The objectives of guidance in groups vary with school level, pupil needs and interests, administrative philosophy, and available school personnel qualified to lead group activities.
In those institutions which provide group programmes, children, young people, and adults can receive the following benefits through participation in them:
Essential Benefits
1. Information that will assist them in adjusting to their various areas of experience, including:
(a) Educational progress,
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(b) Occupational opportunities and vocational preparation,
(c) Leisure-time activities,
(d) Social and civil conditions.
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2. Experience in cooperative living leading to the development of:
(a) Initiative,
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(b) Good sportsmanship,
(c) Consideration of others, and
(d) Self and social understanding.
3. Development of individual abilities and interest through:
(a) Participation in group projects,
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(b) Organisation of pupil-initiated activities,
(c) Special services and programmes in and out of the school.
A young adolescent, sometimes a child, or an older adolescent, is prone to believe that he is experiencing problem situations and conditions that are peculiar to him.
Often his parents do not understand him; he is the prey of conflicting urges or interests; his teachers expect him to obey certain class or school rules which to him seem foolish; he is bothered by physical and physiological changes which he does not recognise as symptomatic of the growing-up process; he has difficulty in peer-age group relationships.
Too often the young person keeps his worries and anxieties to himself. He gradually builds up resentments or feelings of insecurity that may continue to be unnoticed by adults unless his difficulties are recognised by an insightful parent, teacher, or counsellor.
When young people, in appropriately organised groups, are given the opportunity to discuss their respective interests, ambitions, attitudes, or emotional reactions, they come (realise that many of their supposedly personal ‘troubles’ are experienced by all or most of their age peers.
A wise group leader, who has earned the confidence of the group, then can motivate a boy or girl having a special problem of adjustment to seek individual counselling.