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Course: Educational Psychology (671)

Semester: Spring, 2020
Level: M. Ed
ASSIGNMENT No.2

Q. 1 Do you agree with Allport (in E. B. Hurlock, 1078) said that individuality is a
never repeated phenomena? Support your discussion with references if agree or
not?

Answer:

The Goethean view on individuality has a root in classic philosophy since it latches on to the

idea of entelechy. This idea comes from Aristotle and inspired Leibniz to formulate the idea
of individual monads. Entelechy is a grounding power that secures that individuals remain
within constant changing relations and conditions. It is thus an Urphänomen in Goethe’s
sense. Goethe broke with characterizing the grounding power as an “essence”, or as a
substantial core, or a prevailing character regulating the interaction of individuals. Instead, I
conjecture, Goethe regarded this Urphänomen as a form, which continuously realizes itself

in a sequence of individual formations. Consequently, this is how an individual human life is

always the realization of the human form of life. 2

Rousseau had an impact on Goethe. Much in Goethe is a response to Rousseau (Cassirer

1932). There is a critical reference to Rousseau in that Dr Faust makes a contract, a contract
not with fellow citizens, but with The Devil. Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre expresses
an implicit critique of Rousseau’s Emile, and Goethe’s Die Wahlvervandschaften expresses an
implicit critique of Rousseau’s Julie and marks an alternative to Rousseau’s Confessions.
Thus, Goethe’s literary work in many ways is in dialogue with the philosopher, Rousseau.

What is more, there is a striking parallel between this dialogue and Hannah Arendt’s
“positive critique” of Rousseau in her work The Human Condition (Brown 2014, 43, 47).
Arendt, who had firsthand knowledge of Goethe’s works, uses a lot of Goethean phrases
and concerns in her account of Rousseau. So perhaps, even if the latter is seen as the
founder of the “philosophy of intimacy”, Goethe might be the greater such philosopher.

There are many examples of scholars and philosophers who have written about individuality
in a Goethean way. I personally think that the later Schelling’s considerations in Philosophie
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der Offenbarung on the not yet existing God and the complex relation between God as

father and God as son owes a lot to Goethe. Goethe also had a huge impact on Emerson,
and one might especially mention Emerson’s notion of “unattained but attainable self”
(Hileman 2018). The crucial voice of Wilhelm in Kierkegaard’s Either Or is configured around
Goethe’s figure Wilhelm Meister, and more around the older Wilhelm of Wanderjahre than
the younger Wilhelm of Lehrjahre (Roos 1955, 19–22). The explicit voice of Wilhelm in
Kierkegaard’s text however comes from Goethe’s Die Wahlverwandschaften (Roos 1955, 26).
Kierkegaard’s inspiration from Goethe does not stop here. As I have argued elsewhere
(Brock 2003, 233–4), Kierkegaard’s later works Philosophical Fragments and Concluding

Unscientific Postscript centers on a notion of self-liberation that have affinities with Goethe’s
idea of individuality. The many works of Georg Simmel all have an outspoken Goethean
background, and it is likely that this left a mark on Simmel’s “student” Ernst Cassirer. 3

One can read Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms from the 1920s as an exposure of the
development of Objective Spirit, and thus as a phenomenology of culture in a Hegelian
sense (Kreis 2010). However, Cassirer’s general philosophy concerns the link between
“Spirit” and “life” (Cassirer 1930; Cassirer 1929). Cassirer explicitly points out that no form of
Objective Spirit, say in terms of scientific thoughts, works of art, or recognized Laws, ever

encapsulates the real historical conditions of human lives. As Cassirer put it in his inaugural
lecture in Gothenburg in 1936, where he explained his idea of “Critical Idealism” (Cassirer
1935), 4 there will always be a tension within a given human condition between a neo-
platonic vision of a union between reality and ideality, on the one hand, and a neo-
Aristotelian vision about, precisely, entelechy, on the other. Individual efforts can always
break through the boundaries of an ideal order. However, this does not mean that ideal

orders fully fall apart: features of these orders always remain. Cassirer in several places calls
this tension between the ideal and the real “symbolic pregnancy”. Nature and Culture is
always pregnant with children that will be different from those previously born.

Goethe’s intellectual history

Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774) displays the human being as not attuned to nature,
nor to society and culture. Werther is drifting, not finding resonance in relation to any
ground. However, Werther does not appear as a stranger on Earth, nor as a loner. His fate is
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more that he cannot come to terms with the reality of things, with the fact of there being no

escape into, say religion or science, nor love. In 1776 the poem Seefahrt links this idea of
being lost to a general character of nature. It is not because Man is weak or blind that he
cannot be at one with the forceful nature surrounding him. The loss, including loss of
orientation, instead expresses the natural organic character of a human life. The poem
indirectly has a message: Even if we are lost, we can try to express this loss in poetic fashion.
Art does not deliver an escape either, but it is Man as a true natural being that speaks in
true art.

Goethe wrote the first version of his Faust in 1775, and a second version of the first part in

1790. Later versions appeared in 1808 and 1831, respectively. The main figure is an
intellectual who symbolizes the unrest that even a highly developed knowledge cannot
block. The “first” or “framing” question in Faust is if one can guide the drifting intellectual in
the direction of a superior being (God) or if human life must fall victim to the implications of
ordinary pleasures and thus be doomed to “hell”. In Kantian terms, if The Understanding is
not enough, because it never exemplifies True Reason and must be mediated by other
drives, including a certain sensibility, how can The Understanding escape the boundaries of
this sensibility? This is the question symbolically presented as a bet between God and

Mephisto.

However, both God and Mephisto face the problem that they cannot determine beforehand
what the human being is, and how it will behave. God and Mephisto both face the problem
that there is something missing in the Kantian outlook. The way in which Goethe introduces
his main character shows what is missing: Faust wants more than knowledge, he wants
a living knowledge, and he insists that this living knowledge must come with a kind of
“action” in relation to Nature, symbolically expressed by the need for tasting the milk from
Nature’s Breast (Øhrgaard, 285). 5 This is the point of the famous words Am Anfang war die

Tat. Faust wants to live by acting in line with how God acted in his Creation. However, one
might ask, which has the upper hand, the Creation or the created beings? Consequently, the
bet that Faust makes with Mephisto is this: Can there be a kind of earthly satisfaction in
dealing with particular examples and aspects of God’s creations, which blinds the human
being to the Creation as such?
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Accordingly, for me Faust is far from being a work on the tension between immediate

pleasures and higher principles. Mephisto symbolizes a living organic Whole that
encompasses human lives and human behavior. Within this Wholeness, certain things stand
out, appearing strong, right, beautiful, or overwhelming. Thereby one objectifies certain
features of Nature, or “Being is reduced to beings” as Heideggerians would put it. Mephisto
symbolizes the temptation to make such reductions. Mephisto symbolizes the temptation
only to tell the trees and become blind to the forest. Mephisto therefore symbolizes western
metaphysics as having fallen victim to such temptation.

Goethe developed his thoughts about nature, culture, and individuality partly during the

time he worked for the Duke of Weimar and had duties in relation to diverse things such as
finances and warfare. Goethe thus acquired first hand and personal experience about social
and political matters. This shows in Goethe’s works, for instance in Torquato Tasso (1790)
which deals with the social conditions of art and how one has to regard artistic endeavors as
anchored in social reality. In the story Egmont (1788) a smaller community falls victim to
greater political powers to the effect that the relation between community and personal
freedom of citizens are transformed. Changes in political institutions and relations of power
have implications for individual human lives. However, even within such moments, the

human form of life in a sense reaffirms itself. In the work Iphigenie (1787), the tensions
between human emancipation, social destiny, and fate are expressed in a way that almost
became paradigmatic in Goethe’s poetic works in that Iphigenie focuses on the different
living conditions of men and women. Goethe shows how even the most intimate and
personal aspects of a human life are associated with public, social, and cultural institutions,
and powers. In this case, the question of marriage, the union of the sexes, becomes a matter

of both political strategy and individual freedom.

