITIC is used to derive weights for the TOPSIS method before the experts are assessed based on demonstrated consistency and deviations from the group. Common performance indicators, such as consistency ratio, Euclidean distance, compatibility, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient, are proposed for re-grouping experts before making the final decisions. A genetic algorithm enables the efficient solving of this complex clustering problem. Implementing the described approach and method can be useful in comparable assessment frameworks. A critical aspect is conducting a thorough pre-assessment of the competence of potential decision makers, often referred to as experts who may not consistently exhibit apparent expertise. The competence of decision makers (which does not have to be associated with compatibility) is evidenced by selected consistency parameters, and in a way, a pre-assessment of their competence follows Plato’s ‘government of the wise’ principle. In the presented study, the compatibility of individuals in the group with the collective position (group decision) is measured by parameters related to their compatibility with the group solution and statistical deviation while ranking decision elements. The proposed multi-model-based approach stands out for its resilience in conducting thorough pre-assessment of the quality (competence) of potential decision makers, often regarded as experts who might not consistently display evident expertise. The wetland study area in Serbia is used as an example application, where seven measures for reducing the risk of drought were evaluated by twelve experts coming from different sectors and with different backgrounds and expertise.

The role of the Adventure Sports Coach (ASC) has recently become the focus of academic interest. Although research emerging from the field is beginning to diversify, the majority is limited in terms of sampling and methodology. The current study broadened the participant base by providing a demographic analysis of ASCs. An online survey of 504 participants captured key demographics, ‘coaching category’ and ‘coaching level’. Chi-square analysis investigated differences between genders. ASCs were predominantly male, relatively young, well-educated and well qualified. Despite many coaches holding high-level awards, their main practice was coaching beginners. A marked asymmetry existed between genders, with two-thirds of the sample being male. Female coaches were younger, less well qualified, and significantly under-represented in the higher coaching echelons. The lack of female coaches, and their clear under-representation in higher coaching categories is concerning. Recruitment, retention, and development of female ASCs is therefore a priority.

Coaches’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing (their epistemic beliefs) are an integral but under-researched component in the development of a philosophy of coaching. The Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (TIDE) 1 offers a framework which may enhance the understanding of the development of coaches’ epistemic beliefs. The present study offers the first application of the TIDE framework to sports coaching. We present a case study of the nature and development of epistemic beliefs of a highly renowned Adventure Sports Coach (ASC), Doug Cooper, through the lens of the TIDE framework. Thematic analysis of a series of semi-structured interviews showed that early childhood experiences, strongly held beliefs about ASC as a domain of knowledge, and educational experiences in the later life were instrumental in shaping Doug's epistemic beliefs. We conclude that the TIDE framework has considerable potential for researchers and coach developers seeking to gain insight into and develop coaches’ beliefs.

Action sports have increased in popularity, particularly over the past two decades. Research in the area has also proliferated, as multiple disciplinary perspectives and theoretical and conceptual frames have been applied to understanding and exploring a host of research questions concerning action sports culture, contexts and participants. However, despite this flurry of research activity, not much is known empirically about the learning of action sport participants, and few studies have focused specifically on learning in action sports. A scoping review was, therefore, conducted with the aim of synthesising the work that has been undertaken, and mapping future research agendas. Informed by Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage framework, leading sports and education databases and Google Scholar were searched for empirical literature on learning in action sports published before July 2018. After the results were screened and relevant studies identified, data were extracted and analysed using a frequency and thematic analysis to form both a descriptive and thematic summary. A total of 78 empirical studies both from the peer-reviewed and grey literature were included in the scoping review. The frequency analysis concerned information on publication year, academic field, study design, study tools, sport and population. The thematic analysis led to the development of five main themes, addressing learning in social, physical, cultural, and cognitive/psychological contexts and via various forms of feedback. The majority of articles on learning in action sports were published from 2010 onward, suggesting a growing interest in the area. More theses/dissertations resulted in peer-reviewed publications; however, less than half of all reviewed journal articles were published in education/pedagogy journals. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks were rarely explicitly referenced and/or lacked clarity. There was consensus that learning in action sports is largely informal and self-regulated. With the increasing professionalisation of many action sports and their inclusion in international competition events and also in national curricula, an increase in more formalised learning is predicted. Finally, learning in action sports can be highly individualistic but only a few studies acknowledged this. A greater variety of research questions and methodologies, and more work across disciplinary boundaries will assist in the generation of new knowledge.