Mr Stephen Macdonald

Senior Lecturer

Sport J2A, Pathfoot Building, Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Mr Stephen Macdonald

Contact details

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About me

I am an experienced and active coach, coach educator and mentor with over 30 years of practical experience, coaching in Adventure Sports Coaching and Performance Coaching domains. Before my appointment at Stirling in December 2017, I had spent the previous ten years coaching the dynamic sport of canoe slalom at both club and national level.

I am currently Programme Director for:

  • MSc Sport Performance Coaching
  • PG Diploma Sport Performance Coaching (Paddlesport) - UKCC Level 4.

In addition to teaching at Stirling, I coach canoe slalom as a volunteer with my local club, work as a coach educator for British Canoeing and mentor several performance coaches.

As a coaching practitioner, I seek to bring a ‘what could really works’ focus to my academic work. My specific areas of interest are: coaching effectiveness, coach development and education, pedagogy, talent development from a holistic perspective, and coaches decision making.

Professional qualification

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Higher Education Academy

Outputs (10)

Article

'You Know, Coaching, It Feels Like a Bit of a Magpie Game': A Qualitative Investigation into Sources of Teacher-Coach Knowledge and the Subsequent Impact on Espoused Teacher-Coach Pedagogy

Emmerson J & Macdonald S (2025) 'You Know, Coaching, It Feels Like a Bit of a Magpie Game': A Qualitative Investigation into Sources of Teacher-Coach Knowledge and the Subsequent Impact on Espoused Teacher-Coach Pedagogy. Education Sciences, 15 (1), Art. No.: 109. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010109

Article

"It’s about putting the learning into context": A multimethod, multiple perspective exploration of the process of learning in introductory coach education.

Allen JB, Reid C & Macdonald S (2024) "It’s about putting the learning into context": A multimethod, multiple perspective exploration of the process of learning in introductory coach education.. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541241263178

Book Chapter

Questioning

Macdonald S (2022) Questioning. In: Coaching Adventure Sports. Dursley: Adventure Sports Media House, pp. 223-232. https://adventure-sports-media-house-ltd.square.site/product/coachingadventuresports/1

Teaching

Currently, I am primarily deployed on the MSc. Sport Performance Coaching programme.

Module Coordinator for:

SPSP050 Coaching Concepts,
SPSP054 Coaching as Learning,

Module Contributions

SPSP057 Understanding Performance
SPSP065 Independent Study
SPSP037 Applied Coaching Project.

On the BA (Hons) Sports Studies programme I am

Module Coordinator for:
SPSU9CL Coaching Sport,

Module Contributions
SPSU9RP Major Project in Sports Studies
SPSU9D5 Developing Excellence in Sport

Research centres/groups

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