School Counselling

By:
Akshita lamba
Visiting faculty
History of Guidance and Counselling
 The factors leading to the development of guidance and
counselling in the United States began in the 1890s with the
social reform movement.
 The social and political reformer Frank Parsons is often
credited with being the father of the vocational guidance
movement.
 His work with the Civic Service House led to the
development of the Boston Vocation Bureau.
 In 1909 the Boston Vocation Bureau helped outline a system
of vocational guidance in the Boston public schools.
 The work of the bureau influenced the need for and the use of
vocational guidance both in the United States and other
countries.
 By 1918 there were documented accounts of the bureau's
influence as far away as Uruguay and China.
 Guidance and counselling in these early years were considered to
be mostly vocational in nature, but as the profession advanced
other personal concerns became part of the school counsellor's
agenda.
 In 1913 the National Vocational Guidance Association was formed
and helped legitimize and increase the number of guidance
counsellors. Early vocational guidance counsellors were often
teachers appointed to assume the extra duties of the position in
addition to their regular teaching responsibilities.
 The 1920s and 1930s saw an expansion of counselling roles
beyond working only with vocational concerns. Social, personal,
and educational aspects of a student's life also needed attention.
Guidance and Counselling
 The Guidance and Counselling of students is an
integral component of the educational mission of
the school. Guidance and counselling services and
programs promote the personal/social,
educational, and career development of all
students.
 Guidance and Counselling recognizes the worth
and dignity of the individual and is designed to
enhance, the total development of mental,
vocational, emotional, intellectual and socio
personal aspects of the students.
Guidance
Guidance comes from the root world, guide
which means to direct, protect, steer and
lead. It is therefore a process and procedure
for achieving a helping relationship.
Guidance as a process, developmental in
nature, by which an individual is assisted to
understand, accept and utilize own abilities,
aptitudes, interests and attitudinal patterns
in relation to the aspirations.
Counselling
Counselling is a process through which a
counsellor help his or her client in many
ways like :
Counsellor listen his or her client
empathetically
Counsellor develop insight within the client
Counsellor psycho educate his or her client
Counsellor enable his or her client to take
their decisions
Counselling is a process in which clients learn
how to make decisions and formulate new
ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.
Counselling deals with personal, Social,
Vocational and educational concern
Counselling is conducted with those persons
considered within the normal range of
functioning
Counselling is theory based and takes place in
a structured setting
Guidance focused on helping individuals
make important choices, whereas
counselling focused on helping individuals
make changes.
Needs and Importance of Guidance and
Counselling in Schools
Guidance and Counselling Programmes need to
be introduced in all schools to meet the varied
needs of educational system and students.
Need to help in the overall development of
students
Need to develop life skills among students
Need to provide the child with a sound
foundation for future, academic,
psychological and personal growth
Guidance and counselling service is
needed to help students deal effectively
with the normal developmental tasks of
adolescence and face life situations boldly
To help the students in their period of
turmoil and confusion
Need to identify and nurture gifted and
talented children
Encourage children to develop good
interpersonal relationship
Assist in smooth transitions from one
educational level to another
Assist school administration in improving
educational opportunities and
programmes
Mobilize all the available resources of the
school, home and community for the
satisfaction of children's educational
vocational and psychological needs.
Assist the teachers, other school staff
members and parents in understanding the
needs and problems of the school
children. Assist students develop adequate
time management skills
Needs of School Counselling
Need to provide help in choices of Subjects
Need to provide help in choices in career options
Need to develop readiness among students to face
challenges and adapt new situations
To identity and help students in need of special
help
To develop insight among students for proper
utilization of time spent outside the classrooms
Help children cope with examination anxieties
Need for behavioural changes as many
homes now breed social changes
Need to construct alternate behaviour
Equip students with problem solving and
decision making skills
Enable children develop positive self
image
Scope of School Counselling
The scope of school counselling is too wide.
