COUNSELLING SKILLS FOR

TEACHERS
 Content

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
 CHAPTER 1
ADJUSTING TO MULTIPLE ROLES
 Adjusting Multiple Role
Besides teaching and responsible as classroom managers, teachers need to do things
which they may feel unprepared, such as:
 Respond to children's emotional needs
 Resolve personal conflicts and settle fights
 Serve as surrogate parents and mentors for children who lack positive role model
 Act as confidantes to students who are struggling with personal issues
 Identify children suffering from abuse, neglect, drug abuse and a variety of
emotional problems, and make appropriate referrals when necessary
 Access student's developmental transitions and guide their continued physical,
emotional, social and spiritual growth, in addition to their cognitive development
 Lead discussions dealing with an assortment of emotional and personal issues
 Participate in individualized education programs (IEPs)
 Conduct parent conferences on the phone and in person
 Function as a problem solver for those children in the throes of crisis
 Why Teacher Need Counselling Skills?
Reality of daily school life:
• As you stand in front of the class talking about arabic, islamic knowledge or
grammar, you cannot help but notice the children who seem tired, lonely or
troubled
• As you sit at your desk grading papers, you will be visited by children who trust
you, children who want someone to listen to them and understand them
• As you speak with parents or other colleagues about your students, you will be
required to demonstrate a high degree of interpersonal sensitivity and skills
 Counselling Skills For Teachers
Counselling will help teacher not only adjust more flexibly to the variety of roles you
will take on in your classroom and school but also help yourself in a number of ways
such as:
• Enhancing the intimacy of all your relationships
• Making you more sensitive to your own inner feelings, as well as more fluent in
expressing them
• Working through interpersonal conflicts more easily
• Handling discipline problems with less disruption and drama
• Talking youself through upsetting situations in order to reduce negative feelings
• Processing unforeseen problems in constructive, systematic ways
• Confronting your own unresolved issues that get in the way of your beeing more
effective personally and professionally
 GENERAL ROLES INSIDE CLASSROOM
 Life inside classroom involves not only the scheduled activities and subject you
have planned, but also many other issues that will spontaneously from current
event or student's life
 While structuring a learning environment, the educator has to:
– be aware of students' physical, emotional, social and intellectual needs.
– create a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom where children can feel safe
physically and secure psychologically to explore the world of ideas
– begin to develop rapport and build trust as soon as the students enter the classroom
– be kind and helpful, inviting and stimulating throughout the learning activities
– work toward build the self-respect and self-esteem of each student
– work toward fostering tolerance and cooperation by adapting methods and style
according the cultural backgrounds and students' needs
– provide experience for students to, learn to be a good citizens and wise in making
decisions
– offer support and encouragement to each students
 CHAPTER 2
UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS OF HELPING
 Suggestions for Learning Counselling Skills
1. You cannot learn helping skills by reading about them instead you to practice it
2. Being in a helping role is not natural
3. You are dealing with concerns not problem
4. Don't give advice instead give them suggestions (unless you want to be blame if
something bad happen)
5. Don't try to do too much (it is not your problem but the students'. All you can do
is help students not feel so alone, show that you understand and demonstrate
that you support them)
6. 'Slip' into a helping mode (clear out your mind, resist distractions and don't be
judgemental of what you heard)
7. Don't let yourself feel overwhelmed
8. Be patient with yourself
 Practice a Helping Mind-set

 Take a deep breath

 Focus your attention (give your full attention to your
students)
 Stop yourself from making judgements (even a sligt
criticism can make you lost the trust from students)
 Acces your compassion and empathy (open your heart
and communicate your deep concern)
KEY CONCEPT
 1. Altered States of Consciousness
• The importance is to initiate perceptual changes and to influence
thinking, feeling and behavior.
• Some ways to increase altered states:
 Capture student attention and interest through introducing novel stimuli
 Vary your voice and body language to increase or decrease arousal as needed
 Use relaxation methods to help students remain calm
 Increase credibility by demonstrating expertise in area of students' interest
 Make predictions about what will happen and then allow students to confirm
your predictions
 Use music and other special effects to put students in a receptive mood
 Increase student receptivity by decreasing perceived threats
 2. Placebo Effects
• It is anything that seems
to be a 'real' but actually
isn't
• Important to influence
children's belief system
• For instance,
'I am glad you decided to come
and speak to me. Many of the
students, who face the same
difficulty with you feel much
better after talk to me and I
just know that I can help you'
3. Cathartic Process
• Is the purification and purgation
of emotions
• The student is permitted and
encouraged to talk about their
concerns or problems
• This is because, Sigmund Freud
discovered long time ago,
'when people are given the
opportunity to explore what is
bothering them, to talk without
interruption about their fears and
concerns, they often feel much
better afterward'
 4. Therapeutic Relationship
• In simple words, therapeutic
relationship means the relationship is
meant to heal those who needs
• It offer comfort and support
• One of the common elements of
every helping system is an emphasis
on creating an alliance that is open,
trusting, accepting and safe
• If students feel your sincerity, trust,
love, commitment to them, they will
often feel nourished and supported in
ways that can make a huge
difference in their lives
• How to build a relationship/rapport:
– Start with small, incremental steps
– Be sensitive to the student's readiness
level
– Pay close attention to what draws the
person closer or pushes them away
– Communicate your caring and intense
interest
– Show your warmth and accessibility
– Prove you heard and understand what
they said
– Demonstrate your commitment to the
students
– Be consistent
– Model openness and honesty
– Practice deep compassion and empathy
 5. Consciousness Raising
• Teachers are not only • Among ways to increase
should increase student's students' consciousness:
awareness of the world
– highlighting discrepancies
but also of themselves in
relation to others – Connecting patterns
• Promoting self- – Confronting nondefensively
understanding and self- – Encouraging constructive risk
discovery taking
– Challenging exaggerations
– Asking difficult questions without
providing answers
– Modeling uncertainty
 6. Reinforcement 7. Rehearsal
• When the student reports that for • Helping the students to practice
the first time she understand why new behavior within the safety of
she has been having certain the therapeutic relationship and
problems, we offer immediate with plenty of feedback
supports. • For instance, helping students to
• For instance, as the student speaks rehearsed what they would like to
of feeling powerful and in control, say to their parents regarding the
we smile and nod club that they want to join
• In contrast, when they engages in
previous maladaptive behavior, we
deliberately ignore or discourage
those resposes
• For instance, as the student act
passive and dependent, we appear
more neutral and less supportive of
this behaviour
 THE HELPING PROCESS
STAGE SKILLS
1. Assessment Attending, Listening, Focusing,
Observing

2. Exploration Reflecting feelings, Responding to

content, Probing/ questioning,
Feeling/ empathy

3. Understanding Interpreting, Confronting,

Challenging, Information giving,
Self-disclosing

4. Action Goal setting, Role playing,

Reinforcing, Decision making

5. Evaluation Questioning, Summarizing,

Supporting
 STAGE 1 - ASSESSMENT

• Before be a helper, you have to have some idea as to

what is going on
• At this stage, it is crucial to collect any important
background information relevant to the child's concerns
• For instance, a student tells you he is depressed and asks
you what to do. Before you could even begin to address
his problem, there are many things that would first need to
be sorted out, such as, 'what do you mean by depressed?'
 STAGE 2 - EXPLORATION
• Once you have identified the presenting complaints, the next step
is to dig deeper into what is going on to discover how the concern
is related to other aspects of the child's lfe.
• You will use reflective skills to help him clarify what he feel and
think.
• Applying the skill of advanced-level empathy will help him get at the
hidden, disguised and subtle nuances of his experience
• In this stage, you will use your sensitivity and understanding of the
child's experience to help him move to deeper level of awareness
 STAGE 3 - UNDERSTANDING
• The deeper the exploration of one's
feelings and thoughts, the more
profound the insights that are
generated as a result of this process
• The helper uses more active skills
such as confrontation, interpretation,
self-disclosure and the giving of
information to help the child
understand his own role in creating
his difficulty
• Insights= the ability to understand
people and situations in a very clear
way, the awareness on the causes of
their issues/ problems
• Types of insights that can be
generated:
– Becoming aware of deep feelings
– Grasping unconscious desires
– Learning to be vigilant about
certain behavior
– Owning denied part of self
– Understanding hidden payoffs to
self-defeating behavior
– Confronting irrational thinking
that gets in the way
– Constructing an alternative view
of personal reality
 STAGE 4 - ACTION
• Although understanding and insight are wonderful things, without
action to change one's behavior, they lack affective power
• This stage is designed to help children translate what they know
and understand into a plan that will get them what they want
• The first part of this stage is having the child establish goals that he
or she wishes to reach
• The second part is using a variety of skills ranging from problem
solving to role=playing, teacher help the child generate a list of
alternative courses of action, narrow them down to those that seem
most realistic and attractive, and then make a commitment to
follow through on declared intentions
 STAGE 5 - EVALUATION
• This final stage involves evaluating the child, the extent to
which he or she has reached desired goals.
• This systematic assessment of progress helps you
measure the impact of your interventions and help the
child take inventory of what has been accomplished as
well as what is left to do
• Because there is limit for you as a teacher to guide a child
all the way through this process, referral will play an
important part of your helping effort
 CHAPTER 3
ASSESSING CHILDREN'S PROBLEMS
 NOTICING SYMPTOMS OF DISTRESS
 Assessment is an important part of a teacher's job
 About one in five students in your classes is suffering from
emotional difficulties. These children are highly anxious and tend to
develop psychomatic illnesses and stress-related symptoms, such
as chronic headaches, stomaches, ulcers and insomnia
 Depression also quite common among school-age children. It is a
condition that is often overlooked because these children tend to be
withdrawn, passive and quiet.
 Some of these children are potentially suicidal and spend an
inordinate amount of time planning their own demise, while staring
blankly at the blackboard.
 STRESS IN THE LIFE OF CHILDREN
STAGE AGE DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS MAJOR STRESSORS
Infancy Birth- 3 years Learning to trusts, mastering physical task Helpless to meet needs, body
of feeding, communicating, movement, control, environmental obstacles
talking, crawling, walking
Early 3-6 years Getting along with age-mates, learning Manage frustration, first conflicts,
childhood social skills and roles, developing guilt, self-restraint
independence, controlling own behavior,
learning gender role, learning right from
wrong
School Age 6-12 years Developing sense of competence, learning Feeling inferior, school and
basic values, learning to read, developing sports performance, emotional
social circle, adapting to siblings, learning control and delay gratification
abstract reasoning
Adolescen 13-18 years Developing identity, planning for future work, Social pressures, drug, emotional
ce organizing times, understanding sexual volatility, hormonal changes
orientation, peer roles
Early 19-23 years Developing intimacy, education and Loneliness, sexuality, career
adulthood apprenticeship, career plans, learning to confusion, financial independence
love, building friendships
 ASSESSMENT PROCESS
• The most critical component is to assess accurately the nature of
their difficulties
• For instance, 'a child is sit quietly in class, rarely contributing to
discussion, never interact with others and never engage in any
conversation, his eyes are downcast, his posture slumped'.
– Does this child have emotional problem?
– Does he chronically shy?
– Does he depressed? etc...
• Each of these possible diagnoses would suggest a different method
of intervention and a different professional whom you might consult
for help
 COLLECTING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• Once you have identified child who exhibits difficulties and is in need of help, the
next step is to collect more information through observation and further research.
Other ways:
– Talk to the student's teacher from previous year to get some basis for
comparison with what you observe
– Consult with other teacher and staffs in the school who have worked with the
child
– Learn more about the child's identified culture to find out if the behavior you
observe is normative
– Review available school records
– Talk to the child friendsto get impressions of what might be going on
– Scheduled a conference with parents to discover what occurs at home
– The most obvious course of action is to talk to the student directly and let
him/ her know that you are concerned.
 Common Disorders and Difficulties
• Without training or preparation, it is difficult to know what you are
observing or what you have discovered.
• Some of the common disorders and difficulties among students are:

Grief and loss Suicidal potential

Generalized anxiety Conduct disorder
Phobic disorders Oppositional Disorder
Post-traumatic stress Eating disorder
Depression Schizophrenia
Substance abuse disorder Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Sommatization Disorder
Factitious Disorder Sexual Abuse
Personality Disorders Adjustment Disorders
 What to do with the Assessment?
• Once you have generated some hypothesis about what might be
going on with the student, the next step is to plan some sort of
helping strategy.
• There are a number of issues you have to consider:
– Does this child appear to be in imminent danger that requires immediate,
decisive action?
– Is this student at risk of hurting him - or herself or someone else?
– Is this the type of problem that you can handle yourself, or should you make a
referral to someone else?
– If a referral is indicated, whom should you consult first? The counselor? School
psychologist? School social worker? Principal? Special education teacher?
– If you are going to handle this situation yourself, at least initially, what would
be the best approach to take with this particular child?
 CHAPTER 4
DEVELOPING SKILLS OF HELPING
 INTERNAL STATE OF MIND

• Before you begin a counselling encounter or decide to be

a helper:
1) Clear your mind of all distractions
2) Put aside your own worries
3) Put aside your grumbling stomach
4) The task you must complete later in the day
• Next, you have to monitor your internal attitudes
– Nonjudgemental, accepting and noncritical
 COUNSELLING SKILLS
1. Attending 2. Listening 3. Empathic resonance
4. Exploration skills 5. Action skills

1. ATTENDING SKILLS
- It sounds easy but if you observe your
Attending Behavior
interactions with friends, you would notice,
while addressing you and purportedly S: Face the other Squarely
listening, a friend is also probably
H: Head nods
engaged in a number of silmutaneous
activities such as, looking over your O: Adopt an Open Posture
shoulder, waving to someone walking by V: Verbal Following
or grooming hair.
- Attending to your clients means giving E: Speech
him or her your total, complete, and L: Lean toward the other
undivided interest.
E: Make Eye Contact
- It means using your body, your face,
R: Be Relatively Relaxed
your voice, your eyes, to say “nothing
exists right now for me except you”.
 2. LISTENING SKILLS
 To prove that you have understood the
speaker (client).
 Consists of passive listening (non-verbal
and verbal attending) and active listening,
in which you directly responding to what
you heard (ex. you give feedback,
reflects whenever appropriate to let the
client knows that you heard him).
 It is a skill that is learned through practice
and experience.
 Goals of listening:
- to gain understanding of the client and
his/her problems.
- to provide accurate feedback to the
client.
- to show concern, care, and respect
for the client.
3. EMPATHIC RESONANCE
 Empathy is “the counselor's ability to
sense the client's world the way the
client does and to convey that
understanding to the client”.
 You empathize with your client by an
alert attentiveness to facial
expressions, body language, gestures,
silences and so on..
 If you practice empathy, you build an
open, trusting, and accepting
atmosphere on the side of the client.
 Your goal is to be a perfect listener
while you collect information, help the
student feel comfortable disclosing and
exploring his own feelings and build
trust in your relationship
 4. EXPLORATION SKILLS
A. Questioning
 Questioning is one of the most
popular and essential
counseling techniques.
 Questioning is simply an
interrogative statement that
requires either a closed-ended
answer (e.g. yes or no) or an
open-ended answer.
 One important purpose of
questioning is to gain additional
information for the purpose of
clarifying a statement that has
been made by the client.
Open Ended Question
Are those that can’t be answered in a few words.
Encourage others to talk and provide you with
maximum information.
Typically, open questions begin with what, how, why,
or could ( e.g. “Could you tell me what brings you
here today?” )
Closed Ended Question
Can be answered in a few words or sentences.
They have the advantage of focusing the interview
and obtaining information, but the burden of guiding
the talk remains on the interviewer.
Close questions often begin with is, are, or do (e.g.
“Are you living with your family?” )
 cont. questioning
Some info about questioning
indicator:
• What and How - (generate
flexible and generous amounts
of information).
• Why - (likely to force
explanation, intellect- utilization,
or rationalization).
• Would and Could - (request the
client’s willingness or ability to
provide more information or
pursue a course of action).
• Did, Do, Are, and Will - (often
yield yes-or-no answers).
• When - (yields a limited
answer in reference to time of
an event).
Effects of “too many or too poorly phrased questions”
:
 Offend the client- he or she may feel
interrogated
 Reduce personal responsibility for the helping
process.
 Increase the client’s independence on the
counselor.
 Encourage socially acceptable answers rather
than honest responses.
 It is important to gather very specific information
in a very potentially threatening or dangerous
situation. For example, if a child expressed
suicidal thoughts, it would be very appropriate to
ask specific questions such as have you ever
tried it before? The respond for this questions
would give the need to take some definite
preventive action.
 B. Reflections
 Reflection is one way of
expressing to clients that we
listen to their concerns..
 It is a technique wherein the
counselor mirrors what the client
is saying or feeling during the
moment.
 Two types of reflections:
1. Reflection of content
(similar with paraphrasing)-
restating the content of
what the client says.
2. Reflection of Feeling-
restating the mood or
feeling communicated by
the client.
C. Giving Feedback
 The aim of giving feedback is to help clients
to become more aware of what they are
doing and it’s effect on others.
 Feedback is unlikely to be helpful if the client
feels criticized, attacked, or forced..
 Basically there are two types of feedback;
constructive and positive
 Constructive feedback has three criteria:
specific, sensitive, and supportive.
 Positive feedback may increase clients'
confidence that they are able to pursue their
goals, leading them to expect successful goal
attainment (praise the students)
 It may encourage clients to repeat behaviors
that lead them toward attaining their goal.
 D. Self-disclosure
• In self-disclosure, the
counselor shares personal
feelings, experiences, or
reactions to the client.
• The purpose is mainly to
improve clients' mental and
emotinal state.
• It may be helpful for clients to
know the ways counselors
struggled with similar problems
as theirs (if counselors do
experience the same
problems..).
• This may make the clients feel
“relief”, because they know
there are others who have
experienced the same
problems..
E. Clarifying
• Clarifying is responding to unclear message and
contradict feelings of clients by focusing on
underlying issues.
• When using clarification, the counselor has the
client clarify vague or ambiguous statements,
thoughts, feelings or behaviors.
• Clarification can be an important tool when clients
are extremely emotional and may not be thinking
clearly enough to present details in a coherent
manner.
• Clarification can be differentiated from a
paraphrase: clarification is to gain clarity about
vague or ambiguous material, whereas a
paraphrase intends to communicate to the client
that the counselor is listening, has understood
what has been just said, and involves an invitation
to continue speaking without interruption
 F. Summarizing
• Systematically integrate the important ideas contained in a client’s story and restate them.
• Helps a client review what has been said.
• Summarizing is needed when:
 A client’s comments are lengthy, rambling, or confused.
 When a client present a number of unrelated ideas.
 To add direction and coherence to an interview.
 To move from one phase of an interview to the next.
 To conclude an interview.

5. ACTION SKILLS

A. Information giving
• Information giving involves providing the client with factual information that may assist them in
some way (such as details of a community support group or scholarship option).
• Sometimes clients are not sure where to start to look for the information they need, so
counselors can help their clients find that starting point.
• In giving information counselor should provide data or facts relevant to the client’s needs.
• Be direct, clear, specific, concise and concrete.
 B. Suggestion giving
 Suggesting can be ineffective if:

 The client has no motivation for taking action to change.

 The suggestion is impractical or unrealistic for the client.

 The counselor communicates a tone of low expectation, lack of confidence in the client,
or disrespect in regards to the client’s capacity to benefit from the advice.

