MICRO-COUNSELING SKILLS MASTERY OF GUIDANCE COUNSELORS AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how far the micro-counseling skills mastered by Guidance Counselors (counselor) at the Junior High School (SMP) in Kulon Progo Regency. The subject of the study were guidance counselors/teachers at the Junior High Schools in Kulon Progo Regency with a proportional sample of 33 teachers. Research data were collected using a questionnaire instrument and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative descriptive techniques. The results of the study show: 1) All guidance counselors believe that the use of counseling skills can improve the quality of counseling services, but only the majority of guidance counselors use these skills. The micro counseling skills used by most of the Kulon Progo guidance counselors are attention, opening, acceptance, direction, strengthening, advice, summary, and termination. 2) A small number of guidance counselors admitted that they had never received micro-counseling skills material, either when they were still students in college or when they had entered as practitioners or guidance counselors. Suggestion from this research is that guidance counselors need to take part in training to increase their capacity for mastering micro-counseling skills. The training can be in the form of role-playing with colleagues or practice handling cases directly with the assistance of a competent supervisor. Professional organizations, universities, and schools need to provide support to guidance counselors in efforts to develop and improve the competence of micro-counseling skills.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0765/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>