Module 1

Introduction to
Guidance
2350

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND

FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION
ISBN 978-81-7450-904-8 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING
 List of Course Material

Children are given to us — on loan — for a very

short period of time. They come to us like packets of
flower seeds, with no pictures on the cover and no
guarantees. We do not know what they will look
like, act like, or have the potential to become. Our
job, like the gardener's, is to meet their needs as best
we can; to give proper nourishment, love, attention,
and caring, and to hope for the best.
—KATHARINE KERESEY
First Edition ISBN 978-81-7450-904-8
October 2008 Bhadrapada 1930
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 About the Module
This is the first module of the course in Guidance and Counselling to be
undertaken by you. The various units of the module aims at providing
you an understanding and insight into the various aspects of guidance, its
meaning, need and importance in the present day context, and its
significance for educational, personal-social and career development of
students at different stages of school education. The first unit aims
especially at equipping you with the knowledge and understanding that
guidance is an integral part of education, and is needed by all students in
school. It is essential to learn that guidance has to be interwoven with the
entire school programme as an approach, a philosophy as well as a
specialised service in the school.

Second unit of the module acquaints you with the role of teacher as a guidance
worker and the third unit with the services and activities that you can organise
as a teacher counsellor/ counsellor in a school setting. Fourth and Fifth units
are devoted to explaining how guidance enriches the school curriculum, makes
learning more effective and suited to the needs of the learner. The unit six on
group guidance provides an understanding of the advantages of using group
methods as it would help you address needs of larger numbers. It also
highlights the shifting focus from individual problem oriented approach to
group oriented, preventive and developmental approach to guidance.

As the effective organisation of guidance depends upon the efforts made by

the teacher to seek the co-operation and collaboration of the school
administration, staff, the parents and the outside community agencies, unit
seven is specifically devoted to explaining the importance of team work i n
guidance and the need to establish liason with community.

As you progress through the contents of the various units

of this module, you may be asked to reflect on your
personal or professional life experiences as a teacher or a
professional which would help you to shape your thinking
about your role as a guidance worker. The examples and
exercises taken from classroom/school situations during
this course are also aimed at making learning more
meaningful for you.
There are self-check exercises and activities in every unit which will help you
evaluate your progress through the module. At the end of each unit you will
find a summary which gives an overview of the unit, and references and
additional readings providing additional sources of information.

iv
 Module Development Team
CONTRIBUTORS
Asha Bhatnagar, Professor (Retired), NCERT and Co-editor, New Delhi
Bimla Parimu, Professor, The M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara
Indrani S. Bhaduri, Reader, DEME, NCERT, New Delhi
Madhu Kapani, Reader, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning,
Anantapur, A.P.
Nirmala Gupta, Professor, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi
Roop Kamal Brar, Practising Counsellor, New Delhi
V. D. Bhatt, Professor, Regional Institute of Education, NCERT, Mysore

CONSULTING EDITOR (Instructional design)

Bruce Thompson, British Columbia, Canada

TEAM LEADER, EDITOR AND PROJECT INCHARGE

Nirmala Gupta, Professor, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi

MEMBERS OF THE REVIEW TEAM (OCTOBER, 2016)

Anil Kumar K., Associate Professor, RIE, Mysore
Gowramma I.P., Associate Professor, RIE, Bhubaneswar
R.K.Saraswat, Professor, DEPFE, NCERT (Retd.), New Delhi
Ruchi Shukla, Assistant Professor, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi
T.V.Somashekar, Assistant Professor, RIE, Mysore

MEMBER COORDINATOR
Anjum Sibia, Professor and Head, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi
 Acknowledgements
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) gratefully
acknowledges the partnership and support of Commonwealth of Learning
(COL), Vancouver, Canada for development of course material. This has
been a gigantic task which has been possible with the help and cooperation
of a large number of persons whose contributions are acknowledged.
We gratefully acknowledge the continued support and encouragement
provided by Professor Krishna Kumar, Director, NCERT which helped
complete the work of material development. Special thanks are due to
Professor Sushma Gulati, Head, DEPFE, NCERT for her constant guidance
and leadership in steering the work of material development through its
various stages and to Professor D. K. Bhattacharjee the former Head of the
Department for his help in initiating this work.
Thanks are also due to Dr. Nalini Deka, Reader, I. P. College, Delhi, Professor
B. Phalachandra, RIE, Mysore, Ms. Hemlata Chari, Practicing Counsellor
and Senior Executive, Kohinoor Consultants, Mumbai and Professor Kusum
Sharma, DEGSN, NCERT for reviewing different units.
We are also thankful to Dr. Indrani Bhaduri, Reader, DEME for her help in
organising the review workshops and revising the module. Our special
appreciation and thanks to Dr. P. K. Mishra, Senior Lecturer, DEPFE for his
painstaking efforts in content/language editing and coordinating the
printing work.
Thanks are also due to Junior Project Fellows Ms. Monika Gautam,
Ms. Shalini Dixit and Ms. Gauri Pruthi for their assistance in collecting material,
making revisions and corrections, preparing exercises and activities, and
proof reading of the manuscripts from time to time. We thank
Mukesh Kumar, Computer Assistant and Naresh Kumar,
DTP Operator for typing, formatting and preparing
graphics for this module.
Thanks are due to Dr. Vandana Singh, Consultant Editor,
NCERT and Mrs. Usha Nair for language editing. The
help provided by the Publication Department for preparing
illustrations, layout and designing, and getting the material
printed is also gratefully acknowledged.
 Contents
About the Module iii

Unit 1: Understanding Guidance 1

Unit 2: Teacher as a Guidance Functionary 19

Unit 3: Essential Guidance Services 31

Unit 4: Guidance and School Curriculum 55

Unit 5: Guidance and Learning 71

Unit 6: Group Guidance 92

Unit 7: Using Community Resources for Guidance 116

 Understanding Guidance
Understanding

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Formal and Informal Guidance
1.3 Principles and Assumptions of Guidance
1.3.1 Guidance: A Universal Need
1.4 Guidance and Education
1.5 Emergence of Professional Guidance Services
1.6 Guidance for Individual and Social Development
1.6.1 Individual Needs
1.6.2 Societal Needs
1.7 Major Guidance Functions
1.7.1 Individual Assessment
1.7.2 Counselling
1.7.3 Group Counselling and Group Guidance
1.7.4 Career Assistance
1.7.5 Placement and Follow-up
1.7.6 Referral/Coordination
1.7.7 Consultation
1.7.8 Research and Evaluation
1.8 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
References
Suggested Readings
1.0 INTRODUCTION
As a teacher, you may have come across youngsters who are
confused and indecisive when called upon to take decisions
regarding choice of subjects, other activities in school, or
interpersonal difficulties with friends or siblings at home. Such
problems, if not resolved adequately, often create difficulties
in studies or otherwise. You may have often wondered what you can
do to help these children. Generally, in such situations, parents, an
elder or a more experienced person is approached but help taken from
them sometimes results in making the individual dependent on others. Need for
professional guidance is increasing due to increasing complexities of daily living.
Guidance provided by a trained professional involves use of scientific procedures to
create, in the individual seeking help, a deep understanding of his/her own self and
the situation so that a wise decision is possible.
This unit will provide you a basic understanding of the true nature of guidance,
its basic assumptions, principles, and goals and how the help provided by a
professionally trained person is aimed at making the individual self-directing and
capable of taking his/her own decisions.
Guidance is based upon a philosophy of human uniqueness, goodness, worth and
dignity, all of which can be nurtured. The guidance processes are based on the belief
that given certain conditions, an individual’s potential to make a choice and make a
decision can be utilised for maximum benefit to the individual and society. It is therefore
a collective responsibility of home, school and society to provide conditions, which
are stimulating and facilitative to help the individual acquire ability to take decisions.
Teachers have traditionally been in a guiding role for their students. In keeping up
with this tradition, teachers could be trained to organise guidance activities leading to
developing self-direction in students.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• differentiate between informal and formal or professional guidance.
• describe the need for formal guidance.
• explain the nature and meaning of formal or professional guidance.
• prepare the principles and assumptions of guidance.
• describe how guidance contributes to individual development and societal
development.
• discuss the relationship between guidance and education.

1.2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL GUIDANCE

Helping underlies most everyday interactions and human relationships, it is especially
true of interactions of teachers, social workers, legal experts, doctors, etc. However,
the type of help given is mainly prescriptive or directive. For example,
Rani who had a constant headache consulted a doctor who prescribed a
schedule of eating and exercise as a preventative measure.
Vinay approached his teacher for solving some mathematical problems.
The teacher showed him step-by-step procedures for solving the problems.
These examples illustrate the helper in a directive role and the recipient to be more
passive. Such interactions between the helper and the recipient are not likely to result
in making the recipient feel motivated to think or learn to resolve the difficulty on
his/her own.
Look at a different situation:
Sushil was very much depressed due to the constant fights he had
with his brother which affected his performance in studies. He
talked about it with Mrs. Bhatia, his class teacher, who is interested
in children’s problems. She expressed her concern to him and made
him feel at ease and encouraged him to share his difficulties
with her. Together they discussed the ways in
which he could avoid fighting with his brother.
In this example the teacher is supportive and
facilitative, which could make Sushil more involved
and active in the problem solving process. We could
differentiate between informal (or advice giving) and
formal (or professional) helping in terms of skills,
conditions, and goals that occur during the interaction.
As an informal helper or advice giver, you may
just impart information, or persuade or direct. This
may lead to creating at times a threatening or fearful
situation or condition as against the formal or
professional guidance wherein the helper uses skills

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 3
to extend caring and understanding through smile and other gestures. It has been
found that a tension free atmosphere or condition, which makes the helpee express
ideas, thoughts and feelings, could lead to self-understanding and insight which is the
goal of guidance. A summary of this premise is being presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 : Understanding Formal and Informal Helping

Nature of Helping Skills Conditions Goals
Informal/advice Information Authoritarian, Providing
giving etc. giving, punitive, solutions,
questioning, cold, forced, dependence
persuading, threatening on others
admonishing,
allocating,
directing
Formal/professional Listening, Permissive, Self-
empathising, tension free, understanding,
encouraging, warm, self-
goal setting, friendly acceptance,
probing, self-direction
initiating,
acting

Self-check Exercise 1
Recall some occasions when your help or advice was sought by students or
friends. List the kind of ‘skills’ used by you from those given above. What kind
of ‘conditions’ or psychological atmosphere was experienced during those
interactions? Relate the skills used and the conditions experienced with the
type of help given.

An emphasis on facilitating personal growth and development of people led to

professionalisation of guidance. The guidance process involves creating an
awareness of strengths and potentials for overcoming problems and resolving
difficulties. Guidance aims at making the individual:
• Self-understanding - of one’s strengths, limitations, and other resources.
• Self-accepting - acceptance of things one cannot change.
• Self-directing - ability to solve problems, make choices and decisions on one’s own.
Although human beings are endowed with characteristics which make them perform
certain roles in helping their fellow human beings, these characteristics can further be
nurtured through professional training. Helping as a profession may be described as
one in which the members are especially trained and certified to perform a unique and
needed service of helping others.

4 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Professional training therefore is essential to perform the helping role, and act as
a facilitator to provide sufficient understanding of self and the situation to the persons
seeking help to enable him/her to solve the problems and conflicts faced in everyday
living. To be trained as a professional helper, you also need to have certain
predispositions or qualities. For example, your pleasant and friendly temperament
may help you in creating a relationship characterised by friendliness, warmth and
trust with the individual coming to you for help. The client has to be assured of
confidentiality which encourages the helpee to look at his/her own self and the
situation in an unthreatened manner to acquire a clearer perspective and insight to
solve the problem.
Now that you understand the nature, meaning and aims of formal guidance as
against informal guidance, we will discuss the principles and assumptions on which
guidance practices are based.

Self-check Exercise 2
Rate yourself and get yourself rated by a fellow colleague on a three point scale
on the following characteristics and compare the two ratings objectively to assess
your characteristics for formal helping:
Never Often Always
I make a decision easily.
I can converse easily with strangers.
I mix easily with people.
I can plan and follow the day’s
schedule.
I respect the confidence bestowed
in me by others.

1.3 PRINCIPLES AND ASSUMPTIONS OF GUIDANCE

Need for guidance, and the nature and aims of guidance are based on certain principles
and assumptions. You can better understand and critically examine your perceptions
of human nature based upon the principles of guidance. Philosophers and thinkers
have looked at human nature to determine what leads to a purposeful and meaningful
life. Historically there are three major philosophical doctrines, which have guided
this thinking. The first is the doctrine of ‘Original Sin’, which assumes that the child is
a bundle of primitive needs and desires, and must be taught the right values. Another
is the doctrine of ‘Innate Purity’, which holds that it is adults that make it corrupt and
their influence should be minimised in the early years. The third is the doctrine of
‘Tabula Rasa’ that assumes that the infant is neither corrupt nor pure but infinitely
malleable and hence open to all influences. Each of these doctrines has found adherents

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 5
of approaches to child development and provided philosophical assumptions and
principles which guide our understanding of human nature.
These approaches will also help you understand why and how human beings need
to be guided to attain their maximum potential. Some of these principles and
assumptions are being explained in this section.
1.3.1 Guidance: A Universal Need
Need for guidance is based on the premise that all human beings need experienced/
expert attention, care, affection and direction to grow in the right manner. During the
early years especially, the degree of love and care provided becomes the basis for
lifelong adjustment or lack of it for the individual. Guidance coupled with opportunity
provided to exercise autonomy and initiative by parents and you as a teacher lays the
foundation for developing the ability in the children to take decisions. Assistance is
required more at some critical stages (e.g. adolescence) hence professional help could
greatly facilitate the process of healthy development and adjustment.
l Guidance as the holistic approach
Guidance aims at the recognition and realisation of the potentials inherent in humans
and to nurture these potentials to bring about a better personal–social adjustment.
As the individual functions and also draws from his/her environment, guidance
involves the incorporation and understanding of the socio-cultural foundations.
Thus we see that guidance not only involves understanding the individual but also
the social, cultural surroundings of the individual. Hence it is evident that guidance
focuses on a holistic approach which takes into account the individual potentials as
well as outside socio-cultural factors or resources affecting the individual.

6 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
l Emphasis on the holistic development
Guidance has to be imparted in the context of total development of personality.
The child grows as a whole and even if one aspect of personality is in focus, the
other areas of development which are indirectly influencing the personality have
also to be kept in mind.
l Realisation of human potential
Human beings have an immense potential for growth and energy to realise their
potentials. Recognition of the need to bring out the inherent potentials and organised
efforts to nurture them are the major goals of guidance. The realisation of the
potentials depends on environmental assistance and support provided by the teacher
and other significant adults. It involves removal of blocks which prevent healthy
growth thus paving way for wholesome unfolding of the personality. However,
assistance provided for identifying and nurturing at proper time at
each stage (life stages: e.g. childhood, youth) may help
individuals to realise their potentials.
l Recognition of human uniqueness
Human beings have a wide range of individual
differences that can be utilised to help societies and
civilisations to grow. You also need to understand that
each individual has a unique combination of characteristics
which provide uniqueness to each person. And this
understanding is at the heart of the guidance programme.
Guidance provided by a professional serves as the catalyst
for the expression of these individual differences. It also
provides the rationale for client analysis in the helping profession.
l Acceptance of individual needs
The individual and his/her needs are of utmost significance. Recognition of
individual freedom, worth, respect and dignity is the hallmark of guidance. Freedom
to make a choice and take a decision needs to be respected and encouraged.
Acceptance of the needs of the individual, communication of positive regard
and respect, enhances the ability to take a decision.
l Fostering communication skills
Human beings have the highest level of communication skills through words and
gestures, which can be utilised, to relate with others. Use of appropriate and
socially correct words, body posture, gestures, voice tone and expressions help in
communicating various positive feelings and emotions. Guidance involves using
skills to communicate love, regard, respect, etc. for others. These are prerequisites
for increasing individual competence and self-esteem to experience satisfaction
and happiness in life.
l Nurturance of creativity
Human beings have the creative potential to utilise the past to learn and improve
upon their mistakes, use the present to make efforts and plan ahead for future.
UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 7
 Guidance involves helping the individual analyse the past and learn from previous
experiences to prevent wasting energies to brood over previous disappointments
and frustrations. Guidance helps in channelising the strengths of an individual to
initiate new changes in behaviour to live more effectively in the present and plan
ahead of time for future in the light of past and present experiences.

Activity 1
A group of five Grade Eight students who had developed a noticeable habit
of truancy are referred to you for help in reforming their delinquency.
• What assumption or reasons would you ascribe to the behaviour of the
above students?
• Which principles from those listed above would you think are applicable
to this situation?
• After reviewing these principles, would you change any of your first
assumptions? Describe in one or two sentences how you would change them.

1.4 GUIDANCE AND EDUCATION

The principles and assumptions just discussed would have given you some insight
into what guidance is all about. Now let us look at the place guidance holds in school
educational programmes.
The goal of education is to bring out and develop the inherent potentialities of
an individual. Education helps in fostering all aspects of an individual’s personality.
Guidance has an important contribution in achieving these goals. School educational
programmes consist of a variety of curricular activities. All activities which are a part of
the formal curriculum such as teaching–learning of subject related sessions in the
classroom, laboratory work, project work, etc. can become a vehicle for self-development.
The activities outside the subject areas such as sports, dramatics, field visits etc.
are especially suited for the personal–social development of the child. As guidance
aims at meeting the needs of the individual in educational, personal and social areas,
all activities thus can be instrumental in realising educational goals. This has been
discussed further in detail in Unit-4 of this module titled ‘Guidance and School
Curriculum’. Thus, we see that guidance and education share a common goal of meeting
the educational, social, personal and career needs of individuals. Because of this
commonality, guidance is understood as facilitating the realisation of educational goals.
Guidance emphasises upon the individual. For example, you may have found many
children lacking interest and motivation in studies which adds to the problem of
classroom management. We all know that transmission of knowledge is not enough
and may not result in learning and acquiring the motivation, interests, and right attitudes
and habits. A teacher trained in guidance could identify the difficulties of children,
reasons for their lack of interest in attending school. S/he could plan ways of increasing
the motivation and interest of children towards school and studies, and organise
learning suited to the needs of the child so that the learner becomes a seeker of
knowledge and a lifelong learner. This would help you understand that education is a

8 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
guided enterprise in the sense that for teaching–learning to be effective, we must
cater to the needs of the child. Thus, guidance is an integral part of education.
The guidance perspective in education coincides with the reforms in education
which were introduced about a century back. We shall now see how guidance point
of view became an important part of education.
1.5 EMERGENCE OF PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES
Guidance as a profession has evolved over a period of time. There is ample
evidence that individuals have always sought advice and counsel from those
possessing knowledge, insights or experience. It may have been the tribal leaders,
chieftains, gurus (spiritual teachers), or parents who traditionally imparted
guidance. But guidance thus imparted was more of informal nature. Moreover,
increasing complexities of life and family, or traditional support systems not being
readily available for help led to recognising the need for professional guidance.
But guidance as a profession emerged out of the need to provide assistance to
young people to choose and plan for a suitable career. This led to efforts to train
teachers to serve as vocational counsellors. The process of vocational guidance
practised in the beginning involved matching men, i.e. their personal characteristics
and knowledge with the requirements of specific jobs.
Other developments, which influenced the early guidance movement were:
• The introduction and development of standardised procedures and techniques
(group and individual) for identification of individual characteristics: In 1905,
the first intelligence test which was referred to as the Army Alpha Test was
constructed by Binet and Simon in America, during World War I. Testing procedures
and guidance procedures became more scientific. The tests were used extensively
to recruit officers. This resulted in the construction and widespread use of such
techniques for assessment.
• The mental health movement: The mental health movement began in the early
1900s with the work of Clifford Beers who himself got treatment in very demeaning
conditions and shared his experiences with the general public which resulted in an
initiation of efforts to help the mentally disturbed with a humanitarian approach
to counselling.
• Educational reforms focusing on developing the whole child: This period brought
in many reforms in education, stressing the dignity and worth of every individual
child. The need to provide a wholesome classroom atmosphere to optimize learning
was emphasised by eminent theorists such as Rousseau and John Dewey who
emphasised the holistic development of the child, meaning development of all
aspects of the child’s personality, i.e. physical, emotional, social and cognitive. There
was gradually a greater appreciation of the role of education in meeting developmental
needs, and facilitating the total development and adjustment of the child.
After World War II, guidance and counselling programmes took on a new direction.
There was a significant shift from the traditional directive approach in guidance to
the empowerment of the individual. This point of view was strengthened by an eminent
counselling psychologist Carl Rogers (1942) who influenced the way in which

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 9
counselling as a process was viewed. He brought a paradigm shift in the field from
‘counsellor centred’ approach wherein counsellor plays a more active role to the
‘client centred’ approach. According to this approach, an individual could be made
to assume responsibility to solve his or her own problems, provided the potential of
the individual to grow and develop was utilised to overcome difficulties and to bring
in changes. According to Rogers, the individual was constantly involved in the process
of growth which he called ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ which provided an impetus for
change. Thus the concept of guidance which started as preparation for work was
replaced by guidance to be provided to a growing and changing person, its underlying
principle being that it is the adjusting individual who needs help rather than merely
an occupational, material or personal problem which needs solutions.
The influence of Carl Rogers’ theory of self-actualisation subsumed the goals
of guidance with education under a common goal. During the 1950s the emphasis
came on the developmental nature of human beings. This implies that individuals
have different needs and aspirations at different times and these developmental
needs at different stages need to be addressed by teachers and counsellors, which
was explained by a significant theorist called Super. Super’s (1955, 1957, 1980)
pioneering work provided a developmental framework to guidance, which was
initially aimed at attending to an individual’s vocational needs, now came to be
understood as ‘help for the developmental needs and decision points in the lives
of total range of students’ (Wrenn, 1962; Aubrey, 1977).
Guidance services are now being directed to help all students for their allround
development, i.e. their educational, social, career and personal strengths to make
them responsible and productive citizens. The programme aims at needs, interests
and concerns of various stages of student growth.

Activity 2
Interview one/two guidance and counselling personnel in your area and,
based on the interview, write a 300 words summary of the status of guidance
services in your state/country. You may share it with others in a seminar
being organised at any time during the course.

1.6 GUIDANCE FOR INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

So far you have focused on the aims of guidance for individual development. The
larger social goals and interests are also the concerns of guidance. A happy and well
adjusted individual contributes to family happiness, which would in turn lead to
harmony in the neighbourhood, community, and society. Moreover, guidance is
rendered not only in a one-to-one individual interaction, but it is also organised for
students having common needs and concerns in small or large groups.
Guidance helps an individual/student achieve well in various areas of personal
and social life, as well as in educational and career pursuits, which would ultimately
help in proper utilisation of manpower. A society consisting of well-achieving and
adjusted individuals would contribute more to achieving the national and social goals.

10 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
Such a society would also have individuals who are aware of social problems and
can deal with them more humanely.
It is no exaggeration to say that problems and difficulties faced at the personal
level can lead to interpersonal difficulties and gradually assume alarming proportions.
We are all witness to the increasing problems of millions of children addicted to
drugs and alcohol, alarming number of abused children, teen suicides, gender bias,
disgraceful number of homeless, resurfacing of various forms of prejudices, crime,
violence, the school dropout and unemployment problems, bankruptcy of values
pervading all over the world and more so in the third world countries. These are
examples of interpersonal and intrapersonal difficulties and conflicts which can slowly
put any nation psychologically and socially at risk. Many of these problems not only
require remedial treatment but more importantly, preventive efforts of the guidance
profession, if they are to be ameliorated to any degree. Large scale general awareness
programmes for students and community groups are also organised by counsellors
and other levels of guidance workers which are aimed at early prevention and at
fostering development, e.g. sex education and AIDS awareness programmes. Guidance
thus can become an instrument for social change, and the maintenance and
upgradation of human resources.

Activity 3
• Prepare a set of ten questions to survey the student problems in your
area or school/institution.
• Conduct the survey and find out what kind of problems are most
prevalent among the students.
• Analyse the results obtained to identify the areas for which the students
will require professional guidance.

The next section acquaints you with the areas of work at individual and social
levels, and the services that can be organised to meet the challenges faced by the
students. Guidance goals can be defined under two major heads: (1) individual
needs, and (2) social needs. Guidance programmes are aimed at meeting these
needs in order to contribute to the individual and social development.

GUIDANCE GOALS

Individual Development Social Development

Individual needs Societal needs

Career maturity Good citizenship

Educational Psycho-Social Good family Manpower

growth development life requirements

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 11
1.6.1 Individual Needs
• Educational growth – Development of abilities and skills facilitating learning and
achievement, and habits and skills for lifelong learning, would involve identification
and remediation of subject matter difficulties and deficits in learning skills.
• Career maturity – Development of healthy and positive attitudes, habits, values,
etc. towards work through broadening awareness of the world of work, planning
and preparing for one’s career.
• Psycho-social development – Assistance for understanding and developing a
positive self-image and development of social skills for leading an effective and
satisfying personal-social life.
1.6.2 Societal Needs
l Guidance for good family life – It includes working with parents and children for
understanding of family relationships, attitudes towards home and role of family
for healthy growth.
l Guidance for good citizenship – Creating an understanding of socio-cultural values and
awareness of social issues, concerns and problems, overcoming prejudices, developing
right attitudes and values of co-operation, tolerance, righteousness and social justice for
peace and equality. Promoting ideas and values of a democratic and secular constitution
and promoting unity and national integration.
l Guidance for channelisation of manpower requirements – Efforts at development and

Self-check Exercise 3
Categorise the problems given below under the areas of individual or social needs.
Problem Need area
1. Difficulty in spoken and written Individual - Educational
English.
2. Not having friends in the
neighbourhood.
3. Inability to participate in class.
4. Students not sharing responsi-
bilities with parents at home.
5. Inability to work in a team.
6. Nervousness and anxiety in
examination.
7. Poor communication among people
belonging to other communities or
religions in the neighbourhood.
8. Poor concentration in studies.
9. Inability to decide on a career.

12 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 channelisation of individual potential with a view to meeting manpower and
social requirements for national growth and betterment of society.
A need assessment or a problem survey would help you to identify predominant
areas on which guidance could be imparted to an individual or a group of students.
We shall now describe the service or the activities to meet these needs.

