FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF FOUNDATION AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

COURSE OUTLINE
COURE NUMBER: EFN 5303
COURSE NAME: Guidance and Counselling Approach to Behaviour Management
CREDITS: Three (3)
EXEMPTIONS: NIL
PRE & CO. REQUISITES: NIL
INDICATION OF FOLLOW ON COURSES: NIL

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is designed as experiential learning to give students the opportunity to practice both
giving and receiving feedback using counselling skills. Students will be required to demonstrate
personal integration of the skills using role plays in triads, video viewing, and the production of
two 15 minute demonstrative recorded sessions. The course provides an exploration of basic
counselling skills; surveys guidance and counselling theories for behaviour management across
three developmental stages; explores legal and ethical issues in counselling children and youth;
reinforces traditional classroom organizational skills; and includes mind/body/spirit self-care
strategies.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course students will be able to:
 Reflect on what they have learnt about themselves and how they relate to others
 Adopt new, or enhance their, communication skills
 Explain at least 10 guidance and counselling strategies for behaviour management
 Describe how using a counselling approach to behaviour management can be employed
across developmental stages
 Identify the importance of respecting cultural and other differences in and out of the
classroom
 Outline legal and ethical issues in counselling children and youth
 Practice the use of mind/body/spirit self-care strategies

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COURSE CONTENT:

Week 1: Developing Communication & Counseling Skills

Introduction
- Who am I and how do I interact with others?
- What is the scope of the course?
- What is a guidance and counselling approach to behaviour management?
Building Relationships
- How did it feel to play the role of a Grade 7 student or to relive the challenging
experience?
- How did it feel to play the role of a Teacher using the counselling and
communication skills?
- What did you learn about yourself while observing the interaction between teacher
and student and about providing feedback? How could you use these skills
when providing feedback to Grade 7 students or parents?
Advanced Communication Skills
- Build on communication and counselling skills

Week 2: Psychoanalytic Theories of Development

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development
- What are Freud’s stages of Psychosexual Development?
- What are the challenges of each stage of development?
- How can an understanding of Freud’s stages of development help with classroom
management?
- Do you think all children from all cultures, family structures, learning abilities etc.,
are represented in the stage approach to
development?
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
- What are Erikson’s stages of Psychosocial Development?
- What are the psychosocial crises of each of the stages of development?
- How can an understanding of Erikson’s stages of development help with classroom
management?
- Do you think all children from all cultures, family structures, learning abilities etc.,
are represented in the stage approach to development? Discuss.

Week 3: Theory & Therapy

Developmental Assets and Bio-ecological Systems Theory
- Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-Ecological Systems Theory
- The Search Institute’s Developmental Assets: Building Home/School/ Community
Connections
- Developing skills to work with parents and wider
community
Adlerian Approach to Behaviour Management
- What is Individual Psychology?
- What are the personal attributes of an Adlerian counsellor?
- Can these attributes be learnt by regular classroom teachers?
- How can Adler’s approach be used in the classroom?

Week 4: Therapeutic Approaches

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Description of CBT and how it can be used in students’ lives
- Using CBT with respective stories
- How thinking leads to feelings and feelings lead to actions, and how teachers can
help Grade 7 students with their distorted thinking thereby helping the Grade 7
students to engage in pro-social behaviours.
Choice and Reality Therapy (RT)
- WDEP (Want, Doing, Evaluation, & Plan) concept and how can it be used in
positive classroom behavioural management
- How unmet needs (such as the need to love; the need to be loved and the need to
feel that we are worthwhile to ourselves and to others) manifest in the
classroom
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 - How can teaching Grade 7 students RT help to prevent future inappropriate
behaviours?
- How can a Grade 7 student’s failure identity be transformed to a success identity
using RT?

Week 5: Ethics, the Law, and Therapeutic Application

Legal and Ethical Issues in Counselling Children and Youth
- What have the Guyana Education Act and the United Nations Declaration of the
Rights of the Child established about the rights of the child in Guyana?
- Biases (including expectations of success/failure) held against students based on
their socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, disability, family or community of
origin, and urban/rural
- What are the dangers (to the child, the family, the school, the community, the
country and the world) in denying students these rights based on
socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, disability, family or community of
origin, urban/rural
- How can the American School Counselor’s Association’s Code of Ethics be used
in the Guyanese context?

