B.Ed. ELECTIVE COURSE IV
GUIDANCE
AND COUNSELLING
In order to understand the
meaning of guidance, it is to be accepted that the focal point of guidance is
'an individual, not his problem'. From this point of view, before starting
guidance, the potentialities and abilities of the individual are studied.
Then that individual is made
capable of solving his problems. This is known as an act of guidance. In this
way, guidance is a process of all-round development.
Hence, we can say that the
guidance is that process which makes an individual aware of those methods for
knowing his natural powers.
Jones, Stefflre and Stewart have defined guidance as "the help giver, by one
person to another in making choices and adjustments and in solving
problems."
"Guidance is a continuous
process of helping the individual to develop to the maximum of his capacity in
the direction, most beneficial to himself and to society."
Guidance is not a direction. It
is also not imposition of one's ideas on others. Guidance is not making
decision for others. Decision should be made by an individual himself.
To carry over the burden of an
individual is also not guidance. In such situations, to what we can call
guidance? Keeping in view these ideas, the definition suggested by Crow and
Crow bears very comprehensive meaning:
"Guidance is assistance
made available by competent counselor to an individual of any age to help him
direct his life, develop his own point of view, make his own decisions and
carry his own burden."
In the context of dynamic
interpersonal relationships, Carter V.
Good has said in Dictionary of Education (1959), while defining guidance,
"Guidance is a process of dynamic interpersonal relationships designed to
influence the attitudes and subsequent behaviour of person."
Knapp has given
the definition of guidance as "Learning about the individual student,
helping to understand himself, effect changes in him and his environment which
will help him to grow and develop as much as possible."
G.E. Smith, by
considering the group of various services for helping an individual, has
defined guidance as, "the process consists of a group of services to
individuals to assist them in securing the knowledge and skills needed in
making adequate choices, plans and interpretations essential to satisfactory in
varieties of areas.
"Guidance is a help to the
students in making the best possible adjustment to the situations in the
educational institutions and in the home and at the same time facilitates the
development of all aspects of the personality."
According to Skinner, "Guidance is a process of
helping young persons learns to adjust to self, to others and to
circumstances."
Meaning of guidance
Guidance is a general term which
means helping people to make wise choices and solve their educational,
vocational and personal problems. It is a process by which the individuals are
assisted in making adequate adjustments to life’s situations.
It is an organised service which
aims at helping the individuals understand themselves which means enabling them
to know their abilities, aptitudes, interests, perceptions, needs, purposes,
their assets and limitations. Guidance
is a process of helping every individual through his own efforts to discover
and develop potentialities.
Guidance helps an individual to find
what he is i.e to find out abilities and potentialities.
In simple words, guidance means assistance given by
an expert person to an individual to develop his personality and achieve proper
direction in life. But, as crow and crow write, “Guidance is not direction. It
is not the imposition of one’s point of view upon another. It is making
decision for an individual which he should make for himself. It is not carrying
the burden of another’s life. Rather, guidance is assistance made available by
competent counsellors to an individual of any age to help him direct his own
life, develop his own point of view, make his own decisions carry his own
burden.
Definitions of guidance
“Guidance is a process through which
an individual or group of individuals are helped to make necessary adjustment
to the environment inside or outside the school”. -
Proetor
“Guidance is a process of helping
every individual through his efforts, to discover and develop his
potentialities for his personal happiness and social usefulness”. -Ruth
Strong
“Guidance is a continuous process of
helping the individual development to the maximum of his capacity in the
direction most beneficial to himself and the society”. -Stoops & Wahiquist
Aims of guidance
- To understand himself. (To know about himself their strength and weakness, their abilities)
- To adjust himself with others and environment.
- To develop the ability to make his own decisions.
- To help the adolescent to develop their abilities and interests.
- To provide information of educational opportunities.
- To help the pupils in personal and social adjustment.
- Guidance programme helps the school staff in solving various problems of the school and improving all the activities of the school.
- Development of personal potentialities.
Nature of guidance
Helpful
in preparing for future
The process of guidance is helpful
in preparing a person for his future. Hence a person can succeed in preparing
himself for future activities. In this
way guidace is a well-wisher of an individual’s future.
Wide
scope of guidance
The scope of guidance is too wide.
Any needy person can be guided. This can include the persons of different age,
different interests, various characteristics and persons of different nature.
Hence we cannot draw boundaries around the process of guidance.
Expert
service
Every men cannot provide guidance.
It is the work of competent and expert persons like pschologists, counsellors
etc. hence guidance is a skill involved process.