Because of the impacts of the French Revolution, Goethe’s thoughts about the interplay

between nature, culture, and individual human lives became more complex. In a sense these
complexities simply mirror contemporary social change, for instance the fact of refugees,
immigration, and the gradual integration of the rights of the nobility into new bourgeois
social orders. In another sense, the complexities have a universal natural feature in that the
social dynamics emerges as a clear example of the metamorphosis of natural beings within
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all-embracing nature. Although Goethe explicitly says that morphology is a matter for the

natural sciences only, there is no doubt that his observations during his travel to Italy (1786–
88) concerning different epochs of art and architecture left a mark, such that it makes sense
to claim that his general ideas about morphology somehow colored his understanding of
cultural matters as well.

After his return from Italy he published (1790) a thesis Versuch die Metamorphosis der
Pflanzen zu Erklären. We return to that work below. Before that, let me point to some
indications of the idea that the complexities of nature and those of culture have a family-
likeness. One might here mention, first, that two of the crucial notions of the work on

metamorphosis, the ideas of Polarität and Steigerung (Goethe 2000, Band 13, 48, 120)
appear in the essay on aesthetic expression from 1790, Einfache Nachahmung der Natur,
Manier und Stil. Second, the figure of Tasso has a certain “polar” relation to the figure of
Antonio, and as we shall see in all of Goethe’s subsequent works, he presents his characters
by means of polar interrelations. Third, the poem Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen (1798) is
actually a characterization of the union of man and wife as belonging to a higher natural
order. Fourth, Goethe formulated the idea that all beings are engaged in a constant and
harmonious movement between systole and diastole (Goethe 2000, Band 13, 488). Finally,

the title and theme of the work Die Natürliche Tochter (1803) in a sense hinges on this
family-likeness between natural and cultural complexities.

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Q. 2 What is learning? Compare stimulus-response theory and cognitive theories in

context of learning.

Answer:

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values,
attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some

machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is
immediate, induced by a single event (e.g. being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and

knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often
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last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that

which cannot be retrieved.

Human learning starts at birth (it might even start before) and continues until death as a

consequence of ongoing interactions between people and their environment. The nature
and processes involved in learning are studied in many fields, including educational
psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, and pedagogy. Research in such
fields has led to the identification of various sorts of learning. For example, learning may
occur as a result of habituation, or classical conditioning, operant conditioning or as a result
of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning

may occur consciously or without conscious awareness. Learning that an aversive event
can't be avoided nor escaped may result in a condition called learned helplessness. There is
evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has been observed
as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is sufficiently
developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in development.

Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning.[citation needed]
Children experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact through play. Lev
Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of

their environment through playing educational games. For Vygotsky, however, play is the
first form of learning language and communication and the stage where a child begins to
understand rules and symbols.

Compare stimulus-response theory and cognitive theories in context of learning:

Whereas cognitive theorists referred to reorganization of “electrical brain fields” and

“neurophysiological trace systems”, Hull (1943) related habit formation to the establishment
of neural “receptor-effector” connections. Spence noted that these differences had little or
no significance for learning theory because these neurophysiological models were nothing

more than analogies and played no role in the deductions or inferences of either camp.
Properties of “brain fields” were inferred from introspection, rather than physiological
investigation, and with few exceptions, knowledge or even speculation about the
physiological basis of reflexes did not inform the construction of S-R theories.
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Indeed, Spence (1950, p. 164) stated that “picturing neurophysiological processes without

specifying the hypothetical relations that tie them up with the experimental variables and
the response measure is almost a complete waste of time so far as furthering our
understanding of learning phenomena is concerned.” In section 3 of this article, I will relate
examples of progress in relating brain and behavior which have been more useful in
characterizing the nature of learning.