 The suggestion is based on invalid data or information.

 The counselor does not have adequate rapport with the client.

 Things to consider before you decided to give suggestion:

 Don’t do it for the sake of “instant relief” or to save your time..

 Don’t do it if it is not necessary and appropriate, because you will be blamed if the
suggestion that you give turn out to be disastrous, besides you may do more harm to
the student. Remember, giving suggestion can be an abusive helping strategy , if it is
done inappropriately.

 It would be more effective for a teacher/counselor to give suggestions rather than advice
 C. Goal Setting E. Reframing
• Make sure goals are D. Problem Solving  Reframing is a way of thinking
really related to the about things that clients present
central issue that the to you in a completely different
client is facing. Problem solving
involves a sequential light (seeing the client's situation
• Involve the client in series of steps. from a different perspective).
goal setting, do not  The counselor consider
dictate to them..  Define the problem.
alternative lenses from what
• Construct goals that  Specify the goals what is being said or done by the
are realistic, specific & client, effectively saying 'let's
 Develop look at it another way..
attainable. alternatives that
• Take small, might be  It helps clients to more
manageable steps. constructive. constructively move on from a
situation in which they feel stuck,
• A client extreme  Narrow the choices negative or confused (help them
enthusiastic to change to those that seem
change how they feel about a
can become most realistic.
situation).
problematic, naively  Put the plan into
believing he or she can  It is also aimed at shifting clients'
action.
do everything perspective to be more
overnight. empowered to act..
 F. Confrontation
 Confrontational is seeking clarification from the client when we notice there are
“discrepancies” in his story.
 It involves listening to the client carefully and respectfully, and then seeking to help the client
examine self or situation more carefully.
 Thus, confrontation is a supportive challenge
 For example:
Client: (Smiling) It makes me so angry to even think about what he did to me.
Counselor: I can understand how angry that would make you feel. Were you aware of the fact that
you were smiling when you stated how angry you were? I wonder if you can say that you're angry
and express some of your anger when you do so?
Client: (Screaming) Ahhhhhh!!! It really makes me angry that he did that to me!!! (Laughing). Wow.
That felt good!

G. Encouragement
 An intentional effort to foster hope in those who are without it
 H. Strategic Interventions
 There are some intervention that can be used as a teacher throughout the 'action stage' and you can
also consult a school counselor or a psychologist to employ these methods or consult about difficult
situation that you can't resolve on your own.
I. Paradoxical Directive
- A fancy term describing 'reverse psychology' or asking someone to do the opposite of what is
desired
II. Prescribing the Symptom
- Prescribing the symptom is most effective for resistant clients. It turn their resistance to good use,
challenging the the symptom. It is an excellent way for some people to gain awareness of what they
are doing that is not working well for them. When you are prescribing the symptom, it is important to;
Speak in a light, joking way, with no judgment, and Describe the behavior, encouraging the person to
do it even more.
III. Miracle Question
- An indirect way to get someone to supply a solution to her own problem. Invite the student/client to
envision and describe in detail how the future will be different when the problem is no longer present.
IV. Identify Exceptions
- The main goal of this strategy is to help the students realize the extent to which he is exaggerating
the problem and overgeneralizing its effects.
V. Externalizing
- Suit students who acting out as they directs their behavior onto the outside world particularly onto
other people. They review themselves as blameless. This intervention focus on how to help studengs
disown self-believe
VI. Power Hierarchies
- In order to change one student's behavior, you might have to look at how it is being reinforced,
encouraged or stimulated by others, thus making a change in the way power is allocated
 CHAPTER 5
COUNSELLING SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM
 INTRODUCTION
• This chapter focus on how teachers might handle problematic or
disruption students in a group or classroom.
• Rather than choosing the most obvious responses, such as scolding
the students, answering them or ignoring them, the teacher reflects
back what he hears.
• Other than that, you can use open over closed ended question to
promote more explanation
• These to help build a learning community emphasizing the values of
curiosity, respect, tolerance, responsibility and caring
• In counselling, we called it as group counselling (for GUIDE students)
 ROLE OF A TEACHER IN GROUP PROCESS

