School Guidance & Counselling Flashcards

Week I & II: Introduction to School Guidance & Counselling

Overview

• Guidance and Counselling Programme

• School Counsellor

• Role of a Teacher

• Activity I

• Multilevel Intervention

• Activity II

Why Student Counselling and Guidance?

• Improve students’ well-being

• Increase students’ success

• Start with the basics

Foundation of School Guidance Counselling

• School guidance counselling enhances the physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual goals of education.

• School Guidance Counsellors work in collaboration with the teachers, students, families, administrators, and other community members to build the capacity of the school community to support every student in their unique engagement with meaningful and successful learning.

Objectives of School Guidance Counselling Programmes

• Promote and integrate GNH (Gross National Happiness) values and principles through all daily school activities.

• Promote and enhance learning by providing students with knowledge and skills appropriate for their developmental level.

• Ensure every student has equitable access to guidance and counselling.

• Offer programmes to students to develop academic studies, career pathways, and personal and social skills.

Activity: Where are we?

• In a triad, take turns to share the status of guidance counselling programmes in Bhutanese schools today.

• As a group, select two interesting individual experiences and share with the whole class.

• Individual Sharing: 6 mins

• Sharing with the class: 6 mins

Principles of School Guidance and Counselling Programme

• Approachability

• Student-Centeredness

• Inclusive approach

• Need driven

• Accountability

Approachability

• Enhancing Mental Health, Counseling, and Wellbeing Support for University Students in Bhutan

Characteristics and Skills Important for a Counsellor

• Flexible

• Empathic

• Good communication skills

• Open minded

• Active listener

• Can work tailor-made

• Not merely personality traits, can be learned!

Creating a Safe and Caring Environment

• Ensure discretion

  • Treat information with care

  • Do not share unless really necessary

• Share ethical principles with students at the start of the counselling session(s)

Important Considerations

• Nice to know, Need to know

• Frame of Reference

• Be clear and honest to the student

  • About what you know and don’t know

  • About limitations

  • About the available time

  • About the commitment

Student-Centeredness

• Is each counselling session with a student unique?

Key Aspects

• Acknowledge individual learning path of each student

• Counsellor as facilitator (not instructor)

• Students actively participate in their own learning process

• Advising vs coaching

Inclusive Approach

• Should education be available for all?

Key Considerations

• We are all different / all students are different

• Different educational needs

• Different counseling needs

• Different talents

Inclusive Counselling

• Open for all students

• Different topics

• Different ways of contact and communication

• Visibility

• Individual/group/online

• WOWW: Working On What Works à Empower students

Need Driven

• Whose needs should be taken into account?

Stakeholders

• Individual student

• Group of students

• Teaching staff

• Policy advisors

Accountability

• Who is responsible for the success of student counselling?

Key Aspects

• Collaborative partnership rather than a result agreement

• Create realistic expectations

• What can the student expect from the counsellor?

• What is expected from the student?

• Empower students à should learn how to take ownership over their decision-making process

Responsibilities

• Counsellor: I will listen to you, help you to define goals, advise and coach you, give tips …

• Student: I will attend meetings, set my own goals, reflect on my behaviour, try out new methodologies…

A School Guidance Counsellor Definition

• A professional member of an educational team in primary, middle, and high schools who assists students in their personal, social, academic, and career development through a range of services including individual counselling, group counselling, and specialised classroom teaching.

Key Responsibilities

• Programme development and evaluation

• Counselling and consultation

• Student appraisal

• Academic advice and Career education

• Referrals and follow-up

The Role of the Class Teacher in School Counselling Programme

• Role as a Listener advisor

• Role as a Referral and Receiving Agent

• Role as a Career Educator

• Role as a Human Relations Facilitator

• Role as a counselling programme supporter

Bhutan Education Blueprint

• Vision: An educated and enlightened society of GNH, built and sustained on the unique Bhutanese values of tha dam-tshig ley gyu-drey.

• Mission:

  • Develop sound educational policies that enable the creation of a knowledge-based GNH society.

  • Provide equitable, inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities to all children and harness their full potential to become productive citizens.

  • Equip all children with appropriate knowledge, skills and values to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.

The Nine Attributes

• Refer to the visual representation of the nine attributes, including knowledge, intellectual competence, communicative competence, enduring habits of life-long learning, family, community and national values, spirituality and character, physical wellbeing, leadership competence, and world-understanding and readiness.

Multi-Level Model of Intervention

Main Features: Ci3T

• Ci3T models are data-informed, graduated systems of support constructed to address academic, behavioral, and social domains, with an overarching goal of supporting all learners in inclusive environments by maximizing available expertise through professional collaborations among school personnel (Lane, K. L., Kalberg, J. R., & Menzies, H. M. (2009)).

• Core elements include three different levels of support:

  • Primary level of support (tier 1)

  • Secondary level of support (tier 2)

  • Tertiary level of support (tier 3)

  • These increase in intensity and magnitude (Lane, Menzies, Kalberg, & Oakes, 2012).

Systems

• School-Wide System

• Classroom System

• Non-classroom System

• Individual Student Systems

• Systems to be addressed by the counselling programme in any of the levels of intervention.

Activity II: Ci3T in the Classroom

• In a group of three members, explore the online resources on Ci3T model found at http://www.ci3t.org/

• Then work on the theme assigned to your work group based on the direction provided below:

  1. Spend first few minutes in studying the issue.

  2. In your role as a teacher, identify two measures that you can take at each level (primary, secondary, and tertiary) to prevent, mitigate, and eliminate the issue. (25 minutes).

  3. Sharing. You have to present some important details on the issue provided to your group and propose the strategy based on the relevant context like school level, societal setup, and personal values. (20 minutes)

  4. Debrief: (7 minutes)