Help-Seeking in Math Class

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Ryan and Pintrich's article examines the cognitive, motivational, and social influences on help-seeking behavior in math classrooms in the seventh and eighth grades. The author points out that the decision to seek help is filtered through a motivational-affective system, which includes students' perceptions of competence, achievement goals, and attitudes. The paper relates that one of the weaknesses of the study is that the subject population is relatively homogeneous and does not represent persons from a variety of socioeconomic or ethnic groups. Moreover, the current study focuses on math class; results might have been different for different subjects.

From the Paper:

"Metacognitive skills greatly improve in adolescence, and students become more aware of when they need help with their work. However, research has shown that adolescents are not actively seeking help with their work when needed. The contradiction between the awareness of needing help and the avoidance of seeking help is the focus of the current study, as is clearly stated on the first page of the article. Furthermore, the authors take care to note that the problem deserves investigation and has a sound theoretical rationale. For example, they state, "when students don't garner help when it is needed they put themselves at a disadvantage for learning and performance." "

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