Page 206 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Guidance and Counseling

Notes Then the record can be analyzed with a reasonable expenditure of time and effort. Cassell offers a
plan of organisation for recording developmental data on a profile which makes it possible to
recognise growth in some six areas of physiological, emotional, psychosexual, intellectual, social,
and educational development. This or some similar plan lends continuity to records.
19.3.3 The Teacher Counsels
The teacher works with individuals as well as groups, and there is a kind of counseling which is a
legitimate function of the classroom teacher. Johnston feels that the teacher’s relationship with pupils
in class often leads to possibilities for establishing good counseling rapport. Only in the classroom
climate which is really conducive to learning can such a rapport be established, because it is based
on respect for the individual and reflects attitudes and not processes.
Gordon reminds us that “the teacher-counselor cannot be all things to all students. He must be
closely aware of his limits and use referral processes when the counseling situation seems to be
going ‘out of his depth.’” Johnston says, “The teacher’s counseling role is not a therapeutic one, but
he does aim at offering the student assistance in making more effective personal and environmental
adjustments.” When the pupil is unable to relate to the classroom teacher, or when the case calls for
techniques beyond the ability of the teacher, the child should be referred to the school counselor.
Many teachers are including courses in guidance in their graduate programmes, and these teachers
often possess skills which make for effective counseling. If a teacher finds it difficult to accept the
basic philosophy of counseling, he cannot be expected to do counseling, as such, in his work.
Each teacher will have to decide for himself what limits for counseling are imposed by his own
personal values and needs, his professional development, and his group or class responsibilities. He
has the responsibility for using all available counseling resources as they are needed; for example,
he may ask for help in recognising the special needs of individual children.
Counselors can serve as consultants to teachers, thus providing in service education in the area of
referral procedures. The case conference involving teacher, administrator, nurse, counselor, visiting
teacher, and school psychologist offers an excellent opportunity to increase the teacher’s skill in
looking beneath symptoms to problems which need to be referred.
Although the teacher is the key guidance worker in the elementary school, he needs to recognise the
guidance roles of other school personnel. The teacher is a member of a team whose function is to
obtain the maximum development of each child in the school.
Johnston says, “No school is effectively staffed guidance-wise when there isn’t someone in the
school who can function as a counselor and handle the kinds of cases which are referred by the
classroom teacher.”

19.4 Role of Counselor in Counseling

The counselor, a regularly assigned member of the elementary school staff, is specifically charged
with the responsibility for developing those aspects of the guidance function which demand an
expenditure of time and the use of specialized competencies which the teacher ordinarily does not
have. He is directly responsible to the principal and has only a staff relationship with the teachers
and other members of the school staff.
Principal and counselor working together plan an organised programme of guidance services which
include the following :
(1) in-service education for teachers,
(2) consultation services for teachers and parents,
(3) counseling services for children,

(4) referral services for children,

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