High School Counseling as Perceived By Students and Counselors.

This study investigated differences in the perceptions of counseling held by students and counselors. Participants were 225 senior high school students and 28 senior high school counselors at three public senior high schools in a large midwestern city. The three schools reflected the range in student achievement, dropout rate, socioeconomic status, and racial composition of the city's senior high schools. Rogers' self-theory, which places importance on individual perception as the basis of reality for the person, was used as the rationale for investigating the congruence between student and counselor perceptions. Data were collected by means of two survey instruments (student and counselor) and in-depth individual interviews of students. The instruments contained 25 statements each with a Likert-type response scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Factor analysis of the instrument yielded seven factors which explained 51.8 percent of the variance in counseling perceptions: Factor I, Accessibility/Helpfulness; Factor II, Impartiality; Factor III, Academic Counseling; Factor IV, Degree of Comfort; Factor V, Trust/Confidence; Factor VI, Knowledge/High Expectations; and Factor VII, Astuteness/Orderliness. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance as the principal statistical method to determine differences in factor perceptions. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were also used. Results revealed a disparity between student perceptions of the counseling received and counselor perceptions of the counseling provided. Many students perceived that several needs were not being met which results in their having to make important decisions without the assistance of a counselor. On the other h and , counselors perceived that they were satisfactorily meeting student needs. Interpretation of the findings suggests that student perceptions of counseling as a reality are incongruous with counselor perceptions of counseling as a reality. Students expect more from counseling than they are receiving and their future expectations are likely to increase. To reduce the discrepancy in perception of counseling, counselors need to increase their underst and ing of student needs and expectations so that counselors may more meaningfully communicate what might be achieved from the counseling process.PhDSchool counselingUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161249/1/8702742.pd