Professional Education

GUIDANCE & COUNSELING

What is Guidance?

In many ways, guidance is one form of teaching. A mother guides her child in prayer, in
changing his clothes, or in learning the alphabet. A teacher guides her pupils through the 4 R’s, a priest
or the catechist prepares a boy for his first communion, and a traffic policeman directs the movements
of motorist and pedestrians. In short, guidance or teaching can be given by anybody, anytime, and
anywhere.
Guidance, however, is more than mere teaching.

The Basis of Guidance

Guidance, as organized and administered in a more or less systematic manner, maybe based
on the fundamental aims of education as provided for in our Constitution, and as applied by Congress
in May 1950, namely, that it is the duty of all schools and other educational agencies in the Philippines
to guide the children. Thus:
1. “To live a moral life guided by faith in God and love of fellowmen, irrespective of creed, color
and race.” The homeroom adviser or the teacher-counselor, as a model and an example,
helps students feel the need to believe in something, such as religion, and to live a clean,
honest, moral life in spite of adverse circumstances.
2. “To love and serve the Republic of the Philippines.” A guidance counselor encourages the
individual not only to enjoy his rights but also to perform his duties.
3. “To be able to read and listen with understanding, to speak and write intelligently, and to think
and act wisely in solving the problems of daily life.” Human relations are conducted in
homeroom classes to develop in the students a sense of responsibility, cooperation, open-
mindedness, self-knowledge, creativeness, concern and respect for others, leadership, and
loyalty.
4. “To be efficient in earning an honest living.” Different tests are administered and occupational
information as well as opportunities is made available.
5. “To maintain family unity, live a happy home life and discharge efficiently the responsibilities of
the home.” The homeroom with its activities becomes a second home to the student.
6. “To carry on helpful living in a wholesome environment in order to be both physically strong
and mentally fit to meet the requirements of a useful life.” The guidance clinic provides
services in conjunction with the school physical education program.
7. “To make wise use of leisure time for self-improvement and for the service of the community.”
The guidance clinic plans group activities, like chess or checkers, reading, music, nature study,
gardening, dramatics, writing, and movies.
8. “To appreciate the arts or letters and to attain such fulfillment, enriching them with their own
contribution.” With the aid of guidance, workers and students are led to a desire for self-
knowledge, self-discipline, and self-evaluation during projects, exhibition and convocation.
9. “To carry on the Filipino way of life- its heritage, culture and traditions.” Guidance workers
make necessary and workable recommendations to administrators and officials to enrich the
school curricula.
10. “To understand other countries and develop goodwill toward other problems.” The
homeroom, the guidance clinic, and human relations classes encourage exchange of letters
among students of different countries; collection of stamps and pictures; undertaking cultural
projects; or sending delegates to youth conferences and seminars.

Guidance Defined

Chrisholm believes that guidance seeks to help an individual become familiar with facts about
himself- his interests, abilities, previous development, and plans.
Traxler says that guidance enables each individual to understand his abilities and his interests.
Guidance involves personal help given by someone, according to Jones.
The real meaning of guidance can be perceived by considering the common use of the term
to guide, and by comparing it with other synonyms which have slightly different shades of meaning. To
guide means to point out, to show the way. Synonyms of to guide are to lead, to conduct, to regulate,
to steer, to direct. To lead, to conduct, or to steer indicates directing a ship by means of a rudder. To
regulate implies control of some sort. In all of these, what or who is being steered, directed, conducted,
regulated, or led, has no volition, no desire and no own mind. There is compulsion in a way. To guide
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however, is to assist somebody who has volition, who has desires, who has a mind, but who needs help.
To guide, then, means more than to assist.

The Need for Guidance

1. Human being needs help. Some people need it once in a blue moon, as in a crisis;
2. Others need it at regular intervals and;
3. Others need it at all time. Most of us are constantly wanting, struggling, striving. Very few remain
contented with what they are, or with what they have. Oftentimes we trace the factors and the
influences that have made us what we are and we are realize how our life could have been
changed or improve if we had received some guidance. A remark, a smile, a word of
encouragement, a book or an article that we have read, a chance meeting with a friend or an
older person, could be a determining factor in improving our life.
There are many more instances wherein help was needed and was given. Guidance-conscious
individuals are often accused of interference but they go on with their work. Helping others is not
interference.

Reactions to Guidance

In the process of wanting, of struggling, and of striving, attitudes towards assistance vary. Those
who consider themselves all-knowing, self-sufficient, will never accept assistance or suggestions any
kind. Others are helpless without assistance. Feeling unable to think for themselves, they are inclined to
transfer their burden to others. They are the dependent type but are often more critical than other
people. This attitude could be the result of unpleasant experiences which are acquired during the
formative years and which have tended to persist up to adulthood.
In this time and age, life as well as its problems has become more complex. Our closely knit
family ties have been weakened. In most families, both mother and father have to leave home to work
and children are thus left to themselves. Population has greatly increased, especially in chartered
cities; as a result, economic competition between the “haves” and the “have-nots” has become a
problem as well as the concomitant maladjustments.
More problems have been brought about by mass education. Students and college graduates
are “half-baked”; many of them can hardly read and write. A great number of children are still out of
school; only 4 out of every 100 students finish high school, and dropouts are a cause for worry. The
increase in means and kinds of amusement has resulted in the unwise use of leisure time. Religious
customs have changed. The old philosophy of education as “the process of passing on to the young
the cultural heritage of the past” and “inculcating in the young those habits, skills, ideas, and
knowledge that are necessary to enable them to take their place in adult society” has also been
changed, so that instead of docile and obedient school children, we now have free but unrestrained
pupils.
The world we live in seems to be a confused world because we who live in it are confused.
Convictions and traditions have been broken. No longer can we affirm that one mode of behavior is
wholly right of wholly wrong; neither can we expect people, including those we know, to behave in
the future in a manner similar to his past or present behavior.
As a guidance counselor in the school where she had taught for about twenty-six years, the
author was asked to attend a three-day seminar for guidance workers. She heard the exchange of
ideas between the pioneers of the Institute of Human Relations of the Philippine Women’s University
and the guidance coordinators and counselors; she was impressed by the demonstrations of socio-
metrics and socio-dramas, and by the class in human relations. Finally, the chairman of the Institute
called the attention of the seminarists to some guide books which had been placed on the table and
which would be given away. Suddenly there was a rush to the table. In the midst of the stampedes a
co-worker asked the author why she remained in her seat. The author replied that she could wait for
her turn if there were any guide books left. But deep inside her the author became more confused
because she could not understand how guidance workers could behave the way they did. Evidently,
even guidance counselors need guidance, too!
In the face of these attitudes, guidance workers serve to maintain a balanced between over-
independence and over-dependence. So, guidance is given not as direction, not as an imposition of
one’s point of view. It is aimed at assisting a person to decide what he wants, where he wants to go,
what he needs to do, how he can do it, and how he can solve his own problems.

The Function of Guidance

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 Guidance makes available all opportunities of value to the individual that made available to
him in his search for self-knowledge and self-development. According to Jones, guidance does not
solve problems for an individual, but it helps that individual to solve them. Guidance, therefore, is
focused not on the problem but on the individual, because its purpose is to promote the growth of the
individual toward self-development. It aims at self-understanding, self-appraisal, and self-direction.
Whether given to individuals in a group or singly, guidance is aimed at assisting the individual.
It is clear, therefore, that all guidance is education because education is a process of change
that goes on within an individual. And when we say that there is no mass guidance, likewise there
should be no mass education. Again, when a teacher assists the pupil to learn, guidance enters into
the process of education. Furthermore, the purpose of guidance, which is to help the individual
discover his needs, his potentialities, and his goals, and which proceeds to the realization of those life
goals, is identical with the purpose of education in assisting individuals to choose and develop life
goals.
Not all aspects of education are guidance. When society in general and the school in particular
determine what should be learned and how it should be learned, education is not guidance because
of the element or presence of compulsion and indoctrination. The objectives of both guidance and
education with respect to the development of the individual are the same, but the methods used in
education are not the same as those used in guidance.

