The major function of the school counselor is to help all students with growth in self-understanding, developing interpersonal, problem solving, and decision-making skills and occupational awareness. This is accomplished through classroom guidance, large and small group sessions, and individual counseling.
Guidance Services
Concept that institutions, especially schools, should promote the efficient and happy lives of individuals by helping them adjust to social realities. The disruption of community and family life by industrial civilization convinced many that guidance experts should be trained to handle problems of individual adjustment. Though the need for attention to the whole individual had been recognized by educators since the time of Socrates, it was only during the 20th cent. that researchers actually began to study and accumulate information about guidance.
Modern high school guidance programs also include academic counseling for those students planning to attend college. In recent years, school guidance counselors have also been recognized as the primary source for psychological counseling for high school students; this sometimes includes counseling in such areas as drug abuse and teenage pregnancy and referrals to other professionals (e.g., psychologists, social workers, and learning-disability specialists). Virtually all teachers colleges offer major courses in guidance, and graduate schools of education grant advanced degrees in the field.
Guidance and school counselors help students work through emotional turmoil, navigate social conflicts, and make decisions about possible career and educational tracks. While some college counselors work at colleges and universities, guidance and school counselors work in public, private, vocational, charter, and special-education schools at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels. Counselors meet one-on-one and with groups of students and parents to work out solutions to problems and provide students with life skills, such as resume writing and college-application completion, necessary to succeed academically and in the world.
Some guidance and school counselors have social work backgrounds, though most study in guidance and school counseling programs offered through universities’ education and psychology departments. As with social work programs, field work and supervised practicum are large parts of guidance and school counseling programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment