Elective - Guidance and Counselling (I year)


Unit-4
Tools and techniques of guidance and counselling
Psychological test test:
Meaning
       A Psychological test is a standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behaviour that is used to measure the individual differences that exist among people. A psychological test is an objective and standardized measure of an individual’s mental and/or behavioural characteristics.
      According to Freeman: “A Psychological test is a standardized instrument designed to measure objectively one or more aspects of a total personality by means of samples of verbal and nonverbal responses, or by means of other behaviours”.
      According to Freeman: “A Psychological test is a standardized instrument designed to measure objectively one or more aspects of a total personality by means of samples of verbal and nonverbal responses, or by means of other behaviours”.
Definition

v        Is a measuring instrument that consists of sample behaviour obtained under standardized conditions and evaluated using established scoring rules.
Need
      Psychological tests are used to assess a variety of mental abilities and attributes, including achievement and ability, personality, and neurological functioning.
      For children, academic achievement, ability, and intelligence tests may be used as tools in school placement, in determining the presence of a learning disability or a developmental delay, in identifying giftedness, or in tracking intellectual development. Intelligence testing may also be used with teens and young adults to determine vocational ability (e.g., in career counselling).
      To help students at choice and critical points when they have to make decision.
  To enable the counsellor to have abroad-gauge look and uncover as many promising opportunities impossible for the counselee
      To enhance the clients ability to make his mown decision.
Limitations
      Many applicants experience anxiety.
      Human mind is beyond any assessment and limit, at a times one can behave complete different from original state.
      Negative applicant can alter the validity of test.
       Administration and interpretation can be done only by qualified psychologist
Testing: Intelligence
Meaning of the intelligence test:
Of course intelligence is the capacity of the individual to solve problem, to adjust with new situation and think rationally etc.  
DEFNITION
“Intelligence is the ability to carry out abstract thinking     - Terman
Intel­ligence really is:
i) The ability to learn.
(ii) The ability to think abstractly.
(iii) The ability to solve problems.
(iv) The ability to perceive relationship,
(v) The ability to adjust and relate to one’s environment.
(vi) The ability to behave properly and effectively.

CLASIFICATION OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS :
1)      Individual Tests of Intelligence:
                          The individual test is administered to one person at a time for whom it is meant. Here the subject’s response may be given to oral form or written form. But the test should include such items which should be objective in nature.
2) Group Tests of Intelligence:
                               The group-tests on intelligence can be administered to a large number of subjects at a time with clear cut direction regarding how to respond the questions set in the tests. The subjects are warned to make their pencils and pens ready before administration of the test.
3) Verbal Tests of Intelligence:
                                The verbal or language tests are designed to ascertain the extent the test has mastered and controlled reading materials meant for the subject according to his learning level. The respon­ses of the test questions are expressed in terms of words, symbol cross, check, underlying or circling the right response. At present Army Alpha Test on Intelligence has become an ideal model tests for the new test constructions as they are referring it most preferab­ly
This test includes items on:
            (i) Following Directions
            (ii) Arith­metical Problems
           (iii) Practical Judgements,
            (iv) Synonym-Antonym
            (v) Disarranged Sentences
            (vi) Number Series
           (vii) Analogies
4) Non-Verbal Tests of Intelligence:
                                 It includes different activities like completing pictures, discovering absurdities in the picture, arranging pictures correctly, words or symbols making substitu­tions as in the code substitution and setting blocks and cubes etc. In case of illiterates, children and persons having language deficiency the performance test is best suited and most appropriate test to measure their intelligence than language tests.  
5) Paper and Pencil Tests of Intelligence:  
                                     Generally all verbal tests can be counted as paper and pencil tests as it require some of the written answers on the paper. This is usually administered on the subjects those who know to write and read.
6) Performance Tests of Intelligence:  
                                  Performance tests include all non-verbal test or non-language tests. It includes various types of form boards, picture completion, cubes and blocks. It is individually administered to have better measurement of mental abilities of illiterates and persons having language deficiency in reading and writing the language of the test.
TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE :
  1. Individual Tests
            These tests are administered to one individual at a time.  These cover age group from 2 years to 18 years.
These are :
a)      The Binet – simon Tests
b)      Revised Tests by Terman
c)      Mental Scholastic Tests of Burt
d)     Wechsler Test
Group Tests :
            Group tests are administered to a group of people Group tests had their birth in America when the intelligence of the recruits who joined the army in the First World War was to be calculated.
These are :
a)      The Army Alpha and Beta Test
b)      Terman’s Group Tests
c)      Otis Self-Administrative Tests
 USES OF INTELLIGENCE TEST :
v   Classification or Grouping pupils for school work
v  For diagnosing disabilities in school subjects
v  For determining the optimum level of work
v  Identification of intellectual deviations
v  Educational and Vocational guidance
v  Estimating the range of abilities in a class
v  Determining the level of ability
v  Measuring special abilities.
v  Predicting success in particular Academic Subjects
Aptitude:
Introduction:
              An aptitude is the potential for a specific skill which can be improved by suitable training.
Meaning and nature of aptitude:
               It is an observable fact that people differ from one another and within themselves in their performance in one or the other field of human activity such as leadership, music, art, mechanical work, teaching etc.
Definition:
According to Bingham (1937),  Aptitude refers to those qualities characterizing a person’s way of behavior which serve to indicate how well he can learn to meet and solve a certain specified kinds of problem.
According to Freeman (1971),  An aptitude is a combination of characteristics indicative of an individual’s capacity to acquire some specific knowledge, skill, or set of organized responses, such as the ability to speak a language, to become a musician to do mechanical work.
Aptitude testing:
                  Aptitude tests measure or assess the degree or level of one’s special bent or flair much the same way as intelligence tests are employed for measuring one’s intelligence. They are chiefly used to estimate the extent to which an individual would profit from a specific course or training, or to predict the quality of his or her achievement in a given situation.
                 Two types of aptitude test are usually employed. These are, specialized aptitude test and general aptitude test.
Specialized aptitude tests:
                 These aptitude tests have been devised to measure the aptitudes of an individuals in various specific fields or activities. Generally, these tests can be divided into the following sub types according to the specific aptitude tested by them:
v  Mechanical aptitude tests
v  Clerical aptitude tests
v  Musical aptitude tests
Tests for scholastic and professional aptitudes
Mechanical aptitude tests:
                Like intelligence, mechanical aptitude is also made up of many components. While explaining its meaning, Freeman (1971) writes:
“The capacities designed by the term ‘mechanical aptitude’ is not a single, unitary function. It is a combination of sensory and motor capacities plus perception of spatial relations, the capacity to acquire information about mechanical matters and the capacity to comprehend mechanical relationships.”
The purpose of mechanical aptitude tests is to be test the above mentioned abilities and capacities of an individual in order to assess his chances of success in mechanical pursuits.
Some well-known mechanical aptitude tests are:
1)      Minnesota mechanical assembly test.
2)      Minnesota spatial relations test.
3)      The revised Minnesota power form board
Clerical aptitude test:
                 Like the mechanical the clerical aptitude is also a composite function. According to Bingham, it involves several abilities namely,
 Perceptual ability: the ability to register words and numbers with speed and accuracy.
 Intellectual ability: the ability to grasp the meaning of words and symbols.
 Motor ability: the ability to use various types of machines and tools like a typewriter, duplicator, cyclostyle machine, etc.
Some of the proper clerical tests are:
1)      Detroit clerical aptitude examination.
2)      Minnesota vocational test for clerical workers.
3)      The clerical ability test prepared by the department of psychology
Musical aptitude test:
               These tests have been devised for discovering musical talent. One of the important musical aptitude tests is described below:
 Seashore measure of musical talent: it gives consideration to the following musical components:
ü  Discrimination of pitch
ü  Discrimination of intensity of loudness
ü  Determination of time interval
ü  Discrimination of timbre
ü  Judgement of rhythm
ü  Tonal memory
Attitude:

Meaning

In simple words, an “attitude” is an individual’s way of looking or an individual’s point of view at something.  To be more specific, an “attitude” may be defined as the mental state of an individual, which prepares him to react or make him behave in a particular pre-determined way. It is actually an acquired feeling. Attitude is the mixture of beliefs and feelings that people have about situations, specific ideas or other people.

Components of Attitude

1.      Cognitive component
2.      Affective component
3.      Behavioral component



Cognitive component

Cognitive component of attitude is associated with the value statement. It consists of values, belief, ideas and other information that a person may have faith in.

Example: Quality of sincere hard is a faith or value statement that a manager may have.

Affective component

Affective component of attitude is associated with individual feelings about another person, which may be positive, neutral or negative.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest, or I like Sam because he is sincere. It is an expression of feelings about a person, object or a situation.

Behavioral component

Behavioral component of attitude is associated with the impact of various condition or situations that lead to person behavior based on cognitive and affective components.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest is an affective component, I, therefore, would like to disassociate myself with him, is a behavioural component and therefore I would avoid Sam.
Cognitive and affective components are bases for such behaviour. Former two components cannot be seen, only the behaviour component can be seen. Former is important because it is a base for the formation of attitude.

Characteristics of Attitudes

Characteristics of attitudes are discussed below:
·         Attitude is predispositions of purpose, interest or opinion of the person to assess some objects in a favourable or an unfavourable manner.

·         Attitudes are different from values. Values are the ideals, whereas attitudes are narrow, they are our feelings.

·         Attitudes are evaluative statements: either favourable or unfavourable concerning the objects, people or events.

·         Attitudes influence human behavior: A positive attitude towards a thing will influence human behavior towards the thing favorably and vice-versa.

·         Attitudes have intensity: It refers to the strength of the effective component. For example, we may dislike an individual but the extent of our disliking would determine the intensity of our attitude towards the person.

 

Functions of Attitude

Four important functions of attitude which are crucial in organizational behavior viewpoint are:
1.      Adjustment Function
4.      Knowledge Function

Adjustment Function

Attitudes often help individuals to adjust to their work environment.
Example: Well-treated employees tend to develop a positive attitude towards their management or job.

Ego-Defensive Function

Attitudes help people to retain their self- image and dignity.
Example: Older faculty might feel somewhat threatened by a young and new faculty member who is full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm

Value-Expressive Function

Attitudes provide individuals with a basis for expressing their values.
Example, a manager who values honest and sincere work will be more vocal against an employee who is having a very casual approach towards work.

Knowledge Function

Attitudes provide frames of reference or standard that allow individuals to understand and perceive the world around him.
Example, If a student has a strong negative attitude towards the college, whatever the college does, the student will be perceived as something ‘bad’ and as actually against them.

Interest:
Meaning:
            In determining the educational and vocational success of an individual, interest is an important factor. So, the teachers and guidance workers should assess the interest patterns of individual correctly and assist them accordingly.
               The term interest is from Latin, which means ‘it matters’ or ‘it concerns’. And so interest in a particular aspect for an individual matters much and important. Though interest patterns, because of the complexity of the individual, are difficult to analyse, different authorities in the field have tried to define the term in many different ways.
Definition:
      According to  W.V. Bingham , “ An interest is a tendency  to become absorbed in an experience and to continue it.”
        According to D.E.Super, “ An interest is not a separate psychological entity, but merely one of several aspects of behavior.”

       According to Strong, “ interest is defined as the total sum of likes and dislikes for a wide range of stimulus objects and activities.”
Characterisitcs:
Ø   Interests are shaped by both hereditary and environmental factors.
Ø   Generally speaking, there is some relationship between interest and ability.
Ø  The interests of the individuals tend to become less varied with increasing age.
Ø  Interests are not necessarily related to ability or aptitude.
Ø   Interests are fairly stable, cannot be changed easily
Ø   Interests are the aspects of personality of an individual.
Ø   Interests of an individual resemble with his parents or family interests.

Measurement of interests:
                There are various methods and tools of measuring personality such as observation, interview, check list questionaire and inventories.  The following are most popular interest inventories-
v  Strong Vocational Interest Blank by E.K.Strong,
v  Kuder Preference Record, and
v  Occupational Interest and Inventory.
Kuder preference record:
·         It has been developed for high school and college students.
·         Each item of this inventory consist of three preferences such as- (a) Study Physics, (b) Study of Musical Composition and (c) Study Public Speaking.
·         It consists of 198 items in all, each item has three preferences.
·          Preference is measured in nine fields mechanical, scientific, computational, artistic, literacy, persuasive social service and clerical etc.
·          It has  high reliability.
·          Preference in this record can be compared with the SVIB.

Uses:
·         Interest inventories are used in classification or selection of individual for different occupations.
·          It means that individual difference with regard to interest is useful for vocational guidance  as well as educational guidance and counselling purpose.
·          It provides the basis for selection of individuals for different jobs.
·          It has the administrative function.
·         Information about the interests of students is much more useful for teachers in school.
·          In selecting the study subjects after delta class, interests of the students are basic for their choices.
Personality:
Meaning
     The word ‘personality’ is derived from a Latin word ‘persona’ which denotes the mask worn by the actors while playing their role in the drama.
     Personality is the embodiment of physical, emotional, social, mental, moral and other traits of a human being.
     Each letter of the word ‘PERSONALITY’ implies its meaning as follow:
P – Perception capacity
E – Emotional maturity
R – Responsiveness to the situation
S – Sociability
O – Originality
N – Neutrality
A – Appearance (external)
L – Leadership feeling
I – Integrated
T – Tendency
Y – Young (in thinking)
Definition
     “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-phycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment” - Gordon W. Allport
    “Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person would do in a given situation” – Raymond B. Cattell
Characteristics of personality
       Personality is a whole rather than in parts.
       Personality is unique.
       Personality comparises of heredity and environment.
       Personality is made up of traits.  The traits are unique qualities or peculiairties of a person such as introversion - extroversion, honesty – dishonesty.
       Personality is dynamic.  It is ever growing and evolving.
       Personality is organized.  It means we know what to do, when to do and how to do.
PERSONALITY TEST
Meaning
Personality testing refers to techniques that are used to accurately and consistently measure personality.  Personality is something that we informally assess and describe every day.  When we talk about ourselves and others, we frequently refer to different characteristics of an individual’s personality.
Measurement of personality / Testing of personality
    Various kinds of techniques are used in psychology to evaluate one’s personality characteristics and the various personality traits he or she possesses.  These techniques will help to find out the dfects in individual personality also.  Hence all techniques can be used to evaluate dthe individuals personality.


Observation
    If we want to find out the leadership qualities inherent in him/her, we have to observe his behaviour in classroom, playground, teamwork in social group activities, extracurricular activities etc.  The observation has to be recorded and analysed in find out the possible leadership qualities in the student.
Questionarire
     A list of questions are given to a student and his personality is assessed through his promptness in answering the questions.
Uses of Personality tests
      If the counsellor does not evaluate the counsellee’s personality properly, guidance cannot be provided by him.
      An individual’s success in his education and occupation is determine mainly by his personality.
      Personality test through interview and observation helps to find out the students who are least amicable to school, home and society.
      Personality test helps to find out the personality traits of individuals by analysing their abilities extremely.  It helps a person to develop his abilities further.
Interview: Types , Procedure

Definition of counselling  interview:

                                                    It is one of the important techniques in counselling. The essential feature of the interview is a dynamic face to face relationship in which the counselee is helped to develop insights that lead to self realization.
Ruth strang – “ the interview as the heart of the counselling process to which other techniques are contributory”.                                                       
 Erickson-  “ A counselling interview is a person to person relationship in which one individual with problems and needs turns to another person for assistance”.
Ø   person to person relationship
Ø  A means of  communication with each other.
Ø  An awareness on the part of at least one of the persons regarding the purpose of interview.

Steps in interviewing :

Ø  Preparation for the interview and establishing rapport.
Ø  The unfolding of the problem
Ø  The joint working out of the problem
Ø  The closing of the interview
Ø  Evaluation of the interview
Ø  Follow up of the interview

Types of interview:

1.      The employment interview:

                                                           The purpose of the type of interview is to determine the fitness of the candidates for a particular job . Hence ,the interviewer puts questions to the interviewee concerning the job.

2.      The diagnostic interview :

The purpose of this interview is to get some information about the home and environmental situation of the client.

3.      The introductory interview

The purpose of this interview is to prepare the stage for further interviews, i.e ., means of establishing an atmosphere of friendliness , a step towards mutual understanding.

4.      Information interview

In this type of interview the counsellor interview the counsellee with a view to giving him some information about his performance in varies tests and the interpretation of scores.

5.      The research interview

Such interviews are designed with a view to finding facts from individual about a particular problem. Here the interviewer is not interested in the individual but facts.

6.      The disciplinary or administrative interview:

 This may be termed as a fact finding and treatment interview . the administrator to find out the causes of the indiscipline and then attempts to bring out adjustments in the behaviour of the interviewee.

7.      The counselling interview

This is the most important interview for our purpose. It is the face to face situation involving two persons in which one helps the other in gaining insight into his problems and assists him in solving the same.

Preparation for the interview

Ø  The need for the interview should be felt but the student.
Ø  The student should come to the interview not as a requirement of the school but of himself .
Ø  A quiet  and orderly place should be provided for interview purposes.
Ø  The counselling should prepare for the interview by gathering all the data concerning the student.
Ø  The counselling should  be prepare tentative objective for the interview.
Ø  The counsellor should keep an open mind regarding the problem
Ø  Each interview should be considered as a step in the process of guiding the pupil.
Case study:
Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community. Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g. observations & interview )
A case study includes the past history of an individual as well as his present statusit points the way to the remedial treatment
The case study research method originated in clinical medicine (the case history, i.e. the patient’s personal history). In psychology, case studies are often confined to the study of a particular individual
Steps

      Identify the behavioural problem and its present condition
      Begin with an interview in which relevant data are obtained from parents and friends
      Collect supplementary information by administering aptitude,intelligence, interest and personality test
      Analyse the data and make diagnosis the problem
               Make recommendation and offer guidance
Type of data to be collected
      Identification data
      Statement of the problem
      Family history
      School history
      Social history and contacts
      Health and physical history
      Recreational interest
      Personality traits

How to analyze case study data
      The data collected can be analyzed using different theories (e.g. grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological analysis, text interpretation, e.g. thematic coding).
      All the approaches mentioned here use preconceived categories in the analysis and they are ideographic in their approach, i.e. they focus on the individual case without reference to a comparison group.
Strengths of Case Studies
       Provides detailed (rich qualitative) information.
      Provides insight for further research.
      Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations.
Limitations of Case Studies
      Can’t generalize the results to the wider population.
      Researchers' own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias).
      Difficult to replicate.
      Time-consuming.


Cummulative record:
Meaning
            A cumulative record is a record of information about an individual over a long period during the course of his study.  It is an account of the child’s history in the schools. It begins as soon as the child enters the school and continues till he leaves the school for further studies. In school, information thus gathered may be passed from teacher to teacher and from school to school.

Murray Thomas – A cumulative record card is a collection of information about a child over a period of time, usually several years.

Need & importance
            Understanding of the individual is the starting point of all kinds of guidance services. In brief, importance of such records may be highlighted in the following points –
·         Achievement of pupils may be compared.
·         Curriculum may be revised in accordance with the needs of the pupils.
·         Progress and behavior of the pupil may be interpreted.
·         Teaching methods may be modified through these records.
·         It helps in preserving the results.
·         It helps the teacher to search talented as well as slow learners.
·         It serves as a link between the teacher and the parents.

Characteristics
            Following are the chief characteristics of a CRC –
·         It presents a comprehensive picture of the child’s growth and development.
·         It is flexible in nature.
·         It is really accessible to teachers.
·         In the recording of data every attempt is made to distinguish facts from personal opinions.
·         It enables teachers to think more about what happens to the pupil in all his areas of development.

Criteria of a good CR
            Following are the criteria of a good CRC –
1.      Validity – It must be true, exact and authentic.
2.      Accuracy – The information given in the card should be accurately noted down from the original source.
3.      Objectivity & reliability – Personal opinions and judgments should be avoided.
4.      Usability – The arrangement of data must facilitate ready interpretations.
5.      Comprehensiveness – The information recorded should be comprehensive to give a complete picture of the child.
6.      Economical – The expenditure incurred in preparing such cards should not cost much.
7.      Evaluation – It is thus prepared with care should evaluated from time to time.

Contents of CRC
            Ideally, such cards should contain information about,
1.      Individual’s physical characteristics and health.
2.      Individual’s intelligence, special aptitudes should be mentioned in the CRC.
3.      Individual’s interests, attitudes, values, emotions, conflicts, self-concepts etc. should be mentioned in CRC.
4.      Individual’s social relationship with others, adjustment in society and school should be mentioned in CRC.
5.      Individual’s personality traits such as hard working, honest, tolerant, enduring, helping, motivating etc. should be mentioned in CRC.
6.      Socio-economic status of the parents and significant characteristics of home environment should be mentioned in CRC.

In short, CRC contains the following sections:
1.      Personal Data
2.      Home Environment
3.      Health Record
4.      Psychological Report
5.      Scholastic Achievement.
6.      Participation in Co-Curricular Activities.
7.      Educational and Vocational Plans.
8.      Personality Characteristics.
9.      General Remarks. 

As a general principle any information useful for effective implementation of educational objectives and presentation of a true picture of the pupil, should be included in the records. Using the record for the guidance to pupil, improvement of teaching strategies, and economical use of the available resources in the school and true assessment of pupil should be one major outcome of the records.
Anecdotal record:
Meaning
A short account of some happening is referred to as an ‘Anecdote’. Anecdotal record is “a factual description of the meaningful incidents and events which the teacher has observed”.
Anecdotal record : Definition
Raths Louis writes, “an anecdotal record is a report of a significant episode in the life of a student.”
Traxler is of the opinion that “This record, as the name implies involves setting down accounts concerning some aspect of pupil behaviour which seems significant to the observer”.
Salient points:
Every teacher is supplied with a proforma which contains data, place, incident and also the remarks on the proforma, for a complete observation. The following salient points are to be remembered while maintaining anecdotal records.
1. This technique should not be considered as the only technique available for data collection but as an additional supplement.
2. For the interpretations and comments, the objectives description of the behaviour should be isolated and kept separately.
3. Any significant behaviour irrespective of the place of occurrence should be recorded.
4. The record should have both favourable and also the unfavourable behaviours.
5. The information that are collected should be arranged so that they may be analysed in relation to one another.
6. The data or information recorded should not be exposed unnecessarily and should be kept as confidential and unfold secret.