Area or Scope of Guidance

Because guidance is education, it is a process – a lifelong process. It operates whenever a child,

adolescent, or an adult is helped in any way by another person to solve problem, to arrive at a
decision, to improve his behavior, or to change his attitude. By precept and by example, guidance is
offered. It can be given formally or informally, directly or indirectly. Guidance is constantly in action.
The attitudes and behavior of elders may influence or unconsciously affect those of the young, either
temporarily or permanently.
For purposes of delimitation, there are three specific areas covered by guidance namely,
personal, educational, and vocational. These overlap because guidance touches on every aspect of
an individual – physical, mental, emotional, or social.
Within the personal area of industriousness, home environment – including facilities for learning
and parental relationships. The assistance that can be given to an individual from the time he steps
into a nursery or kindergarten class up to his graduation from college constitutes educational
guidance. Such assistance may pertain to his time schedules, curriculum, and extra-curricular
adjustment – in short, his scholastic problems. All steps leading to an individual’s decision as to what
job or work he can best be trained in or be fit for falls under vocational guidance. These areas of
guidance separate from one another only in theory. It is impossible and impractical to delimit each
because, as previously mentioned, inherited potentialities, for example, cannot be analyzed without
touching on the aspects of vocational guidance. Every guidance worker must therefore know
something about the whole individual who is in need of help.

Principles Basic to Understanding Guidance

A clearer understanding of guidance may be gained from the following principles by Crow
and Crow;
1. Phases in an individual’s developmental history do not exhibit a unitary pattern.
2. Individuals tend either to be different or like one another.
3. Knowledge of principles or laws of learning has helped guidance counselors.
4. Test their place in guidance.
5. Guidance is a lifelong process.
6. Guidance is positive and preventive rather that curative.
7. Guidance is an adjustment process.
8. There is no mass guidance.

Principles or Assumptions Involved in Guidance

1. Take time to solve problems and make decision.
2. Let the counselee develop his own insight.
3. Consider most individuals as normal beings.
4. Problems arise from situations. They do not just happen; they are caused.
5. Problems are interrelated.
6. Integration of efforts is essential.
7. Guidance services must be an integral part of the organization.

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Fourteen Principles of Guidance: Crow and Crow

1. Every aspect of an individual’s complex personality patterns constitutes a significant factor of his
total display of attitudes and behavior.
2. Individual differences should be recognized, although human beings are similar in many respects.
3. The function of guidance is to help a person formulate goals of behavior which can be achieved.
4. Existing economic, social and political unrest is giving rise to many maladjusted factors that require
the cooperation of experienced guidance workers.
5. Guidance is a continuous process.
6. Guidance is not limited to a few.
7. Guidance is education, but all education is guidance.
8. Generally accepted areas of guidance include concern with the extent to which an individual’s
physical and mental health interferes with his adjustment to home, school and vocational
demands.
9. Guidance is fundamentally the responsibility of parents in the home and of teachers in the school.
10. Specific guidance problems should be referred to persons trained to deal with particular areas of
adjustment.
11. Programs of individual evaluation and research should be conducted, and progress and
achievement made accessible to guidance workers.
12. The guidance program should be flexible in terms of individual and community needs or else it will
lose its value.
13. The responsibility for the administration of the guidance program should be centered in a qualified
trained head.
14. Continuous or periodic appraisals should be made.

Pseudo-Scientific Techniques in Guidance

1. Palmistry
2. Graphology
3. Physiognomy
4. Astrology
5. Spiritualism & Occultism
6. Phrenology

The Present Status of Guidance in the Philippine Educational Setting

Organization, Structure & Services of Guidance

General Considerations in the Organization of Guidance

1. Guidance and guidance services should grow out of the interests, needs and purpose of the
child.
2. Guidance service should be continuous and should serve all.
3. Guidance should be concerned with the whole individual in his total environment, but with
specific needs and problems.
4. Guidance should provide for all phases of pupil problems as they occur and also for the study
of the causes of those problems before they occur.
5. A guidance program should provide for trained personnel and specialists.
6. Guidance should provide for securing and recording adequate information through test and
other techniques.
7. Guidance should provide for leadership and for cooperation among the home, school and
community.
8. Guidance should be simple and comprehensible to the parents, the child himself and the
community.
Forms or Types of Organization in Guidance

1. Non- Centralized. There is little or no coordination among the teachers and administrators.
2. Centralized. This program is usually under the charge of a guidance expert who can
effectively secure the cooperation and coordination of all concerned with the administration
down to its subordinate who will serve as the link between the students.
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Guidance in Pre-School & Elementary

An individual’s behavior toward himself or others, his behavior either behavior or at play, and
his emotional controls have their roots in his early childhood experiences. What he learns at home
constitutes the basis for future learning and adjustment.

From puberty to adolescence, a child lines between almost complete dependence upon
elders for his care and well-being and his desire to be independent of the adult authority. The
elementary school child, therefore, needs guidance in developing fundamental attitudes,
knowledge and skills which will enable him to enter adolescence with a minimum of storm and
frustration.

Characteristics of Learners

1. He is hardly aware of the existence of problems or of maladjustments.

2. He is a free child, a happy one.
3. The school and the school activities constitute his major interest.
4. His environment expands and is enriched as he studies and plays with other schoolmates.
5. He accepts almost everyone as a friend until he discovers something that will turn the
acceptance into hatred.
6. He craves activity, is demonstrative in many occasions.
7. His interest and enthusiasm are easily aroused.
8. He is very loyal to his friends.
9. He easily forgives and forgets.
10. A child, especially a boy, loves to explore, to investigate, to sing, to laugh, to run, to jump, to
shot, to construct, to build and to create.
11. He enjoys sharing, what he discovers, and what he builds with others.
12. He often starts something but rarely finishes it.
13. He loves to collect things, although a girl is more likely than a boy to keep her treasures
through the years.
Needs

1. An assurance that he belongs.

2. A balanced diet.
3. Sufficient rest.
4. Comprehensible lessons.
5. Discipline that comes with a program of task.
6. Friends, both children and adults.
7. Play which is wholesome and enjoyable.
Special Aspects of Guidance

1. Orientation to the school.

2. Preparation for the next school level.
3. Testing programs.
4. Cumulative and well-prepared lessons.
5. Remedial instruction during off-periods.
6. Properly guided out-of-class activities.
7. Parental cooperation.
Guidance in the High School

Since many children do not enter nursery or kindergarten at the same age, not many of them
attend kindergarten, and not all of them advance at the same rate, the ages of children entering
high school show a wide-range that is, from age 10-18 years.

Characteristics of Learners

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 1. Adolescents entering high school notice marked changes in their physical and physiological
development.
2. As they approach the age of puberty, boys become young men and girl blossom in young
womanhood.
3. They tend to be shy in the presence of the other sex.
4. Feeling restless, they want to continually move, walk, run, talk or giggle.
5. Growth is often accompanied by an outbreak of pimples or acne on the face, and with sex
maturity come emotional disturbances.
6. It is the period of transition, exploration and experimentation characterized by new interests
and a new outlook on life.
Common Needs & Problems

1. Adjustment to a new school. Departmentalized organization, a variety of teachers, moving

from room to room, different types of school life, varied activities.
2. Learning problems such as difficulties, study habits, differences in aptitude for school subjects.
3. School attendance. Frequency of school leavers.
4. Emotional Problems. Growth in size, strength, height and sex impulses.
5. Physical needs. Lowered vitality, fatigue, apparent laziness, awkwardness due to unequal
bodily growth.
6. Social needs. Timidity, self-consciousness, dislikes, crushes, over-aggressiveness.
7. Choice of a career, vocation. Uncertainty in choice of career or in preparation for getting a
job.
Guidance in College

With the exception of those who are forced to stop their studies by circumstances beyond
their control, all high school graduates of the college preparatory curriculum should go to the
college. And also, every indication points to the tremendous increase in enrolment of students in
college as well as in student mortality during the freshman year. Orienting students to college and
university life is now a guidance activity of educational institutions throughout the Philippines.

The Classroom Teacher as a Guidance Worker

The teacher goes to the classroom with very minimal training in guidance if ever he had any.
This can be limitation or an asset. We are interested in the guidance potentials of the classroom
teacher for two reasons: first, he can facilitate learning among the learners if he performs his
guidance functions. Secondly, teachers can possibly increase the holding power and minimize
school leavers. Teachers can possibly increase the holding power of schools and minimize dropouts.