Stimulus-stimulus (S-S) or stimulus-response (S-R) associations

Cognitive theorists of the time were clear that learning involved associations among, or
reorganization of, sensory-perceptual processes. By contrast, Guthrie, Thorndike, Hull and

others posited that learning involved S-R associations, between stimuli and “muscle
contraction and glandular secretion” (Guthrie, 1946, p. 7). Spence (1950) pointed out

however that Hull's emphasis on S-R associations followed from his neurophysiologizing,
rather than from his mathematical definition of habit. From Spence's perspective, there was
nothing intrinsically S-R or S-S about habit, as defined within the Hullian system, although,
like Hull, he clearly believed that most learning involved formation of associations between
stimuli and responses.

“I do not find it difficult to conceive of both types of organizations or associations being

established in learning. Certainly simple types of perceptual learning would appear possibly to
involve intersensory associations. I seriously doubt, however, whether learning is exclusively of
this type, or even that the majority of it is. Indeed, ……evidence would appear to support more
strongly the S-R conception than the S-S” (Spence, 1950, pp. 164-165.)

Most of this article (section 2) will concern this issue.

Contents vs conditions of learning

Spence noted that cognitive theorists tended to emphasize the “intrinsic” properties of their
constructs, whereas S-R theorists tended to be concerned with the empirical relations
among experimental variables that determine their constructs. In Rescorla's
(1975) terminology, the cognitive theorists concentrated on the content of learning whereas

S-R theorists focused on the conditions under which learning occurred. Although
castigating cognitive theorists for relying too much on introspection to make inferences
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about the contents of learning, Spence recognized that such contents could still be

rigorously defined in terms of environmental variables, lauding Tolman's sign-gestalt

psychology. Thus, he concluded that these concerns reflected “a very real difference
between the two theoretical camps, but… one of emphasis rather than of conflict” (Spence,
1950, p. 166).

Stimulus variables: intrinsic vs. extrinsic

At the time of Spence's writing, investigators from the cognitive tradition tended to examine
the effects of variables that influenced the receipt of stimuli (e.g., orienting and attention)
and perceptual organization (e.g., figure-ground relations, part-whole relations,

belongingness, set). By contrast, most studies of behavior from the S-R tradition focused on
temporal variables, and those that related to motivation, such as reward magnitude and

deprivation state. But Spence's (1950, p. 167) attitude was that “such differences of
emphasis…. do not necessarily involve conflict”, and noted that S-R theorists' preoccupation
with time and motivation did not preclude an interest in stimulus reception and
organizational variables. Indeed, in the past 25 years a great deal of learning research
emerging from the S-R tradition has addressed these later issues, for example, interests in
orienting and attention (Holland, 1997; Mackintosh, 1975; Pearce & Hall, 1980) and in

perceptual organization (Cook, Riley & Brown, 1992; Rescorla, 1986).

Organism as active or passive processor of information

At the time of Spence's address, there was considerable discussion about the “role of the
organism” in information processing, whether animals “merely passively receive and react to
all the stimuli which are physically present” (Tolman, 1948, p. 189), or actively processed that
information, selecting and assembling the elements of association prior to forming
associations themselves. Again, Spence felt that cognitive theorists had misrepresented the
S-R position:

“It is difficult to know for sure just what Tolman and others who have expressed this notion
mean by this kind of statement. ….Much of the S-R theory is concerned with the classical

conditioning situation in which the conditions of stimulation are extremely simple. No “active
looking” for the cue… or special receptor orientation is necessary… But even in the case of this
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simple learning situation the S-R learning theorist has not assumed that organisms passively

receive and react to all stimuli that are physically present” (Spence, 1950, p. 168.)

Thus, Spence set the stage for subsequent incorporation of variables that are now described

as “attentional” into S-R theory. For example, reinforcement contingencies might reasonably
be expected to extend to both explicit attentional processing such as eye movements and
orienting behaviors (e.g., Siegel, 1967) and more implicit processing assumed by more
recent learning theories, such as changes in learning rate parameters. All of these could
influence the subsequent reception and use of particular stimuli in association formation
later.

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Q. 3 Discuss the G. S. Belkin & J. L. Gray different functions of evaluation, how we

can apply these functions in educational evaluation?

Answer:

Purposes and Functions of Evaluation: Evaluation plays a vital role in teaching learning
experiences. It is an integral part of the instructional programmes. It provides information’s
on the basis of which many educational decisions are taken. We are to stick to the basic
function of evaluation which is required to be practiced for pupil and his learning
processes. Check for Educational Evaluations in US at UT Evaluators

Evaluation has the following functions:

1. Placement Functions:

a. Evaluation helps to study the entry behaviour of the children in all respects.

b. That helps to undertake special instructional programmes.

c. To provide for individualisation of instruction.

d. It also helps to select pupils for higher studies, for different vocations and specialised
courses.

2. Instructional Functions:
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a. A planned evaluation helps a teacher in deciding and developing the ways, methods,

techniques of teaching.

b. Helps to formulate and reformulate suitable and realistic objectives of instruction.

c. Which helps to improve instruction and to plan appropriate and adequate techniques of
instruction.

d. And also helps in the improvement of curriculum.

e. To assess different educational practices.

f. Ascertains how far could learning objectives be achieved.

g. To improve instructional procedures and quality of teachers.

h. To plan appropriate and adequate learning strategies.

3. Diagnostic Functions:

a. Evaluation has to diagnose the weak points in the school programme as well as weakness
of the students.

b. To suggest relevant remedial programmes.

c. The aptitude, interest and intelligence are also to be recognised in each individual child

so that he may be energised towards a right direction.

d. To adopt instruction to the different needs of the pupils.

e. To evaluate the progress of these weak students in terms of their capacity, ability and
goal.

4. Predictive functions:

a. To discover potential abilities and aptitudes among the learners.

b. Thus to predict the future success of the children.

c. And also helps the child in selecting the right electives.

5. Administrative Functions:

a. To adopt better educational policy and decision making.

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b. Helps to classify pupils in different convenient groups.

c. To promote students to next higher class,

d. To appraise the supervisory practices.

e. To have appropriate placement.

f. To draw comparative statement on the performance of different children.

g. To have sound planning.

h. Helps to test the efficiency of teachers in providing suitable learning experiences.

i. To mobilise public opinion and to improve public relations.

j. Helps in developing a comprehensive criterion tests.

6. Guidance Functions:

a. Assists a person in making decisions about courses and careers.

b. Enables a learner to know his pace of learning and lapses in his learning.

c. Helps a teacher to know the children in details and to provide necessary educational,
vocational and personal guidance. Educational Evaluations in US visit Here

7. Motivation Functions:

a. To motivate, to direct, to inspire and to involve the students in learning.

b. To reward their learning and thus to motivate them towards study.

8. Development Functions:

a. Gives reinforcement and feedback to teacher, students and the teaching learning

processes.

b. Assists in the modification and improvement of the teaching strategies and learning
experiences.

c. Helps in the achievement of educational objectives and goals.

9. Research Functions:

a. Helps to provide data for research generalisation.

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b. Evaluation clears the doubts for further studies and researches.

c. Helps to promote action research in education.

10. Communication Functions:

a. To communicate the results of progress to the students.

b. To intimate the results of progress to parents.

c. To circulate the results of progress to other schools.

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Q. 4 What can you, as a special education teacher, do to increase the probability that
students and parent will correctly interpret school reports and respond to them
in ways that make it easier to reach educational goals?