School Counselling touches every aspect of
an student’s personality- physical, mental,
emotional, social and educational. It is
concerned with all aspects of an individual’s
attitudes and behaviour patterns. It seeks to
help the individual to integrate all of his
activities in terms of his basic potentialities
and environmental opportunities.”
Help to make a satisfactory transition
from home to the school.
To diagnose the difficulties in the learning
of basic skills.
To help to avoid potential dropouts to
study in schools.
To help them understand the purpose and
meaning of life.
To plan for further education.
Role and Responsibilities of School
Counsellor
 The counsellor is a professional who through diagnosing,
planning, predicting, interpreting and evaluating provides
educational, personal, social and vocational assistance to the
clients in such a way that it would reflect their interests,
objectives, potentialities and needs for effective adjustment
 The counsellor as a trained expert who is exposed to enough
psychology, test instruction and administration, practicum as
well as theories needed to understand clients’ problems and
give assistance. His main function is to supervise the
psychological development and adjustment of the clients at any
level. He is a professional and an accurate record keeper with
which he carries out the daily roles and functions of instituting
meaningfulness into individual clients without coercion
Roles and Responsibilities of School
Counsellor
A School Counsellor is someone who helps students
throughout their education. This may
include counselling in areas of academic achievement,
career choices or personal and social development.
These professionals work with students of all ages, from
primary schools through college
Unethical Behaviour
Unethical behaviour can take many forms:
Violation of confidentiality
Negligent practice
Claiming expertise, one does not posses
Imposing one’s values on a client
Creating a dependency in a client
Sexual activity with client
Certain conflicts of interest
Questionable financial arrangement, such as charging
excessive fees
Improper Advertising
Reason for Ethical Codes
Ethical codes are designed to provide some
guidelines for the professional behaviour of
members.

Ethical standards exist for many reasons:

Ethical standards protect the profession from
government. They allow the profession to
regulate itself and to function autonomously
instead of being controlled by legislation.
Ethical standard help control internal
disagreement and promoting stability
within the profession.
Ethical standard protect practitioners from
public, especially in regard to malpractice
suits. If professionals behave according
to ethical guidelines, the behaviour is
judged to be in compliance with accepted
standards.
Ethics in School Counselling
 Respect for the rights and dignity of the Clients
 Privacy and Confidentiality
 Identify the potential issues
 Take all reasonable steps to ensure that clients give
valid consent to proposed interventions (consent of
parents/guardians may also be required if the client is
a minor; established policy of the school/workplace
may also be relevant).
 Competence
 Act in the best interests of the students at all times.
Act in good faith and in the absence of malice
Appropriate referrals
Do not stigma or labelling
A commitment to promoting the client’s
wellbeing.
Responsible to Society
Skills of School Counsellor
Curiosity and inquisitiveness
Possess natural interest in people
An ability to listen
Empathy and understanding
Emotional insightfulness
Critical Thinking
Reflective Thinking
Can set aside your needs in order to listen
Ability to laugh
Intellectual competence
Energy
Flexibility
Readiness to support
Self awareness
Unconditional Positive Regard
Retaining an attitude of hope
School Counsellor as Education Leader
Utilizing leadership, advocacy, and
collaboration with all teachers, educators and
staff to promote student success, provide
curative ,preventive and developmental
services, and create environment to identify
student needs by implementing a
comprehensive school counselling program
that addresses academic, career, and
personal/social development for all students.
School Counsellor as Programme
Coordinator
Provides leadership and collaborates with
other educators in the school-wide
integration of the Guidance Curriculum.
Assists all students, individually or in
groups, with developing academic, career
and personal/social skills, goals, and
plans.
Accurately and appropriately interprets
and utilizes student data.
Provides individual and group counselling to
students with identified concerns and needs.
Consults and collaborates effectively with
parents/guardians, teachers, administrators, and
other educational/community resources
regarding students with identified concerns and
needs.
Implements an effective referral and follow-up
process as needed.
Accurately and appropriately uses assessment
procedures for determining and structuring
individual and group counselling services.
