IMPROVING GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

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EDU8332 – Assignment

Introduction

The guidance and counseling programs have gone through an evolution over several decades. Traditional approaches to counseling programs are characterized as process oriented, driven by crisis, and serving special populations only. These approaches are no longer relevant for today's needs. Many of the problems that affect student learning and behavior can be addressed through prevention and early intervention. More than ever, comprehensive guidance and counseling programs are critical to preparing students to meet the challenges of the workplace and the future.

The guidance and counseling programs promote student success through a focus on academic achievement, prevention and intervention activities, advocacy, and social/personal/emotional and career development. The program provides students with the opportunity to learn more about themselves and others before they have problems resulting from self-concept issues. They learn interpersonal skills before they have an interpersonal crisis. In crisis situations, they can draw on their skills to address the problem. Every student needs sound emotional and social skills to achieve optimum benefits from the educational program. Individual uniqueness and maximum development in the four major areas are central to the program: academic, personal/social, career, and community involvement. These programmes have several benefits to students and other stakeholders ( See Appendix 1)

Historic Perspective

During the 1930’s and into the 1940’s with the pioneering work of Carl Rogers, personal counseling flourished. The occupational emphasis was also strong throughout this period. In the 1960’s, several significant trends which impacted counseling emerged: the pupil personnel services movement, which identified guidance services including orientation, individual appraisal, counseling, information, placement, and follow-up; the centrality of individual and group counseling; and consultation with teachers and families. Coordination of counseling between school and community became increasingly important. With the advent of elementary school guidance in the 1960’s, the developmental emphasis emerged, with an important function of the counselor being the enhancement of effective learning climates

(“ Iowa,” 2001).

Evaluation of Guidance Programmes in different states

‘Guidance’ in Scottish schools covers a wide range of activities. Although there is no unified system of guidance, traditionally it has been seen as consisting of three main parts – curricular, vocational and personal guidance – and may involve reactive work with pupils’ problems, the proactive teaching of personal and social skills, and the orderly management of pupils’ progress through education and beyond. It also involves working to maintain school discipline and ethos, and good communications between the school and the pupils’ parents, and the school and relevant outside agencies, from professional careers advisers to social workers, educational psychologists, the reporter to the Children’s Panel, and others (Wilson, Hall, Hall, Davidson and Schad, 2005).

Comprehensive school counseling and guidance programs of Alabama ensure that every student has multiple opportunities to acquire competencies in the three domains of Academic Development, Career Development, and Personal/Social Development. A combination of the four program delivery components (School Guidance Curriculum, Individual Student Planning, Responsive Services, and System Support) should be utilized in assisting students to achieve these competencies. The diagram and table below explains their model. (Richardson, 2003)

        

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Source: Richardson, Ed. (2003). Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance State Model for Alabama Public Schools. Alabama State Department of Education Bulletin No. 89

Iowa comprehensive counseling and guidance program is developmental by design and includes sequentially presented activities and responsive services that address student growth and development for all students, kindergarten through community college. Collaborative in practice, the developmental approach focuses on the attainment of student competencies in three areas: personal/social, academic, and career (“ Iowa,” 2001). A comprehensive program is not a random selection of services. It is a program based on standards, benchmarks, and grade-level competencies. The ...

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