Anecdotal Record : Format
1. Name of pupil observed : Raja
2. Class : 9th std
3. Name of the school : Govt. Higher Secondary School
4. Observer :Class teacher
5. Date and place :
6. Objective description :
7. Place :English class
8. Objective description : I have been finding Raja day after day in the library reading magazines, yet he never has time to correct error to work carefully on English assignments.
9. Comment :Raja does not like to write but likes to read. I have asked the librarian not to admit him during his free periods unless he learns from me that Raja has done his work.

Advantages of Anecdotal Record:
1. Provision of record or account of behaviour in natural situations.
2. They provide a check on other evaluation techniques.
3. Exceptional but significant events are evidenced through anecdotal records.
4. Anecdotal records can be used for very young children well as children lacking in basic communication skills.
5. Teacher, the counsellor and also the learner himself are benefitted through this.

Questionnaire:
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to face, by telephone, computer or post.
Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people.

Closed Questions

Closed questions structure the answer by only allowing responses which fit into pre-decided categories.
Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data. The category can be restricted to as few as two options, i.e., dichotomous (e.g., 'yes' or 'no,' 'male' or 'female'), or include quite complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose (e.g., polytomous).

Strengths

·         They can be economical. This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs. Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained which should be representative of the population, which a researcher can then generalize from.
  • The respondent provides information which can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of 'yes' or 'no' answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses.
·         The questions are standardized. All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order. This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability. Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to check that the results are consistent.

Limitations

·         They lack detail. Because the responses are fixed, there is less scope for respondents to supply answers which reflect their true feelings on a topic.

Open Questions
Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Open-ended questions enable the respondent to answer in as much detail as they like in their own words. For example: “can you tell me how happy you feel right now?”

Strengths

·         Rich qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow the respondent to elaborate on their answer. This means the research can find out why a person holds a certain attitude.

Limitations

·         Time-consuming to collect the data. It takes longer for the respondent to complete open questions. This is a problem as a smaller sample size may be obtained.
·         Time-consuming to analyze the data.
·         It takes longer for the researcher to analyze qualitative data

Designing a Questionnaire

With some questionnaires suffering from a response rate as low as 5%, it is essential that a questionnaire is well designed.
There are a number of important factors in questionnaire design.

Aims

Make sure that all questions asked address the aims of the research. However, use only one feature of the construct you are investigating in per item.

Length

The longer the questionnaire, the less likely people will complete it. Questions should be short, clear, and be to the point; any unnecessary questions/items should be omitted.

Pilot Study

Run a small scale practice study to ensure people understand the questions. People will also be able to give detailed honest feedback on the questionnaire design.

Question Order

Questions should progress logically from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioral to the cognitive, and from the more general to the more specific.
The researcher should ensure that the answer to a question is not influenced by previous questions.

Terminology

There should be a minimum of technical jargon. Questions should be simple, to the point and easy to understand.
The language of a questionnaire should be appropriate to the vocabulary of the group of people being studied. Use statements which are interpreted in the same way by members of different subpopulations of the population of interest.
For example, the researcher must change the language of questions to match the social background of respondents' age / educational level / social class / ethnicity etc.

Presentation

Make sure it looks professional, include clear and concise instructions. If sent through the post make sure the envelope does not signify ‘junk mail.’


UNIT-V

 GUIDANCE SERVICES IN SCHOOLS
Principles for Organizing School Guidance Service
            In order to organize school guidance services, certain principles should essentially be followed. Jones has insisted not to separate guidance from the normal school life. According to him, this can be focused in some specific parts of the subject. It cannot be restricted to the office of the counselor or a headmaster. Jones has assigned the responsibility of providing guidance to every teacher. In this exercise, co-operation of all it desirable. Hence, for organizing school guidance service, application of certain principles is must.
            Humphrey and Traxler in their book entitled ‘Guidance Services’ have mentioned some basic things for organizing school guidance service, which are as follows:
1.      Defining the Objectives Clearly
The objectives of entire guidance program
me should be clearly defined at the time of organizing school guidance service. While defining these objectives, the school ideals and needs of the pupils must be kept in mind.
2.      Defining the Tasks
All the activities are to be performed through the guidance programme must be enlisted before hand.
3.      Allocation of Duties
The success of the guidance programme depends upon the allocation of duties to the persons involved in this job in advance so that every person should have a clear idea what he is to perform. The allocation of these duties should be according to the abilities of the persons of workers.
4.      Defining the Powers
The workers should be made aware of their powers just like their duties.
5.      Defining the Relations
The relations of employees working in the guidance programme, whether full-time or part-time, must be defined clearly. In spite of this, their relations should be defined in accordance with their guidance responsibilities with other employees.
6.      Nature of Guidance Organization
It is proper to decide about the structure of school guidance service prior to its beginning, such as number of its employees, finance, size, etc. The basis of its composition should be the objectives of the institute, financial resources and the number of students in the school etc.
7.      Simplicity
The organization of school guidance service should not be of complicated nature. The framework of its structure should remain simple as far it is possible, because every person will start taking interested in such a simple framework of the organizations.
            Crow and Crow, in his book, has also suggested the following points to keep in mind before executing the plan of guidance programme:
1.      First of all it should be decided the number of persons to be involved in executing the guidance programme and the time required for the same.
2.      How much increase in the workers strength is required.
3.      Is the building and the space are enough for conducting the various activities of guidance?
4.      Are the teachers and other employees available in the school capable of devoting expected time and energy in the guidance programme?
5.      Do the employees exhibit interest in the progranmme? If yes, to what extent?
6.      Which teachers are available to provide various proposed services?
7.      Do the parents too show interest in the guidance related planned progamme and will they cooperate in this programme?
8.      What is the viewpoint of school and the society regarding the expansion of guidance services?
9.      In which experience areas the pupils are required to serve?
10.  Would the provision of finance in the school budget be possible?
11.  To what extent other community agencies can be associated with the guidance programme?
12.  How the pupils can be motivated to understand for themselves the value of the guidance programme?

Individual Inventory Service:

Individual inventory service is an important type of guidance service which may be recognized often as “pupil’s” inventory service. It is very much essential for student as it assists to know the student “himself” at the time of taking any decisions so far his educational courses and careers are concerned. Really the student proceeds in his educational set-up as he has made proper choice regarding concerned subject or courses according to his own abilities, interests, aptitudes, attitudes and skills. The adequate and accurate data are collected for the same purpose.
Generally student’s information is highly required for the following reasons:
(i) The individual or student’s information is needed to assist the student to know the clear picture of his abilities, interests, aptitudes, skills, personality characteristics, achievement standard, level of aspiration and his physical health status as well as his mental capacities.
 (ii) It assists student to know himself from various point of view such as socio-economic-status, family background, educational status of family, will of parents and students etc.
(iii) It helps student to provide a record of the academic standard and status and his progress in this regard.
(iv) It enables guidance worker, and teacher to know about student adequately as a result of which they would be able to suggest for further progress of the students.

Steps of Individual Inventory Service:

The following steps should be followed at the time of organisa­tion of individual inventory service in the school:
1. Data Collection:
Data collection is the first and foremost step to be followed for good individual inventory service. Here necessary and adequate data regarding student’s ability, interests, aptitudes, skills, habit patterns, family background, socio- economic-status, health, habits and conditions, vocational interest, educational standard, interest for different curricular and co-curricular activities, parental aspirations etc. should be collected by guidance personnel with utmost care.
For the purpose of data collection about the students, the guidance worker should take the help of different tools and techniques such as interviews, observations, case study, incidental records, cumulative record cards, questionnaires, rating scales, standardized test, and inven­tories meant for measuring intelligence, creativity, adjustment abilities and other psychological traits.
The individual inventory service needs following data about each student
(i) General data:
Pupil’s name, his father’s name, age, date of birth, place of birth, permanent address, present address, name of the class in which he reads,
(ii) Family data:
Home and school environment, number of the family members, number of the brothers and sisters, relation with family members, parental educational status, parental occupational status, socio-economic-status of the family, home situation (Rural/Urban) and health status of family members.
(iii) Physical data:
Pupil’s height, weight, body structure, complexion, eye sight, hearing condition, heart and lung condition, chronic disease, health status of the student etc.
(iv) Academic data:
Present achievement records, past achievement records, progress of studies in different subjects, marks or grades obtained the position of student in the class-room so far his academic achievement is concerned.
(v) Social data:
Manners of the student, his customs, values, social skills, participation in various social institutions, co-operation, fellow feeling, dealings with other members of society etc.
 (vi) Data about co-curricular activities:
Interest in games, sports, interest in participating different competitions such as drama competition, music competition, debate competition, essay competition, school exhibition, group discussion and spiritual discussion etc.
(vii) Psychological data:
Mental ability, emotional maturity, power of reasoning and thinking, aptitudes, interests, attitudes, vocational interest, self-concepts and other personality traits etc.
 (viii) Data regarding entertainment:
Leisure time activities, sources and means of refreshment, other liking hobbies and other engagements.
2. Maintenance of data:
The useful data about students should be organised and recorded properly in a cumulative record after collection of data. The cumulative record should be based on up-to-date, adequate and appropriate data about the student which must be carefully examined and looked by the teachers, counsellors and psychologists previously. Because cumulative record gives a clear picture of the student’s achievement and progress which presents all data about student at a glance. The cumulative record is sent with the student to new school secretly when the student leaves the school.
3. Use of data:
In the school proper guidance is given to the student after analysing and interpreting the data collected pre­viously by the guidance personnel. Due to this step taken by guidance worker, student becomes able to find out a better choice in regards to education, vocation and career planning.
 Information  Oriented Service:

Information Oriented Service:

Information actually plays a vital role in each and every guidance programme. Because it assists students to take suitable decisions in case of educational planning and career and vocational career. At the same time it is helpful to students to adjust well in different social situations including school situation and oc­cupational situation.
The essential information for planning the educational and vocational career is collected from various sources such as:
(1) Teachers
(2) Parents
(3) School guidance personnel or Counsellor
(4) Intimate friends and mates
(5) News papers and different useful journals and
(6) Other mass media such as Radio and T.V.
The information which students get from different sources should be authentic and free from all business and errors as a result of which student would be able to take right decision in regards to his educational and vocational careers.

Need of Information Service:

The needs of the information service may be as follows:
(i) Information service helps students to take right decisions when they face multifarious problems in the context of educational life and vocational life.
(ii) The well designed and up-to-date information service motivates and stimulates the students to appraise their idea and ideologies for achieving self
 (iii) Information service assists students to be self-dependent, self cautious and self regulatory with full confidence and satisfaction
(iv)  Information service enables students to correlate and compare his decisions with his abilities, interests, aptitudes, strength and limitations
(v) Information service assists students to explore new possible areas to place themselves free from all tensions and frustrations.
Norris and Others have pointed out the fol­lowing needs and objectives of information service:
(i) To identify the choice available among the multifarious vocations opened to them.
(ii) To evaluate their self-perception of activities and interests against actual occupational needs.
(iii) To develop self awareness and self-confidence in individual about various occupations.
Placement services:
Placement service is a process, which helps for the realisation of the aims of guidance and counseling in respect of  job-placement of the students. Thus its basic objective is welfare and adjustment of the individuals in the context of a job for which he is best fitted and from which he gets satisfaction.
Career guidance:
Career guidance can be defined as a comprehensive, developmental program designed to assist individuals in making and implementing informed educational and occupational choices. In simple words, it is a journey on which people develop to make mature and informed decisions.
Importance of career guidance:
·         It helps students to select the right kind of job oriented courses which will help them to take their career in the right direction
·         It provide quality services which helps to manage their career effectively
·         Under the guidance an individual can achieve their important goals of life.
Aims of career guidance:
·         To provide support for students
·         To identify the development in primary schools
·         To make them walk in the right direction in their career path
·         To make them successful in their life.
Career talk:
Career talks provide information on various occupations within an industry. They introduce students to the nature and scope of the work done and educate them on the skills necessary to perform certain job functions.
Impact:
·         It allows students to hear from real life role models who can demonstrate the relevance.
·         It allows students to gain an understanding of what different careers actually entail.
·         To equip students with the inspiration and information t make better informed decisions about their future.
·         (DFE)Department For Education statutory guidance for career planning requires teachers to embed careers learning in their work
Career  conference
  Meaning:
              Career  conference  technique  has  been  found  to   be  very   valuable   as  means  of  supplementing   the  information  giving  to  a group by  the  counselor  or  the  class teacher.
                  In   planning  a  conference,  the school  counselor  will seek  the  cooperation  of  both  teachers  and  the  students.
Organizing   a  career conference:
  There  are  six   steps  of  organizing  a  Career  Conference.
v  Objective  Career Conference
v   Types  of  Career Conference
v   Organizing a  Career  Conference
v   Follow up
v  Advantages  of   Holding  Career Conference  are  Mentioned
v   Limitations  of  Career  Conference and suggestions are  given  overcome them.
Types  of  career  conference:
·          One  day  career  conference
·         Two  days/ three days/ week’s conference
·         Conference  for  students  of   one  or  three or  more  conference
·         Conference  for  students  of  the  same  class or  different classes.
·         Conference  for  girls/boys  only   or  both
Topic of a career conference:
        Conference discussion  should  usually  cover  the  following  topics:
§   Importance  and  history  of  the work.
§  Ways  of  finding  jobs
§  Personal  qualification
§  Sources of  further  information
§  Possibilities  of  promotion
Career  bulletin
·         Direct students they picked in the magazines and newspapers. Ask students to neatly cut out at least three pictures of their career.
·         Create a career collage by displaying the names of the careers and the  cut out pictures on the bulletin board
·         The   Career   Bulletin   Board  is   located  in Rivercrest  Lab. It  explores careers   and  career  paths.
Follow – up  services
Meaning:
        Follow-up service  means  the  term  follow-up  is  used for  the service used to assess a  person’s limit of  adjustment  or  rate   or  adjustment in  an  occupation  or   in  educational  programme, after  entering into the  occupation or  a course with   the   help  of  well-organized  and  objective  methods under the guidance  programme.
        The  follow-up  service  is  very  important component  of   the  entire   guidance programme.