1.7 MAJOR GUIDANCE FUNCTIONS

Guidance and counselling roles and functions can be explained in terms of a
philosophy as well as a programme of services. Guidance experts have categorised
the different services and functions of guidance in various ways, some on the
basis of target groups served, some in terms of aims and goals to be achieved.
Most references on the subject in the middle of the twentieth century have
identified guidance services in terms of functions desirable for a school counselling
programme such as: Orientation Service, Pupil Inventory Service, Information
Service, Counselling Service and Placement Service. These services have been
described in detail in the Unit on ‘Essential Guidance Services’.
In terms of need areas, the functions can be categorised as –
• Appraisal and self-understanding • Orientation
• Adjustment • Development
Many authors (Shertzer & Stone, 1981; Blocher & Biggs, 1983) have categorised the
guidance functions in terms of those meant for the individual and small groups, centred
around concerns involving educational and vocational planning, personal problem solving
and decision making, family problems and other activities related to assessment,
counselling, prevention, consultation, co-ordination and psychological education.
The counsellor/guidance teacher must be equipped with many skills such as skills
to assess and understand individuals as they interact in natural environments, processes
of individual counselling, group counselling and guidance, career development, co-
ordination, consultation and research. Each of these services and functions have
been described in greater detail in Unit–3 titled ‘Essential Guidance Services’ of this
module. The major guidance activities are therefore only briefly described below.
1.7.1 Individual Assessment
Through the activities of individual assessment, the teacher seeks to identify the
characteristics and potential of every student. An attempt is made to have a realistic
understanding of the student with the help of standardised and non-standardised
procedures. The data available helps to plan various guidance activities like group
guidance, career and human potential development programmes, conducting individual
counselling, etc. This activity fulfills the goal of promoting individual self-understanding.
1.7.2 Counselling
Known as the ‘heart’ of the guidance programme, counselling gives meaning to all
activities of guidance. The guidance activities such as, individual inventory, group
guidance, career information, referral and co-ordination, all contribute to the

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 13
counselling service in the school. Counselling traditionally is understood as a
one-to-one relationship that focuses on the person’s growth and adjustment,
promotes problem solving and decision making. Since this involves a one-to-one
relationship between the counsellor and counsellee, a precondition to effective
counselling is establishment of psychological rapport or relationship.
1.7.3 Group Counselling and Group Guidance
Counselling could be done in individual or group situations. Counselling began
as a one-to-one relationship, but it could also be organised as a group activity to
meet the needs of students facing common concerns. Useful for school set-ups,
the group activities are used for small or large groups of students to provide
information or experience, to promote educational or career development or for
personal–social growth and adjustment.

1.7.4 Career Assistance

Counsellors/career teachers in school/non-school settings (agency/employment
set-ups) provide assistance to students/youth for choosing subject, career planning
and adjustment. Guidance workers in most developing countries are primarily
engaged in providing career guidance to youngsters. Dissemination of educational
and occupational information is an important component in this process.
1.7.5 Placement and Follow-up
In school set-ups, placement is more concerned with educational placement in school
courses and programmes. Follow-up of school leavers is done to obtain information

14 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
and feedback on the guidance programme and activities and is used for improving
the guidance programme.
1.7.6 Referral/Coordination
Guidance workers need to establish a network of qualified professionals for referral
purposes by identifying individuals and agencies in the community which can be utilised
to meet the special needs of students. This is especially useful for bringing specialised
assistance to those who need it.
1.7.7 Consultation
Consultation is a service provided to adults such as parents, teachers, administrators,
etc., who directly affect the lives of pupils. Many difficulties faced by pupils stem
from their interactions in the system surrounding them. Consultation is aimed at
assisting significant adults in the systems such as parents, teachers, community leaders
who become aware of their role in the development and adjustment of children and
how effectively they could perform this role.
1.7.8 Research and Evaluation
Research is necessary for the advancement of the profession of counselling,
especially to judge the effectiveness of various techniques and methods being
used with particular groups. Evaluation is a means of assessing the programme
effectiveness and to introduce improvements in the programme. The evaluation
could be done by obtaining feedback or follow-up of recipients of guidance
activities. The findings of evaluation programmes can be used to establish the
validity of the guidance programme.

Self-check Exercise 4
Identify which of the eight guidance functions you would need to undertake for
students facing the following problems:
1. Inability to decide activities in a work experience class
2. Conflict in choosing educational stream
3. Bullying behaviour of a particular child
4. Poor attendance of a transfer student
5. Planning guidance activities for the next academic calendar
6. Identifying abilities and interests of students
7. Contacting an appropriate agency to help a disabled child

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 15
 8
Individuals need help throughout their lives to obtain information,
suggestions and directions. Such help has traditionally been provided
by senior community members, family members or teachers. However,
with increasing complexity of social situations and adjustment
demands, the need for professional guidance has increased. Guidance
is meant to create understanding in an individual regarding his/her
potentials and capabilities so that s/he can cope effectively with
personal, social and occupational problems. The guidance provider
or the helper is a trained professional who possesses skills through
which s/he can have an adequate appreciation of adjustment and
behavioural problems of an individual in need. Initially guidance was
practised as a more directive process wherein the counsellor played a
more active role. However, with the coming of client centred
approach of psychologists like Carl Rogers the client and his/her
innate abilities gained more importance by focusing on making the
individual more self-sufficient and self-directing.
In a guidance setting, the guidance worker/teacher trained in
guidance attempts to develop a warm and comfortable relationship
with the helpee which facilitates the aims of guidance.
Guidance is based on the assumption that human beings have
inherent potential for growth. It asserts that they have capabilities
which can be utilised and developed by providing the helpee the
right experience and insight into his/her own problems. The approach
taken is a holistic one, which means that any behavioural problem of
an individual has to be seen in the context of his/her characteristics
and socio-cultural influences. Guidance is important because it helps
not only the individual to develop and adjust but also leads to
harmonious relationship between groups and in turn, the wider society.

1. Write a small essay of not more than 500 words on the factors
and events throughout your life span that influenced your
Self-Evaluation Exercises

decision to enter the counselling profession.

2. Go to the library and examine the journals in the field of guidance
and counselling. Select three articles which are focused on the role
of counselling in responding to human needs and problems in
today’s society.
3. Review some current articles in newspapers and popular publications,
and websites, dealing with problems of students/youth and the
role teachers/counsellors/parents can play in helping them.

16 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 4. Why is counselling considered the core activity among all the
guidance functions in a school setting?
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
1. The contents of your answer should cover the following points:
• Childhood — significant experiences and
influences.
• Early school years — significant events, influence of
teachers or any other adult
who guided you.
— occasions when you needed
help and did not receive.
• Adolescence/Adulthood — entry into post-school studies
and career.
2. Some popular journals in guidance and counselling that you can
refer to are:
• The Professional School Counselling
• Journal of Counselling and Development
• International Journal for the Advancement in Counselling
3. Articles related to problems of students such as aggression, violence,
crime, rape, suicide, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, conflict within families
or neglect due to single or divorced parents etc. could be identified.
The proactive role of parents and teachers, and counselling by
counsellors can be highlighted.
4. The answer should focus on the following points:
• Aim of guidance and counselling is to enhance the understanding
of the self and the situation so that the student is able to make
choices and decisions.
• Counselling is a face to face interaction between the
counsellor and the counsellee (i.e. student) leading to
developing self-insight and self-understanding.
• All the activities of guidance such as individual assessment,
group guidance, career information, co-ordination, referral,
research and evaluation, contribute to this goal.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercises

Self-check Exercise 2
Although no conclusion can be arrived at on such a short exercise, you could
get some indication of your potential to be a good helper based on your responses
on categories as shown below:
Count your answer under each of three points (Never, Often, Always) on the scale:
Always : Possess characteristics suited for helping profession

UNDERSTANDING GUIDANCE 17
 Often : Moderately suited for helping profession
Never : Low suitability for helping profession
Self-check Exercise 3
2. Individual-Social, 3. Individual-Educational, 4. Societal-Family Life,
5. Individual-Psycho-Social, 6. Societal-Community Life, 7. Individual-Educational,
8. Individual-Educational, 9. Individual-Career Maturity

References
Aubrey, R.F. 1977. Historical development of guidance and counselling
and implications for the future. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 55,
288-295.
Blocher, D.H. and Biggs, D.A. 1983. Counselling psychology in community
settings. Springer, New York.
Rogers, C. 1942. Counselling and psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Shertzer, B. and Stone, S.C. 1981. Fundamentals of guidance
(4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Super, D.E. 1955. Transition: From vocational guidance to counselling
psychology. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 2, 3-9.
Super, D.E. 1957. The psychology of careers. Harper, New York.
Super, D.E. 1980. A life span, life space approach to career development.
Journal of Vocational Behaviour.
Wrenn, C.G. 1962. The counsellor in a changing world. American Personnel
and Guidance Association, Washington, D.C.

Suggested Readings

Bhatnagar, A. and Gupta, N. (Eds.) 1999. Guidance and counselling :

A theoretical approach (Vol. I). Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
Bhatnagar, A. and Gupta, N. (Eds.) 1999. Guidance and counselling : A
practical approach (Vol. II). Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
Gibson, R.L. and Mitchell, M.H. 2003. Introduction to counselling and
guidance. Prentice-Hall, New Delhi.
Nicoll, W.J. 1994. Developing effective classroom guidance programme:
An integrative framework. The School Counsellor, 40, 357-362.
Pietrofesa, J.J., Bernstein, B., Minaor J. and Standford, S.1980. Guidance:
An introduction. Rand McNally, Chicago.
Weblinks: www.guidance.com, www.dpi.state.nc.us/curriculum guidance

18 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Teacher as a
Guidance FFunctionary
unctionary

2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Guidance Role for Teachers
2.2.1 Role as a Teacher-Counsellor
2.2.2 Referral Work
2.2.3 Discovering Student Potential
2.2.4 Career Planning
2.2.5 Supporting Counselling Programme
2.3 Organising Guidance Activities
2.3.1 Student Appraisals
2.3.2 Counselling
2.3.3 Career Information
2.3.4 Orientation Activities
2.3.5 Placement and Follow-up
2.3.6 Evaluation and Research
2.4 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
Suggested Readings
2.0 INTRODUCTION
An effective implementation of a
curriculum is dependent on the teachers
who deliver that curriculum. “Guru” was
the word used to traditionally describe the
person who dispels darkness, brings
enlightenment and helps the pupil to choose the
correct path. Thus, the teacher’s role in guiding a student’s life is like the guru.
Along with imparting the subject matter, the teacher’s guiding and supporting role
brings him/her closer to students. In this unit, you will look at the teacher’s guidance
roles and the ways in which they are performed in a school.
Success of any guidance programme depends on contribution of all the people in
the school. The role of teacher in this regard is pivotal. This unit explains in detail the
roles and functions of a teacher as a guidance worker. In this unit, we shall discuss
how the teacher can provide the necessary nurturing required for the holistic
development and blossoming of the students’ personality.

2.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• elaborate the different roles of a teacher as a guidance functionary.
• organise guidance activities in the school to enhance the educational, career and
personal development of students.
• use the principles of guidance and counselling in teaching various subjects in
school and in interactions with students and parents.

2.2 GUIDANCE ROLE FOR TEACHERS

The teacher’s role is primarily understood as a disseminator of knowledge. In addition
to the knowledge that a teacher has of his/her subjects, knowledge of his/her students,
i.e. their abilities, interests and personality equips a teacher to perform the guidance
role better.
A teacher observes students in the classroom, in the library, on the sports field
and during short intervals between classes. In such daily contacts, the teacher is in a
unique position to understand the students’ needs and problems and any deviations
in their behaviour. Teachers also have frequent interactions with the parents. Thus,
they have access to information about a student’s home conditions, financial problems
and any other difficulties.
Changing roles of teachers also calls for new directions. Teacher’s orientation in
guidance and counselling and their involvement in the guidance programme can make
a positive contribution to the total programme of the school. Research has shown
that teachers themselves feel that they can be given some responsibilities in the school
counselling programme beyond those performed in the classroom. Teachers can be
trained to perform guidance functions along with their teaching work. Now we will
discuss how a teacher can work as a guidance functionary and in what manner s/he
can perform various functions related to guidance and counselling.
2.2.1 Role as a Teacher-Counsellor
A teacher’s close contact with students provides an opportunity to have a deep insight
of student needs, behaviours and aspirations as they develop. Teachers observe their
students in the classroom everyday on an average of 180–200 school days per year
for several years. No other adult, except for the parents, has such a close contact with
the students. More than any other professional in a school setting, teachers occupy a
key position in knowing their students. This enables the teacher to establish a
relationship with each student based on mutual trust and respect.
Because of this relationship, students are more likely to approach their teachers to
discuss their personal problems. Moreover, teachers who have a background in

T EACHER AS A G UIDANCE F UNCTIONARY 21

counselling and guidance will be able to deal with students’ problems in a more
professional manner. Thus, to act as a teacher-counsellor, you should have skills in
listening attentively, showing empathy and warmth towards students and establishing
a relationship of friendliness, mutual respect and regard. You should also be able to
provide the requisite help to the students in dealing with their problems and concerns
in a professional manner. In fact, a teacher who has undergone this training in guidance
and counselling will be able to provide counselling to students, individually or in groups,
to deal with their problems, help which s/he would otherwise not be able to provide.
2.2.2 Referral Work
A teacher may act as a source of student referrals.
Students facing difficulties of a serious nature may
require assistance from a professionally trained
specialists (such as a psychologist, doctor,
physiotherapist, etc.). The teacher’s role
requires that s/he is alert enough to notice
any symptoms of emotional problems, social
maladjustment, poor or underachievement,
or delinquent behaviour, etc. and ensure
that students with counselling needs are not
left unattended.
When a student is in difficulty, his/her work
usually suffers. A teacher’s initial assistance
through listening, appraising him/her, and
suggesting ways for improvement can help the
student. In extreme cases of emotional disturbance you may be required to refer the
child to a full-time counsellor or a counselling agency. Your responsibility does not
end after the student has been referred for counselling as you still continue to be
involved in the role of supporting the student in a continuation of the counselling
process. You have to play the role of the referral agent not only for those students you
have referred but also for others in your class. The teacher would “receive” the
counselled student back into the classroom environment; continue to provide support
to help the child in adjusting and achieving success.
2.2.3 Discovering Student Potential
As a teacher, you can contribute to the guidance programme by identifying the special
abilities of particular students with whom you interact in your classes. Think of the
opportunities that you have to discover strengths within each of your students and to
promote those abilities. For example, there are children in your class with good writing
and speaking skills. Some children have other aptitudes and special abilities such as
good singing talent or extraordinary acting skills. You can encourage the students and
work with the parents to find suitable avenues for nurturing these special abilities.
This in turn helps in the proper utilisation and channeling of the human resources.

22 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Activity 1
Try to identify and locate institutions in your community that help children
nurture their special abilities and talents. You can pass on the list of such
institutions to your neighbourhood schools parents for use by their children.

2.2.4 Career Planning

You may be aware that by using achievement and diagnostic tests in their subject
areas, teachers have a better understanding about the strengths and weaknesses of
the students in a particular subject. This may act as a basis for an orientation of
the students about the career options in a particular subject area. As a subject
teacher, you can also introduce your students to careers related to your subject
area so that they can relate their courses of study to life needs. It is often difficult
for students at school stage to understand the relationship of a particular subject
they are studying to its usefulness in their life. If, however, the teacher explains
this to them, they will be able to visualise the usefulness of studying a subject in
their present and future life.
At secondary and senior secondary classes you can also organise career talks by
individuals who are successful in their fields of work. The educational accomplishments
of others in the field will give students a deeper understanding of the opportunities
open to them and help them in planning their careers. Such a vocational orientation
also increases the students’ interest in the subject. The success of the guidance
programme is therefore tied to success of the career education programme.
The teacher can also develop in students a positive attitude and respect for all
kinds of work, leading ultimately to inculcating dignity of labour. This is a challenging
responsibility in view of the many adult imposed biases with which the students are
constantly confronted. The teachers directly or indirectly influence the attitudes of
the students, which consequently can influence their choice of subjects, hobbies,
career related decisions and later their work values.

Activity 2
Prepare a list of emerging career options available and relate each to the
subject(s) taught by you.
Subject(s) Careers available after Class XII
1.
2.
3.
Disseminate this information to students of Classes XI and XII.

T EACHER AS A G UIDANCE F UNCTIONARY 23

2.2.5 Supporting Counselling Programme
Teachers can significantly contribute to the school’s counselling programme by giving
their full support and encouragement, and creating a motivating environment. Teachers’
support for counselling can also get extended to parents and others in the community;
they facilitate relationship building between school and home. All parents want to
see their children succeed in school. As a teacher, you can also open the doors to
better communication between parents and students to foster better understanding
between them. For this purpose, you can think and plan some activities for students
that need parental cooperation. For example, an assignment to write about the vocation
of their parents, or their parents’ viewpoints about some important social or
educational issues.
The teacher can also plan and initiate a counselling programme with the students
and involve the parents when it is thought to be necessary. As a class teacher or a
subject teacher you are aware of the performance of your class in general and an
individual student in particular. As a teacher, you are also aware when there is a lack
of interest, motivation, and inattentiveness in some of your students. You are also
aware of the group dynamics, which hampers or accentuates a student’s performance.
Teachers can communicate with parents by sending a letter at the beginning of the
year about the goals of the guidance programme and the ways in which parents can
contribute to it for overall development and adjustment of their children. Your
communications with parents can explain what kind of help is needed from parents
for the successful operation of the school’s guidance programme. You have already
learnt how the parents of your students can be involved in the guidance programme
of the school and how can they contribute to it effectively.

Self-check Exercise 1
1. State the various functions a teacher can perform as a guidance functionary.

Activity 3
Interview one teacher involved in school guidance activities regarding what
s/he understand about counselling and what they think about their role in
each of the following functions:
(i) Teacher as a counsellor
(ii) Teacher as a referral agent
(iii) Teacher as a student potential discoverer
(iv) Teacher as a career educator
(v) Teacher as an initiator and supporter of counselling programme

24 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
2.3 ORGANISING GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES
In the Unit on “Guidance and School Curriculum” the teacher’s role in planning and
initiating guidance activities has already been described. In the earlier section, we
have described how teachers can integrate guidance philosophy and practices in their
day-to-day work and interactions with children in school. Now let us discuss what
role a teacher can play in a formal guidance programme, which exists in some schools.
This programme is a separate entity in the school with a fully trained professional
counsellor or a trained teacher-counsellor to staff the programme. However, a teacher
can also contribute in a number of ways in various guidance activities as discussed in
the following sub-sections.
2.3.1 Student Appraisals
As you already know, for understanding and guiding students, information or data
regarding their growth, development and achievements needs to be collected. The
cumulative record card (CRC) maintained in the school is an example of such a record.
It comprises a record of the total development of the child, i.e. physical, mental,
social and emotional. Also, a teacher can play an important role in the process of
exploring the individual pupil, i.e. what the child does in the school, in the classroom
and outside, which provides a sound basis for observing and recording his/her behaviour.
Teachers are thus placed in a favourable position in maintaining a record of pupils,
which helps them in identifying students’ strengths, developmental delays and deficits,
etc. All this information about the students is of great use to the school counsellor.
2.3.2 Counselling
Counselling can only be done by persons trained to do it, as it requires specific skills
and competencies to help the students to relate effectively with the environment,
make choices and decisions, and to resolve conflicts. Counselling is the sole prerogative
of a counsellor as teaching is that of teacher. But when you, as a teacher-counsellor
after completing this course, attempt to listen to the student, try to give support,
show understanding, use your resources to help, you are in a way doing counselling.
There are also situations when both counsellor and teachers are present, they can
both interact, work out and discuss the problems of the student so that s/he can be
properly guided. Problems at the initial stages can easily be resolved, sometimes through
careful listening which gives opportunity to the child to air out feelings, sharing and
obtaining suggestions.
2.3.3 Career Information
Students often need assistance for coping with subject matter difficulties,
examination stress, choosing courses and planning a career. Teachers can disseminate
information about occupations related to their subject area; organise training
programmes and community services. The teacher can set up an information service
by collecting and displaying information to create awareness and motivate students

T EACHER AS A G UIDANCE F UNCTIONARY 25

for planning a future and building a career. Some specific ways in which a teacher-
counsellor can contribute are:
• helping students to acquire knowledge of the specific functions, duties,
responsibilities and rewards of various occupations related to their subject area.
• helping students discover their own abilities and skills, and help them in
understanding general requirements of the occupations under consideration.
• help them develop a positive attitude towards all kinds of work. This can be done
through pointing out the positive aspects of various occupations as well as negative
points in all of them. In fact, this will help inculcate dignity of work and positive
work values in students.
• help them explore opportunities through activities for orientation to the world of
work, through subject teaching and other school programmes such as fancy dress
shows or dramatisation wherein children dress themselves in different work
uniforms and role play as army, police, fireman, nurse, doctor, etc. It can also be
done through inviting various professionals to give talks about their work and
hold discussions for clarifying students’ doubts.
This could help them think critically and appraise various types of occupations in the
light of their own abilities, interests, values, aptitudes and other personality
characteristics that are required for these occupations.
2.3.4 Orientation Activities
Orientation activities are generally organised for generating awareness and developing
skills for adjusting to a new situation. A teacher may organise orientation activities
for students who have come from another school. The students need to be acquainted
with the school programme, its rules and regulations, and the facilities available. The
teacher may conduct small group discussions where the newcomers can interact with
senior students and learn about the school, its programmes and activities, etc. Such
orientation activities can also be organised to facilitate interaction between parents
and teachers/administrative staff of the school.
2.3.5 Placement and Follow-up
In a broader sense, placement may refer to where we place the student in the learning
experience for the effective transaction of the curriculum. For the curriculum to realise
its objectives, it is essential that the student be placed in a position where s/he can
benefit maximally from the learning experiences. As already mentioned, the teacher is
in a unique position to help students choose school and out of school activities,
subject stream and combinations, and to remain in contact with them to see that they
are receiving the maximum benefit out of these.
In a narrower sense, teachers should have contacts built up with the employment
exchange offices in their area and help students to get placement information on jobs
of their choice. Some important information about placement agencies could even be
written and kept on the notice board for all to see. This is rather difficult in view of
the limited time available with the teacher after all his/her duties but it would be
ideal if it were possible.

26 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
2.3.6 Evaluation and Research
Teachers can do follow-up of the students after they have left school to see how they
have benefited and invite them to school to share their experiences with students.
Some former students, who do not leave the city, are always available for this purpose.
Some may not be available after leaving the school. The teacher may take up active
research to evaluate the effectiveness of each component of the guidance services.
This will give him/her feedback about the lacunas in the programme. Such useful
information might be that the programme was not very effective with a certain class

Self-check Exercise 2
1. State six ways that a teacher can contribute in organising various guidance
activities.

Activity 4
For each of the following services a teacher provides, list three activities
you would perform and why.
Services Activity
Student Appraisal (i)
(ii)
(iii)
Counselling (i)
(ii)
(iii)
Career Guidance (i)
(ii)
(iii)
Orientation (i)
(ii)
(iii)
Placement and Follow-up (i)
(ii)
(iii)
Evaluation and Research (i)
(ii)
(iii)

T EACHER AS A G UIDANCE F UNCTIONARY 27

 or for some specific purpose and also what are the ways in which it could be improved.
S/he can also conduct a follow-up with the school passouts to check the usefulness
of the programme or find out the dropout rate, which would speak about the failure
of the programme. The results of the follow-up studies may not only be utilised to
improve guidance activities, they can also help improve the teaching methods and
abilities of the teachers.

2.4 Summary
In modern times, counselling and guidance have assumed significance
and found application in all areas of life. The nature of helping varies
with the level of the complexity of the problem and the level of
competence of teacher-counsellor or counsellor. The essential
ingredient in any interaction is that it should be geared towards a
common goal to advance the educational and personal-social growth
of the student. In this unit, it was explicitly explained how you, as a
teacher-counsellor, can contribute towards these goals. You can
provide some counselling to students with problems; can refer some
students to specialists such as doctors, physiotherapists or full-time
counsellors, etc. You can also identify talented students in your class.
The unit has also highlighted that you, as a teacher trained in guidance,
can help students in their career planning and can support the
counselling programme in the school. It was also discussed in the
unit how you can play an important supportive role in the formal
guidance programme, should it exist in your school and staffed with
a full-time trained counsellor.

1. Describe the different roles and functions of a teacher in the

development of non-cognitive aspects of a child’s personality.
Self-Evaluation Exercises

2. What can a teacher do to help students get placed in the right field
of work?
3. Give two examples of how to integrate guidance activities with the
subjects you teach.
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
1. While the teacher’s major role of teaching the students looks after
the cognitive aspects of their personality, the non-cognitive aspects
are developed through guidance and counselling functions. All such
activities which are related to counselling the students, their referral
to specialists, identifying students’ talent, helping them in their career
planning and enabling them to find suitable jobs, etc. facilitate the
development of non-cognitive aspects of students’ personality.

28 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 2. In order to help students to get placed in the right field of work, the
teacher can first of all help them in their career planning. S/he can
tell them the importance of the subjects s/he is teaching, their
vocational implications and the details about various vocations vis-
à-vis the characteristics required in the individual aspiring to enter
these vocations. The teacher should also keep contacts with various
employment agencies and employers and should help students in
their placement in the appropriate field of work.
3. Career talks on the vocations relating to the subjects you teach can
be delivered for the students’ benefit. You may also invite
professionals/workers engaged in those vocations for relevant talks
in your class. You may use other guidance activities as an orientation
to the type of work, functions and other details about the related
work fields. These can be two examples of integrating guidance
activities with the subjects you teach.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercises

Self-check Exercise 1
The functions a teacher can perform as a guidance functionary are:
– Teacher as a counsellor
– Teacher as a source of student referral
– Teacher’s role in identifying student potential
– Teacher’s role in student career planning
– Teacher’s role in supporting the school’s counselling programme
Self-check Exercise 2
The six ways a teacher can contribute in organising various guidance activities are:
– Teacher’s role in student appraisals
– Teacher’s role in counselling
– Teacher’s role in disseminating career information to students
– Teacher’s role in organising orientation
activities for students
– Teacher’s role in providing placement
to students and follow-up
– Teacher’s role in evaluation of
guidance programme

T EACHER AS A G UIDANCE F UNCTIONARY 29

 Suggested Readings

Dinckmeyes, D.C. 1968. Guidance and counselling in the elementary school :

Readings in theory and practice. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Gordon, I.J. 1956. Teacher as a guidance worker: Human development concepts
and their application in the classroom. Harper & Row, New York.
Herr, E.L. 1982. Why counselling? Unpublished monograph. American
Personnel and Guidance Association, Washington, D.C.
McCully, C.H. 1962. The school counsellor: Strategy for
professionalisation. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 40, 681-689.
Miller, G.M. 1988. Counsellor functions in excellent schools: Elementary
through secondary. The School Counsellor, 36, 88-93.
Ligon, M.G. and McDaniel Sarah, W. 1970. The Teacher’s role in counselling.
Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
McGuiness, J. 1998. Counselling in schools: New perspectives (Cassell Studies
in Pastoral Care and Personal and Social Education). Continuum
International Publishing Group Ltd., London.
Muro, J. J. and Kottman, T. 1995. Guidance and counselling in the elementary
and middle schools: A practical approach. WCB Brown & Benchmark
Publishers, Madison.
Thompson, C.L. and William, A.P. 1979. Guidance activities for counsellors
and teachers. Brooks/Cole Pub. Co., Monetary, California.

