Conceptual Framework of Guidance

It is true that a very minor percentage of our total population is capable of handling its problems independently
without the cooperation and guidance of others. We find that majority of the people do not have either
confidence or insight to solve their problems. There have always been people in the past who need occasional
help from older or more experienced associates in meeting with their problems of daily life in the society.
Traditionally, in our Indian society, the leader of the family or the local community was supposed to provide
the necessary guidance and advice whenever any member of the family or the community needed it. Needless
to mention, too often informal advice given without a clear understanding of the problem involved was
harmful and misleading to the individual. With the passage of time, revolutionary and evolutionary changes
have taken place in all walks of life. The variety of jobs, high aspirations of the people and vocational
specialisation have made the work of guidance very difficult. The head of the family or the leader of local
community with the limited knowledge of changed conditions such as globalisation, liberalisation and
consumerism is not capable of providing guidance to the youth of today. In the last two decades, guidance
movement has spread like a wild-fire throughout the world and generated a great amount of enthusiasm and
zeal among parents, teachers and social workers who have devoted time to explore its feasibility and the utility
for general population including school going adolescents. All are convinced that proper provision of guidance
services should be made for children at different age levels for the harmonious development of their
personalities in the larger interest of the society and the individual.
Meaning of Guidance
What does guidance precisely mean? Let us first see what it does not mean. Lester. D. Crow and Alice Crow
(1962) in “An Introduction to Guidance”, have aptly stated that “Guidance is not giving directions. It is not
the imposition of one person’s point of view upon another person. It is not making decisions for an individual,
which he should make for himself. It is not carrying the burdens of another life”. If guidance is not all these,
then what is it really? To quote them again:
“Guidance is an assistance made available by personally qualified and adequately trained men or women to
an individual of any age to help them manage their own life activities, develop their own points of view, make
their own decisions, and carry out their own burden”.
Ordinary Meaning
Ordinary meaning of guidance is help, assistance, and suggestions for progress and showing the way. In that
sense guidance is a life-long process. Man needs guidance throughout his life. He needs it even from his
infancy. When a child is born, the world for him is big, buzzing, blooming confusion and he knows nothing.
He learns everything from the society. From the mother, he learns how to stand on his feet, from the father,
he learns to walk and from the teacher, he learns to seek knowledge and education, all learning takes place
through guidance. The society guides the individual to learn, to adjust oneself to the physical and social
environment. To sum up we may say that guidance is a personal help rendered by the society to the individual
so as to enable him to adjust to the physical and social environment and to solve the problems of life.
Specific Meaning
Guidance in India, is comparatively a new field within the larger and more inclusive field of education and is
used as a technical term as a specific meaning. It covers the whole spectrum of education, which starts from
the birth of the child and continues till his death. This is a wide meaning of the term, which includes all types
of education such as formal, non-formal, informal and vocational etc., which aims to adjust the individual in
his environment in an effective way. There are usually three connotations attached to the word guidance:
1. Guidance as a Specialised Service whose primary concern is with the individual and to help them to solve
their problems and take appropriate decisions in their choice-points;
2. Guidance as a General Service and is considered to be synonymous with education and educational
processes; and
3. Guidance as a Sub-Process of education in which developmental needs of the learners are considered the
basic points.
Now let us look at some selected definitions of the term guidance in a bid to understand its conceptual and
operational form:
The term guidance represents the concept that is neither simple nor easily comprehensible due to the
complexity of the human nature, the individual differences and personal-social problems associated with
changing environmental conditions and cultural traditions.
Shirley Hamrin (1947) defined guidance as: “Helping John to see through himself in order that he may see
himself through” , is a simple and practical but challenging concept of guidance.
According to Jones (1951) : “The focus of guidance is the individual not his problem, its purpose is to provide
the growth of the individual in self-direction providing opportunity for self-realisation and self-direction is the
key-note of guidance.”
Downing (1964) points out towards a common problem in defining guidance that is one of keeping the
definition short and sufficiently broad to be informative. He has attempted it by giving definition of guidance
in operational terms in two parts:
(i) Guidance is an organised set of specialised services established as an integral part of the school environment
designed to promote the development of the students and assist them toward a realisation of sound, wholesome
adjustment and maximum accomplishments commensurate with their personalities.
(ii) Guidance is a point of view that includes a positive attitude towards children and realisation that it is the
supplement, strengthen and make more meaningful all other phases of a youngster’s education.
Traxler (1957) : considers guidance as a help which enables each individual to understand his abilities and
interests, to develop them as well as possible and to relate the life-goals, and finally to reach a state of complete
and mature self-guidance as a desirable member of the social order.

Basis of Guidance
The basic nature of guidance can be analyzed from philosophical, psychological, sociological and cultural
perspectives. These are known as the foundations of guidance.