       Objectives  and  need  of  follow-up  programme:
        From   guidance  point  of  view, following  are  the  main  objectives  of  follow-up  programme:
·         Knowledge  about  Adjustment
·         Knowledge  about  Opportunities
·         Contact  with Old  Students
·         To   know  the  Causes of  Wastage
·         To  Evaluate Planning  Services
·         To  Encourage Students  and
·          To  Know  about  Maladjustment
   Froehlich   has  also  mentioned  some  useful  objectives  of  follow-up service.  These  objectives  are  as  follows:
v  To  improve  public  relations
v  To increase  pupil  motivation
v  To present  helpful  information  to pupils
v  To  study selected  or  special  groups  of  pupils
v  To present  helpful  information to teachers
v  To  identify those  who  are  in  need   for  future  services
Procedure  of  follow-up  programme:
    The  nature  of follow-up  service  is  diagnostic  and  evaluative. The  main aim of  this  service  is  to  a diagnose  a  person’s success and  effectiveness  and  the  evaluation of  counseling  provided to  that  person or  a  pupil.
   Some of  the  main  procedure  for  follow-up  service  are  as  follow:
§  Survey  of  Students  Still  Going  to  school
§  Group  conferences
§  Conferences for  staff  members
§   Observation  techniques
§  Attitude  scales
§  Special  Plan for  analysis
Techniques  of  follow-up programme:
       During  follow-up  procedure, we  can  use  the  following  techniques:
Ø   Questionnaire
Ø   Check list
Ø   Interview
Ø   Group  Discussion
Ø   Other  means Techniques and Observation
Essential activities of a good school guidance programme:
1.Guidance and counselling committee:
Guidance and Counselling Committee should be formed to serve in an advisory capacity or a policy making body for the programme.
The committee can thrash out problems requiring group solution. It should plan monthly, quarterly and yearly programme, co­ordinate guidance activities and assess the work done.
The committee should consist of the Dean/Principal, Counselling/Liaison Officer, teachers representing different points of view, academic disciplines, interests and basic philosophies, student representatives, parents, Deputy Chief of UEIGB, Vocational Guidance Officer, etc.
It is essential to determine the limits of responsibility of the guidance committee and identify the specific role to be assumed by each faculty and staff member.

 Counselling centre:

Every university and a large college should have a counselling centre headed by a trained professional counseling officer who should be a Ph.D or possess Master’s degree in Psychology and Counselling, with considerable counselling, experience.
(i)                 give assistance to individuals and small groups of students and staff members with special educational, vocational and personal problems;
(ii)               (ii) give assistance to the university and constituent colleges in developing, advising and counselling programmes and consultation on special psychological problems;
(iii)             (iii) provide psychological testing facilities for the university both for individuals and groups;
(iv)              (iv) carry on research on the development of testing procedures and experimental programmes in counselling; and
(v)               (v) help in the training of post-graduate students in counselling and testing.
Counsellors can develop confidence in the Counselling Services by meeting new students at the time of orientation, visiting the hostel and giving talks to assemblies

The Counselling Officer/Liaison Officer’s Office:

The Counselling Officer/Liaison Officer should be given a separate room which should afford him sufficient privacy. His office should be adequately furnished. It should have a small desk or table with a chair for the Counselling/Liaison officer and one or two extra chairs for the visitors.
A few other small items of furnishing such as a small book-shelf, a filing cabinet, an almirah, curtains for the windows and doors, a flower vase or table lamp or even an attractive unattractive room.
The Counselling/Liaison Officer should make the room as cheerful and pleasant, inviting, warm and attractive as possible so that the students like to visit it and feel welcome and at home.
3. Occupational information room and its maintenance:
Occupational information room needs to be set up in every college and university. It should have adequate arrangements for the seating of the students who may visit it for consulting Occupational information room should be distinct and prominently noticeable. However, if a separate room cannot be spared, a portion of a room or a verandah may be utilised for the purpose.
Display of occupational information in an attractive manner is very important. Some suggestions are given below:
(i) Presentation of the information should be attractive and motivating. Contents should have relevance to the current needs of the students.
(ii) Charts, posters and other visual aids should be at the eye level of the students.
(iii) Detailed information, if placed for reading, should be purposively arranged bearing close relationship with the materials displayed on the walls. Wherever possible, classification system should be shown for the benefit of the students.
(iv) Materials should not be crowded in a particular place; it should be evenly distributed over places where students normally gather for receiving various services and need to stay for a reasonable time.
(v) Material displayed should be reviewed frequently with a view to updating the contents as also highlighting specific aspects of the information.
Evalution of guidance programme:
Evaluation is a critical component of a developmental guidance and counseling program.
The purpose of evaluation is to determine the value of the program, and its activities in order to make decisions or to take actions regarding the future.
 The evaluation will measure the delivery of services and outcomes.
Role of guidance personnel in school:
Roles of Headmasters in School Guidance Programme
An any school, the place of the headmaster or principals in main. He is head of the institute. The whole working of the school or a teaching institute depends on the abilities, insight and administrative capacity of the headmaster. Since the guidance has been considered as a part of education, the headmaster should also be loaded with the responsibility of guidance programme. In this field too, the headmaster should be assigned leaders. It is essential for the headmaster to take over the administration of the guidance service along with that of school. To share this burden, he can seek the help of one of his competent teachers, but he cannot delegate his own powers. In this way, we see that there are certain special responsibilities of the headmaster which are as follows:
1.      The responsibility of providing leadership to the guidance programme lies with the headmaster. In this connection, his role can be very important.
2.      The headmaster can help at least the teachers of his own school regarding the guidance  programme and in understanding various problems.
3.      It is the important responsibility of the headmaster to distribute the duties to the guidance workers according to their abilities and capacities and depute them need fully.
4.      The supervision of guidance process is the first step towards the success of guidance process.
5.      The headmaster should spare sufficient time for the guidance work. Only then this programme will gain success. Once a week guidance programme is not sufficient. This may reduce confidence of the pupils towards guidance programme.
6.      The headmaster has financial powers. Hence, it is his responsibility to make financial provision for guidance programme.
7.      It is also the duty of the headmaster to arrange proper building for the counseling service.
8.      The headmaster should help the pupils by evaluating the effects or results of the guidance programme with the help of his fellow teachers.
9.      It is the main part of teacher’s role to make the guardians and parent of the pupils familiar with the guidance programmes.
10.  It is the duty of the teacher to constitute a guidance committee in the school. He should be the head the committee. All the members of the committee decide the guidance activities. The selection of the members of the committee should be made very carefully.
11.  The headmaster should organize in-service education on order to provide training of guidance work to the teachers. For this, able and expert persons associated with this task should be invited. In schools too, part-time courses can be started.
12.  It is the duty of the headmaster to check the teaching work-load of the teachers before assigning them additional work of guidance. The whom the guidance work has been assigned, their teaching work-load should be reduced.
13.  It is the responsibility of the headmaster to make all types of facilities available for the guidance programme, such as, sufficient furniture, guidance office, sufficient funds to purchase all types of materials.
14.  It is the moral duty of the headmaster that he should explain the guidance services to the school and the society.
15.  The headmaster should re-evaluate and re-determine the guidance services from time to time. He can hand over this duty to the guidance committee. The committee should make recommendations for the reforms or modifications in the programme. The execution of these recommendations should be the duty of the headmaster.
16.  The headmaster can modify this programme in consultation with the pupils and their guardians.
17.  The headmaster should manage the literature related to the guidance and arrange its proper distribution.
Roles of a Class Teacher in School Guidance Programme
            The great contribution of the teacher in the guidance programme is that he helps the pupils in understanding their abilities and in evaluating their progress.
            The closeness of class teacher and guidance progaramme leads to the success of guidance programme. The teacher observes the activities of the pupils in different situations. Hence, we see that the teacher plays very important and effective role in the school guidance programme. The role of the teacher in the guidance programme can be clarified through the following headings.
Development the personality of the students
            The teachers remain in personal contact with all the pupils. They know them personally. The teacher can take advantage of his closeness by collecting all types of information regarding pupils. They can collect information’s very convenient concerning the family background of the pupils, behaviours towards their class-mates. On the basis of these informations, the teacher does not allow to create such an environment in which the pupils fell themselves mal-adjusted or unadjusted. Hence, the teacher remains in-touch with the problems of the pupils. If these problems are not eliminated, inferiority complexes are created in the pupils which further develop unhealthy attitudes. These unhealthy attitudes adversely affect their studies and behaviours. For a teacher, it is wrong to consider all the pupils alike. It is also wrong to expect similar success form all the pupils. It can prove harmful to the pupils. Such considerations ay enhance the possibilities of mal-adjustment. The result of all these problems may affect the personality of the pupil adversely.
Providing Occupational Informations
            When a teacher accepts his responsibility in the guidance service, his duties are not restricted to teaching only. The sphere of his observation widens appreciably. He keeps an eye on the pupil in which programmes he is participating. What types of his interests are? What occupational ability he has? The teacher should inform the pupils regarding the desired efficiency in various occupations, educational qualifications and predicting about future successes. The teacher should manage vocational excursions for the pupils.
Understanding the students
            In the guidance programme, the pupils or the person is considered as focal point. The problem is secondary. Hence, it is essential to understand the person or a pupil. To understand him, the teacher should be aware of guidance philosophy. To achieve this objective, a teacher should follow the following points.
1.      The teacher should accept the pupils emotions. He should never think that providing guidance to all the pupils would be useless. The teacher should not be pessimistic regarding the pupil.
2.      The teacher should understand the variations in the pupils and should be familiar with their abilities. Some variations exist in them. Hence, each pupil should be considered independent entity.
3.      It is essential to have psychological background for the teacher in order to understand the abilities and characteristics of the pupils. The psychological study of the pupils is very essential.
4.      The teacher should behave with the pupils taking into consideration that their each behviour has one or the other reason. As a result of this reason that pupil behaves.
Counselling
            In addition to all these functions, the teacher can provide counseling too. In order to provide counseling, the teacher should pay attention towards the following facts.
1.      The teacher should contact those pupils personally who are facing problems in selecting the vocation after leaving the school or in selecting the subjects.
2.      He should understand their emotional problems after understanding the emotional situation of the pupils and should solve these problems.
3.      The teacher should understand in detail the interests of the pupils, their aptitudes, needs, achievements, etc.
Duties of the Teacher (Ministry of Education, Government of India)
Collecting informations
            A school teacher can collect essential informations can concern pupils in the school guidance programme.
Providing Assistance in Moral Development
            The teacher should encourage the pupils to speak the truth frankly and can help them in their moral development.
Developing Interests and Aptitudes
            A teacher involved in the school guidance programme can search out the interests and aptitudes of the pupils and can prove helpful in providing them proper direction.
In brief, the following can be the roles of the teacher in the guidance programme:
1.      To collect information concerning the pupils and to prepare their cumulative record.
2.      To identify the adjustment related problems.
3.      To prepare the case history of the problem history.
4.      To observe the pupils in various situations.
5.      To send reports to the parents of the pupils, their guardians and to the headmaster.
6.      To participate actively in the parent-teacher association.
7.      To help the pupils in evaluating their progress.
8.      To provide various opportunities to the pupils for their maximum development.
9.      To seek expert opinion just to study the pupils.
10.  To help the pupils in their adjustment in educational, vocational and social areas.
11.  To create best environment in the class.
12.  To provide cooperation to other guidance workers.
13.  To provide personal counseling to the pupils.
Roles of a Psychologist in School Guidance Programme
            The role of a psychologist in the school guidance programme cannot be under-esteemed. A psychologist can contribute in the following manner to make the school guidance programme, a success:
1.      There can be no better contribution which a psychologist can make in analyzing pupil’s personality through the psychological tests and other sources, such as  a psychologist can collect informations regarding the interests, aptitudes, abilities and potentialities etc. more scientifically.
2.      A psychologist can help a person in solving his emotional and other problems and in acquiring maximum adjustment.
3.      A psychologist can provide technical contribution in exploring the pupil’s personality-related problems.
4.      Also, the psychologist can interpret the results obtained from the psychological tests properly.
5.      It is the duty of the psychologist to diagnose and to provide remedy to the gifted pupils as well as pupils’ suffering from inferiority complexes. Also, he should understand the problem of such pupils and help them to remove those problems.
Roles of a School Counsellor in School guidance Programme
Basically, a counselor is an expert from the field of education. It is more expected form the counselor to run the guidance activities smoothly as compare to the other staff members. In Indian conditions, the counselor can be full-time counselor, teacher-counsellor, visiting school counselor.
The following specific functions can be included in the responsibilities of a counselor as a guidance worker:
1.      Diagnostic
2.      Therapeutic
3.      Evaluation and Research
Each specific field includes various specific services and skills. A counselor functions very systematically after planning the school guidance programme very carefully. For this, the counselor surveys the needs of the pupils, collects physical and other sources and ensures cooperation from administrative authorities.
            Normally, a counselor runs various activities. The various functions of a school counselor can be described under the following headings:

