Educational Guidance

I

Introduction

Educational Guidance, process of helping students to achieve the self-understanding and self-direction necessary to make informed choices and move toward personal goals. Guidance, a uniquely American educational innovation, focuses on the complete development of individual students through a series of services designed to maximize school learning, stimulate career development, and respond to the personal and social concerns that inhibit individual growth. Although guidance activities are usually associated with educational professionals known as counselors, educational guidance is actually a cooperative enterprise involving the participation of teachers, administrators, other educational specialists, and parents.

II

Development of Educational Guidance

The origins of educational guidance are firmly rooted in the development of vocational guidance services. In 1908 the Vocation Bureau of Boston was established under the direction of the American lawyer and educator Frank Parsons to assist young men in making vocational choices based on their occupational aptitudes and interests. It soon became obvious that individuals needed vocational guidance while still in school so that they could prepare for their chosen careers. By midcentury, counseling services were being provided in the lower grades, and counselors extended their activities beyond vocational advice to problems of social adjustment.

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 more than doubled the number of trained personnel available to provide expanded guidance services in the public schools. The purpose of the act was to identify students with outstanding abilities, to encourage them to seek higher education, and to assist them in following studies best suited to their abilities. NDEA also provided financial incentives—in the form of grants to training institutions and aid to counselors in training—to make educational guidance an integral part of public secondary education.

III

Procedures

In public schools, guidance programs are organized as a series of services. One service is academic planning. Counselors assist students with curriculum and individual course selection. Programs also are designed to help students who have academic difficulties.

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Student appraisal is another counseling function. Standardized tests are administered to assist in appropriate academic placement, to assess academic achievement, to identify individual aptitudes, to explore vocational interests, and to examine personal characteristics. Tests are used also to identify gifted students and those with special learning problems.

Other counseling services include career-development programs to foster awareness of career alternatives, programs in human relations skills, and training in actual job skills, as well as the acquisition and dissemination of related information. Counselors work with teachers, administrators, and families in coordinated efforts to help resolve specific student problems. If necessary, they can refer students to trained therapists for additional assistance.

In colleges and universities, administrative offices such as student affairs, admissions, financial aid, housing, student health, and placement provide guidance services. College counseling centers assist students with academic, vocational, or personal problems.

IV

Current Trends

In addition to state certification as educationally qualified personnel within schools, many guidance professionals are seeking licensing outside of school settings. Several states currently license counselors. Increased efforts to license and regulate guidance workers also elicit greater demands for professional accountability. Guidance workers are required to develop specific programs with measurable goals and systematic evaluation procedures to demonstrate their effectiveness. Programs have been developed for such special problem areas as abusive families, divorce, and substance abuse, and for specific groups such as minorities and the physically and developmentally disabled. Community-based programs also emphasize prevention and crisis intervention as primary guidance strategies.