Topic 3 Basic objectives and principles of guidance. How to offer guidance and support during the learning session and at the end of it
Objectives of Guidance
Guidance is purposeful process. It is assistance to the person which contributes for his development and brings excellence at the jobs performances.
It is essential in every walk of life.
The following are some of the objectives of guidance:
– To develop competency to solve the problems related to individual adjustment and social process;
– To assist individual to adjust adequately with the environment;
– To provide information about educational and vocational opportunities or occupational information;
– To provide the awareness on potentialities and abilities;
– To help developing potentialities and abilities;
– To organise the follow-up programmes for the job placement and evaluation of its effectiveness.
Some objectives of Educational Guidance
1.Monitoring the learning progress of the students/learners.
2.Assisting learners in discovering further educational opportunities and occupational openings
3.Assisting students in discovering their strengths and weaknesses: their assets and liabilities. How much ability do they possess to learn? If they take up work much beyond their ability to learn they are likely to meet failures and frustrations. If they take up work much below their ability, their will be loss of human resources as their potentialities remained under utilised / unutilised
4.Assisting learners in developing work and study habits that enable them achieve satisfactory success in studies
5.Assisting learners in trying out courses and exploratory courses in order to gain an insight into learning areas that still lie ahead
6.Assisting students through group guidance and group counseling to help remove their difficulties in learning
Principles of Guidance
- Principle of all-round development
Guidance must take into account the all-round development of the person. Furthermore, guidance must ensure this desirable adjustment in any specific area of the individual’ personality.
- Principle of human uniqueness
Certainly no two individuals are alike. Furthermore, individuals differ in mental, social, physical, and emotional development. Guidance must recognise these important differences and guide individuals according to their specific need.
- Principle of holistic development
Guidance must take place in the context of total personality development. Moreover, a child grows as a whole. Also, if one aspect of personality is in focus, then the other areas of development must be kept in mind. Most noteworthy, these other areas of development indirectly influence the personality.
- Principle of cooperation
There cannot be any force on any individual regarding guidance. Moreover, the cooperation and consent of the individual is a prerequisite for providing guidance
- Principle of continuity
The guidance must take place as a continuous process to an individual. Also, this guidance must take place in different stages of the individual’s life
- Principle of extension
There should not be a limitation of guidance to a few individuals. Most noteworthy, the extension of guidance must be to all individuals of all ages
- Principle of adjustment
It is certainly true that guidance influences every aspect of an individual’s life. However, guidance is chiefly concerned with a person’s mental or physical health. Furthermore, this adjustment takes place at school, home, society, and vocation.
How digital technology helps offering guidance and support during and after the learning session
Learners often encounter difficulties in understanding what is taught in the classroom, laboratories and workshops. Failures in examinations and tests, poor results in the assignments, unsatisfactory involvement in the learning are some of the main problems that educators notice. The problems need to be solved to the maximum extent by assisting the learners.
It is also defined as a conscious growth of individual. This has to do with knowing his interest, selection of his subjects, form of his study habits and making his progress in those subjects and activities and passing the examination.
These objectives can be achieved through school’s educational information services, group guidance classes, group counseling and individual counseling.
As an adult educator you should reflect on:
- What is the principle of guidance that you miss the most as an educator? What is the one you insist on the most?
- What is the most important principle and why?
Educators can be guides, facilitators, and motivators of learners
– Educators can help learners make connections across subject areas and decide on the best tools for collecting and showcasing learning through activities such as contributing to online forums, producing webinars, or publishing their findings to relevant websites.
These instructors can advise learners on how to build an online learning portfolio to demonstrate their learning progression.
The portfolios, may serve also to catalog resources that they can reviewed and shared as learners move into deeper and more complex thinking about a particular issue. With such portfolios, learners will be able to transition through their education careers with robust examples of their learning histories as well as evidence of what they know and are able to do. They can be added to the education CV.
– Through technology, educators can connect with other educators around the world to expand their perspectives and create opportunities for student learning.
They can connect with community organizations specializing in real-world concerns to design learning experiences that allow students to explore local needs and priorities.
All of these elements make classroom learning more relevant and authentic.
Authentic learning experiences are those that place learners in the context of real-world experiences and challenges. To know more: Defining Authentic Learning
– Technology provides an opportunity for traditionally underserved populations to have equitable access to high-quality educational experiences. Use technology to provide all learners with online access to effective teaching and better learning opportunities by using free and openly licensed educational content (where they are not otherwise available).
The use of “Universal Design for Learning” helps give all learners an equal opportunity to succeed.
“Instructional materials” support the educator offering guidance to the learners during and after the learning session. In digital era they take the form of:
–Digital media: Interactive Videos, photos, presentations, interactive video games
–Open resources: Expert blogs, open-source journals, public databases, open courseware, forums
–Testing resources: Standardized tests, classroom assignments, online submissions, quizzes, essays, collaborative projects
Other tools:
–Smartphones, laptops, iPads, Tablets can be used to complete surveys in the classroom using the software applications (for example: Poll Everywhere, Type Form, Kahoot, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms).
–Expanding office hours can be accomplished with the use of FaceTime or with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.
With Interactive Videos platforms you can add images, text, drawings, and questions to stimulate and motivate your students improving their learning opportunities. Here some examples of interactive Video platforms: https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/3-great-alternatives-to-zaption; https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/07/zaption-is-closing-try-these.html; https://www.commonsense.org/education/teaching-strategies/thinking-critically-about-video
Here you can find some of the video presentation softwares mostly used: https://visme.co/blog/video-presentation-software/
To you write, remix, share, and play interactive text-based games, check this out! https://playfic.com
TITLE: Instructional materials
EXERCISE: Share with your colleagues which instructional materials would be more suitable to monitor the learning progress of the learners. Motivate your choice and discuss it with them.
Other supportive actions: follow the links and learn the methods
– Found ways to help students answer their own questions
– Helped students to interpret subject matter from diverse perspectives
– Encouraged students to reflect on and evaluate what they have learned
– Demonstrated the importance and significance of the subject matter
– Formed teams or discussion groups to facilitate learning
– Provided meaningful feedback on students’ academic performance
– Explained course material clearly and concisely
– Related course material to real-life situations
– Created opportunities for students to apply course content outside the classroom
– Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject
– Gave projects, tests, or assignments that required original or creative thinking
– Encouraged student-faculty interaction outside of class
– Involved students in “hands-on” projects such as research, case studies, or real-life activities
This topic has continued to explain how guidance can be facilitate by digital communication tools.
It has also highlighted the connection between “Interaction” and “Guidance” by showing that some tools that facilitate interaction do also facilitate guidance.
The topic presents concrete example of tools that the educator can directly apply during his teaching during the learning sessions and outside them.