Moreover, students identified their classmates as a learning resource and characterized some other students as smart, serious, calm, can explain how to solve problems, unselfish and humble.
– Indonesian Primary School Students’ Perceptions on Academic Help-seeking Behaviour
95 percent of the questions that we have in mind to ask we never go on to utter … we may think the better of it and follow one of the numerous other paths available.
– Avoiding Seeking Help in the Classroom, Who and Why?
When students find tasks difficult, they need to know that there are resources available to help them. Such resources include available adults, peers, books and the internet. By availing themselves of help, they can move forward in their learning journey. For various reasons though, not all students may be willing to seek help. They can be encouraged.
Two researchers from the Charles Darwin University, Australia, presented their study on the help-seeking behaviour of sixth-grade Indonesian students sitting for their National Exam, at The Asian Conference on Psychology and the Behavioural Sciences 2014, themed, Individual, Community and Society: Conflict, Resolution and Synergy, held in Osaka, Japan.
Help-seeking behaviour in their study referred to asking for help from others.
They had conducted eleven group interviews with sixth grade students across five primary schools. Student responses were then analysed for major factors which determined whether and how much students sought help. Students sought help when they thought it was important to do so. How readily they asked for help depended on their teachers, peers and their own personality.
The participating students explained that they knew that seeking help was important to do well in their National Exam, get answers to matters they were curious about, to learn more and to understand better.
When asked about reasons for not seeking help, some of them said that they were shy and others said they were afraid. There were also students who said they did not know what to ask and those who shared that their less-than-ideal performance did not bother them enough.
They shared that they do not ask because on previous occasions, their teachers had pointed them to other sources. Some students did not want to impose. There are times when there is pedagogical basis for teachers to redirect students.
In a paper, presented at the 13th Annual Conference of Open Universities in Beijing, researchers from the Open University of Hong Kong pointed out the difference between, “executive help-seeking” and “instrumental help-seeking”. An example of the former is to ask for the answer. An example of the latter is to ask for a hint. They added that “it is possible … help seeking can be counterproductive to their learning, for example if they immediately ask for help before attempting, or ask for an answer and then give up” (Taplin et al., 1999).
The sixth-grade students said they felt shy to ask their teachers questions, in front of their peers, because they did not want to be thought less of. Some were just shy to interact with the teacher. At the same time, when peers were encouraging and happy to share, even shy students felt comfortable asking for help from each other, if not from the teacher.
There has been other research done on students’ help seeking behaviour both in Indonesia and elsewhere.
For example, in a study published this year, Averina and Kuswandono presented their findings on how motivated Indonesian High School students were to study English, why they were motivated, whether they asked for help without hesitation and if more motivated students asked for help more.
They found that most of the students who had participated in their study were highly motivated either because they saw English as a means to an end (53%) or because they wanted to be part of the “community, culture, customs and society” of people elsewhere who spoke English (47%). The former group agreed strongly with statements like, I study English – “to get a good job”, to get access to more information to be “a knowledgeable person” and “English is an international language used in the global community”. The other group agreed strongly with statements like I study English – “to meet and communicate well with other people who speak English” and “to know new people from different parts of the world”.
Averina and Kuswandono (2022) confirmed that motivated students sought help more. Students in their study thought about whether it was necessary to ask, what to ask, who to ask and how to ask, before asking.
Ryan and others (2001) in their study, explained that students avoid asking for help when they know they need to for two main reasons. The first is “threat to competence” and the other is “desire for autonomy”.
One insight they shared is that students who were thought of as high performers were more likely to ask questions in class. These students may believe that when they asked, no one would think they were somehow inadequate. Students who may fear being judged negatively can approach teachers or trusted peers privately.
As mentioned above, even if students were not afraid or shy, they may not know what to ask or how to ask. Researchers have come up with models to show the different stages of the help-seeking process. These models suggest that help-seeking begins with an awareness that one needs help. Students would be able to tell that they need help based on how they do on worksheets and tests.
Students then need to know what to ask. This consists of two parts. First, they need to know the specific area they need help in. Second, they need to be able to phrase their request for help.
To know the specific area, it will be useful for students to know the names of different topics, sub-topics, components which will be tested and the types of questions which will be asked. For example, specific areas could be inference questions in Open-ended comprehensions or grammar questions in Editing exercises. This makes it necessary for them to be aware of what is being taught. This will make it a lot easier for them to get targeted help.
To be able to phrase the question, they can think about why exactly they find a question difficult. It could be the vocabulary used or because they are not familiar with the method to solve or because it is a novel question.
Apart from the need for competence, Ryan and others (2001) also suggested that the desire for autonomy – wanting to succeed without help, would prevent students from seeking. According to them, students may refuse help either because, they “want to show I can do it myself” or because they believe that they would “learn more if they do it alone”. They shared research which suggested that students who have autonomy concerns can think of help-seeking as a way to be to be independent in future.
Seek and you shall find.
The Brain Dojo
