View of NEED FOR STUDYING THE INDIVIDUAL

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VOLUME: 08, Special Issue 03, (IC-NCOCS-2021), Paper id-IJIERM-VIII-III, June 2021

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NEED FOR STUDYING THE INDIVIDUAL

Dr. Sunita Thombre

Assistant Professor (Education), Annie Besant College

Abstract - Human being are not alike. Their differences are real, inevitable, more numerous than we often recognize. These are essential to the survival of the human race. ‘Men’ are actually created different and unequal. They differ in brain-power and development, in the role of learning, and in the method of learning. Yet, each one is of supreme worth as a human being. This is a fact that every teacher, every employer, and every individual knows.

Biologists have confirmed for the perpetuation of the human species. Born different, children are reared differently in varied home environments. They come to school with extremely diverse behavior patterns, interests, attitude and levels of readiness for formal learning. The educators have several alternatives for dealing, with variedness. They can either ignore individual differences that they exist. They can tolerate them as a nuisance and liability. They can attempt to eradicate them and try to get all pupils to some arbitrary standards, or they can cultivate and nurture differences as an asset and a precious resource.

1 WHY STUDY THE INDIVIDUAL ?

In a democratic nation like ours, schools have a responsibility to the society that created them. In United States of America, the educators have a very clear-out role defined for them.

It includes curricular patterns; programs of study; methods of instruction; according to the needs, interests and capacities of the individuals. It propagates the development of the individual to his fullest capacity.

Hence, the study of individuals enables the educators or the guidance providers;

 To assist the individuals to a happier and more satisfying life;

 To understand the degrees or lack of success individuals experience in achieving their goals;

 To plan appropriate classroom situations and experiences for individuals, thus reducing the possibility of Intensifying problems rising out of unrealistic demands;

2 WHAT TO STUDY IN AN INDIVIDUAL ?

As we now know that individual is the most important part of the whole guidance program.

Knowledge about the facts of an individual is of vital Importance. Even though educators come in daily contact with the students, but still they can’t say that they know every individual in the real sense. For effective guidance, Knowledge of the needs, interests and aspirations of the students is essential. Then only the degree of help to be extended is well planned.

When insufficient and unrealistic facts are gathered and the decisions are made, they have very damaging effects for the students. Facts need to be gathered from various sources. Say a child when enters school he meets in the school and outside the school, the child’s when enters school, the family background, the number of family member , behavior in class or outside thin planning the life of the child class, the mental and physical capacities of the child and so on and so-forth. All these have a great bearing in planning the life of the child.

3 FACTS OF BE COLLECTED

Sometimes it happens that there is such type of data collected which because of lack of knowledge cannot be utilized properly for the study individual. This is the reason that the data or facts which are to be gathered about an individual are categorized according to their utility.

1. General Data

The first source of collecting facts is the school record. This record includes information needed about the student or the individual under study. These would be the first source of collecting facts is the school record. This record includes Name, Address, Age, Place, and

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Date of Birth, Sex, Name of Father, Nationality of Mother, Occupation of Father, Occupation of Mother, Birthplace of Father, Birthplace of Mother, Date the Child entered the School, Dates when attended other Schools, Date of leaving the School, Date of Re- entering the School, the Class. Every effort should be made to make the records as reliable as possible.

2. Home and Social Environment

This includes information about the environment existing at home and the environment in the neighbourhood. where the child lives. The educational status of the family members living with the child: the area from which they come from (whether from rural or from urban areas ); the type of parental control of the child; the attitude of the other family members of the child; the cultural patterns of the family; all these have a very big impact on the psychology and personality of the child.

3. Health Data

This deals with the information on the overall physical health of the student. This would include the height, weight, general conditions of the lungs, record of past illness, etc. A thorough medical examination can also be conducted by the school for all its students every year or after six months. Actual medical record of every child should be maintained for ready reference.

Every child’s health data is important for many reasons. There are certain jobs which have set a certain minimum standards of physical fitness. Proper eyesight, dental check-ups, over-all medical examinations are essential so that treatment can be done well in time when the child is young, or it may blow up when the child matters in to an adult.

The country needs healthy human resource for its overall development.