• Teacher acts as a facilitator to help students give voice to

their thoughts and feelings in a respectful and
constructive way
• Make sure that everyone is heard and understood thus
the teacher must be wise in handling talkative, reserved
or monopolized students
• Some suggestions:
– setting a one minute rule for contribution
– going around the room in a circle
– inviting feedbacks from quieter or reserved students
 REASONS FOR GROUP PROCESS

• To spice up classes
• Supplement academic learning with emotional growth
experiences
• Help children deal with the important issues in which they
are struggling such as peer acceptance, personal identity,
values clarification, moral and emotional development,
relationship problems, stress management and other
adjustment difficulties
• There a number of students struggle with similar issues
 Characteristics of Process-oriented Groups
1. The emphasis is not on content
2. Participants are encouraged to share their own personal
reactions to ideas rather than ideas themselves
3. Small talk, rambling and focus on outsiders is not permitted
4. Process group are student centered rather than teacher centered
5. Students speak only for themselves
6. The teacher's attention is focused primarily on the dynamics and
process of the group
 WAYS OF PROCESS GROUP CAN HAPPENED
1. Something spontaneously arise in class that lead to a deep
discussion and in-depth processing.
 Perhaps there is a strategy in the community or one of the students in the
class is having a problem in which others can relate. Deep discussion is
needed if you think it is constructive at that moment.
2. A deliberate structure as a part of your learning environment.
 Perhaps you will have students role-play a scene from literature or history and
then have them talk about what was stirred up for them
 You could put students in small groups and direct them to talk about
something related to the current topic that they don't understand and how
they feel about that.
 VARIETIES OF GROUP PROCESS
1. Structured group activities
- As simple as dividing a class into subgroups to discuss how they feel about a film they reviewed
or books they read, to help children achieve greater self-awareness and understanding of
others.
2. Fishbowl structures
- The teacher works with a smaller group of children in the middle of the room (the
participants) with the rest of the class forming a circle around them (the observers).
The participants inside the fishbowl are afforded a more intimate experience in which
they demonstrate principles that the observers can also learn. After a round, observers
and participants switch roles.
3. Guidance group
- Supplementing children's learning in academic subjects with specialized training in
more pragmatic areas of immediate interest.
4. Support group
- Organized in school under the guidance of a few counselors who recognized that
teachers often had a much better handle on the daily lives of students. The teachers
were prepared and trained as teams of two co-leaders and assigned to begin support
groups in their school.
 PROS VS CONS
ADVANTAGES
Uses resources more efficiently
Encourages intimacy and trust
Provide support systems for change
Teaches skills for interpersonal success
Provides opportunities for vicarious
learning
Helps students practice new behaviour
Provide honest feedback
Makes the teachers job more fun
DISADVANTAGES
Confideltiality difficult to enforce
Requires more skills and competence
Forces conformity and peer pressure
Leader has less control and influence
Students received less individual help and attention
Casualities can occurs, especially when leaders are
untrained and students pressured to do things for
which they don't feel ready
 Bear in Mind!
• Don't attempt any structure without supervision available from someone who has
more training such as school counselor, social worker or psychologist.
• Establish clear rules and boundaries that are designed to safeguard students'
rights. These should include but not be limited to each person taking a turn,
speaking respectfully, speaking only for him/herself, not interrupting others and so
on
• Do not force students to disclose personal information beyond what they are
comfortable with. Casualities are most likely to occur when people do more than
they are ready to do.
• Because peer pressure is so strong among student, the individual rights of each
participants need to be protected
• Remain sensitive to cultural differences in the ways children from various
background respond in groups
• Understand clearly that there are specific times when you as a leader must
intervene in order to protect the safety of the children and to ensure that your
groups run smoothly
 WHEN TO INTERVENE IN GROUP?
• To stop abusive behavior or hostility
• To enforce rules upon which everyone has agreed
• To cut off distractions and digressions
• To model appropriate ways of being
• To spice up boredom and passivity
• To correct irrational or distorted thinking
• To reinforce disclosures
• To provide structure as needed
• To stop complaining
• To stop someone who is feeling anxious
• To confront inconsistencies
• To give constructive feedback (must be specific, sensitive and
supportive)
 GETTING SUPPORT FOR YOURSELF