Guidance
as a process
It helps every individual to help
himself to recognized and use his inner resources, to set goals, to make plans
to work out his own problems of development.
Continuous
process
Guidance is needed right from early
child good, adolescence, adulthood and even in old age. He needs guidance for
solving problems to adjust in the family as well as in the society.
Helpful
in adjustment
Guidance is the process of helping a
person in adjusting to himself to others and to his environment. It is a life
long process one needs to adjust throughout his life. So he needs guidance.
Related
with life
The process of guidance is related
to life. This guidance contributes formally or informally to life because life
experiences both formal and informal occasions. A person gets informal guidance
from his friends and relatives while formal guidance is sought from organised
school guidance services and other organised services.
Individual
assistance
Guidance is accepted as
individualised help. Through guidance as individual’s personal development is
provided a direction and not to a group. Hence, it is a process of
individualised assistance.
Principles of guidance
A
slow process
As it requires a considerable time
to make suitable adjustments, the counsellor or the guidance worker needs time
to understand the counselee. Who has a complex personality and who may be
confronted with an intense problem?
A
continuous process
Individuals are beset with problems
throughout their lives guidance is a continuous process. World is changing
fast, new and altogether new problems come the the forefront and an individual
requires guidance for the solution of these problems. However, as the
individual gains maturity, he requires less assistance from his counsellor.
Development
of the insight of an individual
The counsellor should help the
individual so that the latter may gains his own insights, accepts
responsibility, develops the feelin of self-confidence and ultimately makes his
own decisions.
Problems
of guidance arise out of situations
As the present problems have their
roots in the past, the guidance worker is required to go into the past history
of an individual who is in need of assistance. The guidance worker must be
aware of the difference between symptoms and causes.
Guidance
problems are interrelated
The personality of an individual is
a complex and integrated whole. He is not a disembodied mind, nor is he a body
without a mind; he is a psychological organism in constant interaction with a
complex array of environment forces. He responds to his environment as a ‘whole
being’ Hence his, educational vocational and personal problems are
interrelated.
Based
on individual differences
As the individuals differ in native
capacity, ability and interest, guidance is required for every one separately.
Based
on planning
Adequate time is required for
planning guidance activities during and after school hours.
Related
to total development of the student
As guidance is related to the total
development, all round harmonious development is the basic aim of guidance.
Guidance
services must be an integral part of the school organisation
These should not be treated as an
isolated work to be left to the counsellor alone. All or most of the members of
the staff should take a keen interest and active part in assisting students to
solve their problems. Guidance work shoud be closely integrated with the work
done by others agencies engaged in child development work.
Needs of guidance
The need of guidance is universal.
The reasons for guidance need are given below.
Lack
of guidance at home
In the past, home was an important agency of
education that provided sufficient training in vocational efficiency. But this
is not possible in modern families. Children do not get any moral and social
training at home guidance is needed here.
Individual
Differences
No two humans beings have ever been
found to be alike. Mass procedures, no matter how well-intentioned must fil to
accomplish the objectives of education unless they are supplememted by adequate
attention to the individual. There is need of individual guidance.
Total
development of the students
Intellectual development through the
teaching of subject cannot lead to the total development of the students. Total
development of the students requires that individual differences among students
are accepted and understood, and all types of experiences are so organized in
an institution as to contribute to their total development.
Vocational
development
Guidance services provided at the
college and universities to help the students in the process of vocational
development by making a possible form them to gain knowledge about themselves
their abilities, interests and need and knowledge about the world of work.
Proper
choice of careers
The young students in colleges and
universities must be informed about various available jobs and openings and the
requirements, responsibilities and the nature of work involved in them so that
they could measure themselves up to them and develop and crystallize their
occupational goal. They must be prepared for an entry into them to have a
fulfilling and rewarding career.
Scope of guidance
The
following are some of the scope of guidance
- Educational guidance
- Vocational guidance
- Guidance in health and physical activities
- Guidance in worthy use of leisure time
- Guidance in character building activities
- Guidance for home relationship
- Personal guidance
Types of guidance
Educational
guidance
It is primairely concerned with the problems related
to courses, curriculum and study.
Educational guidance is concerned
with helping the individual to plan wisely his/her educational programme and to
put him/herself in position to carry forward successfully that programme along
lines that society considers wholesome both for itself and for him/her.
Hence, it is a process of helping
the individual to place him/herself continually in the most favourable setting
or environment for his/her education.
The
guidance provided by the teacher to students for their educational problems is
known as educational guidance. It is based on student’s cumulative records.
- In choosing the study subjects in the school.
- In removing the specific difficulties of the students related to study.
- In identifying the causes of their failure by using diagnostic tests in the study subject.
- In providing the remedial classes for the weak students.
Vocational
guidance
It is the process of assisting the
individual to choose an occupation, prepare for it, enter upon and progress in
it. It also aims at helping the students in the following areas;
Making students familiar with the world of work and
its requirements.
To place at the disposal of the individual all
possible aids in making a correct appraisal of his potentialities in relation
to the job requirements.
Personal
guidance
This include social, emotional and
leisure time guidance. It concerns with personal guidance which includes the
problems of health, emotional adjustment, social adjustment etc.
Purpose of personal guidance is to
help the individual to help him in regard to his physical,emotional, social
moral and spiritual development.
This type of guidance is provided for the personal
problems of an individual or other than educational and vocational problems.
These are various types mentioned below
- Family and home problems
- Financial or economic problems
- Emotional adjustment and anxiety
- Social relationship of the individual and husband-wife relations problems
- School and peers relation or classmates relations may be isolated in the class.
Counselling
is the integral part of guidance. It is the heart of the guidance programme.
The information service, the self-inventory service, the personal data collection
service that precede it lead up it; the remaining services e.g. the
preparation, the placement, follow-up and the research services stem from it.
Counselling is that very small part
of the guidance process in which the counsellor assists the counsellee to
select his area of interest, or to solve the problem that confronts him. The
problem is not solved by the counseller for the counsellee. He is simply helped
in thinking through the problem himself and indeveloping plans and attitudes
needed for solving it. It is a very small part of the total guidance programme,
but it is a very important part.
Benefits of the
guidance programme
Benefits
to students
- It helps the student to understand himself. This means it helps the student to recognize his aptitudes, abilities and limitations.
- It helps the pupils get the most out of the school.
- Guidance is further useful in promoting stability and self-direction among pupils and aids them in emotional and educational adjustment.
- Guidance helps them to become acceptable to other children. Further, it increases satisfactory relationship with the opposite sex. It helps the pupils in developing better personal, social and emotional relationship.
- The complexity of modern school curriculum necessitates careful choice and guidance services help the pupil in this direction.
- Another outcome of guidance is encouraging and helping the students to correct undesirable study habits.
- Guidance also helps pupils to make occupational choices which are individually satisfying and socially efficient.
- Guidance also provides a situation in which a pupil can perceive in a friendly, permissive setting, assistance in understanding himself.
- Guidance makes special provision for educating the the gifted, slow learners and physically handicapped.
Benefits
to teachers
- Guidance increases the teacher’s understanding of his student. The knowledge about the student’s physical condition, medical history, family background and achievement records help teacher to provide better instruction.
- Teacher knows about the strength and weakness of his pupils. He can help in the prevention of problem behaviour on the part of students.
- Guidance may also help the teacher by providing vocational and other pertinent information for his use.
- Teacher gets in touch with parents through parent-teacher associations organised by guidance services. He can get much help for school projects from parents.
- The parents are provided a clear understanding of the child’s intelligence, abilities, interests and potentialities. Guidance helps the parents to understand and accept their children.
- Parents are provided with vocational information which facilitates the subjects for their children.
- Guidance further helps improving home situations – if these interfere with student’s progress.
- Guidance helps parents and children. They understand themselves better. It improves parent-child relationships.
- Another important outcome of guidance programme is that the relationships between the parents, school and community are improved.
- Guidance programme may also help parents improve study habits of children.
Benefits
to community
- Community is constantly improved through constant effort of school because it feeds the society with better adjusted citizens.
- Guidance staff is in a position to show the community the degree to which the school contributes to the community. This is done through ‘follow up’ studies.
- In addition to the prevention of crime, guidance may serve to prevent problems which may lead to mental illness.
- Through the efforts of guidance, the staff energy, money and other resources of the community are more efficiently used.
- As pointed out earlier, one way is which counsellor helps the school is at the time of admissions.
- The guidance programme increases the over-all efficiency of the school programme by providing more information and contact between the school and employer, thus providing better jobs for is students.
Limitations of guidance
programme
Guidance has some limitations.
- Guidance hes been and still is limited by the lack of personnel facilities as well as time to provide many of the services expected of it.
- We have overdone psychological test in guidance. The idea is oversold. It thus suffers from the limitations of psychological tests.
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