Guidance is a broad term usually applied to a total school programme of activities and services aimed at assisting pupils make and carry out adequate plans and to achieve satisfactory adjustment in life. It is the process of helping individuals to understand themselves and their world.
Hence, individuals well guided will become more effective, more productive, and happier and more fulfilled persons in life. Councelling on the other hand, is a person to person relationship in which one person who is the professional helps another, who is the client; to resolve an area of conflict in the person’s life. He thus succeeds in making the person an independent person.
The professional that carries out the above mentioned roles is the guidance counsellor. His job can be broad-based, that is he deals with more than one person or a group of persons at a time, or it could be on one-on –one basis. In whichever case, his job is to guide and/ or counsel the individual or client such that he or she becomes more useful to himself and the society at large.
The guidance consellor plays his or her role in the various facets of the society, viz: the home, school church/mosques and under society.
In the home, the parents, elder brothers, sisters and relatives play the role of the guidance counsellor to the younger ones, even though they are not professional counselors.
They teach them the basic tenets of living, how to carry out domestic chores, family and general greetings, how to show courtesy and respect for elders, etiquettes etc. the children or younger ones are also either cautioned, advised or spanked whenever they go wrong depending on the gravity of the offence.
In the school, the child has the opportunity of meeting a professional guidance counsellor, although where there is no such one, the career master, who might have received some minimal training, or the teacher, particularly the head teacher or principal plays the role of the counsellor.at the school level, the child is exposed to three major areas of counseling-Educational, career Choice/ vocational and personal/ social.
The educational aspect of counseling involves teaching the child how to go about his/her studies, simply put, study habits. This includes encouraging the child to plan a personal time- table for his/her own use, time allocation on such time- table, number of subjects to study a day, how to assimilate what he/her reads, observing siesta, preparing for examinations and ensuring examination success etc.
There roles come to the fore due to the fact that many students are no their own not organized, but when assisted, they do better.
Also in the school, the students are exposed to career choice, or better called, vocational guidance. This starts with helping the students on subject choice, certificate class or final year examinations. They are taught to choose subjects that are related or go together which can thus help them to study certain courses, or follow a particular career in life.
The students are also guide on the essence of knowing their interests in life and matching same with their abilities. Therefore, it will be foolish for a child who is gifted in Arts subjects to start thinking of becoming Engineers, a medical doctor, an Agriculturist or study any of the sciences. So also, it will not be proper for the a child gifted in science subjects to start thinking of reading law, political science, communication Arts e.t.c.
Actually, the aforementioned science happens everyday in our schools, because of ignorance, peer group influence and recognition or prestige attached to certain courses or careers in the society.
Also, some courses are said to be more lucrative than others. The students have to be guided so that they do not run into problems while studying courses they are not cut out for or end up pleasing friends, parents, relatives and the society and displeasing themselves.
It must be mentioned here that there have been cases of individuals who got well established in certain careers in life and with a lot of financial and material benefit, but due to lack of job satisfaction, got disenchanted, and abandoned the so called lucrative or prestigious jobs for business politics or some other things in life. Some even took the bold step of going back to retain in what on e may call their “proper area” of calling. To avoid this colossal waste of time, energy and resources therefore, the counsellor must effectively play his role in the school system.
Students as adolescents have their peculiar problems which could be domestic, peer group influence, cultism, drugs crimes, understanding their own biological make- up, especially as they grow up and observe certain changes in themselves, health issues, sexuality issues especially as they affect dating, sex pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease (STDs), HIV/AIDS, trafficking of children and women within and outside the country etc. these concern the social personal aspects of the child’s life and he/she has to be well guide and counseled so as not to fall a victim to any or a combination of some of them, which of course would be detrimental to his/her life.
In the churches or mosques and in some cases, professional counseling clinics, adults receive spiritual counseling from pastors lived or are yet to settle down with a life partner are also counseled on how to go about solving their problems.
Today the society has become so complex, full of so much pressures and hence stress, arising from job, business relationships, infrastructural inadequacies such as bad roads, irregular electricity supply. High school fees, high cost of accommodation (house) and transportation, feeding e.t.c, that so much pressure is put on the adults that are expected to provide these things for both the immediate and extended family. It therefore behoves on these adults to seek professional advice from the guidance counselor so that they can avoid the maximum stress and other negative consequences that go with these hustle and bustle of every day modern life.
From the fore-going, it goes without saying that the counselor role is not just important, but a sine que non in the society, if they are encouraged to play these roles and well patronized by those who should, most of the problems encountered today will become things of the past.
Guidance counselor, as professional have been trained in the intricacies of getting to the roots of the problems, that is diagnosis, and proffering probable solutions to them. In some cases, there may be the need to refer extreme cases to medical doctor, psychiatrists or even dieticians etc, as the case may be .With these roles, the guidance counselor is a great agent of positive change and development in the society.
EFFECTIVE STUDY HABITS
The two major terms in this topic are “effective’ means practical and workable procedure that yield expected result.
The phrase “study habit” means a study pattern that cannot easily be given up, a learnt or acquired behaviour sustained over a given period of time. Your study habit or study behaviour is a systematic behavioural pattern developed and specifically directed at achieving the best result. Let me state categorically that good study habit is synonymous with academic achievement. Effective study habit therefore is the cornerstone of academic success.
A student in an institution of learning is likened to an athlete in a race who runs to win the prize. There is need to strive to emerge the winner Ist Corinthians 9vs 24-27. if you are not steadfast and leave the track you cannot win the race so it is with a students in a college, if you relax you cannot pass in good grades if you pass at all. The implication of the above is that you should read in such a way as to be the best student.
Factors that affect effective study habits
1. Lack of absolute concentration and attention: if you are restless you can hardly concentrate and this will negate effective study.
2. Massed reading i.e. reading only when examination is one week or few days to be taken. This causes confusion in the brain
3. Individual differences: Do not copy others instead identify your best study habit and suitable study skill and follow.
4. Procrastination: unsteady habit of reading not working consistently, you need to persevere to achieve.
5. In order to improve your study behavoiour you should first of all analyses your study behaviour, find out the likely obstacles by keeping record on how you study the first week of the term. Record how much time you read spend on effective study not time spent on glancing at your books. Effective study requires actively being involved while reading with your writing materials- biro, pencil, jotter, dictionary, relevant textbooks and not books.
6. make sure you distribute your leaning by having a personal reading timetable which you must follow. Try and have a specific study place. Do not read on the bed otherwise you sleep off. Time yourself to see the actual period you concentrate without distractions.
Effective study requires hard work and determination. A lazy student cannot be a scholar 2nd Thes; 3vs 10. Interest is also an important factor. Educational psychologists realized that if you do not have interest in anything you are doing, you do not achieve success. Your attitude or feeling towards a particular subject automatically affects your achievement. So develop keen interest in your studies and put maximum effort and your God given talent will be made manifest.
It is expected that any well- meaning student who is in an institution of learning should be studious so as to achieve the primary aim or goal of seeking admission into the institution. In order to excel and distinguish oneself there is need to spend a lot of time studying and develop a healthy attitude toward plays an important part in directing and controlling human behaviour or pattern. Your study behaviour will depend on your attitude. Some students develop negative attitude toward some subjects based on what others say about the course and that will affect the attitude and eventually results in poor performance. For instance such student lack internal locus of control. If a student has already categorized himself as a failure he has a poor self-concept and this will affect his study behaviour and consequently his/her performance. To study effectively, you may decide to plan your personal reading time-table with the hints below;
SOME HINTS ON PLANNING PERSONAL - STUDYTIMETABLE.
1. First of all map out the available time for reading after you have stayed for maximum f two weeks and studied your environments. For instance take note of the time you spend eating, sleeping, recreation and for lecture. Eccl 3vs 1.
2. Plan what to read in the available hours. At least study two different subjects a day and do that as a matter of routine whether exam is at the corner or not.
3. Handle assignments immediately and be ready to submit before the last day given by the lecturer.
4. Read any lesson taught that day immediately and fill in the gaps you did not understand while taking the notes.
5. Allot more reading hours to subjects you consider more difficult to understand you may spend an hour to read a subject area to understand it well and two or more hours for another. This guides you in allotting time to your courses diary weekly.
You can also decide to learn these skills and choose appropriate techniques tat suit you for effective study habit to be achieved. john (2000) reiterated that a prospective scholar should obey all rules of the institution of leaning as well as the laws of learning in order to excel in exams. Study skill can be acquired through obeying laws of learning such as Thorndike’s law of readiness, exercise and effective study skills may be organized according to four general stages of learning.