• The best way to learn to lead process group is by recruit a

partner who knows more than you do. He/ she can be a
school counselor, administrator or other teacher
• A partner/ support can provide yourself a safety net
when the situations get tougher
• He/she can also give you feedback after each session
regarding aspects of your leadership so that you can
improve.
 CHAPTER 6
COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS
 INTRODUCTION
• Without the cooperation from parents, there are not so
much teachers can do.
• In contrast, communicating with parents give advantages
to teachers to gain important information about the
students' family situations and sometimes to even have
constructive influence on parents' behavior so that they
can give more support on what teachers are doing and
vice versa
• There are three ways, teachers can have a contact with
parents; during an open house arranging by school, at
scheduled conferences and during phone call homes.
 WHAT TEACHERS CAN DO WITH PARENTS?

 Establish a solid relationship

 Get them to talk about their views on matters
 Reflects their underlying feelings
 Show them you heard and understood their concern
 Set limit as needed
 Establish mutual goals
 Construct a collaborative plan for making desired changes
 1. OPEN HOUSE 2. PHONING HOME
3. ELECTRONIC
 The intent is to  The most common, accessible and
COMMUNICATION
give parents an easiest mean of consulting
overview of their parents
 Through e-mail
children's schedule  Pros; informal, less threatening
 Good to be used for
and activities as and more convenient than
instant feedback on a
well as to provide schedule appointments
job well done and
opportunities to  Cons; can be made during
short progress
meet teachers evening which cuts your private
reports
 What teachers can time
 Bear in mind, this kind
do in the limited  Most successful when providing
of communication
time is make positive feedback and identifying
might not received or
yourself as minor problems
read by the parents
attractive as you  Other reasons for phoning are to
 Other example; web
possibly can so gather information, to recruit
pages and blog sites
that parents will be parent's support when a student is
(to update parents on
open to talking noncompliant and to alert the
your activities)
with you in the changes in the behavior of their
future child
 4. PARENT- TEACHER CONFERENCES
 The benefits:
- to gather helpful information about the students' interest and abilities
- to observe the family dynamics in action and note clues that might
explain a child's behavior
- to recruit parents assistance and partners in the educational process
- to work together with parents to achieve mutually agreed-upon goals
 TYPES OF PARENTS
• Parents are not always cooperative and pleasant as we
would like them to be
• Among them:
– The parent who is angry
– The parent who is disappointed
– The parent who is troubled
– The parent who is manipulative
– The parent who is quiet
 CHAPTER 7
CONSULTING EFFECTIVELY WITH OTHER PROFESSIONALS
 REASONS FOR OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE
1. To gain the benefit of expertise that is outside your specialty
2. To help you look at fresh or innovative solutions to problems you
face
3. To get a more detached and objective perspective on what you
are experiencing
4. To get help handling tasks that you do not have the time or
inclination to complete
5. To provide you with training in a particular area of need
6. To provide you with multicultural perspective that you are lacking
 Other Professionals?
 Mentor
 Other teachers
 The principal
 Making a referral
 School counselors
 Outside counselor (consultant)
 School psychologist
 Homeless education community liaisons
 Faculty at the local university (professors/ educators/ supervisors)

 Remember, teachers are not counselors

CHAPTER 8
COUNSELLING YOURSELF
 IN BRIEF
• One of the benefit learning counselling skills is that it can
help you as it help others
• Throughout the process of helping students, teachers
actually learned something from the students physical and
mental state, background and also problems (great
educator view their students as teacher)
• However remember 'there are limits to what you can do to
help yourself. Thus, refer yourself to a counselor or
therapist during those times when you feel like you are
over your head
 Thank You

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