Page 215 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 19: Organizing Counseling Services at School Level

• The interrelation between Counseling and instruction in the educational process emphasizes Notes
the key role of the teacher in guidance. The teacher is uniquely responsible for the climate of
learning in which the class as a group, and each pupil as an individual in the group, finds
opportunity for learning and for personal development.
• Child study is a basic guidance function and is accomplished through the use ot both formal
methods involving tests and cumulative records and informal methods based upon observations
of the pupil in his classroom and in other settings.
• The teacher learns much about the child as he studies the pupil’s production, his oral and
written work, his art work, and his reading record. The teacher seeks to observe hobbies and
interests as an aid to motivation through understanding.
• Early identification of individual needs makes educational planning more valid. Identification
and planning, however, must be continuous and not a one-time experience.
• Identification involves observation in many areas of behaviour, a study of developmental
records, and interviews with parents and children.
• One of the most useful techniques for informal study is the anecdotal record together with the
roster of observations kept by the teacher.
• Such records, if they represent accurate and objective reporting of incidents, can help the
teacher better to understand individual pupils and to recognize more clearly the relationships
within the class group.
• Teachers need help in developing skill in this type of reporting. An excellent discussion of this
and other informal methods of collecting data is found in The Role of the Tenche, in Guidance.
• 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 this class often leads to possibilities for establishing good counseling rapport.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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; (5)
follow-up and research activities, and (6) evaluation studies.
• An effective programme of guidance services provides in-service education for teachers in the
development and interpretation of pupil records.
• The Counselor’s chief responsibility is to provide counseling for all children with usual interests
or needs. Teachers can be helped to recognise these needs so that the children may be referred
to the counselor. The per cent of time devoted to counseling for personal adjustment will be
greater in the elementary school than in the secondary school, and this is probably the greatest
difference in guidance at the two levels.
• The counselor makes referrals of pupils to other school services and utilizes the resources
available in the community. He helps to provide continuity of the educational experience
through articulation services at the time a child leaves the elementary school to enter junior
high school.

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