A new dimension of creative teaching

TEACHERS ARE the persons from whom society and the nation expects a lot. They are the makers of the pillars of the nation. They have the responsibility of moulding and motivating the students, according to the requirements of society and the nation. Teachers must have special qualities of leadership. Only then can they make their students become leaders in the future. As is the teacher, so are his students. Above and beyond the personal qualifications, professional experiences and the qualities of leadership, the work of the teachers demands that they be competent in self-direction, possess patience and perseverance, be experiment minded and well adjusted to themselves and to others.

A teacher enters the class. A good teacher enters into the heart of students, and a missionary teacher enters the very life of the community. To become a missionary teacher, one, apart from the main work of teaching, should willingly come forward to guide and counsel his students, keeping in mind the fact that the future of the nation is in their hands.

None can deny the fact that life now has become so complex that personal and social living have been confronted with complications, tensions and frustrations. The concept of education has become comprehensive, with emphasis on all aspects of the students personality. To help students achieve their goals is the aim of education. In the world of science and technology and of professional competitions, students (the ships), if not guided and counselled by their teachers (the lighthouse), may sink. Students have personal problems - conflicts, frustrations and failures seem to abound in today's highly competitive and complex life. Such personal problems pose an obstacle to their academic progress. So a comprehensive guidance forms an essential segment of all educational programmes now.

Guidance is an art of helping the students to understand themselves, make the best use of their abilities and talents, adjust themselves well to the varied situations, solve their problems independently, make their own unique contributions to the society and the nation to the fullest possible extent, and to develop their ability to make wise and successful plans, in the world in which they will live and work.

The guidance programme revolves round four fundamental services.

(i) Appraisal service: This includes collection of details about each student, careful analysis and interpretation of personal, social and psychological data about each student.

(ii) Information service: This provides knowledge about educational and vocational opportunities so as to enable the students to make use of the opportunities and to take wise decisions.

(iii) Counselling service: This facilitates self-understanding and self-development.

(iv) Planning, placement and follow-up service: This helps students choose the field of their interest and make use of the opportunities in the world of employment.

Guidance is the new dimension of creative teaching. It is not a panacea, but a process of helping the learners to adjust to themselves, to other people and to the ever-changing circumstances. It is the task of the teachers to help the individual learner to discover their unique qualities, to bring out the hidden talents, to develop them properly, and to guide and counsel them wisely in the pursuit of goals that are satisfying and constructive for the society and the nation. Certain practical difficulties may stand in the way, but teachers' should not feel discouraged by the immensity of the task. Nothing worthwhile could be achieved without a sense of dedication. Application of scientific methods to develop the concept of guidance have been so richly productive that it is not inappropriate to refer to guidance and counselling, in a broad sense, as a new dimension of creative teaching.

Most of the students emerge in theory, but disappear in practice. Guidance makes them emerge in practice. It means aid in helping the learner maintain a normal and balanced relationship between his/her abilities and the demands of the environment, with proper emphasis upon maturation of capacities for socialised self- direction.

Teachers must devise more refined diagnostic procedures for determining the unfulfilled needs in which the developmental difficulties of the students have their origin. In both preventive and remedial assistance, a positive interest could be developed through proper guidance and counselling. It is not possible for the teachers to state exactly how much or how less guidance should be given in the intellectual and social learning of students. It must be determined according to their behavioural trends.

There is a wrong notion that guidance is meant only for those students with mental conflicts, unnecessary tensions, frustrations, unsatisfied personal needs, low IQ, emotional instability, rude and crude behaviour, indifferent attitude, abnormal attitude and aggressiveness, sense of insecurity in life, fears to face the challenges of life, social handicaps and the like. It is a service for all. Guidance is neither a trick, nor a trade, but it is a professional service to be done with a sense of devotion and dedication.

It is concerned primarily with prevention rather than cure. Guidance and counselling shape the attitudes of students. A positive mental attitude goes hand-in-hand with success in every walk of life. The attitude of students is more than their aptitude, since that determines their altitude.

Guidance is concerned with helping students' learning, aiding them in proper choice of courses, and in helping removal of difficulties in academic progress. Help should be given neither too soon, nor too late. It helps the students to get the best of educational and vocational opportunities in consistence with their talents and traits.

More specifically, the programme of guidance aims at observing each student and maintaining a cumulative record of their abilities and interests. The cumulative record is a permanent or official summary of an individual's educational history. It is useful to help teachers to identify their students' strengths and weaknesses, attitudes, aptitudes and interests for academic, personal and vocational guidance. The cumulative record may be in the form of a card or booklet containing the educational, personal and other details of students from their entry into an institution till they leave. This record provides a continuous evaluation of the physical, mental and social development of every student. All teachers are expected to co-operate in the programme of guidance, not only to complete the individual records, but also to understand the nature and value of each other's work, and to make a systematic use of achievement tests and other devices available in the institution to appraise and evaluate the efforts of pupils.

This broad approach is essential for the objective of assisting the students to choose their occupation, prepare for it, enter it and prosper in it. Institutions may collect information about occupations and make them available to students and counsel each individual with regard to his abilities and interests, and with regard to the needs and requirements of various occupations in terms of abilities and skills.

A programme of guidance has many advantages. It conserves and develops human resources. It broadens one's mind and widens one's scientific line of thinking. It helps the students to become useful citizens, and frustrated students to achieve their goals. It removes the inferiority complex, a great obstacle to one's progress, and promotes self-confidence, a requisite to great undertakings. Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong. Sometimes, students, by making a wrong choice of courses, lose interest, become irregular in work and attendance and may leave the institution. Such students cause all-round frustration to themselves, their teachers and their parents. Guidance and counselling will reduce such frustrations.

Guidance is a broader concept than counselling. It is a complex services that includes counselling. Counselling is a personal face-to-face relationship between two persons, in which the teachers, by means of the relationship and his special competencies, provides a learning situation, so as to enable them to make use of their characteristics and potentialities. Teachers should establish rapport with their students and help them to overcome their problems, and to face the challenges of life with courage and confidence.

Counselling promotes personality changes in the students in a desired direction. It is concerned with growth and development of the students. It makes the students realise their duties and responsibilities. Teachers should be very active in the process as the passive attitude might irritate the students. Guidance and counselling presume a high degree of professionalism on the part of the teacher and the taught. Teachers today are expected to behave professionally. The concept of guidance and counselling, in its modern setting, adds a new dimension to the professional services of creative classroom teachers. Teachers, by cultivating the art of guiding and counselling, can find their own resources increased and refined.

Guidance and counselling saves the time and energy of teachers and students. Educational institutions, by providing programmes of guidance and counselling, will have a healthy and improving emotional climate with students earnestly engaged in the pursuit of educational goals, intent on making their careers and maintaining a happy and cordial relationship with their teachers and their fellow students. Such programmes shape and motivate students in all walks of their life, and so they are very essential in all educational institutions.

M. A. MOHAMED SAHUL HAMEED

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