Guidance Components PDF

**3.3 Components of Guidance** **3.3.1 Educational Component** Many people in our schools at all levels are faced with educational problems. These include a lack of educational information, wrong choices of educational subject, gender stereotype in selection of subjects, improper study habits and...

**3.3 Components of Guidance** **3.3.1 Educational Component** Many people in our schools at all levels are faced with educational problems. These include a lack of educational information, wrong choices of educational subject, gender stereotype in selection of subjects, improper study habits and examination anxiety. The educational component of guidance is designed to help such individuals to plan suitable educational programme and make progress in it. The individual may be assisted in choosing subjects, courses in schools, colleges and school adjustment. The individual is assisted to know his/her present position in the educational system and to see what lies ahead. Educational guidance is significant in many ways: 1. Educational guidance helps young people to pursue the right type of education. En this way, the individual is motivated to maximize his/her contribution in society. 2. It assists individuals to make informed decisions about their educational pursuit. Individuals have to know the choices that have to be made, and determine whether the choice is between subjects, curricular, schools or universities. They have to know combinations or options available, the subject involved in the classrooms, available courses and where each course leads to, admission requirements and educational opportunities. 3. It facilitates a smooth transition for children from home to school, from primary to secondary and from secondary to tertiary institution and to the world of work and business. 4. It helps students to cope with examination anxiety. The fear of failure and craving for the highest grades are major sources of pressure on students. 5. It helps students to develop effective study habits. The pupils are assisted to improve their competence in reading, note- taking and academic adjustment. 6. It provides students with meaningful educational experiences. It makes them capable of relating the curriculum to occupational groups. **3.3.2 Vocational Component** Many students experience difficulties in their vocational development. These may be lack of knowledge of their own aptitudes and interest, lack of realism, indecision, inflexibility and an unwillingness to change, lack of occupational information, problem solving skills and gender stereotype. Occupational guidance helps the students in the following ways: 1. There are various realities that people face in their participation in social and occupational activities. For example, women may face barriers in entering certain occupations. 2. Stereotype cultural expectations have a significant influence on children's perception of themselves, their surrounding and their general outlook. The major purposes of vocational components of guidance include: 1. To provide students with occupational information 2. Administering vocational tests, scores, and interprets them in counselling students and parents on vocational choice and subject combinations. 3. Provide conflict resolution information on subject combinations and vocational choice. 4. Foster vocational development of pupils. 5. Arrange career talks, vocational visits to professional and vocational centers. 6. Aid in placing talent where it is needed. 7. Help students to understand problems of unemployment and its causes. 8. Enable students to acquire knowledge of the practical procedures needed for getting a job and progressing on it. 9. Guiding the students to understand that they should not only focus on knowledge for getting employed for salary but also for being self-employed. **3.3.3 Personal social component** Personal social guidance is the process of helping the individual to know how to behave with consideration towards other people. Personal social component is geared towards: 1. Helping the student to understand himself/herself. 2. Assisting individuals on know how to get on well with others. 3. Helping individuals to learn good manners / etiquette and pursue leisure time activities. 4. Equipping individuals with social skills and development of family and family interactions. 5. Assisting individuals to understand social roles and responsibilities. 6. Administering, scoring and interpreting tests on social matters and problems and using the results for counselling. 7. Fostering personal and social development in students through individual and group programmes, stories, self-management skills, social skills and training in assertiveness. **3.4 Philosophy and Principles of Guidance** Guidance programmes and services are aimed at the individuals who are members of a particular society. The personnel serving in the services must have, accept and practice a set down fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for professional performance. These principles underscore the values that each person, working in a guidance programme, agrees to and applies them to the student whom he/she serves. They are listed below: 1. Guidance is for all students. 2. Guidance is for all ages. 3. Guidance must be concerned with all areas of student growth. 4. Guidance encourages self-discovery and self-development. 5. Guidance must be a co-operative enterprise involving students, parents, teachers, administrators and counsellors. 6. Guidance must be an integrated Part of any education program. 7. Guidance must be responsible both to the individual and society. 8. Guidance respects the dignity of human beings. These principles serve as an important basis for future professional developmental as well as a standard for professional evaluation. **3.5. Some Guidance Approaches** **3.5.1 The Psychoanalytic Theory** The theory was postulated by Sigmund Freud between 1890 and 1939. The method - psychoanalysis is used for treating individuals by psychological rather than physical means, it is a branch of science. As a counseling view point, psychoanalysis views the individual's brain as existing in typologies of the *id, ego* and *superego*. The major objective of psychoanalytic therapy is to help individuals achieve an enduring understanding of their own mechanisms of adjustment and thereby help them resolve their basic problems (Shertzer and Stone, 1980). The viewpoint has had a large number of followers and opponents. The semi-opponents called neo-Freudians have either expanded the theory or narrowed it to suit their propositions. Harper. a Neo-Freudian identified four important concepts derived by Freud from his theory of personality development, viz: 1. The Concept of bisexuality of human beings. 2. The concept of bi-polarity of human emotions. 3. The concept of sublimation. 4. The concept of displacement. The most noticeable point about psychoanalysis is that it helps to cope with frustration and its accompanying anxiety, through defenses which are utilized by the individual --- these may be a change in focus of attention, fantasy or other means of neutralizing the emergence of the dangerous drive. Some of the defense mechanisms are listed below. Note that though listed singly, they hardly function in isolation in any one person; 1. Regression 2. Reaction formation 3. Rationalization 4. Projection 5. Denial of reality 6. Introjection 7. Displacement 8. Regression 9. Fantasy A fundamental weakness of defense mechanism is that they are directed at anxiety, not the motivational conflicts that give rise to it: They often conceal the real problem, leaving it ever present and operative. They may relieve anxiety from one cause and increase in another. When a relatively stable balance among the Id, ego and superego is achieved, the existing state, according to Freud, constitutes the person's character structure. If people are relatively happy and well adapted to their environment, they are considered mentally healthy. If their capacity for pleasure is relatively restricted and their adaptation to the environment is impaired, they are said to have a pathological character structure or a character disorder or character neurosis. NB: The major focus of this counselling viewpoint is to correct the character disorder, neurosis or pathological character using the topological concepts enunciated by Freud.