Evaluation of school counseling and guidance services based on views of high school students

Abstract

This study evaluated school psychological counseling services based on high school students’ views. Participants were 235 students. “Student Personal Information Form” and “the School Guidance Services Scale” were used for data analysis. MANOVA and multiple regression procedures were used for data analysis. Results showed that students listed the guidance services from the most utilized to the least as follows: consultation, placement, follow-up, public and family relations, orientation, research and evaluation, information gathering and outreach, appraisal and counseling services. Results revealed that students’ evaluations of school counseling and guidance services did not show any differ significantly according to gender and academic achievement. Results also showed that whether teachers informed students about counseling services; whether students had met the school counselor and should certainly have counselors were significant predictors of students’ evaluations of counseling guidance services. On the other hand, whether school counselors familiarized students with their services, students believed in the helpfulness of counseling and guidance services; whether students utilized educational counseling and career counseling were not significant predictors of students’ evaluation of these services. Results of this study showed that overall an approximately 56 % of all counseling and guidance services were offered. This finding illustrate that these services are not offered to a satisfactory degree. This could be attributed to a host of reasons. The fact that a significant number of individuals who work as counselors do not hold counseling degrees; differences in the number and quality of faculty bodies of counseling degree programs; the insufficient number of counselors at schools; a lack of support from school administrators and teachers; a lack of effective time management of counselors; and job stress, professional burnout and job dissatisfaction of counselors could be some of these reasons.