Assists teachers, parents/guardians, and other
stakeholders in interpreting and
understanding student data.
Uses available technology resources to
enhance the school counselling program.
Adheres to laws, policies, procedures, and
ethical standards of the school counselling
profession.
Role as a Systematic Change Agent
 The purpose of systemic change is to create a better
educational system than what currently exists.
 Substantive school changes require guidance and support
from professionals with mastery level competence for
creating a climate for change, facilitating change
processes, and establishing an institutional culture where
key stakeholders continue to learn and evolve.
 It focuses on the process for change, rather than on what
specific changes should be made.
 Develop high level commitment among various
Stakeholders
 Develop motivational readiness among all stakeholders
Major systematic change requires
enhancing knowledge, skills, and attitudes
of those called on to act as change agents
Systemic changes for school
improvement obviously need to begin
with a clear framework and map for what
changes are to be made.
A well-designed infrastructure for
carrying out major functions.
Vision and Mission should be clear
Creation of resources is necessary
Incentives for change
It helps them to learn from the failures and successes of others
People who recognize that systemic changes require changes beyond the
scope of a classroom or a school building—that they require district-level
changes as well.
 People who recognize that systemic changes require the participation of
all groups in the community that have a stake in their educational system.
People who realize that systemic change is difficult and who want some
guidance as to how to go about it.
E M Rogers identifies a sequence of seven “roles” for a change agent:
to develop a need for change on the part of clients
to establish an information-exchange relationship,
to diagnose problems,
to create an intent to change in the client
to translate intentions into actions,
to achieve a terminal relationship with
clients.
Curriculum
Curriculum refers to subject related experiences
offered at school with a structured syllabus.
A curriculum is a structured document that
delineates the philosophy, goals, objectives,
learning experiences, instructional resources
and assessments that comprise a specific
educational program.
It represents an articulation of what students
should know and be able to do and supports
teachers in knowing how to achieve these goals.
Counselling and Curriculum
Development
 Curriculum development has a broad scope because it
is not only about the school, the learners, and the
teachers. It is also about the development of society in
general.
 Guidance oriented curriculum can contribute to
personal, social and career development.
 Curriculum can become a vehicle for the expression of
the guidance philosophy in Schools.
 Curriculum development is defined as planned, a
purposeful, progressive, and systematic process to
create positive improvements in the educational system
 Any developed curriculum should not be static; it
should regularly be improved upon so as to
accommodate changes that occur overtime
 The curriculum has to create skills in the learner to
acquire knowledge and competencies for meeting
the various demands of society.
 Curriculum facilitate personality growth, if learning
processes is guided by certain basic principles
 The initial drive and motivation to learn has to be
present in the learner which can come, if the
curriculum is meaningful to learner
A curriculum has to meet the demands of the learner and the
society. Guidance principles and practices can hep in this respect.
 Guidance and Counselling Programme can foster academic,
personal, social and career development.
 School counselling and guidance programmes at all levels can be
an integral part of educational process.
 Counsellor can also play important role in bringing about needed
changes and modifications in the curriculum to keep it in line
with the needs and aspiration of the society and its changing
demands.
 Counsellor would be in good position to recommend or suggest
to the curriculum planner, administrators information about
community’s need and requirements.
 The curriculum of the school has to be designed that
it meets the common as well as special needs of the
learner.
 Guidance worker or counsellor identifies and assists
the teacher to take care of the special needs, when
he attempts to understand the special requirements
of students in term of their abilities and interests.
 Curricular experiences are meaningful and goal
oriented, if these could be related to the goals of
learner, they can create motivation and readiness in
him to learn.
 Meeting the needs of all students;
 Learning theory and other cognitive psychology findings on how
students learn
 What determines developmental readiness or developmental
appropriateness
 The current expectations of the field
 The knowledge of and readiness for change on the part of teachers
 The availability of resources
 The role and availability of information and technology resources
 Scheduling issues
 Methods and purposes of assessments
 Professional Development