GUIDANCE: Purposes and Phases

GUIDANCE

The history of the human race reveals that mankind has always, felt the need for some sort of guidance, especially for its young ones. This need, however, has become more intense, more pressing and more precise in the contemporary age.

What is Guidance?

Guidance involves personal help given by a mature person. It is designed to assist a person to decide where he wants to go, what he wants to do, or how can he best accomplish his purpose? It assists him to solve problems that arise in his life.

Guidance is neither dictation nor direction; rather it is friendly advice and personal help offered by a competent individual, known as the guide or expert, to one who requires such assistance. Guidance enables the immature person to understand his problems and to overcome his hurdles. Lack of guidance is liable to mislead and to maladjustment.

The Purpose of Guidance

The Psycho Physical Purpose:

An adequate guidance programme aims at improving the psychological and physical health and efficiency of the individual. This enables him to overcome his defects, deficiencies, handicaps, disabilities, etc. both mental as well as physical.

The Educational Purpose:

Guidance enables the learner to understand his abilities and to exploit them to their maximum in scholastic pursuits. It thus minimizes the chances of educational failures, wastages and frustrations which, without guidance, may disturb or even wreck a child's life.

Vocational Guidance

The guidance offers valuable help to the individual in understanding his vocational aptitudes and abilities. It aids him to decide about the adoption of a particular profession that is most suited to his individual requirements. Guidance thus increases an individual’s chances for vocational and professional efficiency and adjustment.

 The Recreational Purpose:

The guidance highlights the significance of various healthy recreations and their suitability for various types of individuals.

Participation in those adequate and healthy recreations which are most suited to one's taste and temperament increases one's health and efficiency very considerably. Guidance thus decreases the possibilities of bad health and inefficiency consequent upon lack of indifference towards, or inadequate, recreation and enjoyment.

The Social Purpose:

By fulfilling the various purposes enumerated above, a guidance programme furthers the health and efficiency of the entire society. After all, the health and well-being of society is dependent upon the health and well-being of the individuals who comprise the society. Guidance, thus, is indispensable for a healthy, efficient, and economical social order.

The Phases of Guidance

The Counseling Phase

Counseling means giving advice. This is the oldest guidance practice. Since life began parents, teachers and elders have considered it their foremost duty to counsel the younger ones on various aspects of life.

The Mathematical Phase:

Guidance has its mathematical side as well. Modern guidance makes quantitative measurements of abilities, surveys of probabilities, etc. that’s offer better and more precise advice to the guides. Measurements also enable guidance experts to make predictions about human behaviour.

 The Demonstrative Phase:

The ancient systems of guidance relied mostly on sermons exhortations,  advice, force authority, etc. Modern guidance, on the contrary, emphasizes the need for practical demonstrations and observations for and against the good or bad course of thought and behaviour suggested to the guide.

Fundamental Rules of Guidance

Guidance should be rational advice based on factual information.

Guidance should not be by compulsion, force, domination, cut and dried planning, regimentation, or prescription; neither should it be dictatorial or arbitrary.

Neither teachers nor parents should force children to follow an unwanted career.

An efficient and comprehensive guidance organization should be provided for testing and interviewing each child and for evaluating data about each child.

School guidance should avoid, as far as possible, conflict with home guidance.