Curriculum Collaborate DON DINKMEYER AuodoM PrefMMr DcPaul Untnralty, Chicago, Mfoob
THE rapid development of reality. Guidance is that part of the
guidance services in the elementary educational program which emphasizes school indicates the need for immediate the individual. communication between specialists con The primary function of guidance is cerned with curriculum and those with developmental. Elementary ?chool guidance in the elementary school. If guidance works toward assisting each the child is to be served most ade child to maximize his opportunities for quately, specialists in instruction, cur learning and personal development. It riculum, and guidance must develop a is concerned, not merely with deviates dialogue which helps them to clarify at either extreme, but with all of the procedures for working more effectively learners. Developmental guidance con together. The nature of the relationship cerns itself with the average youngster between these workers should be char who, because he presents no special acterized by one word collaboration. problems, frequently receives minimal Curriculum is primarily concerned attention. This type of guidance is con with all of the learning experiences of cerned with the normal child and the the child under the direction of the problem succinctly stated by Sachs school. Guidance is the specific planned (1966): "It is as though we were saying effort of the school to meet individual because you are normally human there needs and provide for individual dif does not seem to be much point in in ferences. Guidance is particularly con teraction with you on a personal and cerned with the child's attitudes, values, intimate basis." These are the children feelings, purposes, and convictions. It who, despite the fact that they com is directed at providing opportunities prise the majority, receive the least for educational experiences which are attention. To be normal does not ap appropriate to each child's purposes, pear to qualify them for the kind of needs, and rate of development. It educational experience which meets assists in making individualized and unique needs. personally meaningful instruction a Tiedeman suggests: "I believe that
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the goal of guidance in education should sense guidance must be inherent in the be to see that children know how to be teaching process, and guidance and purposeful. The program of guidance curriculum are inseparable parts of the in education tries to get youth to look total educational process. The teacher on the resources of the world and the thus becomes the prime functionnaire responsibilities in the world in such a in instruction, curriculum, and guid way that they are seeking them" ance. (Landy and Perry, 1964). This type of A developmental program of guid guidance would seek to engage children ance would proceed within the following regularly in the process of choosing guidelines: and accepting responsibility for their 1. Guidance is an integral part of the choices. educational process and must be consistent in purposes with the philosophy and objec Goal of Guidance tives of the elementary school in which it The goal of guidance is to help the operates. child make maximum use of his abili 2. Guidance is for all children. Each child ties. As previously indicated, elemen has a right to guidance services. Focus is tary school guidance has meaning only not primarily on exceptional children but insofar as it is congruent with the edu with typical children with normal develop cational purposes of the school. Guid mental problems. ance serves to reconcile the uniqueness 3. The elementary school guidance pro of the individual with the demands of gram is provided for all through the teacher our society and culture. Thus, it is not in the classroom and by the counselor who crisis-oriented but places its emphasis counsels and consults with the child, on the development of competence in teacher, and parents. the learner. Competence in this sense 4. Developmental guidance assists the refers to academic achievement, knowl child to know, understand, and accept him edge, values, skills, attitudes, and feel self cognitively and affectively. The pur ings which contribute to one's mastery pose is to develop an adequate self-compe of the process of learning (Grams, tence to relate effectively to the work and 1966). social tasks of life. The philosophy is based upon the 5. Guidance may be incidental and in assumption that every human being is formal, but it operates best when it is based of value and has a right to optimum upon a planned program. A developmental guidance program provides a continuous development. Any concept of guidance sequence of experiences which assists the as a separate service which is primarily child to achieve the developmental tasks in therapeutic in nature or essentially both the intellectual and emotional areas. supplementary to the other parts of the A classroom guidance program exists school program is not reconcilable with when the needs of children are met through modern educational thinking. It must the curriculum, instruction is adapted to be an integral part of the total educa meet individual differences, planned time is tional program with its nature and provided for group guidance, and guidance scope cooperatively defined by the en procedures are used by the teacher. tire school staff (Kelly, 1955). In this 6. Guidance in the elementary school
