ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on why students do, or often do not, ask teachers for help with their schoolwork. Seeking help when one cannot solve a problem alone seems preferable to giving up or continuing to persist unsuccessfully alone (Newman, 1991). In this case, evidence that students often refrain from asking questions or requesting help when they have difficulty with their schoolwork is both intriguing and disturbing (Dillon, 1982; Good, Slavings, Harel, & Emerson, 1987; Karabenick & Knapp, 1988; Newman & Goldin, 1990; van der Meij, 1988). Studies of help seeking in other contexts have also shown that people often do not seek help, even when doing so may alleviate real distress (see papers in DePaulo, Nadler, & Fisher, 1983). Such findings led Nadler (1991) to propose that the need for help creates a “help-seeking dilemma” that evokes conflicting needs, some of which can be met by seeking help whereas others can be satisfied by not seeking help. In this case, it is not surprising that much research has focused on identifying students’ motives, or reasons for seeking and avoiding help, and on examining how these are influenced by characteristics of students and the classroom environment, and how they influence students’ academic help seeking.