30 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Essential Guidance Services

3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 School Support Programmes
3.3 Student Support Services
3.3.1 Child Regulatory and Accounting Services
3.3.2 Clinical Services
3.3.3 Guidance Services
3.4 The School Guidance Services
3.4.1 The Orientation Services
3.4.2 The Student Inventory Services/
Assessment
3.4.3 Career Information Services
3.4.4 The Counselling Services
3.4.5 The Placement Services
3.4.6 Coordination and Consultation
3.4.7 Prevention Services
3.4.8 Research and Evaluation Services
3.5 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
Suggested Readings

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 31

3.0 INTRODUCTION
Education is concerned with the all-round and wholesome
development of the child. As already discussed in Unit-1,
the school is expected to provide something more than just
teaching or instruction such as provide an opportunity to
develop the personality of the child, help him/her in
making right choices, develop decision making and
problem solving abilities, foster creativity and so on.
However, as a teacher you may have realised that some
additional services in the form of student support
services, which are need-based, should be introduced
in the school system to help the pupils meet their
personal, social, educational and career
development needs and concerns.
In this unit, you will learn about various types of
student support services and specifically guidance
services which provide an overview of the
guidance programme. As a school
guidance counsellor, you may be
required to plan and organise various
guidance activities. Therefore, understanding the nature of guidance activities would
help plan and implement guidance programme in your school.

3.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• identify how the guidance and counselling service fits into the overall support
services in a school.
• describe various services under the school guidance programme.
• explain the importance of each of these services in a school guidance programme.
• describe how you would organise each of these guidance services.
• plan at least one activity for each of the guidance services presented in this unit.

3.2 SCHOOL SUPPORT PROGRAMMES

Education provides an environment that helps to shape the minds and attitudes of
young people. Besides providing a way to transfer knowledge to individuals, the
educational process also provides ways to shape a young person’s skills and abilities
so that they facilitate the satisfaction of his/her economic and social needs. This
requires more support services than just the academic service associated with the
school structure. In the rest of this unit you will take a brief look at the services most
schools are expected to provide, who has responsibility for the service, what the
actual service provided is, where that service is provided, and when the service is
provided to the student.
You will also look in more detail at the services that fall under Guidance and
Counselling, using the same four components of who, what, where, and when for
each service.
Let us start by looking at the overall student support services.

3.3 STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES

Student support services are the non-instructional activities in education, which are
concerned with helping the child in his/her all-round development. In most developing
countries, student support services are only available in the form of administrative,
accounting and medical services. The focus on personal-social and career development
is not so much a part of instruction or administration in education. The support services
are, geared towards the individual student and help to provide for the student’s individual
needs in all areas. Wherever these are available, they are, in most cases, provided
outside the classroom and are non-instructional in nature. Besides, specially trained
and professionally qualified personnel are responsible for organising these services.
Student support services can broadly be classified into three categories. They are (i)
child regulatory and accounting services, (ii) clinical services, and (iii) guidance services.

Student Support Services

Administrative Services Clinical Services Guidance Services

School Superintendent, Doctor, School Nurse, School Counsellor,
Section Officer, Social Worker Teacher Counsellor,
Clerk, Cashier Career Teacher

Fig. 3.1: The student support services and

associated professionals

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 33

3.3.1 Administrative and Accounting Services
The school superintendent, section officer, clerk, cashier, etc. generally manage
these services. They keep the records of admission, fees, leave, attendance,
discipline and conduct of each student. Each student record is filed in a centralised
office in the school. Records are maintained throughout the student’s attendance at
a particular school. Teachers have access to the student records and in most cases
part of the academic achievement record provided by a teacher make up a significant
proportion of the student record. The school principal/superintendent can utilise
the information in the student records for preparing the student profile, which is
required when the student shifts to another school or enters an occupation. The
information can also be utilised for providing consultation to parents in case of
truancy, long absence or behavioural problem of a student. It can be used by the
counsellor for providing counselling to the student.
3.3.2 Clinical Services
The non-instructional professionals such as school doctor, dentist, speech therapist,
school nurse, social worker and health worker provide these services. These
professionals take care of a student’s general health and may provide clinical and
diagnostic services. They may refer the cases to specialists in hospitals and to special
clinics, if need be. The social workers and psychologists visit homes and gather
information about family, neighbourhood, locality, etc. to collect additional data for
the case history and case study of individual students. You, as a teacher, must have
made use of these services in your school some time or the other.
3.3.3 Guidance Services
As already stated in the beginning of this unit, guidance services help the students in
their all-round development through meeting their personal, social, educational and

Self-check Exercise 1
Suppose you are a counsellor in a school. Grade IX students ask you the questions
given below. Where would you direct them to go to get the answer? Write T if
you would ask them to go to the teacher, write AS for administrative staff and
SSS for student support staff.
1. Who can explain Newton’s laws of motion?
2. I am finding studies very difficult. Do I need to join coaching classes?
3. Why can’t the marking system be replaced by grading system at the Board
Examination?
4. I can’t sit for the examination, I feel very nervous and anxious.
5. How can I improve my spellings?
6. What stream of subjects should I join after I pass X grade?
7. I cannot read from the blackboard clearly.
8. I am being scolded at home all the time. What should I do?

34 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
career related needs. This will enable them realise their full potential to take them
towards the road to become fully functioning individuals, i.e. individuals who are
able to use their potential to the fullest. Thus, guidance services help individuals to
be able to help themselves, and also contribute to the development of the society by
making them useful and productive members. Guidance as a professional service
helps to achieve this goal through a number of activities and programmes which are
being discussed in the form of guidance services. You will read about the essentials
in a guidance programme in the next section.

3.4 THE SCHOOL GUIDANCE SERVICES

In the previous section of this unit you have studied various types of student support
services, guidance being one of them. Let us take a look at the pie diagram showing
various services of the school guidance programme. The size of the pie pieces in the
diagram depict the relative significance of each of the guidance services in a school
guidance programme.
As shown, the counselling service is the ‘heart’ or ‘pivot’ of all other services. As
stated in Unit-1, it is the ‘core’ service around which all other services revolve; they
contribute to this core service and strengthen it. We will now discuss these guidance
services in detail. Various authors describe services using different categorisations—some
on the basis of functions performed, some on the basis of individuals or groups served.
The sequence in which these services have been described below is more or less
in the order when the need for each of them emerges, e.g. orientation services is
generally provided in the beginning
of the school session, it is therefore
discussed first though it can also be r
ee ion
Plac

r
provided in the middle of the Co Ca mat nce
da
eme

session to newcomers to the school. ns or

ul I nf Gui
Other services can also be provided ta
nt

tio d
in different order according to the n an
need. As the title of the unit Individual
suggests, all the services described Research and
Counselling Inventory
below are essential to meet the goals Evaluation
of guidance, i.e. meeting the (Assessment)
n
educational, personal, social and
n tio
Orientation

career related needs of students. e

r ev
How each of these services P
contributes to the goals of guidance
is also discussed.
3.4.1 The Orientation Services
Think back on the last time you felt Fig. 3.2: The seven different components
uncomfortable in a situation. Was it of the school guidance services
because you were uncertain about with counselling as its core

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 35

what was expected of you, or perhaps because the surroundings were foreign to your
experience? We all feel much more at ease when we know something about our
surroundings, where we are to go, what we are to do. This comfort level also allows us
to learn quicker. So too some kind of familiarity is helpful for students facing new
situations. The orientation service is basically meant to familiarise students to new
situations and enable them to adjust to it. Guidance is a service helping the pupil
adjust to the school and the school adjust to the pupil. School orientation as a guidance
service helps in fulfilling this goal by pre-empting problems faced by the student in
the school system. Orientation may involve familiarisation with a new school situation,
i.e. school building, curricula offered, school rules, regulations, examination system,
teaching facilities, etc. This service helps smooth transitions that occur throughout
the school life of a student. Transitions include from home to first school, from one
school to another, from elementary to secondary and from secondary to higher
secondary school, changes from one programme to another, and eventually a transition
from the school system into the world of work.
The activities organised under this service help new entrants adjust to the school,
feel completely at ease and make the necessary progress while in the school. Thus, it
helps the student to avoid unnecessary fear and anxiety related to any new school-
related experience. Orientation services may also be used to teach and model skills
that students need to learn to adjust to any new situations. Orientation is generally
organised as an activity with a large group of students, thus providing guidance to
many students at a time. Orientation can be provided to a single student also but it is
generally provided to groups of students.
Sometimes the orientation services may be extended to the community, especially
parents. They have an interest in changes to the school systems such as rules and
regulations, new school developments, new services or programmes that become
available or even of parent involvement in the school programme.
For making this service effective and useful to students and the school system,
the following points may be kept in view:
• Orientation for all students
Orientation should be for all and to the entire school, planned not only in the
beginning of the school session, but also intermittently during the year for the
students who may join the school later during the year.
• Orientation to be in different areas
Besides the physical surroundings, rules and regulations, etc. orientation needs to
be done for the non-instructional activities, hobbies and other cultural activities
available in the school.
• Orientation to be need-based
The needs of students at different school stages (primary, secondary, senior
secondary) differ due to the age-related differences like the difference in the level
of maturity or understanding of students, difference in the ability to carry out

36 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 school or other tasks satisfactorily, etc. Therefore, the orientation should be
according to the requirements at the primary, secondary and higher secondary stages.
Orientation devices and activities
Orientation activities may vary at each school stage: some may be appropriate at
the elementary, others at the secondary, still others may be meaningful and useful
at the higher secondary stage and some useful at all the stages. Out of the activities
given below, the teacher/counsellor will decide which activity is to be organised
at a particular stage of education.
– Address the new entrants in small groups to clarify any doubts and questions
regarding the new school and new class. The students may want to know
about the curricular activities, out of class activities, methods of teaching,
assessment etc.
– Meetings with parents to orient them about the school’s policies, philosophy
and programmes to help the child in adjusting to the school.
– Visits by personnel from the future school. These personnel give talks and
clarify doubts; they sometimes distribute relevant material also to help students
choose subjects and other activities.
– Sometimes schools prepare pupil handbooks written in an interactive manner,
providing all information about school programmes and activities.
– Small group interaction is useful for developing positive and favourable attitudes
towards school and education. This technique helps pupils in getting acquainted
with each other in the beginning of the school.
– A ‘get acquainted quiz’ is effective in motivating students to know more about
their school. A questionnaire on different aspects of the school may be used
for the quiz.

Self-check Exercise 2
If you were to plan an orientation programme for new entrants of Grade VI
students, list some activities you would plan and explain why.

3.4.2 The Individual Inventory Services/Assessment

You already know that the aim of guidance is to enable the students to help themselves.
This calls for complete self-understanding of the children. As the teacher counsellor/
counsellor you should know about the students in order to guide them properly. The
‘individual inventory service’, also referred to as ‘assessment’, helps in achieving this
important goal of guidance as it enables the guidance worker understand the students
through information and data collected about them with the help of various methods
and techniques. The data collected are to be recorded and maintained. Proper planning
of this service will enable you to collect authentic data about the students. We will
now see the steps for planning the assessment of students.

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 37

Planning
The school, which adequately serves the educational and personal needs of pupils,
must have sufficient detailed information concerning each pupil in order to understand
him/her as an individual. This service, also known as student assessment, includes
activities for collecting, synthesising, recording and interpreting pertinent information
about students. Some basic principles to be borne in mind while doing assessment of
students have been discussed in Module VI in the Unit on ‘Understanding Assessment
and Appraisal’. Some principles are briefly discussed below:
Principles of Assessment
• Information should be obtained from reliable sources with the help of already
tested techniques.
• All concerned school teachers should be involved in collecting and properly
recording the data.
• Information should be recorded in clear, concise and readily understandable manner
and should present some pattern or trend.
• The data collected may be compiled and maintained cumulatively over a period
of time in the form of a cumulative record card (CRC) or kept in the form of
either a booklet or stored in the computer to be maintained by the teacher counsellor.
• The data may be shared with the parent or made available to the next school at
the time of his/her admission to it or to the teacher in the present school for
educational/career or personal guidance.
• It may be made available to the employer or placement agency.
Data to be Collected
You may now ask as to what types of data should be collected about the pupil. It
would include personal and family data, psychological test data, achievement data,
anecdotal reports, autobiographies, teachers’ ratings etc. All this information needs
to be properly collected, organised, synthesised and recorded. The information thus
collected and recorded over a period of time in a systematic manner is called the
‘Cumulative Record’ of the individual student. You may be familiar with this practice
of recording the information. We will now explain what is a Cumulative Record Card.
Cumulative Record Card
A Cumulative Record Card (CRC) is a document or a record of the relevant information
collected over a period of time through various sources about a particular pupil. The
CRC presents a complete and growing picture of the individual pupil concerned. The
CRC is useful to various personnel like counsellors, teachers, employers, etc. in
understanding the individual and assisting him/her in solving his/her personal,
educational and career choice related problems in the school, and at the time of
leaving it and joining the world of work.
There may be some variations in CRC but in general, the CRC contains information
about the following aspects of an individual’s life:

38 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
• Identification data: Information like the name, date of birth, parents’ name, school,
class, section, address, etc.
• Background data: Information about family background, i.e. the parents’ education
and occupation, their income, number of siblings, educational background
including schools attended, work experience, etc.
• Physical health: Height, weight, illness, physical disability, if any, etc.
• Psychological test data: Information obtained through various psychological tests
about intelligence, interests, aptitudes, personality characteristics, values, attitudes,
emotional and social adjustment, etc.
• Special talents/achievements: Information about outstanding achievements in the
field of education, games and sports or performing arts, etc.
• Scholastic data: School achievement, notable accomplishments, strengths and
weaknesses in school subjects and other activities in the past and present.
• Educational-vocational plans: Students’ preferences for educational and vocational
careers, parents’ plans for the child, etc.
You can add some more information such as details of meetings with parents, details
of correspondence with parents, anecdotal records etc. if it is relevant and available.
A specimen copy of the CRC is given below:

Outline of a Cumulative Record Card

Cumulative Record for Students
Name of the School Kendriya Vidyalaya
Address Sector – 2, R.K. Puram, New Delhi
1. Personal Data
Name Rakesh Kumar Father’s Name Pradeep Sharma
Date of Birth 13.01.1991 Admission No. 000495
Present Address BD-1052, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi Religion Hindu
Language spoken at home Hindi
Other languages known
2. Family Background
Size of the family 05 Position in the family 03 (youngest of the three siblings)
Accommodation: Rented
Owned a house No. of rooms 02
Facility for study at home
Pupil lives with
Both Parents
Father
Mother Type of family Joint/Nuclear
Places the pupil has lived
City Year Reasons for stay Reasons for shifting
Delhi 1999 till date Father’s job

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 39

 Relationship Name and Education/Age Occupation Income
with the child Address Training (Rs.)
Father Pradeep Sharma 57 yrs. Inspector 16,000/-
B.A.
Mother Shanti Sharma 50 yrs. Housewife —
10th
Guardian — — — —
Sister Gita Sharma 30 yrs. Housewife —
Married B.A.
Brother Prateek Sharma 22 yrs. Student —
Married (Bachelor of
Engineering)

3. Schools Last Attended

Name of the School Class Year Reasons for

From To From To change over
1. Kendriya Vidyalaya 1st 4th 1996 1999 Change of
INA Colony residence
New Delhi
2. Kendriya Vidyalaya 5th 11th 1999 till date Continuing
R.K. Puram
New Delhi
3. —

Earning members in the family

Name Relationship Income (Rs.)

1. Pradeep Sharma Father 16,000/-
2.
3.
4.

40 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
4. Scholastic Achievement
S. No. Year Class Subjects Failed/Passed/ Position
(Optional Promoted
only) (marks
obtained)
1. 2005-06 English, Passed 2nd in Class
Mathematics, 79.5%
Science, Social Studies,
Hindi, Sanskrit
2. 2004-05 — do — Passed 5th in Class
75%
3. 2003-04 — do — Passed 1st in Class
80%
4. 2002-03 — do — Passed 4th in Class
76%
5. 2001-02 — do — Passed 2nd in Class
79.2%
List the subjects in which you have achieved the highest marks in the last five years
1. 2001-2002 Mathematics 75
2. 2002-2003 Science 75
3. 2003-2004 Science 80
4. 2004-2005 Mathematics 75
5. 2005-2006 Mathematics 80

5. Health and Physique

S. No. 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03 2001-02

1. Height 5’7” 5’5” 5’4” 5’3” 5’0”

2. Weight 57 kg. 51 kg. 51 kg. 48 kg. 45 kg.
3. Chest Normal 36” 33” 33” 30” 30”
Expanded 39” 36” 36” 33” 33”
4. Eyes 6/6 Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal
5. E.N.T. Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal
6. Lungs Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal
7. Any major illness in the past: No
8. Any disease: No
9. Any disability – temporary or permanent: No
10. Any other problem: No

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 41

6. Psychological Test Data
S.No. Year Class Name of Tests Scores and Stanine
Grades Score

1. 10th R.P.M.* 54 IX
2. 10th D.B.D.A.* NA*-15 X
VA* -13 IX
3. 10th OASIS-3* SC*- 20 VI
MEC*-15 VI
4. 10th P.S.A.* Empathic
Outgoing
Divergent
5.
6.
* R.P.M. – Raven Progressive Matrices NA – Numerical Ability
D.B.D.A. – David’s Bettery of Differential Abilities VA – Verbal Ability
OASIS-3 – Occupational Aptitude Survey and Interest Schedule-3 SC – Scientific
P.S.A. – Personal Style Analysis MEC – Mechanical

7. Personality Assessment
1. Introvert/Ambivert/Extrovert
2. Behaviour with parents : Aggressive/Submissive/
Likeable
3. Behaviour with peer group : Leadership/
Cooperative/ Follows
Leadership : Always/Somewhat/None
Sociability : Highly Sociable/Somewhat/Never
Initiative : Always/Somewhat/Never
4. Behaviour with teachers : Takes suggestions/
Argumentative/Discusses/Passive
5. Personality : Well behaved/Slightly balanced/
Emotional
6. Attendance : Very regular/Often regular/Irregular
7. Obedience : Always obedient/Sometimes obedient/
Rash
8. Responsibility : Highly responsible/Slightly
responsible/Irresponsible
9. Industry : Hard-working/Average/Careless
10. Homework : Regular/Irregular/Does no homework
11. Self-confidence : Always/Often/Never
Overconfident
12. Cooperative : Always/Often/Seldom cooperative
13. Personal appearance: Neatly dressed—Seldom/
Never

42 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
8. Other Activities in School

S.No. Year and Class Remarks*

1. Sports and Games 2005 10th Above average participation

2. Dramatics —do— Average participation
3. Literary —do— Above average participation
4. Social Service —do— Average participation
5. Athletics —do— Above average participation
6. N.C.C./A.C.C. —do— Average participation
7. Distinction (75% or above)
obtained in any subject
8. Any other
* Mention any special achievement, awards, merit certificates or scholarship, etc.

9. Activities Outside School

1. Work Experience in
part-time or full-time job N.A
2. Hobbies Watching cricket on TV
10. Future Planning
1. Educational - Parents Engineering Pupil’s Engineering
2. Vocational - Parents Engineering Pupil’s Engineering
The CRC may contain additional information of the following types:
• Correspondence with parents
• Anecdotal records
• Details of interviews with parents
• Conduct or discipline
We will now study the various sources of the data that is collected to create the CRC
and how this data is collected.
Sources of Data for CRC
Information about the individual student can be obtained from the student himself/
herself and all those who are close to him/her such as parents, teachers, friends,
neighbours, etc. This information should be authentic and true. Also it should be
revised from time to time throughout the student’s life.
Techniques of Collecting Information for the CRC
A number of non-testing and testing techniques can be used for collecting data about
the individual student. Non-testing techniques such as interviews, observations, rating
scales, questionnaires, inventories, checklists, self-description essays and
autobiographies provide useful information on temperamental traits and interests.
Testing techniques such as standardised psychological tests for measuring intelligence,
aptitudes, interests and personality characteristics can be used for collecting

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 43

information for the CRC. You will study in more detail about these techniques in
Module VI of this course in Units on ‘Using Psychological Tests’ and ‘Qualitative
Assessment in Guidance and Counselling’.
Who Uses the Student Record?
The school counsellor, the teacher, the employer and the employment office often
request information about a student. However, there is some confidential information
recorded in the CRC, it should not be made available to those who might misuse it.
Also if it is to be made available to some people or institution, it should be done with
prior permission of the pupil and his/her parents.
How to Use the Information
It is also important to interpret the information properly keeping in mind the socio-
economic background of a student, his/her parent’s aspirations, the student’s abilities,
interests, etc. Those who have access to use the information should be properly trained
or oriented in interpreting the information. The first step in successful interpretation
of the CRC involves that a report be made based on the pattern of information in the
CRC. The report should focus on those data in the CRC that throws light on the
growth and development of the student as that only would prove helpful in providing
guidance and intervention. The data could be clubbed under the headings – educational
data, family/personal data, medical/psychological data etc. This report should be
further summarised to bring out the individual’s profile of the client as given below:
Individual Profile (Drawn from the CRC Provided)
• Our client Rakesh Kumar comes from a middle class nuclear family.
• He has an elder brother already in the Engineering profession and an elder sister
already married (housewife).
• He is the youngest in the family.
• He has been consistently performing well academically, as he is amongst the first
five students in the last five years.
• His strong subjects are Mathematics and Science.
• He and his parents want him to do Engineering.
• He needs to be made aware of some more career options in the field of science.
Case for Counselling/Guidance
Though the client’s CRC and individual profile does not reveal any major areas where
guidance or counselling is required, but one striking fact is that the client wants to be
an engineer and so do his parents. His brother already is doing B.E. One might think
it to be fine for two brothers to take up the same profession, but given the family
background and schooling one might also think that the choice is more a convenient
one made due to the lack of information available on career choices. Thus, the client
needs career guidance in making a more informed choice about his career.
What needs to be kept in mind is that the conclusions drawn from the CRC need
to be substantiated by information obtained from individual counselling sessions.

44 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
Only when the CRC findings are supplemented by the counselling sessions can we
determine an appropriate intervention or help plan.
3.4.3 Career Information Services
You are aware that the society in which we live and work is becoming more and
more complex day by day. While on the one hand, many youngsters are not able to
get a job of their liking, on the other hand a large number of positions in every
organisation are lying vacant for want of suitable workers. Not only this, a variety of
new job opportunities which were unheard of a few years ago are coming up in the
employment market about which the young job aspirants need to know. This situation
calls for providing guidance or assistance to students at the school stage to expose
them to the requirements and trends pertaining to the world of work and help them
take wise career related decisions. The Career Information Service caters to this
need. Career information refers to the helpful data about jobs, industries, work
processes, employment trends, and opportunities. This service may entail the
information about the nature of work, details of the work conditions, method of
entry into the job, essential requirements for entry into it, methods of promotion,
promotional avenues, salary or earnings, future trends of the job, occupational hazards
and good features, etc.
The Career Information Service has three aspects:
• Collection of information
• Classification and filing of information
• Dissemination of information for guidance in career planning and preparation
Collection of Information
The career information is collected from sources, which may be classified as primary
and secondary sources. Some points are presented below; details are given in the Unit
on ‘Collecting Career Information’ in Module V.
Primary Sources are workers, professionals, colleges/training institutions, etc.
The career information can be collected through personal interviews, visits and
through questionnaires.
Secondary sources are the career literature or information and material brought
out and published by the Government and Non-Governmental agencies. These
publications can be of different types.
Types of Information Material
The career information material can be in the form of handbooks of training facilities,
career pamphlets, job monographs, booklets, brochures, newspapers, magazines, audio-
visual materials such as audio and video cassettes, film and filmstrips, CDs, field
reviews and survey reports etc.
Appraisal of Information
Would you like to use information, which is outdated, incomplete, inadequate and
unreliable? You would certainly say ‘No’. In order to have up-to-date and accurate
information, it needs to be evaluated. You would like to find out who published the

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 45

information, which agency or organisation conducted the survey or collected the
information before it was published, when was it published, what methods were used
to collect the information, whether the information is authentic and up-to-date.
Classification and Filing of Information
In order to be readily available, information collected for the purposes of guidance
and counselling needs to be properly classified and filed. There are many methods of
classification of information. You will find these methods discussed in the Unit on
‘Classifying Career Information’ in Module XII.
The guidance worker should use a simple and usable method of classification of
information. A few of the simple methods are: classification according to alphabetical
order of occupations, occupations based on the interests or ability level or according
to school subjects.
Dissemination of Information
The information, both occupational and educational, duly collected, classified and
filed must be disseminated among the students and other interested groups. As a
teacher, you may have given information to people, individually and/or in groups.
The methods of dissemination of information have also been discussed in detail
under Module XII in the Unit on ‘Dissemination of Career Information’.
Who would Organise the Career Information Service?
A trained teacher/counsellor is the overall in charge of this guidance service, but if a
career teacher with short-term training to organise career information service is
available in the school, s/he will be responsible for organising this service.

Activity 1
After going through various sources like newspapers, advertisements,
websites, career literature etc. prepare a list of new and emerging careers in
your country.

3.4.4 The Counselling Services

Counselling is the ‘heart’ of all guidance services. What does that mean? It means
that all other guidance services serve as supporting services to this most essential
service; it is the ‘pivot’ of all guidance activities. Counselling is a one-to-one helping
relationship, which focuses on the individual’s growth, adjustment, problem solving
and decision making needs. However, counselling is nowadays also being practised
with groups of children having common problems.
Effective counselling not only requires counsellors with the highest level of training
and professional skills but a certain type of personality also. The counsellor, from
time to time to understand the student’s problems and his/her strengths and
weaknesses, to provide the student with information about himself/herself and about

46 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
the world of work, to help him/her gain insight into his/her problems and arrive at a
solution, uses counselling interviews. Thus, you will see that the data collected through
Student Inventory Service would be useful to the counsellor in understanding the
student’s assets and liabilities and the Information Service will help the counsellor
provide relevant information (educational, personal-social or career related) to the
student during counselling. This will enable the student to take conscious decisions
about educational/occupational opportunities and other personal-social issues.
Communicating and discussing student information on any other issue to clarify student
perceptions or beliefs about themselves or others would require the use of counselling
skills and approaches. Some of the approaches to counselling and skills required are
presented in Module II in Units 1, 2 and 3.
Who Should be Doing Counselling?
Since counselling is a function that requires a high level of skill as well as special
professional training, it should only be done by persons who have the necessary
educational background and professional training. Neither the ordinary school teachers
nor career teachers (teachers trained to impart career information) have the training
or competence of this kind. It is binding upon them, therefore, that they should not
be indulging in counselling with students, though they may carry out other guidance
functions such as disseminating occupational information, maintaining cumulative
records, collecting pupil data through non-testing techniques, etc. The actual work of
counselling with students should only be done by a qualified counsellor/teacher
counsellor. After undergoing this whole programme, you will be capable of providing
counselling to students.
Prerequisites for Counselling
The important prerequisites of counselling are confidentiality and privacy. The
counsellor therefore needs a separate quiet room where s/he can meet and interview
the student in privacy for counselling. A quiet place/corner should be made available
where students can discuss with the counsellor without any fear. The counselling
room should be furnished with furniture, i.e. an almirah, chairs, tables, etc. where the
client feels relaxed and comfortable. At least one almirah, two or three shelves, display
racks, etc. may also be required for display of career literature, charts and posters and
other guidance material. Adequate publicity of this service may be given in the school
so that the students, teachers and parents needing counselling may utilise it.