Education is still the most viable means for developing the individual potentials for productivity,
a pre-requisite for self-fulfillment. In Philippine society, it is also a means of social mobility. The number
of school leavers however is staggering. Every dropout is a human resource wasted.

Guidance is not a cure-all. But is a positive approach to minimize school leavers and to
prevent its negative effects. For as the researchers said, “Dropping out has human cost consisting of
lost educational opportunity on the part of the dropouts, frustrations on the part of the dropouts,
frustrations on the part of the parents and the deprivation of the nation of needed educated and
skilled manpower.

Basic Guidance Services

A. The information service. Acquainting learners with certain essential facts related to an area of
choice or adjustment.
B. Placement service. Two types- educational. Process of assisting the individual to progress
satisfactorily from one educational experience to another; vocational. Process of assisting the
individual to find appropriate place in the world of work.

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 C. Follow-up service. Keep the school in touch with current occupational opportunities
requirements and trends.
D. Individual Inventory service. Designed to gather all reliable data, information and records to
be compiled for functional use. It may include items concerning learners, including
correspondence with parents etc.
E. Research and Evaluation service. The systematic judgment of the effectiveness of guidance
program.
F. Counseling service. It is a means of helping people to solve their own problems.

Types of Problems Covered by Guidance

1. Health and Physical Development. Physicals, malnutrition, illness, oversize and undersize
2. Home & Family Relationships. Dominance of parents, lack of control of parents, disapproving
family etc.
3. Leisure Time. Lack of interest, limited means or excessive means
4. Personality. Extreme sensitiveness, shyness, lack of self-confidence, emotional instability,
delusions, illusions etc.
5. Religious life. Religious doubts, conflicts, conflict between science and religion
6. School. Ineffective study and health habits, lack of independence, feeling of boredom, poor
study conditions etc.
7. Social (moral and civic). Anti-social activities, excessive social life, discourtesy, unwise use of
leisure etc.
8. Vocational. Insistence of parents on a certain vocation, unfitness for work

Techniques used in the Guidance Process

A. Non-Test Appraisal
1. Autobiography. A way of finding out some of the learner’s personality or qualities.
2. Observation. A way of noting learner’s behavior, feelings, reactions, and peculiarities.
3. Anecdotal Record. The unusual behavior/activity of the learner is noted by the teacher or
counselor.
4. Rating scale. A scale in which the individuals may be compared and a rating is an estimate of
qualities and abilities.
5. Case Study. It includes careful planning and interpretation of pertinent data about the
individual. It is considered the most comprehensive and thorough technique in studying the
individual.
6. Case Conference. It is a form of cooperative conference devoted to the intensive study of an
individual.
7. Interview. Helps the worker to become acquainted with a student and may help student
discover himself by talking about himself with an interested adult.
8. The Projective Techniques. It may tell the inner content of the individual personality by eliciting
spontaneous reactions to given stimuli. Examples: Rorschach Inkblot test and Thematic
Apperception Test
9. Sociometry. The learners state their preference for other members of the group as teammates,
seatmates, and partners in work activities or other personal relationships.

B. Test Appraisal. A method of analysis resulting from attempts to provide objective, dependable
and universal yardstick for measurement of traits
Kinds of Tests

1. Intelligence Test. Measures the I.Q. level of an individual.

2. Achievement Test. Measures the acquired learning in a certain subject.
3. Aptitude Test. Measures the readiness with which the individual increases his knowledge and
improve skills when given the necessary opportunity and training.

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 4. Personality Test. Measures the tangible characteristics of the individual.
5. Interest Inventories. Reveal the likes and dislikes of the individuals.
6. Diagnostic Test. identifies the learning difficulties and weaknesses of learners.

The Counselor & the Counseling Process

Counselor- is the one who extends his expertise about counseling to the client.

Characteristics of an Effective Counselor (Combs, 1986)

1. Are interested in and committed to an understanding of the specialized knowledge of the field
and find it personally meaningful.
2. Focus on positive self-beliefs and have confidence in themselves, their abilities and their work.
3. Like people and have feeling of oneness with others.
4. Use interventions that focus on individuals’ perception of self and expand the individual’s view
of life rather than narrow it.
5. Are committed to feeling rather than controlling the client.
6. Are able to objectively involve with rather than alienated from their clients.
7. Abide by the ethical standard of professionalism.
Counselors………….

1. Should be active in dealing with a great number of social problems that affect the population
with which they work.
2. Must work to ensure their systematic, scientific and professional efforts both individual and
groups will be served.
3. Have specific personal qualities and are able to convey those qualities to the people they
help.
4. Are self-aware and able to use themselves as vehicle of change (Okun, 1992).

Counseling Defined. The core, the most intimate and vital part of the entire guidance program. It
refers to an interactive process characterized by a unique relationship between counselor and client
that leads to change in the clients in one or more of the following areas (Patterson & Welfel, 1999).

1. Behavior. Overt changes in the ways client act, their coping skills decision-making skills, and/or
relationship skills
2. Beliefs. Ways of thinking about one-self, others and the world, and emotional concerns relating
to these perceptions.
3. Level of Emotional Distress. Uncomfortable feelings or reactivity to environmental stress
“Counseling is the consultation, mutual interchange of opinion; deliberating together”- Webster

“Counseling is an attempt to aid the individual by assisting him to reorganization of attitudes, feelings
and emotion, such that he can make optional use of his ability and physical endowments”- Arthur
Coombs

“A definitely structured relationship which allows the client to gain an understanding of himself to a
degree which enables him to take a positive step in the light of his new orientation” – Carl Rogers

“Counseling is an activity in which all facts are gathered and focused on the particular problem of
the counselee who is then given a direct and personal help”
- Wren

Professional Counseling exists to help people, sort out the meaning of their lives in the face of such
pains (loss, disappointment, fear, anxiety, sadness and anger).

Purposes of Counseling

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 a. To assist an individual toward self-knowledge, self-realization and self-development.
b. It gives the individual just enough help.

Counseling as a Helping Relationship

Helping relationship refers to the professional help which takes place much more than the
responsibility on the helper, who must strive to be objective and helpful in a more directed and
purposeful way.

5 Essentials of the Counseling Process

1. The relationship. Counselor and counselee’s acceptance and respect to one another.
2. The atmosphere. Establishment of rapport and creation of acceptance, freedom and
willingness to help by a show of deep understanding.
3. The facilitation of the counselee’s efforts. Counselees being free to talk, confide without fear
of his problem.
4. Attention to the adjustment in life situation. Counselor’s personal learning experiences can
channel talk and treatment of the counselee’s ability to adjust.
5. The follow-up. A word of encouragement and support helps the counselee gain insight to
enable him to cope with life’s situation even unassisted.

The Stages of the Counseling Process

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3

Initial Disclosure/ In-depth Exploration/ Commitment in Action/
Exploratory Stage Interpretative Stage Adjustment Stage

Counselor must help The client should reach The client must know
client to articulate his clearer understanding of how to accomplish his
personal concerns and his/her life concerns and goals that have
to place these begin to formulate a new emerged during the
sense of hope and previous counseling.
concerns in the client’s Counselor should identify
direction. A client is free to
understanding and possible alternative
accept, reject or modify
context. Counselor and courses of action that
the counselor’s impression
counselee don’t know client might choose and
and arrive at newly,
one another well; no to assess each of these in
challenged and refined terms of the sameness of
prior, direct contact. view of the self. outcomes.

The Core Conditions of Counseling

1. Empathy. Refers to the counselor’s ability to enter the client’s phenomenal world – to
experience the client’s world as if it were your own without ever losing the as if quality. To
identify and acknowledge how the client feels.
2. Positive Regard. Refers to the caring for the client for no other reason that the fact that he/she
is human and therefore worthy. Tolerance and non-judgmental nature allow for the
development and trust and strengthens their own bonds with others in a more positive light.
3. Genuineness. Is the characteristic of transparency, realness, honesty or authenticity of the
counselor, thus he shares thoughts and feelings in ways that do not manipulate or control the
client; to focus the client’s needs, internal struggle and the awakening that takes place within
him.
4. Concreteness. It promptly seeks specifies rather than vague generalities; to look at one’s own
specific feelings, thoughts and examples of actions/ real experiences and share within the
boundaries to increase hope and understanding within the inner core of the client.

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