Students’ attitudes towards counselling in a selected international school in Lusaka province, Zambia.
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Date
2021
Authors
Chilomba, Kayembi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
This study used a descriptive survey to establish students’ attitudes towards counselling in a selected international school in Lusaka, Zambia. Additionally, the study sought to establish factors contributing to students’ attitudes towards counselling; to investigate if there were any
differences between male and female students’ attitudes towards counselling; and to investigate if there were any differences in students’ attitudes towards counselling among the grades. The sample of this study was 64 students comprising of 33 females and 31 males from Year/Grade 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the secondary school. The age of the respondents ranged from 10 to 16 and came from different national backgrounds. This study used a semi-structured questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. The questionnaire comprised of a Likert scale and open-ended questions. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS while thematic analysis was for qualitative data. This study found that students had diverse attitudes towards counselling, including counselling being good; counselling being helpful; counselling being unhelpful; counselling being uncomfortable; and counselling lacking confidentiality. This study found that the effectiveness of counselling, counsellor traits and confidentiality were the factors contributing to students’ attitudes towards counselling. The Independent t-test results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between male and female students’ attitudes towards academic, social and careers counselling, but were towards personal counselling. The one-way
ANOVA test results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences in students’ attitudes towards counselling among the Grade/Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 groups. Based on the above results, the following recommendations have been made: principals, teachers, parents and school counsellors have to sensitise pupils on the benefits of counselling in school; School administrators have to employ at least two school counsellors comprising of at least one male and one female counsellor; school administrators have to encourage school counsellors to pursue continued professional development; and school counsellors have to belong to professional bodies and associations. It is hoped this study has added to the existing body of literature on school counselling and opened a window on students’ attitudes towards counselling in an international school with a diverse student body.
Description
Thesis of Master of Science in Counselling.