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places emphasis on purposeful and person of the effects of this practice on chil ally meaningful learning experiences. dren. Teacher and pupil goals are aligned. The emphasis is on personalized and 7. Developmental guidance focuses on personally meaningful educational ex assets. It is concerned with finding out what periences. It is an obligation of the the child can do and concentrates on the school to provide each child with encouragement process (Dinkmeyer and teachers who will be concerned and Dreikurs, 1963). interested in them as individuals and 8. Developmental guidance puts an em able to establish meaningful interac phasis on self-actualization in terms of the tions. We must never underestimate full use and exploitation of one's talents, capacities, and potentialities (Maslow, the importance of the interpersonal re 1954). This approach stresses the impor lationship (Lewis, Lovell, and Jessee, tance of perceptual understanding of hu 1965). It is through the personal re man behavior in order to maximize the lationship that the child develops educational process (Combs and Snygg, identification with the educational 1959; ASCD Yearbook, 1962). process and becomes able to make a 9. The guidance program is most effec commitment to learning. tively activated when it is a cooperative When guidance and curriculum col enterprise involving the child, teacher, coun laborate we observe some of the selor, parents, administration, and commu following results: nity resources. 1. Provision is made for m)»rimiim flexi Guidance and Curriculum bility in curriculum. 2. Emphasis is placed upon understand The counselor plays a significant ing the individual and on permitting each role by being available to interpret the pupil to progress at his own rate. emotional effect of curricular experi ences on the child's concept of self and 3. Teaching procedures are individual ized. on his relationships with others. He assists in the development of materials 4. Emphasis is placed upon assets and which are sensitive to the needs of successes. children. He plans with teachers ways 5. An enriched curriculum is provided by which children may approach an which permits each child to proceed in understanding of the world of work. terms of the greatest acceleration possible (ACES-ASCA Working Paper, 1966). for him. The counselor, while a regular mem 6. The child is helped to realize his great ber of the curriculum committee, can est potential, and to develop more realistic not be a specialist in methods, new de self-concepts. velopments, and content. The counselor 7. In most instances there is provision contributes by viewing instructional for independent study in areas where the practices and curriculum in terms of his child has a genuine interest. understanding of child development and 8. The emphasis is on the ultimate goals human relations. He would not advise of education, and hence on self-discipline. regarding an approach in mathematics 9. There is genuine concern about en but would contribute his understanding hancing the individual's worth.
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The Guidance Function educational experience takes on per We need to recognize that guidance sonal meaning for the child. is a function within the process of edu References cation. While teaching is frequently a communication of other experiences, Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and American School Counselor data, and conclusions, guidance involves Association (ACES-ASCA), Joint Committee primarily an examination of the indi on the Elementary School Counselor, Working vidual student's experiences and the Paper, April 2, 1966. procedures of forming conclusions about Association for Supervision and Curriculum them (Tiedeman and Field, 1962). Development. Perceiving, Behaving, Becom Guidance, then, involves behavioral ing. Washington, D.C.: the Association, 1962. change and this might be quite different Arthur W. Combs and Donald Snygg. In dividual Behavior. New York: Harper & Row from that which is usually either in Publishers, Inc., 1959. duced or expected of teaching. This Don Dinkmeyer and Rudolf Dreikure, En definition helps to clarify why teaching couraging Children To Learn: The Encourage in and of itself may not be education, ment Process. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: and why teachers must become familiar Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. with the guidance process. It also em Annin Grams. "Facilitating Learning and phasizes the importance of collabora Individual Development: Toward a Theory for Elementary Guidance." St. Paul: Minne tion between teacher and counselor. sota Department of Education, 1966. The teacher's guidance function in Janet A. Kelly. Guidance and Curriculum. volves : Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1. Developing relationships with students Inc., 1955. characterized by mutual alignment of goals Edward Landy and Paul A. Perry, editors. nnd purposes Guidance in American Education I: Back grounds and Prospects. Cambridge: Harvard 2. Identifying guidance needs Graduate School of Education. Harvard Uni 3. Changing attitudes and behavior versity Press, 1964. David V. Tiedeman. "Pur posing Through Education: The Further 4. Collaboration with the counselor in Delineation of Goal and Program for Guid terms of guidance function or procedures. ance." p. 166. The counselor is concerned with: William A. Lewis, John T. Lovell, and B. E. 1. Pupil appraisal Jeasee. "Interpersonal Relationship and Pupil Progress." Personnel and Guidance Journal 2. Counseling of individuals and groups 44:396-401; December 1985. 3. Consultation with teachers and par A. H. Maelow. Motivation and Personality. ents New York: Harper 4 Row, 1954. 4. Curricular involvement, serving as an Benjamin M. Sachs. The Student, the Inter agent of change and evaluation, research view, and the Curriculum. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966. p. 269. 5. Coordination of the guidance program. David V. Tiedeman and Frank L. Field. Guidance, then, is more than a serv "Guidance: The Science of Purposeful Action ice by the counselor, a contact with the Applied Through Education." Harvard Edu cational Review 32 (4):4S9; Fall 1962. Abo teacher, or a consultation with the in: Mosher, Carle, Kehas. Guidance: An Ex parents. Elementary school guidance amination. New York: Harcourt, Brace & becomes a process through which the World, Inc., 1966. <*§