Instructors can design classroom guidance activities to influence a student's motivation toward homework and school completion. Counselors who engage students to better understand their learning preferences help them to be more successful. Furthermore, classroom guidance activities that cover topics such as career exploration, academic survival skills, stress and anger management, interpersonal communication and social problem-solving produce not only improvements in student behavior, but also possible protection from the longer term consequence of school dropout.
The classroom is culturally diverse. Students who recognize and respect diversity are able to work better with different cultures, which contributes to their overall success in and out of school. Classroom guidance activities can teach cooperation and communication skills to large groups of students in the general classroom setting. As students learn to cooperate with one another through the activities, they build cohesion in the classroom. Successful activities require students to cooperate with one another in completing the task, competing against time limits rather than against classmates.
Students who participate in classroom guidance activities learn how to be successful and skillful in a group. Small group communication is fundamental to the decision-making processes that run our society. Groups meet for countless tasks, and the better a student works within a group context, the more likely he is to accomplish his goals. The more goals he accomplishes, the better he will feel about himself. In addition to personal benefits, students will receive the satisfaction of contributing to the success of the group. Students gain enormous benefits when learning how to communicate within a group to accomplish a goal.
Classroom guidance activities help students foster trust and a sense of teamwork with others in the classroom. Guidance counselors can design activities that teach students interdependence within a group context. In this way, students will learn to value the contribution other classmates bring to the group activity. Constructing classroom guidance activities to teach students interdependence promotes inclusion within the classroom. Students who feel included within a group of peers do better at school.