Why Don’t Students Ask for Help?

Students are often reluctant to seek academic help from their instructors, despite the fact that many of them could benefit from the help. Teachers are being encouraged to develop supportive relationships with students, and most are willing to do so. In the case of students seeking help, what we need is clear information about those teacher characteristics that motivate students to ask.

Here are the top ten reasons students don’t ask for help, according to a survey of 75 students:

1. Teacher’s personality
2. Office hours
3. Time issues
4. Thinking teacher doesn’t care about student
5. Teacher’s approachability
6. Intimidation
7. Laziness
8. Teacher doesn’t reiterate to visit
9. Having difficulty with a class or subject
10. Thinking going won’t help

Responses to all three questions included some student factors (e.g., laziness, fears of intimidation or appearing stupid) and some environmental factors (e.g., time issues). In order to overcome time conflicts that may limit face-to-face interaction, we should consider how electronic tools such as cell phones, e-mail, discussion boards, chat rooms, video chatting, and course-management websites can make us more accessible.

However, instructor factors dominated the responses to our questions. Student perceptions of instructor qualities serve as the primary barriers and facilitators that determine students’ likelihood of seeking academic help. This is interesting because help-seeking is a behavior initiated by the student—we can’t help them unless they ask. For that reason, it likely represents a form of self-serving bias in explaining the attributions for their own lack of initiative. Whatever the explanation, the findings suggest that instructors have a significant impact on whether or not students take advantage of the help teachers can provide. Those of us who care and are committed to helping students should be cognizant of the things that we can do to break down the barriers and facilitate student help-seeking behavior.

We gathered from what these focus groups reported that the most effective and direct way for instructors to encourage students to seek help is an honest review of our behaviors and a willingness to adapt our teaching styles so that we appear more transparent and accommodating to students. In truth, most of us are available, approachable, and ready to provide assistance. We just need to constantly remind ourselves to regularly communicate these qualities to our students.

It is easy to forget and just assume that students know they can ask us for help. It’s also easy to forget how vulnerable students feel when they are struggling with the material. It is, after all, a bit embarrassing to have to ask, especially when you feel totally confused and think you will look foolish in front of the professor. Student trust and awareness of our willingness to help will grow if we regularly reveal our desire to do so. When students do come for help and we provide it, that makes it easier to ask next time. It also increases the likelihood that students will invest more time and effort in the course. And who knows? If they get the assistance they need, they may just encourage others in the class to ask, too.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services