4. Achievement Data

This gives us information about the achievement of the child in both curricular and non- curricular activities. The information about the status of the child in the class examinations is important. not only the history of the marks scored in the class examinations but also work habits, attitudes towards school subjects, likes and dislikes, special abilities and disabilities towards co-curricular activities, qualities of leadership, honesty, discipline, etc, are all includes in this category.

5. Psychological Data

This includes the general mental health predominant mood, self-assertion, self-abasement, sense of self- confidence, attitude towards self and the intelligence level of the child. In guidance and counseling, psychological data is an important factor in order to understand the individual. Through a battery of intelligence tests we can know the individual’s level of intelligence. The level of intelligence decides the level of performance of the individual. If the individual tests average on Intelligence, his performance will be average, and if the psychological test reveals superior intelligence, superior performance is expected.

Also personality tests are based on Psychology. Through personality tests we can know the typical personality trait present in the individual. Similarly, aptitude tests are also based on psychology. Through these tests the areas of interest of individuals are measured.

Thus psychological test can help in collecting data on Intelligence, Personality and Aptitudes of an individual.

4 THE PURPOSE OF COLLECTION OF FACTS

In any guidance and counseling activity the accuracy of facts has a bearing on helping the individual in solving his problem or guiding him in facing life’s situations. According to Lee J. Cronbach, the purpose of collecting facts is detects differences between individuals and facilitate self-analysis, the primary function of guidance. The facts help the guidance worker of the teacher in the following ways:

4.1 Predication

Collection of facts is a step towards understanding of an individual. As the facts from general, health, social, family ,psychologist is to some extent is able to predict the student’s ability to she teaches on class with a particular method, that method may not be suitable for the other class. Various tools and techniques can be used for predicting the interests,

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attitudes, personality and intelligence of an individual for the choice of subjects or jobs suitable for the individual.

4.2 Selection

Predication helps in selection of candidates for a particular assignment. For selection of candidates in the military, extensive tests at every stage of the induction and training procedure, are needed Out of thousands of aspirants in the military, various test batteries help in identifying the best. These are then considered for training as specialist in the various fields of the military. Similarly, for entering into a teaching profession certain aptitude tests are used to see whether the individuals have the aptitude for teaching or not.

4.3 Diagnosis

Predication emphasizes differences between individuals. Diagnosis emphasizes differences among characteristics of the same individual. In guidance, diagnosis identifies the strengths of the individual so that he may capitalize on them, and weaknesses so that he may correct them. A clinical psychologist or a counselor diagnosis cases of scholastic failure to determine appropriate action. Diagnosis is also an analysis and description of various aspects of behavior.

4.4 Research

Research also involves predication and occasional diagnosis. It is a search for knowledge about human behavior, many questions arise which deal with deal with the fundamentals of biological or social sciences, tests are designed for solving research problems.

4.5 Categorizing

All the students in the class can be grouped into categories according to their level of performance in tests of Intelligence. We can have categories of students like exceptional, gifted, average, and slow learners. This categorization helps the teacher to plan the curriculum and the teaching methodology, accordingly.

5 ASSESSMENT

The assessment of the individual is also an important factor to know the level of achievement of the individual. This would help the individual to know his/her performance level. It would also help the teacher to evaluate the curriculum, the teaching method used for teaching that curriculum, and even to assess, and change the evaluation strategies accordingly.

After accumulation of the facts, certain tools and techniques are used for predicting the future success or failure of the individual in one occupation or areas of occupation. The knowledge of aptitudes of the students for a particular job is essential. The task of choosing right type of individual for a job or matching individuals for different jobs, is a very complex one. Various testing and non-testing techniques used for identifying the job according to the aptitude of the individual, is discussed in the succeeding chapters.

REFERENCE

1. Biner, P. et al. (1996). Student satisfaction with interactive tele-courses as a function of demographic variables and prior tele-course experience. Distance Education (17), pp. 36-41

2. Cen, H., Koedinger, K., Junker, B. (2006) learning factors analysis – A general method for cognitive model evaluation and improvement. Proceedings of the 8^th international conference on intelligent tutoring systems, 12-19.

3. Raina, V.K. (1998). Teacher-educators. A perspective. New delhi. Vikas Publishing house pvt.ltd.

4. Rao, D.B. (2004). Successful Schooling, New delhi. Shanty rao prakashan.

5. Rao, V.K. (n.d.). Quality Education. New Delhi. Shanty sarvay prakashan.