Philosophical Bases of Guidance

• Democratic Values as the Basis of Guidance, • Everyone is Responsible, • Use of Scientific Methods for
Study of the Individual, • Individual’s Study is Basic, • Guidance a Recognized Source of Education
• Right Man for the Right Job
Psychological Bases of Guidance
• Individual Differences, • Psychological Problems, • Satisfactory Adjustment, • Right Use of Leisure time
• Proper Development of Personality, • Differences in the Speed of Growth, • Clarification of Self-Concept
• Testing and Non-Testing Techniques
Socio-Cultural Bases of Guidance
• Complex Nature of Society, • Conservation of Human Energy, • Explosion of Population
• Increasing Trend towards Crime and Delinquency, • Problem of Drug Addiction, • Problem of National
Integration

Nature of Guidance

1. Guidance is education itself. Guidance aims at educating the individual for understanding himself,
unfolding his potentialities to their maximum so that he may eventually prove himself to be an adjusted and
pragmatic member of the community. Guidance therefore is a significant education procedure. It is in short
education itself.
2. Guidance is a process. Guidance is a process that enables an individual in discovering himself in the most
satisfying and positive manner. It provides direction to enable an individual harness his potentialities, abilities,
interests and aptitudes.
3. Guidance is a continuous process. Guidance is a dynamic and a non-stop process. In this process, an
individual understands himself, learns to use maximum his own capacities, interests and other abilities. He
continues his struggle for adjustment in different situations. He develops his capacity of decision-making.
4. Guidance is related with life. The process of guidance is related to life, its problems and challenges and
how to face them. Problems and challenges are the building blocks of our personality. Guidance helps people
to live a balanced and tension free-life with full satisfaction under the circumstances.
5. Guidance is self-direction. The nature of Guidance is not to thrust itself on an individual. It does not make
choices for him. The ultimate purpose of guidance is guide the individual to direct himself in the right
direction, to make his own choices, to fix his own life-goals and to carry his own burden.

6. Guidance is individual-centred. Whether given on individual or group basis, the focus of all guidance
programmes is the individual who need to manage himself for a joyous today and a happy tomorrow by a
healthy alignment of individual desires and aspiration with socially desirable good.
7. Guidance is a qualified and complex and organised service. Guidance is given by qualified and trained
personnel. Hence guidance is a skill-involved process. The varied and complex nature of human life leaves its
imprint on the guidance programmes which are a totality of experiences. Guidance depends on prior study of
the individual, his assessment, initial counselling, interview, case study and a host of other subsidiary activities
that qualifies Guidance as a complex process.
8. Guidance is based on individual differences. Individual differences or, the fact that individuals differ
significantly, forms the basis of Guidance. If all the individuals had been alike, there was no scope for
guidance. Individuals differ not only in their appearances but in their mental and intellectual endowments,
desires, aspirations, and aptitudes.
9. Universality of guidance. Guidance is for all. Every person needs guidance at all the stages of life situations
from childhood to old age. He needs guidance for solving problems to adjust in the family as well as in the
society.
10. Guidance is making potential actual. Studies indicate that each person is born with more potential than
he uses. Guidance programme aid the individual in the discovery of a hidden potential individual for his own
benefit that that of the community. Thus, guidance programme is used as an aid to discover the talent and use
it for the progress of the country.
11. Preparation for future. The process of guidance is helpful in preparing a person for his future. Guidance
helps in the choice of one’s career, one’s partner in life etc. Guidance helps the individual to march towards
the future with confidence.
12. Modification of Behaviour. Guidance helps the persons in his adjustment in different situations and to
modify one’s behaviour. Negative personality traits have been modified through skilful guidance and
counselling. According to Carter V. Good, “Guidance is a process of dynamic interpersonal relationship
designed to influence the attitudes and subsequent behaviour of a person.”
13. Adjustment to Environment. Guidance is a process through which an individual or group of individuals
are helped to make necessary adjustment to the environment—inside or outside the family, the school etc.

Scope of Guidance
The scope of guidance is all pervading. Its scope is very vast in the light of modernisation and industrialisation
and is ever increasing. As the life is getting complex day by day, the problems for which expert help is needed
are rapidly increasing. The scope of guidance is extending horizontally to much of the social context, to
matters of prestige in occupations, to the broad field of social trends and economic development. Crow and
Crow have rightly quoted, “As now interpreted, guidance touches every aspect of an individual’s personality-
physical, mental, emotional and social. It is concerned with all aspects of an individual’s attitudes and
behaviour patterns. It seeks to help the individual to integrate all of his activities in terms of his basic
potentialities and environmental opportunities.”
The scope of guidance has been increasing with the advancement of science and technology, embracing all
spheres of life and providing facilities for it. Therefore, it will be difficult to put a fence around it. Although,
we may categorize the breadth of operation by guidance services to an individual’s life (including group
guidance) into three broad areas that renders an idea about the scope of it.
• Educational Guidance: It is a process concerned with bringing about a favourable setting for the
individual’s education and includes the assistance in the choice of subjects, use of libraries,
laboratories, workshops, development of effective study habits, evaluation techniques and adjustment
of school life with other activities.
• Vocational Guidance: It is the assistance rendered in meeting the problems :(i) relating to the choice
of vocation (ii) preparing for it (iii) entering the job, and (iv) achieving adjustment to it. It also aims-
.at helping individuals in the following specific areas:(a) making individuals familiar with the world
of work and with its diverse requirements and, (b) to place at the disposal of the individual all possible
aids in making correct appraisal of his strength and weaknesses in relation to the job requirements
offered by his environment.
• Personal Guidance: Personal guidance deals with the problems of personal adjustment in different
spheres of life. Mainly it works for the individual’s adjustment to his social and emotional problems.
Jones has put the following aims of personal guidance:
1. to assist the individual gradually to develop his life goals that are socially desirable and
individually satisfying.
2. to help him to plan his life so that these goals may be attained.
3. to help him grow consistently in ability to adjust himself creatively to his developing life goals.
4. to assist the individual to grow consistently in ability to live with others so effectively that he
may promote their development and his own worthy purposes.
5. to help him grow in self-directive ability