Relationship Between Students’ Academic Help-Seeking From Classmates, Academic and Social Competence, and Teachers’ Practice of Encouraging Questions and Help-Seeking:

Moderating Effects of Competence

Abstract

  The present study investigated the extent to which students' academic and social competence moderates the relation between their seeking academic help from their classmates and their teachers' practice of encouraging questions and help-seeking. Students (7th and 8th grades, 4 classes per grade; N=280) attending a public junior high school completed questionnaires that included items relating to their teachers' responses to requests for help, an academic help-seeking scale, an academic competence scale, and a social competence scale. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggested that for the students with high academic competence, their teachers' positive practice could not be shown to be related to these students' independent help-seeking from their classmates. On the other hand, for the students with low academic competence, the higher their teachers' positive practice was, the more frequently these students sought help. Moreover, for the students with high social competence, the higher their teachers' negative practice was, the less frequently these students sought help. For the students with low social competence, their teachers' negative practice could not be shown to be related to these students' independent help-seeking from their classmates. In addition, their teachers' negative practices enhanced these students' dependent help-seeking from their classmates. The results suggest that in creating a classroom environment in which students can autonomously ask for help, it may be effective for teachers to provide active encouragement of students' help-seeking.