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 47

 Self-check Exercise 3
Tick mark the following statements as True or False:
1. A teacher with a number of years of teaching experience is sufficiently
equipped to do counselling with students. True/False
2. Counselling will not be successful if students are asked to come to discuss
their problems in school staff room. True/False
3. All services in the guidance programme are equally important and need
equal time and effort by the counsellor. True/False
4. Understanding the students’ problems is not necessary before planning
guidance programme. True/False

3.4.5 The Placement Services

This service helps students to get into the right courses of study, technical or
professional training, or a job. Campus selections and interviews are organised in
colleges and higher institutions of learning to help individuals get into placement
institutions. At the school level, the counsellor is supposed to carry out this function
with the help of the community, especially employment agencies.
The counsellor may also help students in being placed in the training institutions,
extra-curricular programmes, hobby clubs, etc. The counsellor needs to establish good
liaison with all such institutions. The counsellor would give the necessary information
about entering these places, would guide the students in preparing their bio-data,
writing applications, and preparing for the interview The counsellor may use his/her
personal contacts for placement of students in part-time or full-time jobs and training.
On such occasions, s/he may have to provide personal information about the students
to the employer. Since providing the confidential personal information in some cases
may involve legal issues in some countries, it is advisable to take the consent of the
student or parent in writing before providing any information to an outside person/
agency so as not to violate the privacy of the student.
Time may also need to be devoted in preparing briefs about student information
and for letters of recommendation for the employing agencies.
In fact, all such information can be culled out from student’s cumulative record
card (CRC) available in the school.
3.4.6 Coordination and Consultation
Consultation is a form of outreach in which the counsellor provides services to
administrators, teachers, parents, etc. It is a process of helping the client through a
third party. It is receiving increased attention in communities because of the increase
in the number of students needing counselling and the specialisation of personnel
involved in various types of counselling services such as personal, career, marital,
family counselling, etc.

48 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 You can be a consultant and an expert in the field to offer personal expertise to
others, both within and outside the school. Some of the skills that as a consultant you
should possess are communication and interpersonal skills and other skills to establish
contact and liaison with various community agencies and coordination among them.
3.4.7 Prevention Services
This involves organising large scale programmes for awareness generation regarding
personal, social problems and issues to prevent occurrence of mental and physical
problems. Research suggests that it is better to work towards prevention rather than
wait for problems to show up and then take remedial action. The school counsellor
ensures provision of activities and facilities in school which meet all student needs
and make the school a satisfying place for every child. The teachers, counsellor and
the administrators have to work for reducing factors which may cause stress, boredom
or fatigue among students, identify stress-prone groups such as the disadvantaged,
first generation learners, children of divorced or single parent families, provide special
assistance and attention to help them for promoting their health and well-being.
Counsellors will also establish linkages with health care professionals. The goal of
school mental health programmes is to create a healthy environment for students so
that issues that would result in early leaving, dropout, truancy, drug abuse, violence,
etc. might be reduced.
3.4.8 Research and Evaluation Services
Research
Research and evaluation are services that are useful in creating new programmes and
monitoring the effectiveness of programmes being delivered in a school.
School guidance research may come from the large amount of data that is collected
on school behaviours, situations and changes in school age populations. At the school
level, a counsellor is not often involved in directly analysing collected data but certainly
plays a role in collecting raw data. Part of this data collection may be initiating
programmes that consist of follow-up activities. Follow-up programmes involve keeping
in touch with passing out students or dropouts for a period of time. Such information
tracking may lead to:
• finding out further ways for serving the current student needs, and
• determining the influence and value of the school activities for the improvement
of the student.
Follow-up
Follow-up activities can provide feedback to the counsellor on the effectiveness of
his/her work. Follow-up activities might consist of a variety of techniques such as
the use of questionnaires, personal contacts and telephone interviews. The choice of
a technique for the follow-up will depend upon whether the former students are available
for interview on the telephone, can be mailed the questionnaire or can be personally
interviewed by the counsellor for their feedback in a face to face situation. After

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 49

collecting data or opinions on a programme, a counsellor may evaluate a number of
components of that programme such as her/his own effectiveness, the administration
of the programme, student reactions, with eye to improving the overall programme.
Now let us look at how evaluation plays a role in strengthening guidance and
counselling services in a school.
Evaluation
Evaluation of guidance services is essential for improvement and tailoring of
programmes to be most effective for students. Programme evaluation can identify
strengths and weaknesses of various methods, strategies and techniques used in a
programme. Proper record management is essential to carrying out an effective
programme evaluation.
Evaluations may also be applied to individuals, whether it is the student or the
counsellor. Student’s academic evaluation is certainly part of every child’s school
experience. However, mental health, behavioural and skill evaluations are carried out
periodically. You saw earlier how assessments plays a role in the overall student
counselling services. Counsellors may also participate in self-evaluations to see where
they can improve and expand their own professional capabilities. Others in the school
system such as the principal or programme administrative staff might agree to
participate in this evaluation. Generally, as research expands and new ideas for guidance
and counselling in schools are implemented, counsellors will want to continually
improve their own capabilities at delivering the appropriate services.
Therefore, research and evaluation
often become one method for self-
improvement. This leads to delivery of
more effective and potentially more
successful school programmes.
To sum up, we can say that ‘counselling
service’ could be considered as an important
service amongst all the services. As
counselling works on the information
collected through student inventory and
assessment techniques, it serves as a bridge
between the information gained through the
assessment procedures and information
gained about the world of work through
career information service provided to the
client in the counselling interview.
Moreover, the counselling process also gets
facilitated by the research and evaluation
as they provide new techniques and
methodologies to monitor effectiveness of
counselling. Orientation as a guidance
service provides information about the
50 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
needs of new entrants to plan the various guidance and counselling activities according
to the needs of the individuals in a new set-up. Coordination and consultation which
are forms of indirect interventions along with placement are at the periphery of guidance
activities but also contribute to counselling through their necessary support functions.
This discussion shows how counselling draws from all other services and is central to
the achievement of guidance goals.

Activity 2
Identify a school in your city/town that has a guidance programme. Study the
various services that this school offers. List all these guidance services and
describe at least one activity being organised under each service in the school.

3.5 Summary
In this unit, you have studied the educational school structure. You
have learned that for the all-round development of pupils, the school
needs to offer something more than just information. Student support
services help education achieve this goal. You have just seen that
there are three major types of student support services, guidance
being one of them. You were made aware of the essential school
guidance services which should ideally operate in a school. You now
know that each service is an important aspect of guidance programme
and helps in serving the counselling needs of students.
The other guidance service, the individual inventory service or
assessment helps the guidance worker develop understanding of his/
her students which facilitates the guidance and counselling process.
The major tasks under this service are to collect, synthesise, record
and interpret data about each individual student. The cumulative
record card (CRC) is the main tool for recording and maintaining
information about students. Different testing and non-testing
techniques are used for collecting data of an individual on a CRC.
Career information is another important service to help in
educational and career guidance and counselling of students. The
educational and occupational information is collected, classified, filed
and disseminated among the interested students to develop career
awareness and exploration through various individual and group
methods which would facilitate career decision making. You are aware
that the information needs to be evaluated to see whether it is
authentic, reliable and up -to- date.
Counselling is a highly professional activity to be carried out only
by a trained professional. There are various prerequisites for counselling
which may be taken care of by the counsellor and the school.

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 51

 3.5 Summary
Confidentiality and privacy are important in counselling which
should be practised by the counsellor and all other guidance activities
and services provide support to counselling and in a way strengthen it.
That is why we call this service as the ‘heart’ of the guidance programme.
The other services that we discussed in this unit are consultation
and coordination which enable the teacher counsellor establish
linkages with other services in school and make use of out of school
resources (community resources) for the benefit of students. Through
the placement service, students are helped in selection and adjustment
in different subject streams, or vocational training courses or in
careers. Liaison with various community agencies and other employers
facilitates the right placement of students.
A counsellor works not only for the remediation but for prevention
to pre-empt occurrence of problems. The importance of research and
evaluation cannot also be undermined as they not only improve upon
the efficacy of the guidance programme but improve the effectiveness
and professionalism of the counsellor too. It is important that all
these services should be planned properly with detailed activities to
be carried out grade-wise keeping in view the developmental needs
of students. It has also been highlighted that this task needs to be
done by the trained guidance worker/counsellor in consultation with
the school principal, other teachers, students and parents.

1. Describe the three student support services in the educational system.

2. Which one of the school guidance services is considered to be the
Self-Evaluation Exercises

most important of all guidance activities? Explain why this service

is known as the ‘heart’ of the guidance programme.
3. Examine the specimen CRC and write a short report in approximately
250 words, that would form a summary of the student record
appropriate for seeking a career in the field of ‘Engineering’.
4. Survey the sources of career information in your city and list two
direct sources. Give your reasons for the selection of these two sources.
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
1. Define Student Support Services.
The services are provided in schools for the welfare of students.
These are:
a. Non-instructional in nature.
b. Provided by people from the school who are especially trained for
the purpose or simple employees like superintendents and caretakers.
Student support services are of three types – Child Regulatory and
Accounting Services, Clinical Services and Guidance Services.

52 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 2. Counselling Service is known as the ‘heart’ of the Guidance
Programme because
• All other guidance services provide a supporting role and
counselling is the pivot of all guidance activity which contribute
to achieving guidance goals.
• Counselling seeks to help the student understand his/her
problems, strengths and weaknesses and the world around them.
3. CRC–The report should highlight information about the physical,
familial and scholastic background of the student that reflect his
aptitude for engineering. The report should highlight significant
variables helpful/unhelpful in his educational and career development.
Example:
• Educational: Performance in any subject/area that may facilitate
his entrance into the engineering field.
• Family/person: Individuals/resources of the family or any other
information that may prove helpful in the choice of career.
4. People working in an industry or organisation are the first point of
direct contact for collecting career information. Therefore, the
answer should include the following:
• Identify an industry or a training institution where you can
interview employees for collecting career information. Interview
the employees with the help of a questionnaire.
• Collect information related to job profile and prepare a list of
salary and emotional aspects.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercises

Self-check Exercise 1
1. T 2. SSS 3. AS 4. SSS
5. T 6. SSS 7. SSS 8. SSS
Self-check Exercise 2
Your answer may cover some of the following points:
• Meetings with parents to acquaint them with the school policies, rules and
regulations, out of class activities, etc.
• A write-up about the school to be distributed among parents and students.
• Small group interactive sessions with students to promote social interaction
among them.
• Question and answer session with new entrants in small groups to clarify their
doubts and questions about the school, class activities, subjects, teachers,
teaching methods, etc.
Self-check Exercise 3
1. False 2. True 3. True 4. False

E SSENTIAL G UIDANCE S ERVICES 53

 Suggested Readings

Bhatnagar, A. and Gupta, N. (Eds.) 1999. Guidance and counselling:

A theoretical approach (Vol. I). Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
Gibson, R.L. and Mitchell, M.H. 2007. Introduction to counselling and
guidance (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Hatch, R.N. and Coster, J.W. 1961. Guidance services in the elementary school.
W. M. C. Brown Co. Pub., Lowa.
Myrick, R.D. 2003. Developmental guidance and counselling: A practical approach
(4th ed.). Education Media Corporation, Minneapolis, MN.
Ohlsen, M.M. 1974. Guidance services in the modern school (2nd ed.). Harcourt
Brace Javonovich Inc., New York.
Pietrofesa, J.J., Bernstein, B., Minor, J. and Standford, S. 1980. Guidance:
An introduction. Harcourt Brace & Company, New York.

54 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Guidance and
School Curriculum

4.0 Introduction
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Meaning and Types of Curriculum
4.3 Guidance and Curriculum
4.4 Goals of Guidance
4.5 Guidance: An Integral Part of School Curriculum
4.6 Ways of Including Guidance in Curriculum
4.6.1 An Explicit Guidance Curriculum
4.6.2 Guidance as an Approach or Philosophy
4.6.3 The Subject-based Guidance Curriculum
4.6.4 Guidance as an Ancillary Student Service
4.7 Designing a Guidance based Curriculum
4.8 The Comprehensive Guidance Programme
4.9 Integrating Guidance through the Subject
Matter Areas
4.10 Partial Guidance Programme
4.11 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
References
4.0 INTRODUCTION
Guidance has been recognised as an integral part of school
education for the holistic development of the personality
of the student. In view of this need for guidance to
make a well-adjusted person, several commissions
and committees have recommended the inclusion of
guidance and counselling in the school curriculum.
This unit explores the ways and means of integrating guidance
and counselling with the entire school curriculum.
This unit presents a brief understanding of why guidance
has to be an integral aspect of curriculum for which you need
to know about the nature and types of curricular activities in
a school and the possibilities of integrating guidance and
counselling with the curriculum. With a view to helping you
see the relationship, the goals of guidance and counselling are revisited. The unit also
provides the rationale and the various practical ways of integrating guidance and
counselling into curriculum.

4.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• explain the concept of curriculum.
• differentiate between the types of curricula.
• review the goals of guidance.
• justify the need for integrating guidance and counselling with school curriculum.
• explain the features of guidance-based curriculum.
• describe the ways in which guidance could find a place in a school curriculum.
• identify guidance activities which may be integrated with school programmes
and activities.
4.2 MEANING AND TYPES OF CURRICULUM
You are aware that children learn things in different ways as they grow up. Some of
them are based on their life experiences outside school, others are planned and presented
by the school. In a way, school is the agency created by civil society to transfer socially
desirable goals. However, learning in a school happens through all kinds of experiences.
The structured experiences provided by a school are broadly referred to as the
“curriculum.” In other words, curriculum is the sum total of the experiences provided
by a school to its students. But curriculum could be viewed from different perspectives
and hence we do find that curricula are of different types.
l Overt or explicit curriculum — It is the curriculum that is planned and prepared by
the curriculum makers and made available in the form of a document to those
who have to implement it. For example, the National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi is an agency that prepares the
curriculum for school education in India, which is subsequently adapted by the
states according to their contexts. Since, curriculum refers to the sum total of
experiences, it would include not only the curriculum document but also the
syllabus, textbooks, films, and supporting teaching-learning materials that are
necessary for providing the intended learning experiences by a school.
l Societal curriculum — Learning does not happen only in the school or only through
education provided by the school, but children learn a whole lot of things in the
family, neighbourhood, community and society. Society has its own curriculum
for a growing individual, which may be called the societal curriculum. Societal
curriculum is defined as: “...[the] massive, ongoing, informal curriculum of family,
peer group, neighbourhood, church organisations, occupations, mass media and
other socialising forces that ‘educate’ all of us throughout our lives” (Cortes, 1981).
l The hidden or covert curriculum — All learning by children cannot be attributed to
school, all schools do not produce the same learning. Schools do differ from one
another in their organisational structure, policies and practices, routines, as well
as the attitudes and beliefs of the functionaries. Hence, every school has an explicit
curriculum as well as a hidden curriculum. According to Longstreet and Shane
(1993), the “hidden curriculum, refers to the kinds of learning(s) children derive
from the very nature and organisational design of the public school, as well as
from the behaviours and attitudes of teachers and administrators ...” Children
sitting in a certain manner in the classroom or walking in a queue while moving
from one class to the other are due to learning caused by the hidden curriculum.
l The null curriculum — All schools do not teach everything present in the explicit
curriculum. As Eisner (1994) puts it, “There is something of a paradox involved
in writing about a curriculum that does not exist. Yet, if we are concerned with
the consequences of school programs and the role of curriculum in shaping those
consequences, then it seems to me that we are well advised to consider not only
the explicit and implicit curricula of schools but also what schools do not teach.”
From this perspective, the null curriculum is that which is present in the curriculum

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 57

 but not taught in schools. For example, in the context of Indian education, schools
are expected to include work education and yoga curriculum but it is not treated
at par with language or mathematics and hence would make up the contents of
the null curriculum.
Apart from the above four types, curriculum could also be viewed from the
angle of its implementation and outcomes.
l Curriculum-in-use — The formal curriculum of a school, which as said earlier refers
to the explicit or written curriculum, comprises those things present in textbooks,
and other documents. However, all “formal” elements are not taught in every
school. The curriculum-in-use is the actual curriculum that is implemented in a
school and delivered by each teacher. Looking at curriculum from this perspective,
a set of schools in a district may have the same explicit curriculum but may have
different curricula-in-use. For example, some schools may not offer the commerce
stream because of non availability of staff or sufficient number of students opting
for this stream.
l Received curriculum — Not all students learn all things presented through a curriculum.
In other words, there is always a difference between what is intended to be learnt
through a curriculum and what is actually learnt by the students in a school. Those
things that students actually learn in a classroom, those concepts and content that
are truly learnt and remembered by students are called the received curriculum.

Self-check Exercise 1
A. Match the items in column A with the appropriate one in column B.
Column A Column B
1. Explicit Curriculum (a) Informal by nature
2. Societal Curriculum (b) Implemented curriculum
3. Hidden Curriculum (c) The written curriculum
4. The Curriculum-in-use (d) Not taught in school
5. The Null Curriculum (e) Governed by teacher attitudes
B. Fill-in the blanks.
(i) Textbook is a part of the curriculum.
(ii) Achievement tests measure the resultant learning from the
curriculum.
(iii) Parents are the implementers of the curriculum.
(iv) What is not taught in a school may belong to the curriculum.

4.3 GUIDANCE AND CURRICULUM

It is clear from the previous units that guidance is required not only for the adequate
educational or intellectual development of students but also, for the various other
domains of a student’s life, such as the interpersonal relationships, personal-social
adjustments and career planning, etc. Therefore the role of guidance spills over into

58 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
the societal curriculum as well as the hidden and null curricula. Guidance is also an
approach which has to be incorporated into the overall management practices and the
pedagogy and not just in the explicit curriculum of the school. So far as the explicit
curriculum of the school is concerned, it does not have Guidance and Counselling in
it because it is not a separate subject like English or Mathematics. The explicit
curriculum, for example, consists of subjects in scholastic areas such as languages,
mathematics, science, social studies and subjects in co-scholastic areas such as health
and physical education, art education and work experience. One of the reasons behind
guidance and counselling not being in the school curriculum is the view that personal,
social, and career development of the pupil is to be taken care of by the family and
the parents and hence it may be a part of the societal curriculum for a growing individual.
However, the family and the parents alone cannot fulfill this role. They are also
not in a position to provide specialised guidance to children because in some cases it
is too technical to be managed by the parents. For us to examine the features of a
guidance based curriculum, we need to explain whether guidance and counselling
could be a part of the explicit curriculum or the hidden curriculum or if it is to be
taught directly or learned incidentally through the curriculum-in-use. In order to answer
these questions, you need to revisit the purpose for which guidance and counselling
was recommended to be a part of the school curriculum. Also, you need to think of
the type of curriculum and the possible nature of integration.

4.4 GOALS OF GUIDANCE

Guidance at the school level is needed for various purposes. The need for guidance
relates to not only academic preparation and planning but also extends to mental
health, interpersonal relations, career development, and work adjustment. Broadly
speaking, it is directed at promoting the fullest development of each individual.
You studied in Unit-1 that school guidance and counselling programmes are
organised under three areas namely: educational, vocational and socio-personal. Let
us revisit the aims and objectives of the school guidance and counselling programme
under these three areas.
Educational Guidance
• Help students with their academic difficulties and adjustment to school.
• Assist in developing appropriate educational plans by providing information about
the educational alternatives available to them at each stage of their schooling.
• Understand how education relates to occupational choices.
• Help both parents and children by giving information related to various courses
and different colleges/schools located in the region.
Vocational Guidance
• Promote the culture of work ethics and dignity of labour.
• Help to explore career alternatives.
• Organise in-school and out-of-school experiences, activities and interests to learn
more about self and the world of work to make choices and plans.

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 59

Socio-personal Guidance
• Help students understand the various physical and social-emotional developments
that take place in the concerned stage of life.
• Help students to know and appreciate themselves.
• Guide how to relate effectively with others.
• Help to overcome the fear, anxiety, tension, etc. which hinder their well-being
and personal adjustment.

4.5 GUIDANCE: AN INTEGRAL PART OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Guidance and Counselling Services have been recognised as necessary in India and
the third world countries as well as the other parts of the world in view of its impact
on shaping human lives in the formative years. It is also believed that a school
curriculum is the ideal place where it needs to be included since families may not be
able to meet the challenge of providing guidance to growing individuals. Despite its
importance, there has not been much development in guidance and counselling as a
professional practice. A number of factors operating together are responsible for the
apathy and indifference on the part of the administration and the community and
complacency on the part of teachers, who believe that counselling is irrelevant in the
existing educational context with so much competition from other sources. One of the
most important reasons for counselling not having a very impressive status in developing
countries, including India, is the limited facilities available for training professionals. It
is also due to the “social stigma” or misconceptions attached to receiving counselling.
A lot of inhibition and resistance exists even today. One of the ways in which this
stigma and resistance could be addressed by emphasising how essential guidance and
counselling are and by integrating them with the school curriculum.

60 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
4.6 WAYS OF INCLUDING GUIDANCE IN CURRICULUM
In this unit you have explored the various types of curricula and revisited the goals of
a school guidance programme. You will try to relate these two in this section. In other
words, you have to understand the ways in which guidance could find a place in the
school curriculum.
4.6.1 An Explicit Guidance Curriculum
When guidance has its own existence as a subject area with a set syllabus, instructional
material, guidelines and objectives for each grade level with specified time in the
school schedule, it will be considered having an explicit curriculum.
As stated earlier, the reason for non-inclusion of guidance in the formal school
curriculum was that it was viewed as the responsibility of the family because of the
kind of needs it catered to. With increasing complexity in the world of education and
occupation and the decreasing availability of time for parents to provide the kind of
service and support needed, the view that guidance should become an integral part of
school curriculum has gained ground. In other words, if guidance was a part of societal
curriculum earlier, the view held now is that it should be in the explicit curriculum of
school education. An explicit guidance curriculum, like in all other areas of curriculum,
would have organised content and activities that are developmentally appropriate for
students in the different grades and would aim at teaching the knowledge and skills
they needed to be self-sufficient and lead socially responsible lives. Such a curriculum,
for implementation, would require not only a specially appointed guidance counselor
in every school, but also a grade-wise syllabus, guidance curriculum guides, teaching-
learning materials, and an annual calendar for the guidance program. Apart from all
these, such an inclusion would also necessitate that the outcomes of guidance is
evaluated and included in the grading of students, as done in all other subject areas
of school education. The school would have to provide adequate resources and staff
support for the implementation of the programme. The programme may suffer if
such provisions were not made available.
4.6.2 Guidance as an Approach or Philosophy
Such a curriculum may not have a separate curricular area, teacher or textbook for
guidance but may form an integral part of the total experience, i.e. it will permeate
the entire explicit as well as the hidden curricula. Such a curriculum attempts at
integrating guidance philosophy/messages to cater to the guidance needs of students
besides its regular instructional programme. Teachers integrate the entire guidance
philosophy into their behaviours and interactions with students in classroom and into
entire school practices. Even though assessment of outcomes is undertaken, it may
not form a part of the grading of students. Such an approach needs the entire school
staff including the administrators to be oriented to guidance.
4.6.3 The Subject-based Guidance Curriculum
This type of guidance curriculum overlaps in its meaning with the “guidance integrated
curriculum.” In such a curriculum, the regular subject teachers, in the course of teaching

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 61

a school subject, would identify and implement those inputs and experiences that
lead to the attainment of objectives of guidance along with those of the subjects
concerned. In a way, it would mean providing a guidance perspective to specific school
subjects or adding “units on guidance” related to the subject syllabus, such as a unit
on “communication skills” with the language curriculum, “getting along with others”
in the social studies curriculum, etc. Similarly, a science or mathematics teacher, while
teaching a topic from the concerned subject could also explain the occupational
contexts where knowledge of the topic is essential or may help in obtaining a career
in that area. Teaching of mathematics can include units on value of money, financial
budgeting and saving, understanding gain and loss, time management, etc. Or, any
teacher may provide context specific corrective inputs to improve the study habits of
students as part of integrating guidance.
4.6.4 Guidance as an Ancillary Student Service
You are aware that the health status and promoting a healthy living is a concern of
schools. However, schools may not have medical practitioners on its rolls because it
is viewed as a service to be provided to the students on an event basis. But monitoring
of health status of students is provided for the welfare of students and is done
periodically. Similarly, guidance may be viewed as an area in which intervention is
provided by staff especially trained and appointed for this purpose. It is organised as
a specialised service with its own curriculum and it is limited to the extent that only
those who need it are provided with the service. Here, guidance is a part of school
but not its regular curriculum. It may be an incidental activity provided to the students
on need and demand basis. Here the especially appointed staff is only working on a
part time basis. In such an approach the counsellor may not be available when the
students need them and is not available to all the children but only to those having
problems. It is something like a school providing the school bus to only those students
who need transportation facility and that too on payment. In other words, guidance
and counselling is viewed here as ancillary service provided by the school to its students.

Activity 1
List any two reasons for integrating guidance with curriculum. Also
discuss any two ways in which guidance can be integrated or included
into your curriculum.

4.7 DESIGNING A GUIDANCE BASED CURRICULUM

A specialised guidance programme would need to be prepared for an explicit curriculum.
A curriculum for guidance for example, would take into account the individual needs
and social demands as a source from which to draw curriculum content. Such a
curriculum deals with the experiences of the learner both inside and outside the school,
as long as the activities are planned. Curriculum at the school stage, which implies the
sum total of experiences provided in a school, are now based on functional areas

62 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
of living such as family living and other personal relationships, civic responsibility,
vocational participation, leisure-time activities and also a philosophy of life
pertinent to all of these.
Designing a guidance curriculum is the first step in offering a guidance programme.
According to Myrick (2003) there are seven basic principles of a developmental school-
counselling programme:
• It is for all students.
• It has an organised and planned curriculum.
• It is sequential and flexible.
• It is an integrated part of the total educational process.
• It involves all school personnel.
• It helps students learn more effectively and efficiently.
• It includes counsellors who provide specialised counselling services and
interventions.
Myrick offers eight broad areas that might be typical of a school’s guidance curriculum:
• Understanding the school environment;
• Understanding self and others;
• Understanding attitudes and behaviours;
• Decision-making and problem-solving;
• Interpersonal and communication skills;
• School success skills;
• Career awareness and educational planning; and
• Community pride and involvement.
As far as the school guidance programme is concerned, Gysbers and Henderson
(1994) argue for a comprehensive guidance programme. According to them, the
programme of educational and vocational guidance comprises four components:
• Design of the Guidance Curriculum – The guidance curriculum is at the centre
of the developmental part of the comprehensive guidance programme. It
describes statements as to the goals for guidance instruction and the competencies
to be developed by the students. The curriculum is organised by grade level. It
is designed to serve all students and is often called a programme for classrooms
or large groups of students.
• Individual Planning – A guidance-based curriculum has a characteristic feature
where it trains the individual/student into handling his/her life situations better.
The activities related to the planning component are delivered or organised either
on a group or an individual basis. This is brought about by training the individual
in planning his/her personal, educational, and career development. They are helped
in understanding and monitoring the growth and development of their plans and
to take action on each consecutive step, educationally or vocationally.
• Responsive Services – The purpose of this component is to provide special help to
students who are facing problems that interfere with their healthy personal, social,
educational, or career development. It refers to the provision of preventive action
for the students who may have chosen an unhealthy or inappropriate solution to

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 63

 their problems or have been unable to cope with a situation. Remedial
interventions also are provided for students who have already made unwise
choices or have not coped well with problem situations. This component
includes such activities as individual and small group counselling (refer to the
Unit–1 on ‘Group Counselling’ in Module IX), consulting with staff and
parents and referring students and families to other specialists or programmes,
special educator, social worker, or medical specialists, etc.
• System Support – This component has two parts. It includes activities necessary
to support the above mentioned three components, and activities implemented
by guidance staff that support other educational programmes. Support that
the guidance programme needs include such activities as orientation of school
staff, identification and utilisation of community resources, budget, facilities
and policy support. Support that the guidance staff provides to the school
programme includes the assistance through individual planning activities e.g.,
choice of courses and activities by students, linkage with special education
programmes, and preparation of student records involving the school personnel.
So far you have seen how to design a guidance curriculum. Now we shall try
to understand how integration of a guidance programme can be achieved.
You are aware that guidance and counselling includes activities which could also
be explained in terms of a cluster of services such as orientation service, information
service, testing service and counselling service, etc. You are also aware that if some
services like orientation service or information service can be provided by a suitably
trained teacher, some others like counselling service would require a professionally
trained counsellor. Hence, for you to decide how a guidance programme should be
provided, you have to know whether there would be a professionally trained person
available at the school or should subject teachers in the school provide these.
Accordingly, a guidance programme offered through the school may either
encompass all services under guidance and counselling and hence be called a
“comprehensive guidance programme” or may follow an integrated approach through
teachers where guidance is provided by integrating it with various subject contents or
may be limited to only a few services and hence called a “partial guidance programme”
as it is limited in scope and partial in nature.

