How Do Higher Education Contexts Shape Academic Help-Seeking? A Systematic Review

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 9:45 am
  In Poster Session: Social, Cultural, and Emotional Foundations of Student Learning and Motivation

Abstract

Academic help-seeking is an important self-regulated learning (SRL) skill that allows students to ask others for help and integrate help received into their learning. In addition to student-level predictors of help-seeking, such as motivation and identity, learning contexts also affect students' opportunities to ask for help. In this systematic literature review, I reviewed 39 empirical reports on how interpersonal, instructional, and institutional learning contexts influence academic help-seeking attitudes and intentions in higher education. Results include facets of peer and instructor interpersonal contexts, task and classroom instructional contexts, and broader institutional contexts that shape help-seeking perceptions. To conclude, I offer strategies for instructors and institutions for improving students’ academic help-seeking and future directions for the study of context and SRL.

Author

• Molly L. Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth University