Analysis of Student Developmental Tasks and Teacher Counselors Performance: A Preliminary Study

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Analysis of Student Developmental Tasks
and Teacher Counselors Performance: A
Preliminary Study
Fathur Rahman*
Guidance and Counseling Department
Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
fathur@uny.ac.id*
Abstract— The research objectives are identifying the level of
students developmental tasks and evaluating the performance
of teacher counselors in managing school guidance and
counseling program. Special region of Yogyakarta (DIY) was
chosen as the primary research setting that includes 4 high
school and teacher counselor working groups (MGBK) at 5
districts in DIY. This study involves the active participation of
teacher counselors and students as well. Quantitative data
obtained from the Developmental Task Inventory-Based
Computer and it has been analyzed by descriptive statistics,
while qualitative data obtained from interview analyzed by
flow and interactive models. The conclusions are 1) the
psychological development profile of students in several
research locations has not meet the ideal criteria. Their
development stage were still limited at the stage of “Conscious
self” (suitable only for secondary students) and 2) the
performance of teacher counselor can be concluded to be still
relatively low by some indicators; no comprehensive planning
and not based on assessment needs, illogical design, less
structured, and unsupported environment socially.
Keywords— developmental tasks, teacher counselor performance
I. INTRODUCTION
The approach and purpose of guidance and
counseling services are basically not only related to deviant
behavior (maladaptive behavior) and how to prevent these
behavioral aberrations, but also deal with the development of
effective behavior [1, 2, 3]. This developmental perspective
has broad implications that the development of healthy and
effective behavior must be achieved by each individual in the
context of their respective environments. Thus, guidance and
counseling should need to be directed at efforts to facilitate
individuals to become more aware of themselves, skilled in
responding to the environment, and able to develop
themselves into individuals who are meaningful and future-
oriented [1, 2]. Today, a counselor is expected to provide
comprehensive, balanced, development-based school
counseling program that target social and emotional
supportive services, educational and academic planning, and
vocational education for all students [4].
Development as a process and purpose of guidance
and counseling can only occur effectively in interactions and
healthy transactions between students and their environment.
The nature of this approach lies in how individuals relate to
their environment and how the reciprocal relationship
between the two. This approach places individuals as part
and one unit of systems and subsystems that cannot be
separated. The focus of a centralized intervention on
individuals alone does not have a significant impact on one's
self-change. Therefore, the demand for developing
counseling services for students in schools should not only
focus on individuals (students) themselves, but also need to
pay attention to changes in the environment of the students
themselves.
The preliminary study in the context of developing
the school guidance and counseling service model is based
on objective conditions which show an ambiguity in the
purpose of developing the psychological dimensions of
students in schools, as well as the competency of guidance
and counseling teachers who are incompetent in overcoming
student problems. Based on several studies, it was revealed
several facts about school counseling and guidance service
activities which were actually counterproductive to student
development. School guidance and counseling service
activities that have developed in Indonesia have focused
more on administrative and clerical activities [2], such as
managing attendance and absence of students, imposing
disciplinary sanctions on students who are late and deemed
naughty. Thus, due to the problems, teacher counselor is
stigmatized as a school police. The consequence of this
reality, in the end led to the guidance and counseling services
held in schools eventually encapsulated in traditional and
clinical approaches.
The phenomena that occurs in schools in Indonesia
are different in contrast to the development of guidance and
counseling services in other countries. The counseling
approach within the scope of education (schools) in several
countries in the world has undergone a paradigmatic leap
from clinical-based to development-oriented counseling
services. The objectives achieved in this study consisted of
1) identifying students' self-development needs in several
schools in DIY according to their development assumptions
and psychological maturity; and 2) evaluating the
performance of guidance and counseling teachers in several
schools in DIY in implementing guidance and counseling
services. II. METHODS
This research is a part of three-year research series.
Research conducted in the first year was located in 4 schools
and 5 guidance and counseling teachers working group
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Proceedings of the 2nd International Seminar on Guidance and Counseling 2019 (ISGC 2019)
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spread across five districts in the Special Region of
Yogyakarta (DIY). The research subjects involved in the
research in this first year were 325 high school students
covering 5 districts in DIY Province. Subjects from 83
Yogyakarta Vocational Schools were 83 students, subjects
from MAN Wonokromo, Bantul were 67 students, subjects
from SMAN 1 Ngemplak, Sleman were 61 students, subjects
from SMAN 1 Wates were 64 students, and subjects from
SMAN 2 Wonosari, Gunungkidul were 50 students.
Meanwhile, the number of teachers involved as interview
respondents in this study was 5 persons.
Student development and teacher performance were
collected using Developmental Task Inventory and
interviews. Quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to
describe the profile of student development and teacher
performance. Analysis of student development tasks and
teacher performance will be used as a reference in making
developmental counseling modules.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The identification of student’s developmental tasks
carried out in this study using a computerized Developmental
Task Inventory which was developed by Sunaryo
Kartadinata and colleagues at the Universitas Pendidikan
Indonesia, Bandung. With these tools, the research team can
understand precisely the level of student’s developmental
tasks individually or in groups, identify problems that hinder
development and assist students who have problems
completing their developmental tasks.
Inventory measures the level of student
developmental tasks in 11 aspects, namely 1) foundation of
religious life, 2) foundation of ethical behavior, 3) emotional
maturity, 4) intellectual maturity, 5) awareness of
responsibility, 6) social role as male or female, 7) self-
acceptance and its development, 8) independence of
economic behavior, 9) insight and career preparation, 10)
maturity of relationships with peers, and 11) self preparation
for marriage and family life.
The ideal expectations obtained from this inventory,
students should ideally be able to reach the level of
individuality. The level of individuality means that students
are able to increase individuality awareness, aware of
emotional conflict between independence and dependence,
more tolerant of oneself and others, knowing the existence of
individual differences, being able to distinguish internal life
and external conditions, knowing the complexity of self, and
caring about social problems.
Based on the table 1, the average score of the level of
development of students from all schools studied reached
4.60 with an average consistency of answers of 7.11. The
meaning of the results of this achievement means that on
average all students have not reached the expected level of
development, which is a score of 6 which means that all
students are in the INDIVIDUALITY level. If we see a trend
toward an average score of 4.60, it means that all students are
still limited to the SELF-CONSCIOUS level, which is
limited to understanding and knowing oneself and has not
yet reached the level of self-actualization that is expected to
be fully in accordance with the ideal developmental tasks.
Profile of student development in several locations
which is used as a unit of research analysis shows that the
level of development of students has not reached the
expected ideal level. As mentioned earlier, the stage of
development of high school students should have reached the
stage of individuality. The level of individuality means that
in students there has been an increase in individuality
awareness, aware of the emotional conflict between
independence and dependence, more tolerant of oneself and
others, recognizing the existence of individual differences,
being able to distinguish internal life and external conditions,
knowing self-complexity, and care about developmental and
social problems.
The low level of development of these students
further strengthens the thesis revealed by Myrick [5] that the
developmental approach must be a top priority in the
implementation of guidance and counseling services. One of
the unachieved levels of individuality in the psychological
development of students can be attributed to the accentuation
of counseling and guidance programs in schools that
emphasize the crisis and clinical approach, namely just
waiting for problems without proactive efforts to seek
prevention and optimization of developmental tasks.
Therefore, program design concerned with optimal
student development is needed. The scope of the intended
development should cover 11 aspects of development (as
stated in the inventory). All aspects are in line with the
developmental domain that includes career planning and
exploration, self and social knowledge, and educational
development [6].
Table 1. Developmental Task Profile of High School Students
No
Developmental Aspects
Developmental Index
SMKN 3
Yogyakarta
MAN
Wonokromo
Bantul
SMAN 1
Ngemplak
SMAN 1
Wates
1
foundation of religious life
4.67
4.64
4.67
4.74
2
foundation of ethical behavior
4.58
4.57
4.7
4.79
3
emotional maturity
4.64
4.57
4.49
4.64
4
intellectual maturity
4.74
4.66
4.58
4.73
5
awareness of responsibility
4.81
4.67
4.73
4.66
6
social role as male or female
4.79
4.64
4.71
4.81
7
self-acceptance and its development
4.71
4.75
4.8
4.83
8
independence of economic behavior
4.74
4.74
4.71
4.82
9
insight and career preparation
4.73
4.44
4.63
4.69
10
maturity of relationships with peers
4.87
4.83
5.04
4.92
11
self preparation for marriage and family life
4.67
4,63
4.71
4.72
Mean of score
4.72
4.23
4.71
4.76
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256

Interviewing to the teachers from SMAN 1 Wates and
SMAN 1 Ngemplak, Sleman was conducted in the form of
directed interviews which developed from the counselor
performance evaluation list [7]. The results of interviews to
the teachers can be seen in the following table.
Table 2. Teacher Counselor’s Performance
NO
DIMENSION
RESULTS
1
needs analysis of
guidance and
counseling
services
4 of the 5 guidance and counseling
teachers did not assess the needs of
various aspects needed in the guidance and
counseling program planning
2
ability to
implementing
guidance
curriculum
activities
4 of 5 teachers do not conduct guidance
curriculum activities because there is no
time available. Teachers who implement
the guidance curriculum feel unsatisfied
with the material and methods used
3
Ability to
implementing
responsive
service
All teachers feel underestimate to the
individual and group counseling activities
that have been implemented. The low
rating is indicated by the following:
a. not yet mastered maximum
counseling skills
b. more busy with administrative tasks
from school managers
c. problem analysis and the solution is
still not effective
4
Ability to
implementing
individual
planning service
a. some teachers do not understand what
and how it is intended and the
implementation of individual planning
services
b. This activity is not satisfactory
because it is often confused to help
because there is no set of data about
the problems and needs of students
5
Ability to
organize system
support
a. Feeling unsatisfactory because the
teacher has not been able to involve
parental participation in developing
effective student behavior
b. collaborative activities do not occur at
all because of negative perceptions of
guidance and counseling services
The findings obtained from interviews showed the
huge problem related to the unclear performance of the
guidance and counseling teachers and the low quality of
guidance and counseling in schools. Some of the problems
that arise, among others, are the absence of needs and
problems assessment as a basis for planning guidance and
counseling programs, the various components of BK services
that are not implemented in a balanced and maximum
manner. This condition is in line with the findings of
Sunaryo Kartadinata [2] that guidance and counseling
services are limited to formal needs rather than as actual
needs. Not infrequently guidance and counseling services are
only administrative jobs that strongly emphasize physical
evidence rather than a professional job that emphasizes the
process of developing behavior using effective psychological
interventions. Guidance and counseling services in schools
still require more administrative and clerical work rather than
professional services to improve student welfare and better
performance.
Other findings from this study also indicate the low
support of the social environment needed by students in
overcoming the problems of everyday life. This reality is
different from experts explanation [3, 8, 9, 10] that
development-oriented counseling models are very concerned
about the student's development environment that influences
to the students behavior. The guidance and counseling
program should be directed to the development of external
assets consisting of; social support, empowerment, self-hope
and environmental boundaries, opportunity support.
IV. CONCLUSION
Based on the research that has been done, the
conclusions that can be drawn are as follows; a) Profile of
the development of high school students in several research
locations shows the level of development that has not met the
ideal criteria in the individuality stage. The development of
high school students who are the subject of research is still
limited to the Self-Awareness stage (suitable only for
secondary students); and b). The performance teacher
counselor and the quality of the guidance and counseling
program can be said to be relatively low with several
indications, namely planning that is not comprehensive and
not based on assessment of needs and problems, illogical and
unstructured design, and low- involvement of developmental
environment around students, such us family and society.
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