Teaching vs Coaching: Is there a difference and What is the difference?

In our everyday conversation, teaching and coaching is mostly used interchangeably. A coach is called a teacher in most occasions than not and a teacher as a coach in some occasions. But what’s the difference? Is there any difference? Let’s look into the reasons as to what makes these terms different and why.

Sports vs Classroom subjects:

You might have noticed in your school/university that those who conducts regular classes on subjects like Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc are called teachers. They are called so because they teach you the subjects from scratch. Whether you like it or not, you have to be taught in those subjects that you are enrolled in.

Then there is volleyball coach, basketball coach, etc. You get the point, right? Educators involved in sports are often called as a coach. Have you thought about why there are called differently? Anyway, they are teaching (or coaching) you about one or more sports. The main difference in this context is that the teachers are teaching you, each and everyone of you, the same subject irrespective of your understanding of the fundamentals or your capacity. But a coach will change his coaching methods according to each individual’s capacity. The coach will identify what one person’s weakness and find ways to overcome the weakness. This will help the individual to perform better in that particular sport.

Formal institutions vs Coaching centres:

Let’s take a look at the setup of formal educational institutions. By formal, I mean the full-time schools, colleges, universities, etc. We have discussed the difference between teaching and coaching within a formal setup. Now, think outside the box and compare the formal institutions with coaching centres.

Do you wonder why coaching centres are not formal? The answer is that they don’t fit into the characteristics of a school or university. But they serve an important purpose in the society. To coach a student and help him/her attain the desired result.

By definition, formal institutions teach and coaching institutions coach. Even though that’s the purpose, in reality both the institutions teach and coach their students in order to attain the desired results, in this case, get maximum marks in the respective examination. The main difference is that the formal institutions concentrate more on the teaching part and less on the coaching part. They have to impart knowledge onto the kids. That’s their job. Whereas, the staffs in the coaching centre focus more on pushing the students to reach their maximum capability. Of course, they teach students too. The goal here is to acquire the marks by taking necessary means.

This is not to say that coaching is better than teaching, but to emphasis that teaching and coaching are equally important to get the desired result, in this case, scoring maximum marks in final exams.

Coaching centres are of more beneficial to the students who are writing job entrance exams, higher education entrance exams like IIT-JEE, NEET, CLAT, etc.

Whether it is teaching or coaching, to achieve the results, the students has to put up the work and listen to the teachers and the coach.