Orientation of Pupils
            New pupils are subjected to the orientation of the programme so that they may be adjusted to the new environment and they may feel free in order to learn the subject contents. The counsellor can do this individually or collectively. For this, he can organize assemblies and discussions.
For Appraisal
            A guidance needs information resources and equipment for the counselor so that the guidance needs of the pupils can be identified. Also the pupils are helped in understanding them and helping them, to adopt any working pattern. A counselor collects meaningful information’s about the pupils through interviews with him, through the interviews with parents and through the interviews with the teachers of the pupils and also from other persons of the school. A counselor manages psychological tests, collects educational and other records and maintains them systematically. In a counseling interview the counselor makes available all these information’s to the pupils and these are explained to them. These information’s are also explained to the parents and teachers of the pupils as an when desired.
Educational and Vocational Information Service
            The counselor is responsible for the coordination of all types of information’s. He helps the pupils and parents in exploring the possibilities and opportunities. Also, he helps them in using these information’s. The counselor can also help in setting up a ‘career corner’ in the school. He can also help the career master. He can follow various methods for collecting vocational information’s. He classified them and keeps them up-to-date. A counselor possess latest information’s regarding employment. He keeps himself in touch personally with the various officers and employers. The counselor has the responsibility of disseminating information’s too. This he does through educational tours, guest lectures, career conferences and careers study projects etc.
Holding Counselling Interview
A counselor is responsible for providing counseling in accordance with the individual needs of the pupils. Through counseling interview, he helps the pupils by associating thero experiences with their actual behaviours after evaluating these experiences. His major job is to provide educational and vocational guidance. The counselor helps the pupils in developing problem-solving skills, independent thinking, planning, ability to make decisions. For this, he can make their small groups too.
Placement
            The counselor also enjoys the responsibility of functioning as a link between the outer institutes and the pupils who leave the schools so that the pupils may get various types of information’s.
Research and Evaluation
            The counsellor can conduct a research and prepare a plan to know whether the guidance programme in school has actually achieved desired objectives and whether the pupils needs have been fulfilled? In this way, the counselor performs many research an evaluation programmes.
Roles of School Doctor in School Guidance Programme
In the school guidance programme, the doctor also plays an important role. He performs the following functions in this programme:
1.      The doctor manages medical examination of the pupils after a proper gap of time.
2.      The school doctor informs the parents or guardians of the pupils about they physical defects or diseases.
3.      The responsibility of maintaining the complete record of the children lies with the school doctor.
4.      It is the duty of the school doctor to prepare a programme to improve the physical health of the pupils.
5.      It is very important for the school doctor to perform the follow-up task so that he may know the effects and results of his medical service.
Guidance Service in School
            Kothari Commission (1964-66) has recommended that the guidance should be considered as in integral part of education. It should be started right from primary level. In accordance with such recommendations guidance programmes should be planned keeping in mind the needs of the children and their development stages so that they may get well-adjusted in intellectual, social, emotional and vocational fields. From this point of view, the objectives of guidance programmes are decided according to the various developmental stages and various school levels. In short, the following should be the specific objectives of guidance progamme at various school levels:
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AT PRIMARY STAGE
            This stage includes the children of age-group 6 to 11 years or class 1 to 5. At this stage, the following are the specific objectives of guidance programme:
1.      To help the pupils in satisfactory adjustment from home to school.
2.      The help in diagnosing the problems being faced in learning the basic educational skills.
3.      To help in identifying the needy pupils to provide them special education such as gifted, backward and handicapped children.
4.      To keep the pupils in the school who tend to leave the school.
5.      To help the pupils in preparing a plan for their further education or training.
Activities at primary Stage
            At primary level or stage, certain activities are to be performed in order to achieve the above mentioned specific objectives. At this stage, the teacher has a key role to play because the teacher is in better position to know the interests, abilities, needs of the children and in exploring their talents. At the primary stage, the following activities are performed.
Orientation Programme for Pupils
            In this, information is given to the children and their parents about the school environment. They are made familiar with the role of parents in the school guidance programme.
Diagnostic and Basic Skill Tests
            Such tests should be used frequently in the primary classes because poor reading may result into undesirable consequences.
Identification of Talented Students
            The talented students are identified with the help of various methods and techniques. These talents include creative ability, leadership ability dramatic ability and musical ability etc.
Identification of Students with Mal-adjustments and Handicaps
            It is very essential to identify the students with mal-adjustments and handicaps. For such identification various technique, such as observation, tests etc. are used. Mal-adjustments and handicaps include general adjustment, aggressive behaviour, slow learners, under motivated children, speech handicaps, learning handicaps, vision handicaps, crippling handicaps and special health problems etc. For them proper remedial methods are used so that the remedy can be provided at appropriate time. Special methods will have to be developed for the removal of poverty, social backwardness etc.      
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF GUIDANCE AT THE SECONDARY STAGE
            The middle stage includes the classes 6 to 8. These classes includes the age-group 11 to 14 years. In these years, the children enter the adolescent age. This period is very difficult for children. During this stage, adjustment problems in the family, school and society start their appearance. At this stage, the following are the objectives of guidance.
1.      To help the pupils in adjustment in the family, school and society.
2.      To explore and develop the abilities, aptitudes and interests of the pupils.
3.      To enable the pupils to acquire information’s about various educational and vocational opportunities and needs.
4.      To help the headmaster and teacher to understand their pupils and to make the learning effective.
5.      To help the school-learners in making educational and vocational plans.
To achieve these objectives, the following programmes or activities can be performed.
General Activities of Secondary Stage
            The following are the general activities:
1.      To discuss guidance programme with the school headmaster.
2.      Orientation of the school faculty.
3.      To constitute a school guidance committee by the school headmaster which should include career master, physical health teacher and a representative of parent-teacher association.
Specific Activities at Secondary Stage
            The following are the specific activities
1.      To collect the data of pupils such as, identification data, data regarding the home, family background and educational achievements.
2.      Orientation programme such as, school environment, curriculum, orientation abut school facilities, orientation of regular study habits, social adjustment and the proper use of leisure time.
3.      Orientation programme of the parents of the new pupils, such as, orientation about the role of parents in the school guidance programme and school.
4.      To start and maintain cumulative record card.
5.      To identify under-achievers and drop outs.
6.      To arrange intelligence tests.
7.      To modify learning environment.
8.      To help in organizing remedial programmes for the weak students.
9.      To provide counseling or to recommend to the specialists keeping in view the problem.
GUIDANCE AT THE LOWER SECONDARY STAGE          
            The lower secondary stage includes classes 9th and 10th. The pupils of the age group 11-16 years are includes in this stage. At this stage, the pupil completes education of ten years. After this, 3 alternatives are left:
1.      They should seek admission into some working force.
2.      They should seek admission into some vocational course.
3.      They should gain higher education so that they may get admission into some college or university.
Specific Objective at the Lower Secondary Stage
            The following are the specific objectives:
1.      To enable the pupils to understand their weakness and strengths.
2.      To enable them to collect information’s about educational and vocational opportunities and needs.
3.      To help the pupils in educational and vocational selections.
4.      To help the pupils in solving their problems. These problems include individual and social adjustment problems in the school and at home.
5.      To provide information’s of vocational opportunities.
6.      To provide information’s to the pupils regarding cumulative records, test results etc.
7.      To develop self-concept in the pupil.
Specific Activities at the Lower Secondary Stages
            The following are the specific activities:
1.      To collect data about abilities, aptitudes, interests, achievements and other psychological variables.
2.      To introduce with the tasks or duties.
3.      To organize field trips.
4.      To organize career conferences and career exhibitions.
5.      To help in the selection of a course.
6.      To indentify under achievers and school leavers.
7.      To provide guidance to the parents
8.      To recommended to the specialists and counselor considering the problems.
Guidance at the Higher Secondary Stage
            The stage includes 11th and 12th classes and the age-group of 16 to 18years.
Specific Objectives at the Higher Secondary Stage
1.      To help the pupils in selecting their courses keeping in view the information’s received on the basis of lower secondary stage.
2.      To help them in selecting their career in the context of their educational interests.
3.      To help in the field of individual social adjustment.
In addition to theses specific objectives, the objectives to lower secondary stage can also be included in the objectives of higher secondary stage.
Specific Activities at the Higher Secondary Stage
            The following are the specific activities for higher secondary
Inventory Service
            The maintenance of individual cumulative record can continues. Various tests and methods can be applied to collect information’s about the various aspects of a person’s personality.
Occupational Information Service
            At this stage, providing information’s about local occupational opportunities and self-employment opportunities is insisted too much. For this objective, career conferences, field visits and career talks etc. are organized. In order to collect the information’s about the local employment opportunities; the guidance worker will have to contact the employment exchange and also will have to keep in touch with the various industries of the area. At this stage, the pupil can also be helped to study the occupation of his interest in detail.




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