Answer:

Parent involvement typically involves parents’ behaviors in home and school settings meant
to support their children's educational progress. Measures of parent involvement commonly

include the quality and frequency of communication with teachers as well as participation in
school functions and activities (Dearing, McCartney, Weiss, Kreider, & Simpkins,

2004; Dearing, Kreider, Simpkins, & Weiss, 2006; Machen, Wilson & Notar, 2004). Parent
involvement also characterizes parents’ values and attitudes regarding education and the
aspirations they hold for their children (Catsambis, 2001; Englund, Luckner, Whaley, &
Egeland, 2004). Although values and attitudes may not directly influence academic
outcomes, they may enhance academic achievement indirectly by promoting children's
motivation and persistence in challenging educational tasks. Parent involvement bridges

two key contexts in children's early development, namely the home and school settings.
Within an ecological framework (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), the home and school
contexts are characterized as autonomous microsystems and parent involvement is
conceptualized as a mesosystem, which is made up of interactions between key
microsystems. Although each setting can independently influence a child, together the
home and school contexts interact to offer a unique influence. In this study parent
involvement is conceptualized as a product of the interaction between the influences of
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school and home settings by providing continuity between the two environments. For

example, if parents are aware of a teacher's instructional goals, they may provide resources
and support for those learning aims at home. Similarly, in terms of social development,
parent involvement may facilitate the development of consistent disciplinary approaches
across home and school. Accumulating evidence suggests that these parenting practices are
associated with higher academic success in the early grades, although links to
socioemotional outcomes remain less clear.

Academic Achievement

Past research on parent involvement and children's academic skills is mixed (Fan & Chen,

2001). Some studies have found no significant association between parent involvement and
academic achievement (Keith, Reimers, Fehrmann, Pottebaum, & Aubey, 1986; Okpala,

Okpala, & Smith, 2001; Reynolds, 1992; White, Taylor, & Moss, 1992) and a few have even
detected negative associations (Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, & Ginsburg, 1986; Sui-Chu &
Willms, 1996). Yet, positive associations between parent involvement and academic
achievement have been demonstrated repeatedly in the literature. A recent meta-analysis
by Fan and Chen (2001) finds moderate associations between parent involvement and an
array of learning-related or academic skills, such as achievement motivation, task-

persistence, and receptive vocabulary, during preschool and kindergarten. With a

predominant research focus on parent involvement and achievement in either preschool
and kindergarten or high school, the potentially supportive role of parent involvement
during middle childhood remains understudied.

Past non-experimental research on parent involvement commonly investigates

contemporaneous associations between parent involvement and academic achievement.
These studies typically examine within-grade associations of parent involvement and
academic skills (Fantuzzo, McWayne, & Perry, 2004; Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, & Holbein,

2005; McWayne, Hampton, Fantuzzo, Cohen, & Sekino, 2004). Other work incorporates
contemporaneous research in the early grades with longitudinal follow-up data later in
elementary school or beyond (Englund et al., 2004; Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, & Fendrich,
1999; Miedel & Reynolds, 1999). For example, Miedel and Reynolds (1999) detected positive
associations between parent involvement in preschool and kindergarten and reading
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achievement in kindergarten and in eighth grade. Izzo and colleagues (1999) also found

significant positive associations between average parent involvement in early elementary

school and socioemotional development and achievement in later elementary school. Such
studies reflect the common practice of considering parent involvement as a static predictor
of concurrent achievement or educational outcomes in later school years. A notable
exception is a study by Dearing and colleagues (2006) which employed longitudinal data on
parent involvement and reading achievement to examine within- and between-family
associations of parent involvement and literacy across elementary school. Findings
suggested that differences in levels of parent involvement between-families and changes in

parent involvement within-families were both predictive of children's literacy skills, and
increasing parent involvement during elementary school improved literacy growth.

Socioemotional Development

Parent involvement is generally thought of as an avenue for promoting academic

performance. However, parent involvement may also enhance children's behavior at home
and in the classroom as parents and teachers work together to enhance social functioning
and address problem behaviors. A growing literature has demonstrated benefits of parent
involvement for social functioning (Izzo et al., 1999; McWayne et al, 2004; Reynolds,

1989; Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, Cox, & Bradley, 2003; Supplee, Shaw, Hailstones, & Hartman,
2004). For example, a recent study of Head Start students revealed that parent involvement
was associated with lower conduct problems (Fantuzzo et al., 2004). Such findings are also
evident in adolescence (Hill, Castellino, Lansford, Nowlin, Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 2004).
However, studies addressing parent involvement's links to socioemotional skills have
typically focused on early childhood and utilized cross-sectional designs.

