Monitoring Accuracy as Antecedent to Help Seeking

• In Event: Motivational, Cognitive, and Dispositional Antecedents of Academic Help Seeking

Abstract

Within a system of self-regulated learning (SRL), students exercise agency over their own learning by planning, monitoring, controlling, and adjusting their thoughts, motivations, behaviors, and environment (Pintrich, 2004). One control behavior that students can use within this system of SRL is seeking help (Nelson-LeGall, 1981; Pintrich & Zusho, 2002). For students to seek help, they must first recognize a need for help by monitoring their learning (Nelson-LeGall, 1981). Limited research has explored the link between monitoring and help seeking with researcher-administered tasks (e.g., Nelson-LeGall, 1981; Romero & Tobias, 1996) or with college students (e.g., Karabenick & Knapp, 1988). The current proposal examines monitoring as an antecedent of help seeking in elementary students in the context of activities completed as part of their normal mathematics curriculum.
The theoretical model is illustrated in Figure 1, wherein student monitoring triggers awareness of need for help, which leads to help-seeking behaviors. We test our model in a sample of 126 fourth and fifth grade students (49% male, 57% English Learners, 93% low SES). Monitoring was measured by surveys and by comparison of scores and confidence ratings within math software students played 90 minutes/week. Surveys on help-seeking behaviors were given to participating students, their teachers, and parents. Same-type student help-seeking ratings (e.g., adaptive/adaptive) were not correlated with parent/teacher ratings; however, student ratings of avoidant and expedient help seeking were inversely correlated with parent/teacher ratings of adaptive help seeking (r=-.24 & -.34, respectively).
Perceived need for help was inversely correlated with student self-reported monitoring accuracy, “I get the score I expect…” (r=-.36). Sensitivity (proportion confident when correct) and specificity (proportion uncertain when incorrect) were used as task-level monitoring measures (see Schraw, Kuch, & Gutierrez, 2013). Sensitivity was positively correlated with self-report monitoring (r=.29), and specificity was negatively correlated (r=-.25). Specificity was positively correlated with self-reported need for help (r=.21), whereas specificity was not.
Multilevel models were estimated to determine the association between monitoring, need, and help seeking (adaptive, avoidant, and expedient), controlling for prior math achievement and demographic covariates (Tables 1 and 2). Prior mathematics achievement was negatively associated with self-reports of both avoidant and expedient help seeking and positively associated with other reports of adaptive and expedient help seeking. Only self-reported monitoring accuracy was associated with self-report of expedient help seeking. This association varied depending on prior mathematics achievement: students who were high monitors with low prior math scores reported the most expedient help seeking (Figure 2).
Teacher and parent reports of expedient help seeking were associated with specificity and perceived need, both indicators of student uncertainty. Avoidant help seeking was also positively associated with perceived need, whereas adaptive help seeking was negatively associated. Our theorized model was partially supported by the data—indicators of student uncertainty were positively related to help seeking behaviors, but negatively to those that were adaptive. Future work should explore the association between help seeking behaviors and type of monitoring, along with the balance of accuracy and confidence in order to understand which aspects of monitoring contribute positively to adaptive help seeking.

Authors

• Teomara Rutherford, North Carolina State University

• Katerina Schenke, University of California - Los Angeles

• Arena C. Lam, WestEd

• Sarah Marina Kessler, North Carolina State University