9th grade students' opinions about the effectiveness of guidance programs

Self-actualization efforts of an individual within an educational system would succeed with psychological counseling and guidance services. In order to attain this, school guidance programs need to be systematic, comprehensive, and developmental. In the present study, ninth grade students' opinions about the effectiveness of guidance programs were gathered and examined with respect to the following variables: gender, school type, mother education level, father education level, and the number of guidance teachers in the school. Adopting a survey research design, data collection instrument developed by the researcher was administered to 488 high school students from the city center of Zonguldak. The factor analysis yielded a five-factor solution and the reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be 0,962. Since the normality assumption was violated, non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U tests and Kruskal-Wallis H tests) were conducted. Research findings showed that ninth grade students found the educational, vocational, and personal guidance services as somewhat effective. Students from the Anatolian teacher high schools found the implemented guidance programs more beneficial compared to other high school students. Moreover, student' perceptions of effectiveness of the guidance programs differ by mother-father education level. In order to increase the effectiveness of the programs, the number of guidance teachers and the amount of time spent for the guidance services may be increased. In addition, providing in-service training to school administrators and teachers would enhance the effectiveness of the guidance programs. Keywords: Guidance Programs, Program Evaluation, Guidance Services