Application of Strategies to Early Childhood/ Primary school and Secondary school

children
- How could Glasser’s identified needs (love, belonging, power, fun etc.,) be met at
the Early Childhood Level?
- How do children at the Primary School level respond when the needs outlined by
Glasser are unmet?
- What are the needs (see Reality Therapy and Developmental Assets) of
children/young adults at Secondary School?
- How does communication differ in the three developmental stages?
- How could unmet needs, impact behavioural challenges at the upcoming
developmental stage?
- How important is it to inculcate pro-social behaviours at this each stage of
development?
- How can you encourage parents at this stage to continue to partner with the school
when the child moves on to primary and secondary levels?
- What can you do if a child is not school or employment ready?

Week 6: Counseling & Behaviour Management

Integrating Counselling Approach to Behaviour Management with regular Classroom
Management Skills
- How a counselling approach to behaviour management complements traditional
classroom management skills
- Explore how the combination of these skills leads to strength based positive
disciplinary approaches
- Brainstorm how these skills will be implemented in the respective
classrooms/schools (The focus is on brainstorming teacher organizational
tasks in the classroom).
Practicing Counseling & Communication Skills

Week 7: Self-care
Strategies for Self Care
- Mind/body/spirit self-care strategies
- How deep breathing/relaxation techniques can help students in the classroom
- How the acquisition of these skills can help with behavioural management

METHODS OF TEACHING
Self-directed learning, Assigned readings, Class discussion, Multimedia Presentations, Quiz,
Brainstorming, Group problem solving and assessment activities, Lectures (virtual).

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WEIGHTING OF ASSESSMENT
Continuous Assessment 100% (See Course Assessment document for details)
Group: Written Paper (20 marks)
Oral presentation on written paper (10 marks)
Individual: Mid-Term Quiz (30 marks)
End of Term Quiz (40 marks)

REQUIRED READINGS:
Magnuson, S., Hess, R., and Beeler, L. (2011).Counseling children and adolescents in schools:
Practice and application guide. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
(Workbook: Chapters One to Three)
Magnuson, S., Hess, R., and Beeler, L. (2011).Counseling children and adolescents in schools.
Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications

RECOMMENDED READINGS:
Cashwell, C., Bentley, P., and Bigbee, A. (2007).Spirituality and counselor wellness.Journal of
Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development, 46, 1, p66.
Christner, R., Friedberg, R and Sharp, L. (2006).Working with angry and aggressive youth. In
R.Minnuti., A. Freeman., and R. Christner (Eds.). Cognitive-behavioural interventions in
educational settings: A handbook for practice. Taylor and Francis: New York
Christopher, J., Chrisman, J., Trotter-Mathison, M., Schure, M., Dahlen, P., & Christopher, S.
(2011). Perceptions of the influence of mindfulness training on counselors and
psychotherapists: A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 5 (3) 318-
349.
Greenberg, K. (2003). Group counseling in K-12 schools: A handbook for school
counselors. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Magnuson, S., Hess, R., and Beeler, L. (2011).Legal and ethical issues in school settings in
Counseling children and adolescents in schools.Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications.
Magnuson, S., Hess, R., and Beeler, L. (2011).Counseling children and adolescents in schools:
Practice and application guide. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
(Workbook: Chapters One to Three).
Minnuti, R., Freeman, A., and Christner, R. (Eds.). (2012). Cognitive-behavioural interventions
in educational settings: A handbook for practice. Taylor and Francis: NewYork.
Swick, K., & Williams, R. (2006). An analysis of Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-Ecological perspective
for Early Childhood Educators: Implications for working with families experiencing
stress. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33, 5.

RELEVANT WEBSITES
http://www.schoolcounselor.org/files/EthicalStandards2010.pdf
http://people.usd.edu/~mremund/bronffamily.pdf

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AYAJcOcXFE&feature=related
http://www.search-institute.org/developmental-assets/lists
http://www.cmskids.com/providers/early_steps/training/documents/
bronfenbrenners_ecological.pdf
http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=csa_fac_pub
http://www.mern.ca/monographs/Bio-Ecological.pdf
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~lkjusti1/Choice_Theory/Reality%20Therapy.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vf7XmZznEg
http://www.search-institute.org/research/education
http://www.schoolcounselor.org/files/EthicalStandards2010.pdf