4.8 THE COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE PROGRAMME

As you have just read a “comprehensive guidance programme” is one that encompasses
all services under guidance and counselling. This programme when implemented by a
school requires that the school have a professionally trained guidance counsellor or a
teacher counsellor. For such a programme, the school must have a “School Guidance
Committee” to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate the school guidance programme.
It also envisages that the school has requisite facilities such as physical space in the
form of a counsellor’s room or guidance and counselling cell, infrastructure such as
furniture and technical resources such as psychological tests/tools, etc.

64 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 The guidance counsellor/teacher counsellor, under the advice of the school
guidance committee, chalks out a calendar of activities for the year. The academic
calendar lists all activities to be organised during the course of a year and the date/
month in which they are to be organised.
You are aware from Unit–3 on ‘Essential Guidance Services’ that a comprehensive
guidance programme on guidance and counselling includes a cluster of activities/
services from each of the orientation, information, assessment, counselling services,
etc. to achieve the guidance objectives. In an integrative programme these services
are infused in the regular academic calendar of the school. For example, in the beginning
of the session an orientation programme for the new entrants may be organised by the
teacher/counsellor wherein they may be told about the school, its syllabi, and rules,
etc. so as to develop in them a sense of familiarity and belonging. Other student
orientations may include such topics as awareness about the book bank facilities in
the library, where and how to pay fees, scholarships given and how to avail of them,
along with a welcome address by the Principal or by a faculty member or even a senior
student through an open discussion.
You already know that preparation of an individual database is another activity
that may be carried out. This database would be useful in helping the pupil to know
about self, monitor the educational development of the pupil and in conducting
meetings with the parents about their future. Teachers should be encouraged to
maintain a cumulative record card for each student. As part of the information service
the teacher may organise group guidance activities in the class depending on the needs
of the class. Other activities may include students presenting a skit/drama depicting

Self-check Exercise 2
Select a match to Column A from Column B for the following :
Column A Column B
1. Essential Guidance Services (a) Plans, implements monitors
and evaluates the school
guidance programme.
2. School Guidance Committee (b) Limited in scope as only few
of the guidance services are
provided.
3. Comprehensive Guidance (c) Include inputs from guidance
Programme services essential to achieve the
guidance objectives.
4. Integrated Approach to (d) Has inputs from all essential
Guidance guidance services rendered by
professionally trained personnel.
5. Partial Guidance (e) Integrating the guidance
Programme principles into the entire school
programme and practices.

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 65

the problems faced by them and how they have been able to overcome these. The teacher
might organise a career talk by a person who is working in that particular area. He/she
may be asked to deliver a talk covering his/her area of work, requirements for entry into
the job, pay and perks, advantages and disadvantages of the profession, how to apply, or
when to apply, etc. Similarly counselling, placement services have their specific functions
that have already been discussed in Unit–3.
Evaluation of Guidance Programme in School
Integration of guidance with the school curriculum would be incomplete if it did not
include the evaluation of its impact. Not only the teacher and parents, but also the
students need to know to what extent the school guidance programme has achieved its
objectives. They also need to know how school teachers and students benefited from
this programme. Hence, certain areas of individual development, which are the common
outcomes of the school guidance and counselling programme, need to be identified
and included for assessment.
4.9 INTEGRATING GUIDANCE THROUGH THE SUBJECT MATTER AREAS
Language
Language helps an individual to communicate. It helps a person to express his/her
thoughts and feelings. Providing children with the competency to make the best
use of language is in fact providing them with tools to share their ideas, joys and
sorrows with others. A discussion on the stories, biographies of eminent people
and relating them to self-concerns would help to integrate affective components
into language education. The potential for therapeutic and educational benefits
from stories and literature is increasingly being recognised. Bibliotherapy is now
being used to reduce the incidence of delinquent behaviour.
Social Science
As is understood by the name, social science is that aspect of school curriculum
that scientifically represents social reality, e.g. geography explains the science of
phenomenon like day, night, sea, desert and how they influence human life. Thus
by integrating a chapter on environment and human well-being the student can be
counselled into the need for healthy climatic conditions and the need to maintain
the environment around them.
Science and Mathematics
Programmes in science education should also be designed so as to enable the learner to
acquire problem solving and decision-making skills and to discover the relationship of
science with life. The protection of the environment, conservation of energy, population
education, and adolescence education, etc. are some of the important issues that may be
integrated through discussions and brain storming sessions. The integration of guidance
and counselling through the science curriculum should contribute to an understanding of
the physical aspects of self and environment and help to allay, anxiety, unnecessary fears
and thus contribute to the wholesome development of the individual. A good grounding

66 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
in mathematics can help students acquire personal
skills of precision, accuracy, systematic handling of problems
in day to day life, financial management, time management
and consumer skills.
Art for Emotional Expression
From the guidance point of view, art education becomes a
means of expression of feelings. Various forms of art like
drawing, painting, printing, collage, modelling, music,
dance and drama can become important
aids to personal-emotional
developmental expression. You will get
more details on this in Unit–4 on
‘Alternative Therapies’ in Module IX.
Exploration of various art forms
leads to an awareness of our rich heritage
and may open up many areas of work along with giving the individual the opportunity
to express his/her feelings in a more socially acceptable and less threatening way.
Work Education

Activity 2

Identify the guidance component in teaching the concepts in the specified subject
areas. One example is done for you.

Subject Guidance Purpose

Component
English
1. Essay Writing An essay on ‘Me Helps to understand
2. and My Family’. importance of
3. building healthy
relationship with
family members.
Science
1. Newton’s 3rd Law How one’s actions Improving
of Motion determine the other interpersonal
2. person’s reaction. relationships.
3.
Art
1. Portrait Drawing Crystallising self- Enhancing aware-
2. perception. ness of physical
3. self.

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 67

 Activity 2

Work Education
1. Training for Work Understanding the Knowledge of self,
Discipline work skills that the value system, etc.
2. child possesses.
3.
Health and Physical Education
1. Physical Training Importance of Relationship of
(P.T.) – physical exercises, physical health body and mind for
relaxation, yoga for good mental holistic health and
2. health. well-being.

Learning about work takes place in a variety of circumstances. Beneficial work that is given to
a child in accordance with his/her age and ability can help that child learn about the concept
of work, work values, basic scientific concepts, skills and creative expression. What is more is
that a child gains an identity and feels useful and productive through the work s/he does as the
work gives meaning and brings membership to the society. Work also trains a child in discipline,
which goes a long way in assisting the child in skills such as time management, regularity,
punctuality, etc. This knowledge of self and the understanding of the work-related values are
part of the basic guidance provided to growing children and therefore work education helps to
fulfill the basic aims of guidance and counselling.
Health and Physical Education for Healthy Living
Special units, programmes, or exercises can be developed and incorporated as a part of
this curriculum area to develop attitudes and skills that enhance physical, mental,
emotional and social well-being. AIDS education, adolescent education, environmental
protection, consumer skills, family/community living, personal grooming, etc. need to
be given special emphasis to prepare students for healthy and effective living.
In an integrated approach, teachers need to use their knowledge and skills of human
development, empathy, non-verbal communication, and unconditional positive regard
in the classroom. Such a shift would make the schools safe and learning a joyous
experience.

4.10 PARTIAL GUIDANCE PROGRAMME

In this form of guidance curriculum integration, not all aspects of the services are provided.
There are either a few services provided according to the needs of the school students or
according to the availability of infrastructure. For example, the school may counsel the
students for placement in different subject streams with the help of tests but may not
provide any further help in career matters as the school guidance cell is not equipped and
so refers its students to outside agencies.

68 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 4.11 Summary
The structured experiences provided by a school are broadly referred
to as the “curriculum.” Curricula are of different types, viz. explicit,
societal, hidden, and null. Also, there is a difference between the
curriculum-in-use and the received curriculum. Guidance could be
included in the school curriculum in the form of an “explicit guidance
curriculum”, or “guidance integrated curriculum,” and “subject-based
guidance curriculum.” Each of these has certain merits in so far as
achieving different objectives of guidance and counselling are
concerned. A comprehensive guidance programme is one that
provides all services under guidance and counselling. Such a
programme envisages certain pre-requisites like availability of a
trained guidance counsellor in the school, infrastructure and resource
support, and the establishment of a school guidance committee.
Incorporation of guidance services in the school curriculum would
necessitate incorporation of certain activities and experiences in the
academic calendar of the school. When a school, due to limitations,
is unable or handicapped in implementing a comprehensive guidance
programme, it can take recourse to a partial or an integrative one. A
partial guidance programme is one where the guidance services that
are essential are implemented only to a certain point. In integrative
guidance programme, however, the principles of guidance and its
goals are achieved by incorporating the aspect of guidance into the
subject matter rather than creating a separate subject on guidance
and counselling. Therefore, we see that there are ways in which
guidance can be made part of curriculum to facilitate academic
performance, social responsibility and individual health.

1. Discuss the ways of integrating guidance with curriculum.

2. Based on what you have read in this unit, discuss the critical points
that suggest the relevance of guidance in the school curriculum.
Self-Evaluation Exercises

Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises

1. Discuss the ways of integrating guidance with curriculum.
• Comprehensive guidance
• Integrative guidance
• Partial guidance
The reason for choosing any one of the above for your school should be
• availability of infrastructure,
• trained manpower or the lack of it, and
• policy or political initiative.
2. Some points that suggest the relevance of guidance in the school
curriculum may be:

G UIDANCE AND S CHOOL C URRICULUM 69

 • Guidance is required for the various domains of student’s life,
such as promoting personal development and healthy
interpersonal relationships.
• Earlier guidance and counselling were thought to be under the
parental and family responsibility. With the growing
complexity of human life and increasing school hours, this
responsibility too has shifted to the school.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercises

Self-check Exercise 1
A. Match the items in column A with the appropriate one in column B.
Column A Column B
(i) Explicit curriculum … (c) The written curriculum
(ii) Societal curriculum … (a) Informal by nature
(iii) Hidden curriculum … (e) Governed by teacher attitudes
(iv) The curriculum in-use … (b) Implemented curriculum
(v) The Null curriculum … (d) Not taught in school
B. Fill-in the blanks.
(i) Textbook is a part of the explicit curriculum.
(ii) Achievement tests measure the resultant learning from the in-use curriculum.
(iii) Parents are the implementers of the societal curriculum.
(iv) What is not taught in a school may belong to the null curriculum.
Self-check Exercise 2
1. c 2. a 3. d 4. e 5. b

References
Cortes, C.E. 1981. The societal curriculum: Implications for multiethnic
education. In J.A. Banks (Ed.), Education in the 80s: Multiethnic education.
National Education Association.
Eisner, E.W. 1994. The educational imagination: On design and evaluation of
school programs (3rd ed). Macmillan, New York.
Gysbers, N.C. and Henderson, P. 1994. Developing and managing your school
guidance and counselling program (2nd ed.). American Counselling Association,
Alexandria, VA.
Longstreet, W.S. and Shane, H.G. 1993. Curriculum for a new millennium.
Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
Myrick, R.D. 2003. Developmental guidance and counselling: A practical approach
(4th ed.). Education Media Corporation, Minneapolis, MN.
NCERT. 2005. National curriculum framework 2005. New Delhi: National
Council of Educational Research and Training.

70 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Guidance and LLearning
earning
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Objectives
5.2 What is Learning?
5.3 A Guidance Point of View
5.3.1 Factors Influencing Learning
5.3.1.1 Within School Factors
5.3.1.2 Outside School Factors
5.4 Role of Guidance in Facilitating Learning
5.4.1 Guidance in the Classroom: Some
Strategies
5.5 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
References
Suggested Readings
5.0 INTRODUCTION
You read in the previous unit how guidance
integrated with the school curriculum can
enrich the teaching-learning process and make
a school programme more meaningful to a
student. You also know that all children have
the potential to learn but some do not utilise the
school opportunities to their fullest extent.
Children need to be equipped with not only
academic skills but also emotional and
social skills to promote learning for the
development of a total personality.
In this unit, you will get to know about “learning,” how students learn, what
facilitates learning and how students may differ depending upon their learning
capabilities. You will also come to understand the process of learning and how
emotional blockades come in the way of learning. You will learn strategies to help
children and guide them in learning better and overcoming their debilities at the
school stage.

5.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• define the concept of learning.
• explain what factors influence the learning process.
• discuss individual differences and how they affect learning.
• explain the influence of factors that hamper the learning process.
• recognise debilities faced by some learners.
• explain how learning and guidance are related and how guidance could
maximise learning.
5.2 WHAT IS LEARNING?
Let us first understand what learning is and then proceed to understanding the different
factors that facilitate learning and finally understand how learning can be enhanced
through guidance.
Learning is “a relatively permanent change in behaviour or behaviour potential
that occurs as a result of experience.” Learning can result from both vicarious and
direct experiences. Vicarious means observing someone and learning from that
observation and not being directly involved in the experience. For example, a child
learns how to clap hands by seeing someone else do it. Learning also takes place
through direct experiences. For example, a child learns to write by practising writing.
There are certain distinctive characteristic features of learning that you need to
know in order to establish a proper understanding of the process of learning. These
characteristics of learning are:
• learning always involves some kind of experience, direct or indirect (vicarious).
• behavioural changes that occur due to these experiences are relatively permanent.
• learning is an inferred process, i.e. learning is not directly observable, it is seen
through changes in behaviour.
Behavioural changes that are due to maturation (i.e., the process of growth and
development that are common to all the members of a species and appear regardless
of individual heredity or environment) or due to temporary conditions such as, fatigue
or drug-induced states are not included as learning (Smith et al., 2003).
Learning
Experience  → Behavioural Change
This distinction can further be established with the help of the following conversation.
The example shows a discussion between a teacher and a parent to help parents
understand how children learn.
Parent – I don’t think my child has learnt the mathematical concepts very well.
Teacher – Children need a lot of practice for good learning as learning is called
modification of behaviour that comes through practice or training.
Parent – Oh! Yes, like a child learns to walk?
Teacher – No. When a child begins to walk, it is not learning, because learning
takes place only when either practice or experience cause a change in
behaviour. The process of walking happens not through learning but
through maturation i.e., the child is going to walk in any case, even if
he is not given any training or previous experience.
Parent – Then would you call maturation, learning?
Teacher – Maturation is a natural growth process that cannot be altered either
through practice or experience.
Parent – When a child learns to talk, is it learning or maturation?
Teacher – The child produces sounds of various sorts, this is called maturation.
But when he speaks English or Hindi or any other language it will be
called learning.

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 73

Parent – Teacher, I have a six-year-old child. He used to walk normally earlier but
after he met with an accident, he now walks with a limp. Is this learning?
Teacher – No. If he does not walk when he should have and there is a change in
his behaviour then the change is due to some damage either in the
muscular system or nervous system. This is not called learning.
Parent – Please explain again what could be called learning?
Teacher – When a child practises new behaviours and now can repeat it without
effort, it is learned, e.g. a new unheard song when repeatedly practised
so that it is repeated without effort is said to be learned. Therefore
good learning of any subject would depend upon increased practice
till it can be produced naturally.
Parent – Why is one student faster and a better learner than another?
Teacher – Some students are faster and better learners because certain factors in
their environment help them to learn better. Professionals term these
factors as facilitating factors, e.g. a separate study room available to
the child, books and other materials, parental encouragement or
support. While other students may have factors in their environment
that negatively affect their learning, for example, noise in and around
the house or school, no separate space for study, non-motivating
parents, etc.
The traditional methods of teaching and learning are based on objectivist view of
knowledge. Objectivism is based on the assumption that knowledge is objective,
universal and complete and it can be imparted by those who have it to those who do
not have it. In contrast, there is constructivist paradigm which is based on the
assumption that knowledge is subjective, contextual and inherently partial. In the
constructivist perspective, learning is a process of the construction of knowledge.
Learners actively construct their own knowledge by connecting new ideas to existing
ideas on the basis of materials/activities presented to them (experience).
According to constructivists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Novak and Posner, the
basic characteristics of constructivism are (Sharma, 2006):
• Learning is not a passive receptive process but is instead an active meaning-
making process required to solve meaningful problems.
• New learning depends on learner’s previous knowledge, which may sometimes
interfere with the understanding of new information.
• Learning implies the reorganisation of prior experience.
• Learning is facilitated by social interaction.
• Meaningful learning occurs in their authentic learning tasks.
Teachers, therefore, need to engage the learners through relevant activities related
to learners’ prior experience in order to facilitate construction of knowledge.
Constructivism indicates that each learner individually and socially constructs meaning
as s/he learns. The teacher needs to present material which is personally and contextually
relevant so that it has meaning for the learner. Constructing meaning is learning. Thus,
constructivist perspective provides strategies for promoting learning by all.

74 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 The above discussion presents various perspectives on how learning takes place
and how it gets facilitated. This will be further discussed in detail later in this unit.
The focus of this unit is on how guidance could aid learning. We shall therefore discuss
what is the guidance approach to learning.
On the basis of what you have learned from the above discussion try and answer the
following exercise to strengthen your understanding of learning and other related concepts.

Self-check Exercise 1
Put a (P) mark against the sentences which are examples of learning and
a (×) mark against sentences which are examples of maturation and NA for
neither of the above.
(i) Child begins to emit sounds. ( )
(ii) A person learns to dance in a few years. ( )
(iii) Child begins to speak in Hindi. ( )
(iv) Due to fracture in the right arm, the person
can only scribble than write. ( )
(v) You can play guitar. ( )

5.3 A GUIDANCE POINT OF VIEW

Guidance and learning are very closely related. Sprinthal (1971) considered the function
of guidance as establishing a “relationship of a developing cognitive maturity, or so-
called mastery of subject matter, to a developing personal or psychological maturity
of the self.” According to him today’s students are caught in the cross currents of the
need for academic achievement at the possible expense of overall development, or
are caught in a mismatch between high aspirations and low performance at the high
school level. Such disparities produce an ever-increasing number of dissatisfied
youngsters. Thus we have little choice but to take the problem of total development
seriously. This is where guidance acts as facilitator to learning. To ensure the “total
development”, guidance personnel must look out for
factors that influence learning and help students to
achieve to their maximum. Before discussing the
guidance approach, we will first discuss the
factors that influence learning.
5.3.1 Factors Influencing Learning
You may have observed that every class is
a miniature world and children vary in their
capacities to learn. Some are very quick to
grasp concepts, others need several
repetitions, while still others may be bright
but are not motivated.

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 75

 An attempt would be made here to bring out some reasons, from amongst the
host of reasons, that are responsible for faster and slower rates of learning. If the
individuals were equipped with normal intellectual ability and if an environment
conducive to smooth learning is available, easier learning would result. When a mind
is fully alert and aroused, learning is quick and retained. As a guidance counsellor you
need to also understand that a student may be unable to learn because:
• There were certain debilities in the recipient and hence, whatever was given by
the teacher was not received.
• Certain emotional reasons such as fear created by the teacher in class or parental
pressure, etc. may have acted as barrier in receiving or assimilating information
delivered by the teacher.
• Learning material is not suitable and was not imparted properly and systematically.
Thus, there are various factors that influence learning, some of the prominent
influencing factors have been categorised as:
• Within school factors – student, teacher factors and school curriculum and practices.
• Outside school factors – family environment and other social influences.

Factors Influencing Learning

Fig 5.1 Flow chart depicting factors influencing learning

5.3.1.1 Within School Factors

There are a number of factors that can be found within a school environment that
will influence learning. These factors range from the school itself, the classroom
environment, the competency of the teachers, the curriculum being taught, and the
influence of the peers of the students attending that institution. We will examine

76 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
each separately but remember that all of the factors can work to either encourage or
discourage the development of the student.
School Factors
Goffman (1961) analyses a school as a place children do not choose to enter, but
rather are enrolled by agents of society. Once given the degree of control, the institution
can then use a series of strategies so that children are forced to comply. The student
has no particular rights but rather is given a series of duties that s/he is expected to
perform. When a person operates in the prescribed manner he is called normal and
well-behaved. The number of adjustments the student must make, of course, ultimately
drains away his own individuality and initiative. The high level of anxiety that can be
created through, direct and indirect influences by an institution called “school” virtually
assures that the student must accept the control and forfeit direct influence over his
own life. The school factors have been broadly classified as follows:
School/Classroom Environment
A child on the first day of school leaves the secure family and home environment and
is introduced to a new setting that creates a lot of anxiety in the child. Thus, if the
guidance counsellor/teacher makes special efforts to orient the parents to prepare
the child to enter school and orients school staff to create a warm and accepting
environment to reduce the anxieties of the child s/he can have a good initiation into
education. A school that has a punishing, exacting, noncreative or indifferent
environment will have a detrimental effect on the child’s learning process.
When the child moves out from the home, s/he sees the teacher as the final authority
on whatever s/he teaches. In fact, as soon as the child enters the school, s/he takes
the teacher as a parent replica and develops a dependence on the teacher. They not
only follow what the teachers say but even what they do, just like a child imitates his/
her parents. A guidance oriented teacher has the skills of communication, i.e.
communicates caring and understanding, encourages questioning, has patience to
answer queries, ability to look at things from child’s perspective, insight into child’s
needs, aspirations and limitations, stimulates the imagination and creativity of the
child, can produce keen, enthusiastic and efficient learners.
Teacher Competence
You would perhaps agree that teacher to a great extent is responsible for creating the
motivation in the learner through meaningful organisation of the material, looking to
the interest and maturity level of the children to hold their attention. Encouraging,
questioning, discussion in the classroom, listening to problems and difficulties of the
learners, helping them to understand their strengths and deficiencies are some of the
other ways which could enhance the learning outcomes.
Arranging visits to places outside school for observation, trying out things in the
form of experiments either in classroom or at home, should be an essential ingredient
of transaction of any subject. It is well established that teacher should have the skills to
relate the subject matter and other experiences in school with real life experiences to

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 77

 bring classroom learning closer to real life. The Unit–4 on ‘Guidance and
School Curriculum’ has discussed how guidance integrated with subject
matter teaching could contribute to this goal. It
is also necessary that each pupil participates in
various activities and contributes actively in it.
Some teachers however are preoccupied
with covering the text regardless of whether
the covered material is of any meaning to the
pupil. The real purpose of the lesson, its
objective or outcomes for the pupil may be
missing.
Some teachers do not have access to good instructional material, lack skills to
compose a lesson, and impart it in a fragmented way, while others may give unrealistic
assignments and measure the academic performance based on rote memory not
resulting in learning with understanding.
School Curriculum
The school and their curriculum are not much of a pleasure for many students. The
problems such as overload of the curriculum, its irrelevance, emphasis on rote memory,
etc. are well known. Further more the syllabus is also not planned in a way that the
child can relate the subject content to his/her life, resulting in lack of interest. Learning
in such situations is inhibited as the child is not interested and cannot comprehend
the learning material and learning becomes burdensome. Moreover, the syllabus does
very little if at all to address the personal-social needs of a growing child. Most of the
times the syllabus is a reflection of the educational needs of the child, with very little
consideration for the child’s total growth and development.
Thus, classroom activities in schools are generally geared to meet the examination
expectation making academic pursuit more of a stress than pleasure. Both teachers
and parents have one channel communication with their children “have you finished
your homework?” If not, the child is liable for punishment. So children learn to be
ready everyday for punishment, keeping even their safety valves ready. As soon as
they feel the parent/teacher is going too far, they draw their safety valve. This is the
beginning of their learning retardation, as they go to higher classes, the learning
retardation also continues to grow. We hear parents complaining that “earlier this
child was much better in studies and was quite obedient, but now-a-days, s/he neither
listens to us nor studies.”
Hence, schools need to design the curriculum in such a manner so as to make it
suitable for the overall growth of the children. It needs to reflect the needs and
aspirations of growing society. The merits of a good curriculum and therefore good
education are, in fact, vested in giving primacy to the experiences, voices and active
participation of children. Generally, children’s voices and experiences do not find
expression in the classroom. Often the only voice heard is that of the teacher. When
children speak, they are usually only answering the teacher’s questions or repeating
the teacher’s words. They rarely do things, nor do they have opportunities to take

78 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
initiative. The curriculum must enable children to find their voices, nurture their
curiosity—to do things, to ask questions and to pursue investigation, sharing and
integrating their experiences with school knowledge—rather than their ability to
reproduce textual knowledge. Reorienting the curriculum to this end must be among
our highest priorities (National Curriculum Framework 2005). As teachers and parents,
we need to remember that:
– All children are naturally motivated to learn and are capable of learning.
– Making meaning and developing the capacity for abstract thinking, reflection
and work are the most importance aspects of learning.
– Children learn in a variety of ways—through experience, making and doing
things, experimentation, reading, discussion, asking, listening, thinking and
reflecting, and expressing oneself in speech, movement or writing—both
individual and with others. They require opportunities of all these kinds in
the course of their development.
A guidance-oriented curriculum is designed to meet the developmental needs of
students and is connected to life outside school. It would develop healthy work attitudes
and skills to help students lead a productive and fulfilling life. However, in the absence
of such ingredients, the curriculum becomes a source of distress to the child and the
inclination to learn vanishes. For more details, you can refer to Unit–4 on ‘Guidance
and School Curriculum’ of Module I.
Student Factors
Intelligence
This term, although, has been defined by various authors in various ways, its meaning
is yet to be comprehended fully. Some define intelligence as ability to deal with signs
and symbols while others consider it an ability to meet new and challenging situations.
Weschler (1950) defined it as a “global capacity of an individual to think rationally,
to act purposefully and to deal effectively with the environment.”
Alfred Binet, in the early years of 20th century came up with the concept of mental
age to measure intelligence. Mental age according to him, “is the average performance
of children of a given chronological age (Actual age in years and months).” He devised
a test to measure intelligence using “mental age” as his criteria of intelligence. This
test was first of its own kind. It was William Stern (1912) who devised the term
Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.), a ratio between mental age and chronological age.
The term has gradually evolved and undergone change. Contemporary
understanding on intelligence describes it in terms of several specific abilities.
Thurstone (1938) was the first one to propose that intelligence is the product of
several factors, namely, verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, inductive reasoning,
spatial visualisation, number, memory and perceptual speed.
Recent thinking on intelligence refers it not only to the mental abilities needed to
adapt to the environment but it also includes emotional maturity and stability. This
concept of intelligence has gained both popularity and research attention and is
scientifically referred to as Emotional Intelligence. People high on Emotional

