ROLE AND FUNCTION OF COUNSELING/ GUIDANCE TEAM

Counselors Principle Teachers

School Counselors Since students’ developmental needs are different in different levels of schools, counselors’ roles and services provided to students in particular schools are vary. Elementary, middle school, high school, higher education

The Elementary School Counselor I- Counselor II- Consultant Counselor helps teachers, parents, administrators, and other professionals assist the student in dealing more effectively with developmental and adjustment problems. III- Coordinator Coordinating guidance activities with ongoing classroom and school activities. Intraschool and interagency referrals.

IV- Agent for Orientation Orienting child to the goals and environment of the elementary school. Planning group activities and consulting with teachers to help children learn and practice the relationship skills necessary in the school. V- Assessment Interpreting and gathering data. Understanding the impact of culture, the sociology of the school, and other environmental influences on student behavior

VI- Career Developer Coordinator and consultant in developing a continuous, sequential, and integrated program. VII- Agent of Prevention Developing programs that seek to anticipate, intervene in, and prevent the development of problems (such as learning difficulties, acting-out behavior, vandalism, depression etc.)

Group counseling: brief counseling sessions (20 to 40 min Group counseling: brief counseling sessions (20 to 40 min.) depending on the age and maturity of the children in once or twice a week. 5 to 8 students in a group. Focus on concerns either crisis-oriented (e.g., abused children), problem-centered (e.g., conflict resolution), or developmental (e.g., learning social and personal aspects of development).

Developmental Counseling: considers developmental stages by including important life tasks that all children must learn and accomplish. Developmental counseling assumes that All kind of experiences form the beliefs, behaviors, feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of children (either negative or positive). Developmental counseling program includes everyone and every aspects of an elementary school. It requires integration of guidance curriculum into daily instruction. It requires parent and teacher involvement.

Parental involvement: Counselors inform parents about the counseling program through brochures, presentations at parent meetings, and individual contacts. Encourages them to participate in parent-teacher conferences, to enroll in parent education programs, to help with homework, to communicate effectively with their children, and to become volunteer to help with school programs.

The Elementary School Counselor as Counselor Individual counseling: Assessing the readiness of child for this type of relationship (language development, behavior, cognitive functioning, ability to understand the nature and purpose of a helping relationship). Play therapy and puppetry are the essential techniques for establishing rapport with children whose language development is not ready.

Role of parents: (a) helping the school to understand the child, (b) acquiring greater understanding of their children, (c) learning and appreciating what the school is doing to help children, (d) using positive approaches to bring about behavioral change.

Teacher involvement: Contributing to school guidance program through teacher surveys, committee reports, and annual program evaluations. Integrating guidance activities into daily instruction. Referring children who need counseling services. Fostering parent-school relationships. Being resource person for staff development (e.g., to present in-service workshops).

The Middle/ Junior High School Counselor I- Counselor Both individual and group counseling. Small group and classroom guidance to teach new skills and share information. Peer helper programs: assists counselors by helping students who are new to the school, being first-line helpers to students in need of counseling, referring them to the counselor, tutoring students who are having academic difficulty, and befriending students who have been rejected/ridiculed by their peers.

II- Transitional Services/ Orientation Aim to enable students to make smooth transitions from their childhood years to adolescence. Transitional services include: coordinating visits of elementary students to the middle school orienting students who are entering the middle grades compiling packets of information to middle-graders and their parents become more familiar with the school scheduling field trips for graduating middle-graders to the high schools planning career exploration activities with teachers to help students relate educational plans to their career interests

III- Consultation Counselor helps teachers, parents, administrators, and other professionals assist the student in dealing more effectively regarding the developmental and adjustment needs of individual students. IV- Placement Counselors are involved in course and curricular placement of students.

The High School Counselor The roles and functions of the high school counselor are similar to those of counselors in the elementary and middle/junior schools. Providing individual counseling (the shift from the preventive to the remedial in dealing with common counseling problems). Offering career planning assistance and information (more emphasis on decision-making /vocational, educational and marital choices). Administering and interpreting standardized test results. Assisting in college guidance, scholarships, and placement. Consulting.

Counselors in Higher Education Employed in counseling, mental health, or psychological service centers. Personal, academic, and vocational counseling. Recently, group counseling has increased in popularity. Consulting with faculty, campus administrators, and leaders of student organizations.

The role of the school administrator in the school counseling program Role as a program leader and supporter: Determines the success of the counseling program/ responsible for communicating program characteristics and needs to school boards. Role as a program consultant and adviser: Consultant on school needs/ school policies that affect counseling program functioning/ resolution of problems encountered by the program/ procedures for program development and improvement. Role as a resource provider: Allocation of resources, funds/ providing equipment.

Teachers’ roles in the school counseling program Role as a listener-advisor: The first line of contact between the student and school counseling program/ knows the student best/ communicates with students on daily basis/ source of trust and respect. Role as a referral and receiving agent: Referral to the school counselor/ searching students who need counseling service/ encouraging students to seek counselor assistance/ supporting and reinforcing the outcome of counseling (receiving agent) Role as a human potential discoverer: Identifying talented students.

Teachers’ roles in the school counseling program Role as a career educator: Integrating career education into teaching subject matter/developing positive attitudes and respect for all honest work/challenging adult-imposed biases/ promoting positive attitude to education, career preparation, and decision-making. Role as a human relations facilitator: Providing favorable conditions and environment for learning/to be a model to demonstrate positive human relations. Role as a counseling program supporter: Influence how students view and use the services/ influence colleagues and administrators. Preparing teachers to recognize, accept, and enjoy their roles in the school counseling program-taking course in guidance and counseling.

The Counselor and Relationships with Other Helping Professions The school counselor, as a member of a team, works with other helping professionals. Members of the team must understand the responsibilities of the team members. Responsibilities of the team members are: The School Psychologist: Identifying, intervening, and preventing mild disabilities and students at risk of failure/ using assessment tools/ consulting with teachers and parents to provide direct services to students with academic and behavioral problems in school.

The School Social Worker: Help counselors to understand the home environment and the nature of student’s behavioral problems/ clarifying the nature of the child’s problem and the parameters of social work services/ assessing the child’s specific problem/ facilitating better relationships among school, community and students/ educational counseling with the child and his-her parents. Special Educator: Work for maximizing the educational opportunities of students with disabilities.

School Health Personnel: Part-time or full-time school nurse and or physician/ provide preventive health services for children (e.g., immunization shots)/ identifying children who need special medical treatment/ referrals for the treatment. Psychiatrists are physicians with specialized training in the treatment of behavioral abnormalities/ are permitted to use drugs in treatment.

Text Book Gibson, R. L. & Mitchell, M. H. (1995). Introduction to Counseling and Guidance. Fourth Edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.