CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
Meaning and Definition of Guidance and Counselling Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines guidance as “advice that is given to somebody especially by someone with more experience while counselling “is a professional advice about a problem”. In a literary meaning guidance is the process of helping an individual to understand himself and his environment. According to Adenigbagbe (2011) guidance is the process of directing, assisting, guiding an individual to achieve his/her goals. Adenigbagbe (2011) also define counselling as a professional interaction between a client or individual and a professional counsellor with the aim of assisting the client to voluntarily change his behaviour for more productive one. Several authors have define guidance and counselling in different various ways.
According to Ferguson (1999) have attempted to clarify the usage of the term by pointing out the word guidance, as a concept, as an educational construct and as an educational services to meet a demand. Counselling, according to English and English (2001) was defines as a relationship in which one person endeavour to help one another, to understand and to solve his adjustments problems. Carl Rogers (2001) define counselling as a therapeutic endeavour aimed at helping a client to relax his structure gain new experience and become integrated whole in the emphatic counselling environment counselling can be defined by Shertzer and Stone (2004) “as the process of helping an individual to understand himself and his world”. UNESCO (2008) says, guidance and counselling is a professional field which has a broad range of activities, programmes and services geared toward assisting individuals to understand themselves, their problems, their school environment and their world and also to develop adequate capacity for making wise choices and decisions.
According to Adenigbagbe (2010) defines guidance and counselling as a subjects that deals with developmental problems of life or phenomenon problems of human being. Guidance and counselling is the process involving a special kind of relationship between a person who asks for help with a maladative problem and a person who is trained to provide that help (which is the counsellor). Counselling can be done in two dierent ways: – Individual Counselling – Group Counselling Individual counselling is the counselling in which the counsellor who is skilled in psychological strategies assists only one at a time in resolving the clients adjustment problems. Group counselling: This is the counselling which allows the counsellor to be involved with a group of counselee at the same time. There is no distinct line of demarcation between guidance and counselling because the two term are interwoven. There is much guidance in counselling just as counselling entails guidance. In practice however, the counselling psychologist should be able to identify where guidance activities stop and where that of counselling begins. For examples guidance is said to be more involving because it entails provision of useful information for path finding whereas, counselling is an aspect of guidance because it is one of the guidance service which is more intimate and involving means to resolve problems which require more than mere provision of information. In terms of severity of the issues or problem as it affect the personality of an individual, counselling is more serious than guidance, though they both deal with the adjustment of individuals within their contexts.
1.1 The Importance of Guidance and Counselling are as the following –
Guidance and counselling services enable each learner in institutions of learning to derive optimal educational benefits so as to actualize his/her potentialities. – It helps the students to make meaningful decision and choice. – It helps students to interpret his understanding of life experience. – It helps the learner to understand himself, his world and to learn how to meet life demands. – It is a profession to make an individual to understand who he is. – It also help individual to accept responsibilities for his actions. – It assist the student to develop his maximum potential. – It helps learner to develop in self-understanding an transfer knowledge gained through this experience to other event in his later life. – Student who have access to counselling programmes reported being more positive and having greater feelings of belongings and safety in their schools. – It promotes student development and academic success. – Guidance counsellor also assist in reducing victimization and bullying behaviour of the students. – It helps to address the physical, emotional, social, vocational and academic diiculties of adolescent students.
Counselling services support teachers in the classroom and enable teachers to provide quality instruction designed to assist students in achieving high standard. Who Teaches Guidance and Counselling? There are exceptional characteristics which the counsellor is expected to display in the day-to-day professional practice of his job. – The counsellor should be a person who belief in each person as an individual. – He/she should be committed to individual human values. – He/she should be alertness to the world. – He/she should be open mindedness. – He/she should be self-understanding. – He/she should have the ability to maintain confidentiality in the counselling relationship. – He/she should always demonstrate positive verbal reinforcement and showing feelings of concern. – He/she should treat the person before him as a fellow human being who is worthy of respect. 1.2 The Choice of Career Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2004) defines Career as the series of jobs that a person has in a particular area of work, usually involving more responsibilities as time passes. It also mean, the period of time that you spend in your life working or doing a partial thing.
Adenigbagbe (2011) defines choice of career as the decision and choice making of an individual on the series of jobs that a person has in a particular area of work. It is the duty of school guidance counsellor to assist the adolescent student pre-vocational by guiding him to choose the right subject which can be combined easily with the choice of future career. Le unguided students, are prone to choose subjects without directly relating them to their interests ability and aptitude and without thinking of their future careers and the subjects that are pre-requisite for them. For instance, a good knowledge of Mathematics is required before a student can pursue careers in Engineering, Economic, Geography etc. When the students want to further their education, they may encounter difficulties as a result of their wrong choice of subject which cannot be combined for higher education. It is the counsellor responsibilities to expose his students to the career possibility and limitation of each subjects and their combinations with other subjects.
EFFECT OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THEIR CHOICE OF CAREER IN ABEOKUTA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE
