THE COUNSELING NEEDS OF TEACHERS IN PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
THE COUNSELING NEEDS OF TEACHERS IN PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses teachers counseling needs, from the perspective of the relationship with preschoolers and pupils, in order to motivate them to achieve high school performance and to develop their personality. Teachers are also in an ideal position to bring their concerns to the attention of parents and offer guidance on different strategies and sources of help which may be needed. At the same time teachers are now expected to work more closely with parents and other professionals such as psychologists and social workers. In addition, senior teachers are expected to be able to support and appraise other teachers. To fulfil their roles in each of these areas teachers need to possess basic counselling skills. The article presents several aspects regarding counselling needs, in order to maintain the teachers' wellbeing and to prevent occupational stress. To identify all these counselling needs, we applied to a number of 112 teachers from three counties, a questionnaire developed by us, which contains 10 objective and subjective items. Thus, within this article, the answers offered by the teachers are presented, analyzed and interpreted, in order to structure a complete picture of this situation. The results of this analysis, of the teachers' counseling needs, target aspects such as: methods of knowing children and pupils, strategies for solving interpersonal conflicts, techniques for optimizing the relationship with parents and pupils, ways to stimulate motivation for play and learning, ways of preventing school failure, effective methods of integrating children or pupils with special needs, preventing aggression, as well as the need for programs aimed at preventing intra-family violence. The article finally presents conclusions and recommendations regarding teachers counseling needs.

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