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Q. 5 Most of our teachers are thinking that guidance and counseling are same but

these are not. Differentiate between guidance and counseling. How Guidance
and Counseling can help a special education teacher to provide guidance and
counseling to special need children and their parents.

Answer:
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While in guidance the focus is made on listening to the problem, on which ready-made

solution is given by the expert. Counseling aims at discussing and understanding the
problem, advising and empowering him to take a decision concerning his/her career or life
goals in one-to-one sessions.

Psychology is a discipline that studies human behaviour and mind. It attempts to ask
questions about the reason behind an individual’s behaviour and thinking. Two important
concepts of psychology, which people do not easily discern are guidance and counseling
because both seek to find out the solutions for problems and works for human
development. Learning the differences between guidance and counseling might help you in

choosing the right method for you.

Definition of Guidance

Guidance is a kind of advice or help given to the individual’s especially students, on matters
like choosing a course of study or career, work or preparing for vocation, from a person
who is superior in the respective field or an expert. It is the process of guiding, supervising
or directing a person for a particular course of action.

The process aims at making students or individuals aware of the rightness or wrongness of
their choices and importance of their decision, on which their future depends. It is a service
that assists students in selecting the most appropriate course for them, to discover and
develop their psychological and educational abilities and ambitions. Guidance results in

self-development and helps a person to plan his present and future wisely.

Definition of Counseling

The term counseling is defined as a talking therapy, in which a person (client) discusses
freely his/her problems and share feelings, with the counselor, who advises or helps the
client in dealing with the problems. It aims at discussing those problems which are related
to personal or socio- psychological issues, causing emotional pain or mental instability that
makes you feel uneasy. The counselor listens the problems of the client with empathy and
discusses it, in a confidential environment. It is not a one day process, but there are many

sessions.
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Counseling is not just giving advice or making a judgement, but helping the client to see

clearly the root of problems and identify the potential solutions to the issues. The counselor
also changes the viewpoint of the client, to help him take the right decision or choose a
course of action. It will also help the client to remain intuitive and positive in the future.

Key Differences Between Guidance and Counseling

The significant differences between guidance and counseling are given in the following
points:

1. Advice or a relevant piece of information given by a superior, to resolve a problem or

overcome from difficulty, is known as guidance. Counseling refers to a professional
advice given by a counselor to an individual to help him in overcoming from
personal or psychological problems.

2. Guidance is preventive in nature, whereas counseling tends to be healing, curative or

remedial.

3. Guidance assists the person in choosing the best alternative. But counseling, tends to
change the perspective, to help him get the solution by himself or herself.

4. Guidance is a comprehensive process; that has an external approach. On the other

hand, counseling focuses on the in-depth and inward analysis of the problem, until
client understands and overcome it completely.

5. Guidance is taken on education and career related issues whereas counseling is taken

when the problem is related to personal and socio-psychological issues.

6. Guidance is given by a guide who can be any person superior or an expert in a

particular field. As opposed to counseling, which is provided by counselors, who

possess a high level of skill and undergone through professional training.

7. Guidance can be open and so the level of privacy is less. Unlike counseling, wherein
complete secrecy is maintained.

8. Guidance can be given to an individual or group of individuals at a time. On the

contrary, counseling is always one to one.
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9. In the guidance, the guide takes the decision for the client. In contrast to counseling,

where the counselor empowers the client to take decisions on his own.

Conclusion

Therefore, after reviewing the above-given points, it is clear that guidance and counseling
are two different terms. The guidance aims at giving solutions while counseling aims at
finding problems, working over it and then resolving it. However, both the process attempts
to solve the problems of the client whereby the participation of both client and the expert
should be there.

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