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 79

Intelligence are self-aware and know how to handle one’s own and other’s emotions
successfully. They are emotionally smart enough to succeed at professional and social
front and keep their lives in a balanced state. You will further gain understanding on
this issue in Module VI in the Unit on ‘Understanding Intelligence and Its Assessment’.
Maturation
Like intelligence, maturation is also a biologically determined phenomenon, and can
be enhanced or hampered by the environment but only to a certain degree. According
to Burton (1962), “Maturation is a natural process of growing, developing, or ripening.
It is referred to as an observable change in cells, nerves, muscles, bones and organs.”
The process of maturation continues till a child attains adulthood. Children differ in
their rate of maturation. Those who mature faster are ready to learn faster than those
who mature slowly. A counsellor keeping in mind the maturational needs and changes
in case of developmental delays can take corrective measures and suggest educational
and learning methods best suited for the child.
Aptitude
How good a student is at mathematical calculations, or drawing figures, or singing or
making toys is an indication of his/her aptitude for maths or drawing or music or
making toys. Aptitude may be understood as potential to benefit from training in a
specific area, e.g. musical aptitude, scientific aptitude, clerical aptitude etc. If a child’s
aptitude is measured through aptitude testing programme and if right kind and amount
of training is provided in that area, s/he can excel in his/her field of learning. A
guidance-oriented teacher would make use of qualitative and standardised techniques
to assess the aptitudes of students. Refer to the Unit–1 on ‘Assessment of Interest,
Aptitude and Achievement’ in Module XIII for more details.
Learning Difficulties
You already know from the above discussion on intelligence and aptitude that all
individuals have unique characteristics and potentials, which if identified and nurtured
can facilitate learning. However learning can get adversely affected by deficiencies
present in the learners with or without their knowledge.
The child may not have the required mental ability. Some students with mild or
moderate mental retardation are not able to do as well as children with normal or
above normal intelligence. Parents or teachers may be unaware of the deficiency,
blame the child for not doing well, and thus further aggravating the performance.
Learning can also get adversely affected by physical problems such as deformities,
sensory deficiencies (poor hearing or vision), poor motor co-ordination (affecting
handling of pencil/pen), speech disorders, etc.
Another disorder is known as “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” In the
literature on classification of disabilities (DSM-IIIR, 1987), it is characterised by
inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. The child is fidgety, restless, and unable
to either sit at one place or keep his attention at one point.
Basic skills of reading, writing and numerical work lay the foundation for good
learning in class. Disabilities that can be found in students in these areas as given in

80 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV (1994) are briefly given below:
Reading Problems/Difficulties : Include problems in word recognition, and reading
comprehension causing omissions, distortions and substitution of words and is
characterised by slow halted reading.
Mathematical Problems/Difficulties : Include disabilities such as impairment in
understanding and naming mathematical terms, concepts, and operations, reading
numerical symbols, or signs, following mathematical steps, counting objects, learning
multiple tables.
Difficulties in Written Expression : Include debilities such as impairment in composing
written text, spelling errors, grammatical or punctuation errors, poor paragraph
organisation etc.
Phonological Difficulties/Disabilities : Include a consistent failure to make correct
articulation of speech sounds at the developmentally appropriate age. The speech
sounds that are mostly misarticulated are (r, sh, th, f, z, I and ch). In some cases b, m,
t, d, n, and h may also be mispronounced.
Difficulty/Disability Related to Language Expression : Includes limited vocabulary, difficulty
in acquiring new words, vocabulary errors such as substitution, overgeneralisation,
shortened sentences, simplified grammatical structure, limited use of verbs,
imperatives, questions, omission of critical parts of sentences, unusual word order,
tangential responses and slow rate of language development.
Difficulty/Disability Related to Language Receptivity : Includes difficulty in understanding
complex sentences e.g., “If then” sentences, deficits in discrimination of sounds,
association of sounds and symbols, storage, recall and sequencing. If the school has
counsellor/teacher-counsellor who is trained in the method of identifying children
with these problems and then suggesting interventions, school could handle dropout
and slow learners, etc. better.
Emotional Blockage : We have already discussed how emotional maturity facilitates
learning. Scores of learning problems are generated by emotional imbalance in an
individual? Do you know that perceptions of reality, assimilation of information, the
responses to new experiences also get adversely affected by emotions and consequently,
learning suffers.
An individual’s emotional pattern is established during first few years of life mainly
at home the contributors being mother or mother surrogate and father. School is one
of the peripheral factors that influence the emotional development of the personality.
Influence of family structures has been discussed under family factors. Lesser the
congeniality at home, lesser are the chances of children becoming emotionally stable,
and more the emotional instability at home greater the problems of inattention, lack
of concentration and motivation. A less attentive child with concentration problem
is likely to have learning difficulties.
In situations as explained above, mind can go blank. Since logic, or reasoning fails
in a given situation, the nature comes to the rescue, by drawing a blank, creating a
blockade, and reducing, or stopping the inputs. For a short period of time an individual
develops selective perception, and is saved of taking things that are punishing and
G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 81
self-destructive. The more the occurrence of such unmanageable events in the life of
an individual, more are the number of such blockades experienced.
Everytime there is an emotional situation, the individual uses his/her “safety valve”
of selective perception and blocks the unpleasant incoming information. Once this
habit is formed, every time the individual feels, that s/he is incapable of handling a
situation, s/he uses his/her safety valve. Soon this process of drawing a blank gets
generalised. The child starts suffering from it, even during classroom teaching. This
reduces his/her instructional input, i.e. while the teacher is teaching, the child may
look attentive and keen to understand, but the spoken words may not convey much
meaning to him/her and, therefore, the essence of the lesson may escape him/her.

Discuss with fifteen students. List the specific causes and factors that are
acting as deterrent for their learning.

5.3.1.2 Outside School Factors

It is the outside school factors like home, community and other larger social and
media influences which lay the foundation for good learning habits, attitudes and
skills that a child would acquire. The family resources available to child for learning,
their aspirations for the child to achieve well also serve as facilitators to learn. We
shall now discuss these factors briefly.
Family Factors
A child’s first encounter, after his birth is with the family. Whether he is received
warmly, lovingly, eagerly, dutifully or grudgingly or not welcomed at all will decide, to
quite an extent, his acceptability of life in general. There are numerous studies indicating
the significance of parenting style in the development of well-adjusted or maladjusted
children. Parents who can experience and exhibit in clear forms love, concern, regard
and respect for the child lay the foundations for positive attributes of
personality. Family also transmits to the child moral,
social and ethical values of a given society and helps
in formation of positive or negative attitudes
towards school, teacher, knowledge
and learning in general. Researches
have shown that children coming
from secure and encouraging family
background are likely to have better
self perceptions to give them confidence
to be better learners than children coming
from broken and non encouraging
background. We shall briefly discuss each of
these factors separately.

82 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
Family Relationships and Environment
Some families that can be called disturbed families, constitute of members constantly
at war with each other. The husband and wife do not have much agreement with each
other. In their naggings and in-fighting children are enmeshed, who suffer severe
loneliness, anger and frustration.
In some cases the outburst may not be overt and violent, but the undercurrent of
the disturbed relationship does reach the child, e.g. instead of taking it out on each
other directly, prefer to make child as their target. Saying things like “you are as stupid
as your mother is” or “you are as irrational as your father” etc., are misplaced
frustrations. Unable to understand the meaning of such communication s/he is
overcome by loneliness and anxiety.
Much worse is the situation for a child who is unwanted. S/he is constantly bullied,
insulted, made to feel guilty for having come untimely. Here again the child is unable to
comprehend the reality and can only experience and assimilate the insults thrown on
him/her.
Further problems arise when the failures start to influence their future prospects
causing severe stress that further curtails their learning. It is in such cases that
educational guidance can provide a much needed support to the child (please refer to
Unit–9 on ‘Family Counselling and Family Therapy’ in Module II).
Parental Aspirations and Expectations
Parental aspirations and expectations of a child can be facilitating to his/her learning
if they are in moderation and come along with serious guidance and help. These
aspirations and expectations however can work against the child if the parents over
expect from their child. Unrealistic demands placed on the child can rob him/her of
the self-respect and self-esteem.
While doing so, the parents curb the individuality and creativity of the child and
bereft him of the freedom of action and decision-making. Psychologists have explained
academic failure in terms of unconscious satisfaction derived from hostility usually
directed towards some member of the family who demands scholastic success (Kirk,
1952; Shaw et al., 1960). Sometimes the child is too young to interpret his/her position
and seeks professional help and finally it becomes a habit or a position, which is very
hard to grow out of.
Social Influences
Learning is influenced by the environmental factors like the socio-cultural background
of the child. As a counsellor we need to sensitise the teachers in the use of culture
specific pedagogy so that learning taking place in school does not alienate the child
from its cultural milieu. If the child is able to relate with the experiences at schools to
that at home and the surroundings then it appears meaningful to him/her.
Learning opportunities are also, to a great extent, affected by socio-economic
conditions, educational policy provisions, cultural norms and practices prevailing in
a society. Community based biases such as gender, caste, etc. do come in the way of

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 83

learning for certain groups. For example, children from deprived and disadvantaged
backgrounds are often deprived of good quality education. Counsellors are trained to
identify the social issues and attitudes that need to be changed and organize large-
scale community awareness programmes for parents, teachers, administrators, and
other groups which can contribute to desired social changes.

Given below is a list of situations which affect school learning. Each statement
reflects the effect of one of the factors discussed in the preceding pages, e.g.
school environment, parental expectations, emotional blockage, etc. For each
statement, write the title of the factor given in the space.
Example: Most parents wish their child to score high. Parental
Aspirations and Expectations
1. A family where parents and children share their experiences on a day-to-day
basis.
2. A student due to the death of a loved one shows less interest in studies.

3. An otherwise intelligent child who has speech problems gradually becomes

a backbencher.
4. A slow learner is not able to cope up with the instruction speed of the class.

5. Student’s evaluation is strictly based on the subject matter or academic

excellence.
6. A teacher who doesn’t listen to the difficulties faced by students and
discourages classroom participation.

5.4 ROLE OF GUIDANCE IN FACILITATING LEARNING

The main contention in the above-mentioned argument is that learning is an experience.
The content or subject matter of learning may be anything, ranging from buttoning a
shirt to abstract metaphoric language.
The counsellor or the guidance oriented teacher can come to the help of the
unhappy student by finding out the discomforting reasons for under-achievement and
make efforts to help the children understand the difficulties and problems faced and
what can be done by him/her to change the situation or behaviour which would
facilitate better performance.
Having understood the factors that influence learning, we must try to figure out
how principles of guidance can help facilitate the process of learning.
Barr (1958) defines guidance as “the process of helping individuals to assess their
abilities and liabilities and to use that knowledge effectively.” Peters and Farwell
(1956) believe that “guidance as an education construct involves those experiences
which assist each pupil to understand himself/herself, accept himself/herself and

84 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
live effectively in society.” Guidance is also defined as a process of assisting individuals
and groups to develop realistic and satisfying goals, plans and activities.
These definitions and many more, emphasise the knowledge of one’s self, i.e.
assets and liabilities, accepting and utilising the assets, and getting rid of deficiencies
for effective adjustment, as the goals of guidance. Carl Rogers (1961) goes further to
state that, individual has the basic tendency to actualise, maintain and enhance himself/
herself. This ongoing tendency, called self-actualisation according to him, is the final
goal of guidance for each child. The role of the guidance worker hence is to find out
reasons, which do not allow the child to take advantage of his/her inherited
endowments or drive for self-actualisation. In other words, the counsellor must ask
question like:
“Why is it that students are not able to use their energies to overcome their deficits
and grasp the skills taught in the classroom?” By skills is meant reading, writing,
relevant speaking, attentive listening etc. If the child possesses normal health,
understands and follows directions, then why should he not be able to benefit from
the classroom interactions?
This is where “Guidance” as a resource moves in. A trained guidance worker is
equipped to assess the learning potential of the child. His training has also helped
him to understand the impact of environment on the learner. Therefore guidance
approach can be of great help in facilitating learning and realising the learning potential
of children in a given environmental context.
The learning potentials can be realised best under certain facilitating conditions
or ingredients of learning.
Guidance personnel provide an opportunity to students to understand their basic
potentialities and abilities, needs, aspirations so that they can make the best of their
assets and do not get upset by their short comings, which might be due to certain inherent
deficiencies present in them, over which they have no control. Guidance also aims at
providing help in achieving a study/learning style most suited to the concerned individual.
Another area in which educational guidance works is by helping the student learn
how to adjust and manipulate the environment so that it is least inhibiting and most
facilitating to learning. In cases, where barriers are present, the inflow of information
or instruction is obstructed. For example, in the class, the child’s mind wanders to the
fight she had witnessed at home in the morning between his/her father and mother or
the scolding s/he got because she had not finished his/her homework. She may be
running again and again over the scenes and experiencing the pain while the teacher
is teaching an important topic.
This may give rise to distress in the child. Such children even if they have the
required abilities are not achieving to their maximum as they are not benefiting from
the interactions in the class and therefore, their learning gets affected. Such a child if
identified by the teacher can be referred to the counsellor for counselling. Understanding
and acceptance communicated during counselling can help the child, express
understand his/her difficulties freely, find relief as a result of emotional release and

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 85

is encouraged to think of ways to overcome the problems. For students with common
problems small group counselling can be organised.
One of the essential ingredients for learning to take place is motivation. Motivation
is a mental as well as a physiological state, which propels an organism to act for
fulfilling the current need. In other words motivation energises an organism to act
vigorously for attaining some goal. Such acts persist until the goal is attained and the
need is satisfied. Therefore motivation is a prerequisite not just for learning but for
any purposive behaviour an organism indulges in.
Sometimes due to lack of motivation the child is not ready to learn or does not
make any effort towards learning activity. The lack of motivation may be due to the
following factors like when the individual has not matured physically to perform some
task and therefore is not ready to learn. As the child is burdened with learning of task
not appropriate to his/her physical development, learning will not take place or will
be poor. For example a three-year-old child whose finger muscles have not developed
properly, is made to fill up pages of alphabets, in such a case, learning will be poor. It
will also affect the psychological readiness pertaining to an individual’s level of
concentration, attention, and interest in the task, and may influence his likes or dislikes
for further academic work. A guidance counsellor can help in designing
developmentally appropriate instructional material to bring about motivation to learn.
As a counsellor, you realise the barriers in the process of learning and we also
frame the specific kind of programme that can be offered to the students to overcome
their debilities. Guidance also realises the existence of individual differences in students.
It means that students differ in their intelligence, aptitude, interest, personality, etc.
The concept of individual differences has already been explained that no two persons
are similar and these differences can be accounted for either by difference in the
inherent capacities or environmental influences and learning has to be designed keeping
in view the varied interests, attitudes and other characteristics of children.
Improvising the teaching learning material to cater to the individual needs of the
students, yields better results. A counsellor also realises the importance of providing
situations for creative expressions. An atmosphere that is non-threatening, non-
judgmental and does not involve personalisation of issues helps to develop creativity
amongst the students and makes learning joyful.
5.4.1 Guidance in the Classroom: Some Strategies
The following techniques could prove helpful in your classroom to facilitate
student learning:
• Teachers have a tendency to impose on children, what they think is right. Questions
asked in the class are generally not appreciated, particularly if the question is out
of context. You need to encourage questioning by listening and answering, paying
due regard and respect by giving them your attention when they express opinions,
ideas, beliefs. Praise or reward for an original idea or doing a good deed to others
may be rewarded by a smile, a pat, a look of approval.
• Engage the students, and assign responsibilities, e.g. running administration

86 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 of school for a day, plan the
school fair etc.
• Encourage class discussions,
and expression of opinions
and listening to others to help
the child to analyse his own
thinking and also appreciate
the others point of view.
• Guide to encourage the
children to express opinions
and feelings, which would
help to release the pent-up
energy and develops habit of
free expression. Parents may also be oriented about effects of appreciation,
approval, respect or rejection, reprimand or rebuff, etc. on children.
• Arrange joint sessions or brainstorming sessions for parents, teachers and students
to sort out problems of inattention, aggression, conduct disorder like stealing and
cheating in the classroom and at home, or any other behavioural problem.
• Programmes for spreading awareness amongst parents and teachers need to
emphasise: importance of equal distribution of resources and facilities to all
children irrespective of any prejudices against any child; adverse consequences
of indiscriminate punishment and harshness; and advantages of rewarding the
child for taking initiative, responsibility, decisions, etc.
• Include a special educator or ‘learning disability specialist’ in the guidance team
to diagnose children with specific learning difficulties. Help must be provided to
these children, lest they end up as underachievers.
• Help overachievers who are an asset to school. Their originality and creativity has
got subdued due to conventional teaching and examination methods, counsellors
can help by having an ongoing programme of stimulating activities, and exposure
to challenges they are capable of handling. Extra skills or knowledge which is not
covered in regular curriculum can be imparted.

Given below is a case of a child with a poor performance in mathematics:

• What are the likely consequences on the child’s attitude towards learning if
(a) s/he is punished for a small mistake.
(b) s/he is rewarded for a small achievement.
Write a small report of this situation.

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 87

 Learning is a natural process but it can be facilitated or hampered by
certain natural or unnatural forces. Learning is defined as a behaviour
that is originated, or changed, through practice and training. There
are various forces influencing the learning process, main amongst these
are heredity and environment. Intelligence, maturation and aptitudes
are the major inherent capacities that affect learning. Limitations in
any area will deter the learner from achieving his desired goals. Certain
genetic or congenital defects whether obvious or observable and subtle
or unobservable may or may not get detected, but they do cast a
shadow on a child’s learning capacity. Environmental factors
originating in family, educational institutions and from teacher’s
attitudes and interactions play a definite contributory role in a child’s
learning capacity. It is the work of a guidance worker to assess the
positive or negative contribution of inherent as well as environmental
factors on the child keeping individual differences in mind. S/he must
find out the deterring effects of each of these influences on each
child. A healthy child with all the necessary potentials may turn out
to be a poor learner due to emotional blockades.
It is, therefore, for the guidance worker to organise programmes
for locating these deficits and initiate strategies to help remove as
many blockades as is possible. Since individuals differ with respect
to learning, guidance personnel make use of psychological methods
to assess individual differences. In this unit, we have discussed that
learning and guidance are closely related for bringing about total
development of a student. Guidance personnel can help to enhance
learning by motivating the student and working on removal of the
hampering factors related to personal debilities of learners, teacher’s
attitudes and teaching practices, home and school environment.

1. Discuss the concept of learning in the context of education.

2. Explain the factors influencing classroom learning with the help of
suitable examples for each factor.
3. Discuss the various learning difficulties faced by a student.
4. Explain how guidance can facilitate and contribute to learning in school.
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
1. Evaluate you answer on the following points:
• Learning is taking place all the time without the person being
aware of it.
• Learning is described as permanent change in behaviour occurring
as a result of experience.
88 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 • What an individual will learn depends on how and what kind of
experiences are provided by home and school.
• Education has an important role in providing need-based
experiences suited to the maturity level, interest, cultural
background, etc. of the child.
• Learning is directed towards a specific end and various constituents
of the educational system like curricular, teacher, etc. help to
achieve these goals.
2. The answer should focus on the influence of factors like curriculum
characteristics, school/classroom environment, teacher competence
and individual characteristics, family factors, social influences in
facilitating or impeding learning. Give examples of each from school/
home situation.
3. Explain the learning difficulties such as
• reading/mathematical problems,
• difficulties in written expression and discrimination of sounds, etc.,
• limited vocabulary.
4. Explain what is guidance and how guidance can help students learn
to the best of their capacity.
• How understanding the child helps in creating a motivating and
satisfying environment to learn.
• Guidance principles and practices can assist the individual to utilise
his/her abilities and minimise the difficulties faced in learning.
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
Self-check Exercise 1
Put a (P) mark against the sentences which are examples of learning and a (×)
mark against sentences which are examples of maturation and NA for neither of
the above.
(i) Child begins to emit sounds. (×)
(ii) A person learns to dance in a few years. (P)
(iii) Child begins to speak in Hindi. (P)
(iv) Due to fracture in the right, arm the person can
only scribble than write. (NA)
(v) You can play guitar. (P)
Self-check Exercise 2
1. A family where parents and children share their experiences on a day-to-day
basis. Family Environment
2. A student due to the death of a loved one shows less interest in studies.
Emotional Blockage
3. An otherwise intelligent child who has speech problems gradually becomes a
backbencher. Learning Difficulties

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 89

 4. A slow learner is not able to cope up with the instruction speed of the class.
Individual Differences
5. Student’s evaluation is strictly based on the subject matter or academic excellence.
School Curriculum
6. A teacher who doesn’t listen to the difficulties faced by students and discourages
classroom participation. Teacher Competence

American Psychiatric Association. 1987. Diagnostic and statistical manual

of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Author, Washington, DC.
American Psychiatric Association. 1994. Diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders (4th ed.). Author, Washington, DC.
Barr, A.J. 1958. The elementary teacher and guidance. Henry Holt and Co.,
New York.
Burton, W. H. 1962. The guidance of learning activities. Appleton-Century-
Crofts, Inc., New York.
Goffman, E. 1961. Asylums. Doubleday, Anchor, New York.
Kirk, B. A. 1952. Test versus academic performance in malfunctioning
students. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 16, 213-216.
NCERT. 2005. National curriculum framework 2005. National Council of
Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
Peters, H. J. and Farwell, G. F. 1956. What is guidance? Ohio Schools,
XXXIV.
Rogers, C. R. 1961. On becoming a person. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Sharma, S. (Ed.) 2006. Constructivist approaches to teaching and learning :
Handbook for teachers of secondary stage. National Council of Educational
Research and Training, New Delhi.
Shaw, M. C. et al. 1960. The self-concept of bright underachieving school
students as reverted by an adjective checklist. The Personnel and Guidance
Journal, 39, 193-196.
Smith, E. E., Hoeksema, S. N., Fredrickson, B. L., Loftus, G. R., Bem,
D. J. and Maren, S. 2003. Atkinson and Hilgard’s Introduction to psychology
(14th ed.). Wadsworth, Thomson.
Sprinthall, A. 1971. Guidance for human growth. Van Nostrand Rainhold
Co., New York.
Stern, W. 1912. Die psychologischess methoden der intelligence Prujung;
quoted by Bentley M. – Op. cit p. 440.
Thurstone, L. L. 1938. Primary mental abilities. Psychometric Monographs, No. I.
Wechsler, D. 1950. Intellectual development and psychological maturity.
Child Development, 21 (1).

90 INTRODUCTION TO G UIDANCE
 Bhattacharya, M. (Ed.) 1986. National education policy, 1986 and
Programme of action. All India Federation of University and College
Teachers’ Organisation, Calcutta.
Gnagey, W.J., Chesebro, P. A. and Johnson, J. J. 1972. Learning environments.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Hilgard, E. R. 1951. Methods and procedures in the study of learning. In
S. S. Stevens (Ed.), Handbook of experimental psychology. Wiley, New York.
Novak, J. 1993. Human constructivism: A unification of psychology
and epistemological phenomena in meaning making. International Journal
of Personal Construct Psychology.
Peters, H. J. and Farwell, G. F. (1959). Guidance: A developmental approach.
RandMcNally and Co., Chicago.
Piaget, J. 1936, 1977. The origin of intelligence in the child. Penguin Education,
England.

G UIDANCE AND L EARNING 91

 Group Guidance
Group
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Objectives
6.2 Group Guidance and Its Significance
6.2.1 Inspires Learning and Understanding
6.2.2 Provides a Therapeutic Effect
6.2.3 Generates Awareness about Negative
Influences
6.2.4 Saves Time and Effort
6.3 Organising Group Guidance Activities
6.3.1 Determining the Need
6.3.2 Determining Size, Time and Roles
6.3.3 Selection of Members/Participants for
Group Activity
6.3.4 Orientation of Members
6.3.5 Monitoring the Ongoing Activities
6.3.6 Evaluating Outcomes
6.4 Characteristics of an Effective Group
6.4.1 Group Cohesiveness
6.4.1.1 Group Size
6.4.1.2 Democratic Atmosphere
6.4.1.3 Status within the Group
6.4.2 Factors Disrupting Cohesiveness
6.4.3 Group Leadership
6.4.3.1 Types of Leadership
6.5 Techniques of Group Guidance
6.5.1 Problem Solving
6.5.2 Group Discussion
6.5.3 Role-playing
6.5.4 Case Method
6.5.5 Sociometry
6.6 Some Common Group Guidance Activities
6.7 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercises
References
Suggested Readings
6.0 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit, you
have seen that the teacher
is especially suited to
perform various guidance
roles such as that of a
listener, referral agent,
student potential discoverer
and career educator. The
teacher needs to organise
these activities to enhance the
personal, social and career development
of large number of students in school. Group
guidance activities can be successfully organised by guidance teachers for both small
and large groups to deal with the issues and concerns of common interest to students.
Group activities are a significant source of information and provide the opportunity
to share problems and feelings of those who are interested in participating in the
group. Often, interactions with others clear doubts, provide insights and help in
developing skills for day-to-day life. You will find that the choices and decisions that
are made by us, our manner of relating to ourselves, others and the difficulties which
are part of the daily life are the result of our interaction with others. Those around us
are not aware of the importance of group living and group interaction. Group
interactions can be specifically planned for achieving certain educational outcomes.
Self-mastery and self-development are major goals of group guidance, discussions in
small group can be utilised to achieve these goals.
We shall in this unit discuss the importance of group guidance methods and how
these can be organised to achieve guidance goals.
6.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• discuss the need and significance of group guidance.
• describe the advantages of group guidance techniques.
• recognise the importance of planning before initiating any group guidance activity.
• explain the importance of trained teacher or counsellor’s role and his/her
leadership in the successful organisation of group activities.
• explain the effect of group climate on the group members and show its benefit to
the group members in a practical situation.
• enlist some desirable characteristics of an effective group leader to explain how
it influences group behaviour.
• organise different techniques of group guidance.

