Student help-seeking behavior in early adolescence and its causes

Teacher Behavior/Class Culture

Avoiding Seeking Help in the Classroom: Who and Why?" appeared in the Educational Psychology Review in 2001. The article, by Allison Ryan, Paul Pintrich, and Carol Midgley, is mainly a literature review in the interrelated areas of achievement goal theory, social-goal orientation, and classroom dynamics and how these things impact the decision to seek academic help. The researchers investigated the causes of help avoidance, which has been found to increase during early adolescence (p.94). Therefore, the population in question is early adolescents, although the researchers to include references to studies that deal with other student populations. The article is well-written, well-organized, and clear. Help-seeking is the main focus of the paper, and is described by the authors as "an important self-regulatory strategy that contributes to student learning," (93). As help-seeking directly relates to actual student performance, the current research is important and can help educators understand and provide for the needs of their students to improve classroom and social performance. The findings of current research are interesting and insightful as to which particular factors most strongly contribute to help-seeking or help-avoidance, but the authors also note that future research would be helpful in a number of key areas that they address in the course of the paper.

1. Is the problem clearly stated?

The problem at hand is clearly stated in this paper. For example, on page 93, the authors state, "inevitably, students encounter ambiguity or difficulty in their schoolwork and need assistance." In other words, all students will, at some point, feel perplexed or confused in class. Whether or not the student decides to seek assistance from the teacher or from his or her classmates is the focus of this paper, as are the reasons for the choice the student eventually makes. Because help-seeking is an "adaptive" behavior and one which can and does usually lead to improved academic performance, the subject matter is presented as a viable research problem.

Furthermore, on page 95, the authors go over the two main stages of the help-seeking process to clarify the problem raised in the article. First, the student feels perplexed about something on an exam, class discussion or any other academic activity. The next, and most critical step, is the point at which the student must decide whether or not to seek help.

2. Does the problem have a theoretical rationale, convincing or not, and why?

Ryan, et al. clarify the theoretical rationale at several points in the article, proving that the problem deserves investigation. For instance, on page 93, the authors state, "Help seeking is an important self-regulatory strategy that contributes to student learning." This statement clarifies the theoretical rationale as being ultimately in the students' best interest. If the objective of educational research is to improve students' performance in class as well as their psychological well-being, morale, and socio-cognitive skills, then it is important to devote research time and energy in this area of resarch.

Furthermore, the authors narrow down their hypothesis to focus on specific motivational and social factors that may contribute to their seeking or not seeking help. "The apparent contradiction between young adolescents' increasing cognitive capabilities and their help-seeking behavior highlights the importance of considering the motivational and social factors that influence help seeking in the classroom," (94).

The authors also explicitly state, "We are interested in this avoidance behavior because when students don't garner help when it is needed, they put themselves at a disadvantage for learning and performance," (94). Therefore, the problem of students not seeking help has a theoretical rationale, and that rationale is convincing because it directly impacts students' scholastic performance.

5. How clearly are the hypotheses stated?

Hypotheses are stated explicitly. For instance, "In our work, we have investigated how students' motivational characteristics, as well as classroom contextual characteristics, related to adolescents' decision to avoid seeking help with their academic work," (94). The remainder of the article is focused on providing support and clarification for this hypothesis.

Ancillary hypotheses include one stated on page 94: "The decision by students to not get help represents an intentional goal-directed act to cease or avoid engagement." This statement is related to all the research focusing on performance or social status goal-orientation, both of which are positively correlated with avoidance of help-seeking behavior.

6. Are operational definitions provided?

Operational definitions are clearly provided in the article. First, the authors define "avoidance of help seeking" as "instances when students know that they need help but do not seek it," (94). Next, the authors define mastery- and performance- goal orientations, which are "disparate reasons for involvement and different conceptions of success" that are linked to help-seeking (97). Other operational definitions such as social-goal orientation, are also provided and supported by literature.

7. Is the procedure or method used to attack and answer the problem fully and completely described?

The current article is a literature review and as such does not constitute a laboratory report. However, the authors use their literature review and research to present to the academic community a variety of fruitful avenues for future research. Ryan, et. al do not go into detail about the methods or procedures used by researchers, because such details would be unnecessary in a literature review.

8. Are there any probable sources of error that might influence the results of the study? If so, have they been controlled?

There are no obvious sources of error that could influence the results of this literature review, other than the fact that there may be studies that counter the hypothesis that were not included in the review.

9. Were statistical techniques used to analyze the data?

10. How clearly are the results presented?

The results or conclusions are clearly presented and summarized throughout the article, which is like a meta-analysis of the research.

11. Any suggestions for developing further research on the topic.

The main purpose for this article was to offer suggestions for developing future research. The authors summarize these ideas into three main categories:

1. New developments in achievement goal theory that distinguishes between approach and avoidance-goal orientation (103).

2. An exploration of autonomy concerns in adolescents.

3. The social climate of the classroom.