Ist Stage of learning is receiving information or stimuli through the sensory registers from books, lectures or presentations- study skills necessary at this stage are listening and reading.
2nd Stage of learning input or acquisition stage: this entails organization of the incoming information. Study skills that facilitate this include; note taking, outlining, listening and asking oneself questions about the material.
3rd Stage learning-retention or storage of information; this involves practicing or rehearing the organized material. Study skill that facilitate this are writing and discussion f learnt material.
4th Stage of learning- recall or out put stage- this entails actual remembering or application of information. Skills required include writing and test taking.
However, for effective study, students should adopt the study- type reading
Study-type reading connotes active reading for a purpose. The reader has to be highly selective in order to choose from a whole mass of printed matter, the information or ideas that must be remembered. He then constructs and rephrases the writer’s ideal in his own way in order to retain it in his/her code information in the brain.
Studying as a skill is reading with a strategy already learnt or laid down for the purpose of achieving good result. The rate at which individuals gain understanding varies and this depends mainly on the approach to or technique of reading among other factors. Basically , we all read but we do not all study. Studying is critical reading.
Learning is a process of gaining knowledge or insight through the practice of what has been taught. A student has learnt well if he/ she perform better after examinations. For instance, a student who exhibits bad reading too deceitful statements.
Reading/ Study Techniques.
Technique simply means method of carrying out task expertly. In this case, you are to learn how to read or study assessed. The psychology of reading and studying has its basis or adherence to the principles of education psychology. The learner is made to learn specific rules guiding efficient study and practice them until it becomes a habit when fully imbibed and the individual exhibits the behavior spontaneously. As earlier mentioned, human learning follows three main stages- acquisition, retention, and recall. The recall of learnt material when needed depends on how it was retained or stored in the long- term or short- term memory. In turn, if at the time the material was acquired it makes retention and recall difficult when needed.
As earlier mentioned, our focus is on the study- type reading which makes for efficiency. The following are examples of reading techniques.
1. Brain storming group studying technique
2. Prof Robinson’s SQ3R reading technique
3. The creative studying technique
1. Brain Storming Group Study: this study group should be maximum of 6 students with a group leader. Participants should be students of the same class, who are preparing for the same examination. The time, topic to b e discussed should be planned before hand. Every participant is expected to be actively involved in the decision.
2. SQ3R Study Technique: this is a very popular study technique that has been widely used and tested among students over the years with resounding success.
S stands for Survey
Q stands for Question
R stands for read and jot down
R stands for Recite.
R stands for review.
First of all, the student should survey the material he/she is to study, be familiar with the key points and the scope to cover. The objective is to have a general overview of what is required to be read or studied.
Then you can generate likely questions that could arise from the headings for e.g. in this lecture the likely question that could be asked by mere looking at the topic is “what are reading techniques?” “What is effective Study habit?” These questions form a guide to your reading for facts in order to answer the questions.
Read the material carefully to adopt the study-type and jot down the salient points as you read with reference posed by yourself. Then close your book and try to recite by recalling what has been studied and written down. This helps you to self –evaluate yourself and see how much you can recall, write down the points recalled in the paper. You may notice that you could not recall all, and then you review the passage to fill in the missing information.
3. CREATIVE STUDY TECHNIQUE: There is no hard and fast rule about which reading technique to adopt or not to. What is important is the one that suits a particular individual or group of individuals. Through practice, you will be able to identify the one or ones that suit you and you revolve a creative study technique that is rewarding. The essence is for you to study in away as to make retrieval easy.
CONCLUSION.
In conclusion, a student who values the worth of being educated and who has an intrinsic motivation to achieve would definitely strive to achieve by applying all the rules of learning and working hard consistently. Most great people today started from a low, poor but diligent and hardworking background read Prov. 22vs 29. We should pray, workhard,trust and obey God and also obey the reading and examination rules instituted by those put into authority by God, Titus 3vs 1. Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good manner 1 cor. 15vs 33. Do not be involved in examination malpractice it is evil. The Bible says have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness rather expose them. Eph. 5vs11$12. Remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge, Prov. 1vs 7. God bless you as you strive diligently to win the race in your academic pursuit in Jesus name, Amen.
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