Review of Techniques of guidance: Tests, records

Abstract

Reviews the book, Techniques of guidance: Tests, records, and counseling in a guidance program by Arthur E. Traxler (1945). The reviewer states that the first thirty or forty pages of this compact volume may give the reader, sophisticated or otherwise, some blank misgivings. But if he persists, his patience will be richly rewarded. Few books that have come to my attention in recent years have been more appropriately titled or more effective in their progression. From a conventional beginning that toys with definition, staff organization, and costs, the science of guidance gradually becomes the art of bringing into conjunction to their mutual advantage the potentialities of pupils and the resources of school and community. The reviewer states that tests as instruments of fact finding, however, are given the largest amount of space and the most exhaustive treatment. Aptitude as a concept is intelligently discussed, and likewise the fact of individual differences; but without any attempt at explaining the why. A selected but reasonably exhaustive list of tests carefully and fully annotated is attached, including titles, authors, publishers, research information and references. "The whole thesis of this book, however, is that counselors who are not psychologists are entirely capable of performing the distributive functions of guidance and many of the less involved adjustive functions, provided they will get acquainted with and use the techniques for knowing individuals." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)