Theoretical background
In the analysis of the structure and contents of student record, we will make use of several
expert opinions trying to define the instrument.
Student record is “a work instrument meant to collect and systematize significant
information for pupils’ personality and prognosis of their development” (Radu, 1974,
apud Cristea, 2002).
Student record is also defined in two Romanian dictionaries of pedagogy (1979, 1984) as
“a work instrument ... allowing by recording the data a longitudinal and transversal
study on the development of pupils’ personality. The record contains various information,
scientifically processed, classified according to age, and regarding the social
environment, family education, physical condition, work capacity, work style and
performance throughout schooling, intellectual, technical, artistic, organizational and
sports capacities, features of temperament and character, etc.”
In the Dictionary of Educational and Vocational Guidance, psycho-pedagogical or student
record is considered “a document that synthesises and systematizes information on the
pupil, gathered throughout schooling by psychological methods, taken over by statistical
methods and interpreted psycho-pedagogically.” The record is a document of
professionals responsible for career guidance, who help “put a mental diagnosis and give
guidance advice” (Tom şa, 1996). By Voiculescu (2001) student record is “an X-ray of
personality, mental and physical evolution, environmental conditions, school results and
development perspectives”.
Synthetically, student record is for the counsellor:
- a means of recording excerpts from work, written products or tests with a
view to documenting on the school evolution of a pupil; - a sheet with quotations and informative materials, as well as fundamental
personal / biographical data; - a data collection and recording method, which is personal, educative, social;
- a systematic information collecting plan on a pupil, in order to know and
explain his or her school conduct; - a scientific work instrument for the longitudinal / transversal study of a
pupil’s personality; - a technique to facilitate efficient formative intervention in shaping and
guiding pupils; - personal history of a pupil in an educational cycle;