Guidance has been defined and understood differently by different people, administrators, statesmen, philosophers, leaders and educationists in different time for which guidance has two types of meaning—one is old or traditional meaning and another is modern meaning. Like other contents and subjects, the modern meaning of guidance came into picture when the emphasis shifted and more attention was given on economic problems, placement or employment and occupational trends.
After that it became a felt need to provide more and more assistance to the employers in order to make him effective in his work. This trend is continuing now in the rapid manner covering all the disciplines of humanities, arts, science, commerce and professional sectors. So the modern meaning of the concept “Guidance” doesn’t restrict itself to any one discipline. Hence it is being influenced by sociology, economics and education.
Literally, guidance means “to direct”, “to point out”, “to show the path”. But guidance is not exactly the process of directing while directing one imposes his opinion on others. Rather guidance means providing some help or assistance to somebody by somebody. If we accept this meaning, guidance will be as old as mankind. Because man at each and every stage or sphere of life needs guidance from others. If this will be the meaning of guidance then this treatment will come under the purview of a very broader and general meaning of guidance which will also convey the modern meaning of guidance.
But in narrower view and perspective, guidance is interpreted as a specialized service to help the individual to solve certain major problems—personal, educational, vocational and the like. In fact, the term guidance interpreted so far is not properly defined and accepted. The reason is that for some it is a concept, a point of view, for others it is a process and for others it is a group of services and for some it is a field of study. So guidance is accepted as both a concept and a process and must be interpreted accordingly in the educational process.
As a concept, guidance is concerned with the maximum development of the individual to make his own decisions. As a process, it makes the individual aware of his abilities and potentialities. The purpose is to make him confident in selecting appropriate course of action for adjustment in various walks of life and helping the individual for balanced development. To have a clear cut picture and better understanding of the term guidance, let us have a look on the definitions given by some experts in the concerned field or area.
“Guidance involves personal help given by someone; it is designed to assist the individual to decide where he wants to go, what he wants to do and how best he can accomplish his purpose”. —Jones
“Guidance is a term with many meanings. It is a point of view a group of services, a field of study which we should be required to choose one of the emphasized service would pre- dominate”. —Moser and Moser
“Guidance is a process of enabling each individual to understand his abilities and interest to develop them as well as possible and to relate them to life goals and finally to reach a state of complete and matured self-guidance as a desirable human element of the social order.” —Traxler
“Guidance is the process of helping a person to develop and accept an integrated and adequate picture of himself and of his role in the world of work, to test this concept against reality and to convert it into reality with satisfaction to himself and benefit to the society”. —National Vocational Guidance Association (USA)
“Guidance is a means of helping individuals to understand and use wisely the educational, vocational and personal opportunities they have or can develop and as a form of systematic assistance whereby students are aided in achieving satisfactory adjustment to school and in life”. —Dunsmoor and Miller
“Guidance is assistance made available by professionally qualified and adequately trained men and women to an individual of any age to help him manage his own life activities, develop his own decisions and carry his own burdons”. —Crow and Crow
“The elements of guidance are learning about the individual student, helping him to understand himself, effecting changes in him and in his environment which will help him to grow and develop as much as possible.” —Knapp
The dictionary meaning of the term scope implies area, jurisdiction, outlook, range of view, field or opportunity of activities, breadth, operation, application and subject matter. The scope of guidance is bound to be vast as it has a broader meaning and wider connotation. The scope of guidance therefore implies the extent, length, breadth, range, comprehensiveness and variety of helping an individual to solve his problems. So the scope of guidance covers functionally all aspects of life.
Otherwise guidance will be a baseless programme for the children seeking its help and it wills loss it’s identifying in the society. The present contemporary society is becoming more and more complex day-by-day. As a result of this, the needs and problems of individuals are also increasing with the increasing complexity of the society. This situation heavily demands an organised programme of guidance.
Hence the scope of guidance covers:
(i) Types of Guidance, viz. personal guidance, educational guidance and vocational guidance.
(ii) Guidance for adjustment of individual through socialized, curricular, co-curricular activities, community resources, vocational opportunities, group life, group contacts etc.
(iii) Individual Guidance Service.
(iv) Group Guidance Service.
(v) Devices for collection of data through testing and non-testing devices like achievement test, aptitude test, personality test, creativity test, intelligence test, attitude scale, interest inventory, interview schedule. Cumulative Record Card, observation, check list, rating scale and socio-metric techniques etc.
(vi) Organisation of guidance services.
(vii) Counselling services or techniques.
(viii) Role of different personnel involved in guidance and counselling service.
(ix) Follow-up service in guidance.
Alter highlighting the elements of the scope of guidance it is essential to point out here that among these different elements the first element, type of guidance is regarded as the major aspect or element of guidance and the other aspects or elements although essential are subservient to the types of guidance. To justify this, it can be emphasized here that the persons who have insightful knowledge about guidance, the scope of guidance for them means the types of guidance.