6.2 GROUP GUIDANCE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

In order to understand how group activities are helpful for guidance, we need to know
what we mean by a ‘group’. Generally a collection of people would be called a group,
for example, many students or many teachers at one place or many doctors assembled
at one place. But a collection of individuals would not be called a group and would not
serve guidance purposes. An aggregation of individuals need to have interaction among
them and have a common goal before them. The group then collectively works to
achieve this common goal. Thus a group for guidance purposes is a collection of
individuals with a common goal and all the individuals working to achieve this common
goal. Only this type of group will be called a functional group for guidance.
Group guidance is typically used to address the developmental needs of a functional
group consisting of a number of students to implement programmes that would benefit
them all at a time. Such students with common problems and concerns are helped in
groups sometimes small and sometimes large. The counsellor gets a chance to observe
their behaviour and reactions during such group situations, which may not be possible
otherwise. Furthermore, it is an efficient and effective way of supporting and helping
students with issues and problems of common concern in education, career and personal/
social areas. Taking part in group activities helps to provide a broader perspective on
the issue or the problem under discussion. The collective power of the group helps in
easy and quick resolution of problems acceptable to the members. Students learn to
work in teams and develop a sense of mutual respect and tolerance. It also provides
opportunity to its members to play various roles such as a follower or a group leader
etc. Various members help to provide a new insight into the situation. Personal growth
on areas such as career awareness, self-awareness, building self-confidence and self-
esteem and assertiveness training, etc. are suitable topics and themes for group guidance
activities. The advantages of group guidance are described below in more detail.
6.2.1 Inspires Learning and Understanding
Interaction in a group setting provides a chance to students to explore and understand
themselves better by making them aware of their own motives, shortcomings and

94 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE
strengths. Group interaction leads to improved relationships and occasionally even
new friendships. The members also accumulate information about the outside world,
which stimulates their understanding, and increases the desire to learn more.
Taking part in a group discussion and other activities develops insight into problems
of human relationships and also provides new ideas on how to deal with them. Group
guidance activities thus help in overall development of personality.
6.2.2 Provides a Therapeutic Effect
Interaction within a group, which shares similar concerns, is therapeutic for students.
It gives them a chance to see that there are many others who are also facing difficulties
and it is not they alone who are troubled by them. For example, if a student feels that
he is not bold enough to speak in public, he may not feel a part of the group and
consider himself inferior to others. However if the topic is taken up for group
discussion, there may be many who may own up having similar fears. Whereas, others
who have no problems in doing so, could inform others how they overcame such a
fear or prepare for such an occasion. The teacher can also give tips on how to speak in
public. Later every participant can be asked to speak for two minutes on a topic. By
practising in a protected group where others are trying to overcome their shortcomings,
not only has a therapeutic effect but also helps in the acquisition of a new skill.
6.2.3 Generates Awareness about Negative Influences
Group guidance talks/discussions can be used effectively to expose and caution the
students against the use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs or the desire to acquire the latest
electronic gadgets or follow fads and fashions. The ideas expressed by their own peer
group are helpful in making them aware of the adverse effects of many of these
things. They can also practise role-play to learn how to say no to peers who may try to
lure them to the wrong path.
6.2.4 Saves Time and Effort
Group guidance activities save time for both the counsellor and students. The group
collectively works towards a common goal, solving a problem much more quickly
than in an individual way, trying to work towards a solution on their own. Economy
though should never be the sole purpose of organising group activities. It needs to be
emphasised that the effectiveness of the group in terms of outcomes should never be
lessened. At times it is possible that the outcome is not the expected solution of the
problem but the process of the group activity itself is quite useful. For example, in
group discussion, the interaction among all the participants is rewarding and it benefits
the group members to understand each other’s thinking, their motives, interests, etc.
You have just read that group guidance techniques are preferred not only because
of their various advantages but also due to their effectiveness. However, there are a
couple of limitations, which should be kept in mind.
Whereas the group techniques are used to help groups to tackle similar problems, it
is also true that no two people see a problem in exactly the same manner. Their needs

GROUP G UIDANCE 95
may be different from others. Some members may still feel hesitant to share their deepest
feelings as some may dominate over those who may not express easily and feel threatened.
Secondly, group techniques actually pave the way for individual counselling. But
that may not be possible due to lack of time, as most schools have only one counsellor
and s/he may be hardpressed for time. In such a case, a referral may be made.
Nevertheless this does not imply that group activities should not be undertaken.
Care, however, should be taken that a balance is maintained between the advantages
and disadvantages without affecting the efficiency of the activities.

6.3 ORGANISING GROUP GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES

We know that there are many advantages which make group guidance activities an
attractive option in guidance, but at the same time it needs to be emphasised that
they must be organised in a very systematic manner. It seems easy to schedule a group
discussion, or a talk at a short notice. If the group activities are to be used in a way, so
as to get the maximum benefit, a considerable amount of advance preparation and
organisation is needed. Planning of an activity may focus around the following points:

6.3.1 Determining the Need

Since one of the main advantages of group guidance is that it can effectively reach a
group, it stands to reason that the group shares a common need and hence identifies a
common topic for discussion. It is wrong to assume, that arbitrary decision by the
teacher or counsellor may be the right activity. A reliable means of determining the
need is administering a questionnaire, problem checklist, or even asking simple direct
questions. This ensures that the group’s need is being met, and the members of the
group are involved in the activity.

6.3.2 Determining Size, Time and Roles

The most important characteristic of the group is the size. Size influences the
operational format; the efficiency and mutual interaction and effectiveness of the
group. If the group is too big, it hampers communication within the group. Members
may not have a chance to express opinion or to interact with all members; it may lead
to formation of sub groups within the group. The effectiveness of the group guidance
activity in a large group is reduced as the group leader may not be able to establish
rapport with all members, the numbers may intimidate some members and some may
not get a chance to actively participate in the activity. Hence the size of the group
should be appropriate and manageable, say 15–20 students.
The time for the group activities is to be decided in consultation with group members.
In a school, vacation time may be more convenient, or any time meant for extra or co-
curricular activities could also be utilised in consultation with the concerned teachers
and the school administrator. Duration of the activity should neither be too long nor
too short, preferably 30–35 minutes. Too long a programme can create monotony and
too short a programme may not provide the desired effect. Furthermore, the setting in

96 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE
which the group functions or carries its activities should be student friendly, i.e. adequate
light, ventilation and other hygienic factors should be taken into consideration.
Another concern is the role of the counsellor. S/he can be an active participant, a
passive observer or an arbitrator. The counsellor can act as the group leader and play
an active role. S/he can be an observer and select the leader from amongst the group
members. What role will the group leader play will be discussed later in this unit.

6.3.3 Selection of Members/Participants for Group Activity

Members may be invited to participate in the group activity depending upon the nature
of problem which is to be taken up for solution. Members may also volunteer if the
activity fulfills their need. People may at times refuse to be part of a group if it does
not cater to their needs. Another cause of negative response may be if some other
members seem aggressive or intimidating. The teacher and the counsellor must be
sensitive to such incidents and help relieve anxiety and see that no such behaviour
occurs in a group activity. This is especially likely to occur in small groups, for in
larger groups, students will find safety with other companions.

6.3.4 Orientation of Members

Orientation of members helps in clarification of group goals. This would help them
to play a meaningful role in the activity as well as to derive maximum benefit. The
goals of the group activity should be stated in clear, objective and measurable terms.
Ground rules pertaining to listening to each other’s point of view, showing respect to
every member, being non-evaluative, etc. should also be explained.

6.3.5 Monitoring the Ongoing Activities

Keeping in mind the students’ lack of experience and comprehension of the gains
that accrue from group activities the counsellor needs to be vigilant during the activity.
S/he should keep track that the process is not derailed from the purposes of the group
and the discussion is focused on the topic, members do not become personal, basically
s/he should keep a watch on any happening that may hinder the group process. S/he
should use his/her skills to keep the activity on track and moving towards the goal.

6.3.6 Evaluating Outcomes

You have seen that the goals of the group activity are already stated before the activity
starts. The standards for assessing outcomes must also be identified and stated in
advance. Thereafter the activity data should be collected along those measures and
then analysed. This will provide a correct assessment of the results of the activity.
This will assist the counsellor to judge which are the best activities and for what
purposes, which activity is the least effective, what is the right group size, structure
and membership, leadership, etc.

GROUP G UIDANCE 97
6.4 CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE GROUP
You have learnt about the pre-planning that should be done before embarking on any
group activity, now you will learn about two important features of a group that assists
in making groups more effective, i.e. group cohesiveness and leadership.
6.4.1 Group Cohesiveness
Group cohesiveness may be defined as the feeling of solidarity among all group
members. It is characterised by the expressions of “we-ness” and a willingness to be
united in their efforts in the face of progress or failure. In other words, members are
willing to work together, share mutual trust, understand and accept the group’s goals,
enjoy the camaraderie and belongingness of being part of the group.
A cohesive group has more influence on its members. The more cohesive a group,
the more powerful it is to make members conform to the group norms. Concurrently
the establishment of norms generates cohesiveness among group members.
Gratification of personal needs is one of the main reasons of firstly joining a group,
and then continuing its membership. A cohesive group not only satisfies existing needs,
it creates more needs and satisfies them too, e.g. members of a public speaking skill
development group, after acquiring some skills would like to exhibit them within the
group, as they would like their fellow members to appreciate their new ability. The
smaller size of the group and a democratic group climate or atmosphere contributes to
making the group more cohesive. Similarly assigning specific roles and responsibilities
to the members also increase its attractiveness. There are certain factors that affect
group cohesiveness such as size, democratic atmosphere and status within the group.
Now let us look at each of these factors.
6.4.1.1 Group Size
The smaller the group, the more intimate will be the interaction among members. In
larger groups, most members do not get a chance to feel involved in the group activity.
Interaction among members is more superficial, some bold members tend to dominate
other timid ones, making it difficult to maintain internal democracy. All these factors
dilute the cohesiveness of the group. The counsellor’s responsibility will be to enhance
the communication in the group for which he has to encourage the shy and timid
members and check the bold and aggressive ones against dominating others.
6.4.1.2 Democratic Atmosphere
An atmosphere of cooperation within the group intensifies its cohesiveness. People
feel tense in a competitive climate as opposed to a cooperative relationship. Feeling
of equality and equal opportunity also enhances learning from the group activity, as
the members are relaxed and willing to benefit from the activity with a positive attitude.
6.4.1.3 Status within the Group
It has been observed that allocation of a role increases the status of a member in the
group. Thus, the probability of status advancement increases the attractiveness of
the group for its members. The advancement could be in terms of allotting a specific
positive role to every member within a group. Any kind of demotion in status lessens
the cohesiveness and attractiveness of the group for its members.
98 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE
6.4.2 Factors Disrupting Cohesiveness
We have discussed the importance of group cohesiveness and how it can help group
effectiveness but we have also to guard against factors that can dilute it. Cohesiveness
of a group can be undermined by many factors such as:
– Ineffectiveness of the group in terms of the performance and achievement
of purpose.
– Efforts to dominate the group by some group members through aggressive behaviour.
– Formation of sub-groups which are working at cross purposes.
– Negative perception of the group by outsiders.
– Unhappy experience within the group, e.g. isolation, ridicule by others, efforts to
embarrass, etc.
6.4.3 Group Leadership
Group cohesiveness and creating a climate for healthy interaction very much depend
on the leader of the group and leadership style followed. Leadership is a phenomenon,
which has been extensively studied and explored, and fascinates all. Social psychologists
have attempted to describe leadership in various ways. However many agree that
“true leaders emerge from and always return to, the wants and needs of their followers.”
Now we shall see what kind of characteristics make a good leader. You may have
come across persons with leadership qualities, some may be very open, some imposing
their ideas on others, some invite and work in consultation with others, which of the
two kinds of leaders do you think is more effective? You will learn in the following
sub-sections various leadership styles and their impact on the group which will help
you answer this question.

GROUP G UIDANCE 99
6.4.3.1 Types of Leadership
Leader functions could broadly be classified as:
–Authoritarian –Democratic –Laissez-faire
The three different leadership styles create different group climates. In other words
the working style of the leader creates a unique type of climate in the group which
s/he leads. His/her behaviour affects the behaviour of the group members, for example,
in the case of an authoritarian leadership the group members just follow the leader’s
orders and not take any initiative. You will learn about this aspect in greater detail in
the following paragraphs:
Authoritarian Leadership: Such a leader controls all functions of the group, decides
the group goals, ascertains the strategies to be followed and passes orders to the members
of the group. The members follow directions mostly for fear of disapproval or
punishment by the group leader, as the leader is all in all in the group. Under this type
of leader though the group may attain its objectives in time, but the outcome may be
routine with no creative results. As members are not encouraged to give their own
opinion, a rigid and structural procedure prevails without flexibility. In such an
atmosphere no individual growth is expected to occur as the group activity does not
stimulate member’s curiosity or encourages their participation. They become passive
and routinely follow the instructions. The spirit of cooperation is also missing.
Democratic Leadership: In this type of leadership style, a democratic climate prevails
in the group. Group members are consulted in devising strategies and taking decisions.
Every member feels a commitment and responsibility to achieve group goals. The
cornerstone of such a type is originality and creativity. Members enjoy being part of
the group as most activities are self-directed. This type of leadership is advocated for
the development and growth of the members.
As far as the personal qualities of a democratic leader are concerned, they are of
positive nature and help make the leader an effective facilitator. Such a leader
– has clear comprehension of the group purpose and the ability to accomplish it.
– is honest and open to receive feedback and suggestions.
– is flexible, spontaneous and responsive to new ideas of group members.
– enthuses confidence in the members of the group and their ability to attain
group goals.
– displays energy, enthusiasin, and perseverance in performing his/her duties.
– exhibits a sense of responsibility.
– is non-judgmental and accepting of others.
– is a good communicator.
– possesses the emotional strength to fight failures and frustrations.
– possesses high degree of self confidence and has a pleasant disposition.
– has an ability to keep group members together by reconciling differences.
– displays ability to be objectives and impartial.
Laissez – faire Leadership: This type of leader is indifferent to the group needs and
its activities. S/he is neither interested in achieving the group goals nor is he interested
in the welfare and needs of the group members. The group is loosely knit with minimum

100 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

direction. The output may not be much, both in terms of quality and quantity. The
climate has not been found to be healthy either in terms of individual growth or the
goals to be attained. The leader of this type is the least effective in the group.

Table 6.1: Summary of Leadership Styles

Authoritarian Democratic Laissez-faire
– Authority and total control – Leader open and – Leader indifferent
vests in the leader accessible and apathetic
– Group goals, – Group goals, – Group goals not
strategies decided by strategies decided clear to members,
the leader in consultation members not
with members, interested
active participation in participation
of all members
– Objectives achieved – Objectives – Output not much
in time achieved, via every in quality and
member’s contri- quantity
bution or jointly
– No creativity – Originality, – Output not much
possible, routine creativity higher in quality creativity
functions
– Rigid and structural – Flexible and open – Too much
flexibility procedure flexibility
procedures followed leading to
carelessness,
indiscipline, etc.
– Members are – Higher commit- – Poor cohesiveness
indifferent ment and involve- in the group
ment
– Spirit of cooperation – Higher cooperation – Poor cooperation
missing among members
– No personal growth – Personal growth – No personal growth
of group members possible
– Responsibility of – Every member along – No one feels
meeting group goals with the leader responsible
lies with the leader is resposnible

List the characteristics of a leader that you think you possess. List the ones
you need to improve upon. Who among your classmates would you prefer
as the leader of your group and why?

GROUP G UIDANCE 101

6.5 TECHNIQUES OF GROUP GUIDANCE
After having understood the various aspects of group dynamics and how it can be
used to achieve various positive outcomes, the group can plan and organise various
strategies. You already know the benefits of organising group activities and how
to ensure its effective planning and organisation, let us now discuss, the various
ways in which such group sessions can be conducted.
6.5.1 Problem Solving
Problem solving according to Bennet (1963) is the creative process by which
individuals evaluate changes in themselves and their environment and make new
choices, decisions or adjustments in harmony with life goals and values which may
also be in a state of flux.
In fact it is a technique of solving problems and consists of a step by step approach.
It can be used by an individual to solve a problem or can be used by many individuals
as a group to solve a common problem. This technique can be applied in other group
activities like group discussion, role play, etc.
Problem solving comprises the following steps:
• Acceptance of the existence of a problem and the will to solve it.
• A correct description of the problem, so that efforts are focused on the right issue.
• Initiation of action by gathering all facts relevant to the problem.
• Examination and analysis of the problem in the light of data collected.
• Putting forward the possible solutions.
• Evaluation of the tentative solutions.
• The testing and observation of the final solution.
• Assessment of degree of acceptance of solution.
Example:
– Suppose the student faces the problem of poor performance in examinations.
– Solution to this problem may include various steps:
1. Acceptance of the problem.
2. Identifying various possible solutions to the problem, evaluating and then
choosing the appropriate one.

Problem Possible solutions Evaluation

Poor a. Devoting more Advantage: 1. More judicious
Performance in time on studies or use of time, systematic and
Examinations studying regularly planned way of study lead to
better preparation.
2. More confidence.
Disadvantage: Less time for
enjoyment, entertainment and
sports, going out with friends.

102 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

 b. Attending coaching Advantage: Gets personal
classes attention.
Disadvantage: Is very.
expensive, time spent in
trevelling.
c. Meeting a school Advantage: Gets friendly
counsellor guidance, extra attention
and understanding.
Disadvantage: Seeking
adult attention or advice.

– Looking at the merits and demerits of the above possible solutions the child
can accordingly select from the options a, b and c.
– If the selected option does not yield positive outcome, the child can opt for any
other option from various possible solutions.
Although the steps seem easy enough, it is essential to practice them and become
aware of the obstacles that one can face before one can go into any benefit or insights
from the problem solving technique.
Some of the impediments which can affect the process of problem solving adversely
are as follows:
• Incorrect description of the problem. If the focus of efforts is in the wrong
direction, the solution is bound to be unsound.
• Inability to transfer previous experience or learning to the problem solving situation.
• Lack of self-confidence, subjective thinking, personal prejudices, and inflexibility
are all hindrances towards the realisation of a feasible solution.
• Thus, the training of the group members could focus on:
– Importance of the accurate observation of the problem and its possible solutions.
– To be able to stay away from personal biases and prejudices while perceiving
the problem.
– To be able to explain and understand the information which they have gathered
about the given problem.
– To be able to evaluate the final decision (solution) and reach upon a conclusion.
The above given steps can be explained with the help of an example.

List three problems, and put forward three possible solutions to each of
the problem. Evaluate each solution by putting down the advantages and
disadvantages of each solution. Select the final solution and give reasons
for selecting the final solution.

GROUP G UIDANCE 103

6.5.2 Group Discussion
The group discussion is used when the group is facing a common problem and it
can be solved by collective effort. All group members are willing to participate in
the discussion and they contribute ideas towards solving the problem. The group
discussion will be useful only if the members participate actively without the fear
of being ridiculed or criticised and where all the members have the opportunity
to participate. Participants should be oriented and trained in the elements of a
good discussion to make it an effective guidance or an educational tool. Some of
the basics of a good discussion to be emphasised are given below:
• A group discussion is a worthwhile pursuit only when the result is a synergy of
the ideas, inputs and experiences of all members of the group, therefore active
and cooperative participation of all members is essential.
• Participation does not mean only talking and discussing but also the ability to
listen and synthesise what is debated.
• All the members of the group should be acquainted with each other and with the
purpose of the discussion. They should familiarise themselves with the topic,
read about it and know the scope of the discussion. The level of preparation
could be decided upon in advance.
• Every member should maintain good etiquettes, i.e. no personal remarks should
be made, nor any temper outbursts indulged in.
• Some time should be devoted in getting to know each other or rapport building
amongst members. Members should not stray from the topic of discussion nor try
to monopolise the discussion time. Everyone must get a chance to voice their opinion.
The group members with the help of leader identify the major points or ideas on
which the discussion is to be focused. The ideas presented are summarised from
time to time.
Without being aware of it, members may play certain roles in the discussion process.
As a counsellor you need to familiarise yourself with these roles which will help you in
using this technique effectively. However, you must remember that it is not necessary

104 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

that all these roles are evident in every group. Though some of these roles will
certainly be obvious. Knowing and recognising these roles will help you as a
counsellor to facilitate the group discussion with your intervention and comments.
There are some positive roles, which contribute fruitfully to the discussion process.
The discussion proceeds successfully and the group members feel satisfied and
happy. Some of these positive roles are given below:
• Initiator – the person who starts the discussion. S/he generally takes the initiative
in advancing new ideas related to new problems.
• Clarifier – steers the group in the right direction and helps it clarify its objectives.
• Facilitator – is the communication expert who helps the group members to be
aware of each other’s skills, aiding the mutual interaction process. S/he also
stimulates restatements, provides clarification and summation on what all has been
achieved by the group and thereby easing understanding of different viewpoints.
• Encourager – encourages others to take active part in the discussion process asking
for their opinion.
• Harmoniser – pacifies opposing viewpoints and tries to reconcile differences.
• Fact-seeker – brings to notice areas where additional information is needed.
• Fact-giver – is able to fulfil the gaps in information either from his personal
experience or from knowledgeable sources in the field.
• Expediter – handles all arrangements for the smooth functioning of the process.
• Spokesperson – keeps a record of the official action of the group, reports to the
group in the terms of progress made towards goal, s/he works to create awareness
of how the group is functioning and presents the viewpoint of the group to the
outside agencies.
In addition to the positive roles, there are a number of hindering personalities,
which are also enacted in the group discussion. Knowing what these roles are helps to
tackle them and keep the discussion process moving forward towards its goal.
A facilitator understands how each personality type (both positive and hindering)
can be turned into a positive force for group interactions. A guidance teacher should
know the personality type, recognise its characteristics and understand the techniques
for using it as positive group interactions.
• Aggressor – may be a person who is pushy and may become angry and get personal
in an attempt to prove his point. S/he needs to be checked immediately.
• Blocker – would find fault and block every move by diverting attention from
the theme.
• Recognition-seeker – is more interested in narrating his many exploits and makes
a constant effort to attract attention thus hindering the group discussion.
• Dodger – directs, on the other end, efforts to keep himself/herself aloof from
the proceedings not making any contribution in the discussion.
• Dominator – finds ways and means to exercise his/her authority or superiority
and knowledge by being adamant against the majority.
• Blamer – always finds deficiencies in other members or arguments given by them
and is of course always right.

GROUP G UIDANCE 105

• Lobbyist – ‘lobbies’ for a particular solution to serve certain interests.
In addition to the negative roles played by some group members, there could be
other factors which could be hindrances to the effective communication between members.
• Group size – as already stated in the beginning, a large group will hamper
communication between members. The optimum size depends on the maturity
level of the members, generally speaking, it should not exceed fifteen. A small
group encourages more interaction among members and keeps the interest and
participation of the members alive.
• Lack of confidence among members could be a major obstacle. The group should
be a mix of members who can communicate well. They should also encourage
others to participate in the discussion by involving them in the discussion.
• Apprehension of being evaluated is another source of fear. It should be made
clear in advance of the discussion that no individual assessment would be done
to allay these feelings.
• Listening skills of the members need to be polished before any group discussion.
This helps them to understand another’s point of view and avoid conflict.
The role of the discussion leader is important because s/he can facilitate the flow
and direction of the discussion. S/he can help members open up by using specific
techniques and build rapport among them, keep the discussion within the prescribed
limits, synthesise and summarise to show members what progress has been achieved.
The leader helps the group set goals, provides information and seeks expert help from
outside if required. To achieve all this, s/he must first ensure that a friendly and non-
threatening, non-judgmental and accepting climate is dominant among the members.
For example, a group discussion could be arranged on an issue of common concern to
school students like drug abuse, test anxiety, peer pressure, fear of public speaking,
etc. The teacher/counsellor calls the interested group of children to discuss the issue.
Children are encouraged to present various viewpoints. The teacher counsellor
can also organise a role play and some group members can be encouraged to get
more information on the subject. A film could also be shown which can be discussed
by the group.

A. Think of an issue which you as a counsellor/teacher would like to take up

for group discussion.
B. What would be the points of discussion.
C. Give at least three factors that would hinder the efficiency of the
group discussion.

Organise a group discussion with a group of about ten participants on a

common problem. List the positive and negative roles emerging in the group
discussion organised by you.

106 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

6.5.3 Role-playing
Role-playing is only effective for groups having 15-20 participants and cannot be
carried out with very large groups. It may also be most useful when highly charged
emotions are to be discussed or highly sensitive issues are to be worked out. Because
of the emotions involved in this technique, guidance teachers are advised to use this
technique cautiously and be well prepared. Role-playing is a method in which ‘real-
life’ situations are simulated by participants. This provides an opportunity to develop
new insights, intuitions, skills and some understanding of opposing viewpoints in the
field of human relations. There will be a few characters in the role play which will be
played by a few participants. All other participants will serve as observers/audience
but they will also be actively involved in the role play.
To derive the maximum benefit from role-playing activities, it should include the
following steps:
• Orient the group to the need for using role-playing technique for a particular situation.
• Select a problem or a relationship situation for dramatisation which needs
clarification for the group or which is creating tensions, define the situation and
initiate warming up.
• Assigning of roles and clarifying the situation to be role-played.
• Preparing the audience to observe intelligently.
• Assessing the role-play.
• Debriefing with each participant and as a whole group to check that the appropriate
learning/understanding took place.
• Re-playing it after the assessment. This is required because the same situation can
be role-played in many different ways. In this replay a different set of participants
will take part. The same process will go on with different role-play also.
In a role-play, an enormous amount of learning takes place through active
participation of the learner as compared to what occurs through ‘content’ learning in
the classroom where the learner is the passive recipient. Relationship skills are best
learnt in a spontaneous climate where reactions are instinctive, unstructured, free of
stereotypes and blocks. Role-play activities like psychodrama and sociodrama aid this
type of learning, where besides being cognitively involved, the learner is involved
emotionally also, because s/he is playing a role and identifies fully with that role in a
real life like situation such as teacher-pupil or parent-child relationship.
The important difference between psychodrama and sociodrama is that the subject
of psychodrama requires personal involvement of an individual with other people.
Sociodrama concerns itself with conflicts encountered in social situations where an
individual per se may not be personally involved. Such as negative attitude towards
girl child or untouchablity. Psychodrama explores the private aspects of personality
of the individuals involved. For example, problem of a child experiencing conflict
with father. Sociodrama deals with social aspects of the players personalities. Both
follow a similar technique of enacting real life situations so that they can explore
their true feelings and reactions to it in a protected environment; the main objectives,

GROUP G UIDANCE 107

being resolution of conflict and development of insight. The following points
should be kept in mind to get the best out of the role-playing technique.
• Although they require unrehearsed performance, a fair amount of pre-planning is
essential for their smooth delivery. Pre-planning includes selection of a problem,
clarifying the roles, assigning roles to individuals who will interpret them according
to their viewpoints and involving the audience in the performance.
• To make it more meaningful and effective, the whole group that includes actors
and spectators must understand and react to the problem, developing their own
insights into it.
• To make the above happen, the problem tackled should be of personal significance
to most members of the group. If the situation selected is not realistic or closely
related to life experiences, the technique will lose its value as a learning device.
• To give a feeling of being involved in the problem solving, the role-playing should
be followed by a detailed discussion. The focus of discussion should be on the
effect of the presentation, the groups reaction to the situation; the new insights
developed, how else would they have handled the problem before and after the
presentation; any other solution that may be more appropriate to the problem, etc.
Psychodrama and sociodrama can be classified functionally as diagnostic, therapeutic
and educative. The diagnostic presentation is actually a dress rehearsal. It is a means
of checking whether a person is equipped to deal with a situation which is likely to
occur in the anticipated situation so s/he can experience first hand the obstacles and
uncomfortable queries s/he is likely to encounter, s/he can then prepare himself/herself
to manage them.
In therapeutic psychodrama, a person learns to handle his/her frustrations and
inhibitions, which hinder his/her healthy integration in day-to-day life. The catharsis
provided by enacting the problem may be an eye opener to the individual and helps to
overcome obstacles, which may be located within himself/herself. It is best performed
under the guidance of an expert trained counsellor.
The educational psychodrama is more geared towards providing educational and
vocational guidance to group members. Various career situations could be enacted to
inform the students about what functions are performed in those professions. This
would help them to ascertain whether they would truly want to take up that profession.
However all role-playing is educational in intent and learning is outcome of all
psychodrama and sociodrama.
There are many variations of the psychodrama and sociodrama which will be
explained now.
Role reversal : In this technique, the roles played by the players are actually those
of their opponents in the conflict situation, e.g. if it is a parent-child problem the child
would play the role of his/her parents. By playing out the situation from this perspective,
there is a new set of dynamics in play. It helps to see the situation from the other side
and it creates a better understanding of the human relations. Such a session is aimed at
both training and diagnosis.

108 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

• Another variation is having one of the members portray an absent person. This
helps other group members to express feelings about him/her without inhibition.
• A group member plays his/her real life role not as s/he sees it but as s/he
thinks others see it.
• Dramatisation of dream content or fantasy material.
• A single person interprets several roles.
• Performance of an entire situation by the actor through pantomime. It can be
interpreted by the audience as they see it.
Thus psychodrama or sociodrama is an extremely resourceful and imaginative
guidance technique.
Advantages of the technique are to :
• help people express their true feelings in an accepting atmosphere thus giving
vent to their pent up emotions.
• increase the resources at an individual’s command thus improving the flexibility
in dealing with unexpected situations.
• provide valuable experience to an individual in a protected situation without
having to face failure or damaging consequence due to his/her actions.
• make the teacher or counsellor part of a two-way communication process by
removing him/her from the authority role temporarily. This helps the students to
relax and be more of themselves. It helps the teacher to know his/her pupils better.
• improve understanding of one’s own motives, aims and also those of
other participants.
• help develop better human interaction within the group and outside it.
6.5.4 Case Method
A case study is one way of organising data about a unit that has to be studied. The
unit can be an individual, a family, a social group or a social institution or even
a community.
An individual case study is usually in depth, as there is only one unit to be studied.
Whereas, in trying to study a particular group or a community, case study tries to
deal with different elements like its prevailing economic activity, climate and natural
resources, historical development, its religious or social expression, etc.
The data is gathered through several methods or techniques such as observation
of behaviour, use of questionnaires, inventories, checklists and psychological tests,
interviewing friends, relatives and others, etc.
In an educational setting a teacher/counsellor can take case histories of children
who are into drugs, performing poorly in exams, truants, etc. S/he can then arrange
for a case conference, where people from different professions like a social worker,
clinical psychologist, psychiatrist can discuss the child and arrive at a consensus on
how to help the child and the parents.
Case study method is explained in detail in Module VI in Unit–3 on ‘Qualitative
Assessment in Guidance and Counselling’.

GROUP G UIDANCE 109

6.5.5 Sociometry
Stanley and Hopkins (1990) have defined sociometry as “the study of interrelationship
among members of a group, i.e. its social structure: how each individual is perceived
by the group.” In an educational setting, sociometric techniques are useful for teachers
to help them understand the pattern of relationship existing in the students of his/
her class. For example, in a group of children a child may be asked whom s/he
would like to play with or do his/her academic project. The responses would help to
identify the most popular students in class and also the ones who are not very popular
or others who are rejected. The teacher can then plan a suitable remedial programme
for inculcating better interpersonal relationships among students.
The technique is simple and adaptable to many group situations. It may consist
of single question or a set of questions.
However, it should be kept in mind that sociometry is an informal technique and
moreover, in the above example the member with whom a student chooses to work
on an academic project may not be the same with whom they would want to play.
This technique is discussed in detail in Module VI in Unit–3 on ‘Qualitative
Assessment in Guidance and Counselling’.

Match the situations in column A to the technique used.

A B
1. Most beneficial as a cooperative a. Problem solving
activity, giving every participant
a chance to take part.
2. Rooted in the characterisation b. Role-playing
of social issues.
3. Based on accurate and objective c. Group discussion
observation, identify and
evaluate various options to
choose an appropriate solution.
4. Developing insights on seeing d. Sociodrama
other person’s point of view.
5. To study the interrelationship e. Case study
among members of a group.
6. To do an in-depth study of f. Sociometry
a unit on various aspects of
a problem.

110 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

6.6 SOME COMMON GROUP GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES
Besides the techniques discussed above, there are some more commonly used
group methods. Some of them are given below:-
• Class Talk
You already know the benefits of organising group activities and how to ensure its
effective planning and organisation, let us now discuss some of the other the ways in
which such group sessions can be conducted. More details on these topics will be given
in Unit–2 in Module XII.
As the name implies the class talk is generally arranged for students of one class, or
for a smaller group within the class who may be sharing a common concern. The subject
of the class talk is determined by the need of the group but it is general though varied
in the nature, e.g. themes like “Need and importance of planning”, “Effective study
habits”, “Dealing with examination stress”, “Improving communication skills” and
“Public speaking”, etc. are a few examplar topics which could be taken for class talks.
The talk should preferably be of 25 to 30 minutes duration with 10 to 15 minutes
set aside for a question and answer session (one class period which normally is of 35–
40 minutes duration). Since in most schools, there is no separate time scheduled for
guidance and counselling work and such activities are normally held in between academic
class periods, it is extremely important that it be delivered in an interesting and interactive
manner. It should be supported by audio visual aids, posters and interspersed by examples
and events from day-to-day life to make it interesting and catchy. Students should be
drawn into the talk by querying them about their ideas, experiences and inputs relating
to the subject.
• Career Talk
The aim of the career talk is to provide relevant information to the class or a group
regarding a particular career. This includes nature of work, working conditions, work
requirements like age, educational qualifications, institutions for training and for
further studies, special skills required in the field, personal attributes which may aid
performance, job opportunities, pay scales, avenues for promotion, sources of further
information, etc.
It is helpful if arrangement can be made for the group to have a copy of the talk
since it contains a lot of factual information.
• Displays
Bulletin board is a useful way of displaying information about guidance activities and
issues which need to be focused on and highlighted. Displays can be used for
– awakening the interest of the students in guidance activities related to vocational
planning, personal-social development, or counselling workshops.
– providing varieties of career and social information such as, ‘new and emerging
careers’, ‘job opportunities after vocational courses’; tips on self-development,
‘how to deal with peer pressure’, ‘importance of picking up constructive hobbies’;
motivational quotes; write ups about people who could be potential role models, etc.

GROUP G UIDANCE 111

– directing students to reliable sources of help like teachers, counsellors, libraries, etc.
– reports appearing in the newspapers and other media related to student
concerns and issues.
Themes for Effective Displays
An effective display should be built on a dominant idea which should be capable
of inspiring curiosity about the subject in the mind of the onlooker. The teacher
or counsellor should use his/her experience and knowledge of the students to
come up with a concept which would interest them. The following points could
help in deciding the theme of the display:
• Display should be focused on one central idea.
• Theme must be specific and tangible. This means it must be meaningful to students
in their day-to-day life and not be an abstract idea.
• Themes should be based on student interests.
• Themes are means to an end so the display should be designed around a motive
and give detailed information about it. Some examples for display are “Options
After School”, “Preparation for World of Work”, etc.

Fill in the blanks from the following alternatives:

a. Career talk b. Display c. Class talk
1. aims at initiating discussion and sharing of common
concern among students.
2. aims to provide information about different careers.
3. Visual presentation of any awareness information can be done through
.

List five topics which could fall under each of the following activities.
Select one from each list for discussion in your respective schools. Share
the usefulness of these topics with your mentors or supervisors during the
contact programme.

Class talk Career talk Display

112 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

• Display themes must be aimed at present and future needs.
Other important pointers towards making displays more attractive are:
• Display title should be arresting.
• Pictures should be used to make it colourful and balance the writing.
• Cartoons attract attention and a suitable cartoon can make it interesting.
• Some trick questions or expressions, quizzes also attract interest.
• Bulletin board should be large enough to accommodate all materials. It must
have a soft base so that it is easy to pin or attach material on it.

In this unit, you have studied about the need, advantages and
limitations of group guidance techniques. You have also learnt about
factors that have to be kept in mind before organising group activities
for their maximum usefulness. You know that group cohesiveness
and effective leadership are important for constructive group
interaction and to achieve group goals. You have also learnt about
various group activities like Group discussion, Problem solving, Role-
playing, Case method, Sociometry, Displays, Class talk and Career
talk, etc. which can be organised by a teacher-counsellor to benefit
large number of students at a time in a school.

1. List the different groups of which you are an active member.

What is your role and function in these groups? Which one do
you enjoy the most and why?
2. According to you, what are specific guidance needs of the school
youth in your country, which can be dealt with effectively in groups?
3. Think of any situation where a benevolent authoritarian leader may
be more effective and a situation wherein a democratic leader will
be more effective.
4. Do you agree that group cohesiveness is a desirable characteristic
of a group? Give reasons to support your answer.
5. Is a teacher trained in guidance and counselling in a better position
to organise group activities to help students derive maximum benefits
from school experiences? Give arguments to support your view.

Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises

1. You may mention groups such as family, school, peer group, any
clubs or recreational body or any other social group. You may also

GROUP G UIDANCE 113

 spell out your place in each group and what you are supposed
to do and what you like most.
2. You may include in your answer all the problems and areas of needs
which are common among the school students which can be dealt
with effectively in groups.
3. An authoritarian leader may be more effective in a situation where
the work is to be done according to set guidelines in a routine manner
and the result is wanted quickly. The democratic leader will be more
effective where the group members are expected to find out the
creative solution to a problem.
4. Yes, group cohesiveness is a desirable characteristic of a group. It
keeps the group intact and functional.
5. Yes, a teacher trained in guidance and counselling is in a better
position to organise group activities to help students. It is because
the trained teacher has a better insight into the principles of
organising group activities, s/he understands the activity, its
objective, process and the outcome is also better understood.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercises

Self-check Exercise 1
A. For example, friendship formation could be an example.
B. The points of discussion are arrived at by the group consensus. For example,
the group may decide to discuss the following:
– What qualities do you look in a person to build a friendship?
– Are you attracted to like minded people or people having a different
temperament?
– What makes friendship long-lasting?
– How important is friendship support system in your life?
C. Factors that would hinder the efficiency of group discussion:
– Negative roles played by some members like one of aggressor, blocker,
blamer, etc.
– Lack of confidence among members.
– Large group.
Self-check Exercise 2
1. c 2. d 3. a
4. b 5. f 6. e
Self-check Exercise 3
1. c 2. a 3. b

114 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

 Bennett, M.E. 1963. Guidance and counselling in groups. McGraw-Hill Book
Company, Inc., New York.
Stanley, J.C. and Hopkins, K.D. 1990. Educational and psychological
measurement and evaluation. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Bhatnagar, A. and Gupta, N. (Eds.) 1999. Guidance and counselling: A

theoretical perspective (Vol. I). Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Bowman, R.P. 1987. Small group guidance and counselling in schools: A
national survey of school counsellors. The School Counsellor, 34, 256 262.
Campbell, C.A. and Dahir, C.A. 1997. The national standards for school
counselling programmes. American School Counsellor Association,
Alexandria, VA.
Gladding, S.T. 1999. Group work: A counselling speciality. Merrill, Upper
Saddle River, NJ.
Gysbers, N.C. and Henderson. E. 2006. Developing and managing your school
guidance and counselling programme (4th ed.). American Counselling
Association, Alexandria, VA.
Mohan, S. (Ed.) 1985. Readings for career teachers. National Council of
Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
Myrick, R.D. 2003. Developmental guidance and counselling: A practical approach
(4th ed.). Education Media Corporation, Minneapolis, MN.
Warters, J. 1960. Group guidance: Principles and practices. McGraw-Hill Book
Co., New York.
Wittmer, J. 2000. Managing your school counselling programme: K-12
developmental strategies (2nd ed.). Education Media Corporation,
Minneapolis, MN.

GROUP G UIDANCE 115

 Using Community
Resources ffor
esources or Guidance
7.0 Introduction
7.1 Objectives
7.2 Guidance and Community Resources
7.3 Role of Community Agencies
7.4 Role of a Counsellor
7.5 Survey of Community Agencies
7.5.1 Suggested Format for Survey of
Community Agencies
7.6 Resources and Agencies Found within
the Community
7.6.1 Referral Resources
7.6.2 Financial Resources
7.6.3 Information Resources
7.7 Summary
Self-Evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
Answer Key to Self-check Exercise
Suggested Readings
7.0 INTRODUCTION
There are many such students in
school who require specialised
and unique help in coping with
various physical, educational,
personal–social problems that can
get in the way of healthy growth and adjustment. Though
the school counsellor is responsible for providing help to
the students, in certain cases the counsellor alone may not be equipped well to meet
their demands and help them solve their problems. In order to overcome these problems,
help from a number of sources is required. A guidance teacher requires teamwork
from a variety of sources, both in school and from the community to help these students.
The success of guidance activities depends upon the collaborative functioning of
various institutions, agencies, participation of parents and the community to meet
the needs of the students. The counsellor will find his/her task much facilitated if
s/he explores and makes use of the resources that are available in the community. For
specialised services, which cannot be provided by the teachers and guidance counsellor
in schools, referrals may be done to a specialised person or agency, which can provide
that particular help.
In this unit, you will learn about out of school community resources that may be
helpful to you in organising and conducting your various guidance activities. You will
also learn how to contact and maintain an on-going resource file of community agencies
to which you will refer students with special requirements.

7.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to
• describe the role of community agencies as a resource in guidance programme.
• undertake survey of community agencies.
• describe various resources and agencies available in the community.
• discuss the various types of services provided by the community agencies.
• describe ways to involve the community agencies in a school guidance programme.

7.2 GUIDANCE AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES

An effective guidance programme requires cooperation and collaboration with
community agencies as they can offer valuable help in organising guidance activities
in school. The counsellor plans and organises career talks, career exhibitions-cum-
conferences, field visits, plant visits, etc. Help of various community agencies can
enrich these activities. Detailed information about all these agencies such as the type
of services provided by the agency, charges for offering the services, address, transport
facility to make the visits, timings, etc. should be collected and systematically
maintained by the guidance teacher. An important role of the guidance teacher is to
develop and maintain cooperative working relationships with all community agencies.
You will learn about all this in detail in this unit.

7.3 ROLE OF COMMUNITY AGENCIES

The success of the school guidance programme depends to a large extent upon its
ability to meet the needs of the students. In fact, the school counsellor alone is not
always able to help a number of students. They may need assistance of different
types of community agencies for which the counsellor is not competent or trained,
for example, the counsellor is not equipped to provide help in case a student has
some kind of health problem or is in need of finances for higher education. In such
cases, help may be sought from different types of agencies, which can render required
help to students. Therefore, there is a need to explore and make use of the resources
that are available in the community.

7.4 ROLE OF A COUNSELLOR

As a counsellor, you have the responsibility of collecting the information about the
types and the nature of resources available in your community, and develop relationship
with the community agencies so that the services can be used for the benefit of the
students. You can refer students and their parents to community agencies for help
whenever there is need for help regarding higher education, training, employment,
health and finance, etc.
The counsellor will be particularly interested in identifying within the community
(i) speakers to deliver career talks, (ii) participants for career forums, (iii) employers
interested in hiring young people, (iv) sponsors for publication of educational and
career information, and guidance material, (v) agencies which can help students in
arranging field trips, provide medical care, financial assistance, consultancy on
educational, social, and legal issues, etc.
You may carry out a survey of the local area to find out existing community agencies.
A list of community agencies can be prepared along with the necessary information
and the services they provide. The counsellor can invite professionals from these
118 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE
agencies to interact with the students depending on their need, e.g. a medical personnel
can be called to create awareness about prevention of HIV/ AIDS, etc. Also for special
services students may be referred to the appropriate agencies in the community.
Survey of community agencies will help you collect information about these agencies.

7.5 SURVEY OF COMMUNITY AGENCIES

To identify such agencies, a survey of community resources can be undertaken. The
objective of the community survey is to identify agencies and their services, which
might support the guidance programme. The guidance worker with the help of the
administrators and other staff members should accept the responsibility for the survey.
The school administrators should provide leadership in the survey. In some cities,
some agencies have already compiled the information and may have published a
directory of the welfare, health and youth agencies.
The information desired will vary in different communities but essentially a survey
should state:
• Type and name of each agency with full address and phone number.
• The special services offered.
• The case load that can be handled by the agency.
• Fee schedules (if any).
• The procedure and requirements for using or referring pupils who might benefit
from the service.
Some method of recording such information may be used so that it can be easily
retrieved. This information can be recorded according to the nature of services offered
by these agencies or according to the alphabetical order of the agencies.
Information about such agencies will enable the guidance worker to make proper
referrals and obtain professional help for students when they are in need of specific
help. The type of such resources available in a community will depend upon the size
of the community and extent to which it has developed facilities and factors.
7.5.1 Suggested Format for Survey of Community Agencies
A format for collecting and maintaining information about community agencies follows:
Type of service offered
Name of the agency
Complete address of the agency

Telephone number
Name of the Director/Administrator/Secretary
Agency’s main financial support source
Fee (if any)
Case load that can be handled

U SING C OMMUNITY R ESOURCES FOR G UIDANCE 119

Referral requirements
Referral procedures
Working hours
Facilities
Professional staff
Miscellaneous information (if any)
For maintaining liaison with community services and agencies, the counsellor has
specific responsibilities:
(i) Be in contact with the agencies and the organisations offering the special services
through meetings, visits and telephone or other forms of communication. A
consistent presence helps that agency understand what your guidance programme
needs are and they are more willing to help out when requested.
(ii) Have a plan for screening and referral that is acceptable to both the school and
the agencies. This may vary from agency to agency. For example, you can select a
group of students in 12th standard in your school who are not performing well in
studies and are from a poor family background. Talk to them about their interests
and choices or you can administer various standardised tools to know more about
their potentials and then accordingly discuss with them about various ways they
could improve their performance. You can also discuss with them the possibility
of pursuing vocational courses after their schooling and information about the
agencies that provide such help or vocational courses.
(iii) Invite and involve community representatives in the guidance programme as well
as other cultural programmes and activities organised by the school from time to
time. These community representatives may speak at these functions about
themselves and about the kind of services their agencies can offer to the school.
(iv) Have a continuous plan of evaluation of the overall programme of guidance
services, which would provide suggestions for improvement to community
agencies regarding the procedures and nature of services provided by them. This
information could also be obtained through a follow-up with the students under
referral to an agency. The counsellor needs to seek the permission of the agency
for recording and maintaining the information. If it is confidential, the counsellor
must keep it in such a way that it is not accessible to people who are not authorised
or supposed to see it.

Survey a sample of three agencies working in your community for the welfare
of the students. Write a small report (on any one interaction) on what you
discovered after interacting with a community resource, how difficult/easy
it was, how restrictive their requirements for referral, etc. are.

120 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

7.6 RESOURCES AND AGENCIES FOUND WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
On the basis of the survey, you would identify the resources of the community that
might be useful for helping students and for organising guidance activities. Some of
the agencies found to be the most useful for referral of students are:
– Hospitals and polyclinics for health check-ups.
– Agencies which can help in dealing with behavioural problems.
– Rehabilitation departments and agencies.
– Agencies which can provide career information and related material.
– Banks for providing financial help, grants, etc.
– YMCA, YWCA, etc. for extending help in terms of vocational training and
other activities.
– Recreational and hobby clubs for pursuing hobbies.
Most of these agencies can also assist you as school counsellor in incorporating
their services in your school guidance programme. For example, some medical

Fig. 7.1: The Counsellor and resources in community

U SING C OMMUNITY R ESOURCES FOR G UIDANCE 121

specialists come to the school for routine health check-up of students or some experts
from career study centres can be invited to school to deliver career talks, clarify the
doubts of students with regard to some new and emerging occupations.
These resources can be broadly classified as Referral resources, Financial resources
and Information resources. You will now read about these resources in detail.
7.6.1 Referral Resources
Referral resources can include the following services:
• Health Agencies
Hospitals and clinics (government/private) offering medical services and services
of specialists for eye, ear, nose, throat, dental cases, etc.
• Mental Health Agencies
These include psychological and psychiatric services offered by mental health
clinics or hospitals, child guidance centres and specialists who are in private
practice or attached to hospitals and clinics.
• Social Welfare Agencies
These include agencies supported by religious groups, trusts and Government
Welfare Departments for youth, girls, women and children. In some cases, financial
assistance may also be secured for a needy child. Such agencies also run special
institutions, special schools for the physically and mentally challenged and
delinquents, etc. and also offer family counselling.
• Youth Organisations
Groups such as YMCA, YWCA, clubs, boy and girl scouts, young people’s
association, etc. provide an opportunity for students to use their leisure time in
constructive, recreational and socialising ways which emphasise character
development and leadership training.
• Community Service Clubs
Clubs such as the Rotary, the Lions, etc. can help the school guidance programme
not only through supplying information published by them but also through
sponsoring career talks and other guidance activities about different fields of work
to students.
• Vocational Guidance Sections of the Employment Exchanges
The guidance worker should refer all school leavers who are not interested to
continue higher education to the vocational guidance officers of the employment
exchanges who can help such students by providing information about employment
opportunities, short-term training facilities, training institutions and jobs.
Vocational guidance officers could also be invited to deliver career talks to students
in the school.
122 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE
• Professional Associations and Societies
Medical Association, Local Bar Association and other professional associations
and societies may also be other sources of information and support to students.
• Job Placement Agencies
Employment agencies and other agencies interested in offering summer jobs or
part-time employment to students and placement for students after school.
• State Guidance Bureaus
State guidance bureaus are government institutions which provide help to the
school counsellor in terms of professional consultancy. They also supply
psychological tests, career information and related material, etc. which may
facilitate his/her work in the school.
• Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
There are various NGOs which provide help to the students and deserving
candidates through different programmes and schemes. These agencies also help
in organising guidance activities for students at various levels.

Prepare a directory of government and non-governmental agencies and

organisations in your community along with their phones, fax and e-mail
details and the services offered by them.

7.6.2 Financial Resources

There are various organisations which could provide financial support for guidance
activities. They have schemes under which students are offered part-time jobs or
vacation jobs with some financial support. Central government and state government
organisations also have several schemes to provide scholarships/stipends and other
incentives to the deserving and poor students. Employment schemes are started for
educated unemployed youths in rural and urban areas. Nationalised banks also provide
loans for self-employment. Similarly, industrial or business houses and resourceful
individuals can also help financially or offer their services for guidance activities. The
counsellor knows about the financial problems and needs of various students. S/he
may guide these students to approach such agencies to procure loans/grants, etc.
7.6.3 Information Resources
Local employment exchanges, professional organisations such as the Medical
Association, Bar Association, Chamber of Commerce, Department of Education,
State Bureaus of Guidance, youth organisations such as YMCA and YWCA, and
clubs such as the Lions and Rotary can furnish information to the students for their
educational and vocational planning which includes information about various courses,
training facilities, scholarships/stipends, job opportunities, etc.

U SING C OMMUNITY R ESOURCES FOR G UIDANCE 123

 Through conducting surveys, interviews or by simply talking to people, the
guidance worker can find out resources and agencies available in the community,
which may be very useful to the students for organising guidance activities and
benefiting students through their services.

Prepare a list of 10 industries in your community, which offer full-time/

part-time employment to students after leaving school. Share this information
with the school leaving youth in your neighbourhood/country.

Read the following statements and mark true or false:

1. The school counsellor is well equipped to help
each student solve all his/her problems. True/False
2. The counsellor needs to involve various
community agencies in organising the guidance
programme in the school. True/False
3. Community agencies can help students without
the intervention of the school counsellor. True/False

This unit has presented an overview of how the various community

agencies can help you as a school counsellor in carrying out your
work of guidance and counselling effectively. It has been explained
that you cannot work single-handedly as a counsellor to help students
meet all their needs and requirements, because some of them may be
unusual and unique and may be beyond your training and competence.
In such cases you may refer the students to specialised agencies in
the community. These community agencies can be of three types,
viz. referral agencies/resources, financial agencies/resources and
information agencies/resources. However, it is important that you
keep a liaison with these agencies and remain in constant touch with
them, utilise their expertise while organising and implementing the
guidance programme in your school, invite experts for giving talks in
career conferences, career exhibitions and on other occasions. You
can also undertake a survey of resources/agencies available in your
community and classify them into three categories mentioned in this
unit. A format for conducting the survey and recording the information
about the community agencies has also been given in the unit.

124 INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE

 1. Identify different agencies in your community providing different
services. Develop a programme for creating awareness about these
agencies in the community or how students can avail their services.
2. A group of students approaches you to know how they can
effectively utilise their summer vacations. Develop a plan how you
will help them.
Answer Key to Self-evaluation Exercises
1. Guidelines to be followed:
– Identify various agencies in your community by conducting
surveys, interviewing or by simply talking to people.
– Provide detailed information about these agencies, i.e. what kind
of services they provide, their charges, addresses, transport
facility, timings, etc. through various means such as by distributing
pamphlets, arranging for talks in schools, community centres, etc.
2. Guidelines to be followed:
– Identify students’ interests by talking to them or by
administering an interest inventory.
– Locate various agencies in the community that can provide
the services they require.
– Accordingly, depending on their age, gender, interest and socio-
economic status, provide information about various recreational
and hobby clubs they could join.

Answer Key to Self-check Exercise

Self-check Exercise 1
1. T 2. T 3. F

Bhatnagar, A. and Gupta, N. (Eds.) 1999. Guidance and counselling: A

theoretical perspective (Vol. I). Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Gibson, R.L. and Mitchell, M.H. 1995. Introduction to guidance. McMillan,
New York.
Lock, D.C., Myers, J.E. and Herr, E.L. (Eds.) 2001. The handbook of
counselling (pp.343–354). Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Nugent, F.A. 1990. An introduction to the profession of counselling. Merrill
Publishing Company, Columbus, Ohio.
Srivastava, A.K. 2003. Principles of guidance and counselling. Kaniksha
Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi.

U SING C OMMUNITY R ESOURCES FOR G UIDANCE 125

Notes
Notes
Notes
 List of Course Material

Children are given to us — on loan — for a very

short period of time. They come to us like packets of
flower seeds, with no pictures on the cover and no
guarantees. We do not know what they will look
like, act like, or have the potential to become. Our
job, like the gardener's, is to meet their needs as best
we can; to give proper nourishment, love, attention,
and caring, and to hope for the best.
—KATHARINE KERESEY
 Module 1

Introduction to
Guidance
2350

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND

FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION
ISBN 978-81-7450-904-8 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING