help seeking behavior in learning

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Chapter 2

Help-Seeking Behavior in Learning

SHARON NELSON-LE GALLUniversity of Pittsburgh

Learning is rarely a completely asocial enterprise. Learners are

influenced directly and indirectly by their social and cultural environment,so that the why, what, when, where, and how of learning are not alwaysdecided by the individual lone. Because earning nvolves effecting changesin the individual's knowledge state and skill repertoire, t is not surprisingthat learners may seek help from others in order to effect such changes.Help-seeking has become a topic of growing interest for educators andpsychologists concerned with the development and enhancement ofchildren's active learning skills. Indeed, many scholars consider that theability to utilize adults and peers appropriately s resources to cope with

difficulties encountered n learning situations s one of the most importantskills children can cultivate (Anderson & Messick, 1974; Nelson-Le Gall,1981; Nelson-Le Gall, Gumerman, & Scott-Jones, 1983; White & Watts,1973).

The aim of this chapter is to explicate the instrumental role ofhelp-seeking n learning. Major conceptualizations f help-seeking hat arecurrently nfluential n guiding psychological and educational research willbe examined and evaluated or their utility n understanding elp-seeking nschool-aged earners. Cognitive, developmental, and motivational charac-

teristics of the help-seeker as well as situational/contextual haracteristics fthe helping interaction have been the focus of much research and willtherefore be examined in this chapter. This review will concentrate onhelp-seeking n learning contexts and give consideration o the role thatschool environments play in teaching this important achievement trategy.

Preparation f this paper was supported n part by an institutional rant rom the NationalInstitute f Education, United States Department f Education, o the Learning Research and

Development Center, Universityof

Pittsburgh.

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56 Review of Research n Education, 12

THEORETICAL ONCEPTIONS OF HELP-SEEKINGMost investigators ave based their analyses of help-seeking n the values

of Western individualistic ultures. Such analyses typically point out theinconsistency of help-seeking with the values of competitiveness, self-re-liance, and independence that are characteristically mphasized n suchcultures. Indeed, help-seeking was often viewed as an index of dependencein the early studies of socialization and personality development (e.g.,Beller, 1955; Murphy, 1962; Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957). Earlytheorists characterized he process of socialization as producing movementfrom an inherent dependence and reliance on others toward increasingself-sufficiency. Help-seeking and other behaviors egarded as indicators fdependency were seen as the result of deficient development and faultysocialization f they were displayed beyond very early childhood. Thus,help-seeking has taken on connotations of immaturity, passivity, and evenincompetence.

Although help is sometimes recognized to be beneficial and necessary,seeking help has been characterized, until very recently, as a degradingactivity to be avoided. Not surprisingly, he bulk of the literature derivedfrom these conceptions focuses on the psychological risks and burdens ofasking or help. For example, theoretical and empirical analyses of the roleof perceived personal inadequacy (e.g., Rosen, 1983), embarrassment(e.g., Shapiro, 1978, 1983), loss of self-esteem (e.g., Fisher, Nadler, &Whitcher-Alagna, 982), and the individual's oncern with the presence ofonlookers (e.g., Williams & Williams, 1983) have all been undertaken norder to explain and predict help-seeking. These perspectives onhelp-seeking have been advanced by social psychologists and sociologists,and are primarily oncerned with understanding he attitudes and behaviorsof adults regarding help-seeking n medical and social welfare contexts.

Although there is no one theoretical perspective on help-seeking hat iswidely accepted, several conceptions are currently uiding research. Two ofthe more influential approaches to conceptualizing help-seeking andhelp-seekers are based in the social psychological and sociologicalliteratures nd are concerned with help-seeking n adult populations. Theseapproaches are known as social-normative models and self-esteem models.They focus on personal and sociocultural haracteristics hat are believed tomoderate the perception of the costs of seeking help. Because theseapproaches are central to the bulk of the empirical literature onhelp-seeking, each will be described and evaluated briefly n the followingsections.

Social Norms and Help-SeekingSocial-normative erspectives use the extent to which cultural values and

social roles emphasize norms related to dependence or independence as the


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Nelson-Le Gall: Help-Seeking Behavior 57

basis for predicting and explaining help-seeking. Because of the emphasisgiven to normative explanations, research undertaken within this frame-

work employs demographic and sociocultural ariables e.g., age, gender,race, social class, cross-cultural differences) to predict and explain theoccurrence or nonoccurrence f help-seeking e.g., Graf, Freer, & Plaizier,1979; McMullen & Gross, 1983; Nadler, 1983; Wallston, 1976). Thus,various subgroups of a society such as the young, the aged, the poor, andracial or ethnic minorities might be expected to be more dependent thanother segments of the society and therefore more likely to seek help.

As was previously ndicated, cultural norms emphasizing elf-reliance ndindividual achievement may influence attitudes toward help-seeking.Accordingly, ndividuals ould be expected to differ n the tendency o seekhelp as a function of the degree to which they have internalized thesesocietal norms and values. Whole societies may differ n the emphasis placedon norms of self-reliance. For example, a comparison of evaluations madeby Dutch and United States subjects of individuals escribed as seeking helpor being self-reliant n everyday need situations (Graf, Freer, & Plaizier,1979) showed that U.S. subjects derogated the help seeker more than didthe Dutch subjects. Graf et al. interpreted hese findings as due to a strongeradherence o the norm of self-reliance n the United States han n the Dutch

culture. Similarly, Nadler (1983) has found that kibbutz children n Israelwere more likely to report that they would seek help in daily life situationsthan were their city-dwelling ounterparts. t is recognized, of course, thatattitudes oward nterpersonal elp-seeking do not accurately redict actualinterpersonal help-seeking behavior. Nadler (1983) points out that insocieties with institutionalized helping relations, members may bediscouraged from developing and utilizing effective interpersonal help-seeking skills.

The intensity to which norms of independence and self-reliance areemphasized varies between social roles in a social structure. An example ofsocial roles that differ in their emphasis on these norms are the culturallydefined sex roles. In Western societies, the traditional male sex roleencourages independence, self-reliance, and individual achievement,whereas the traditional female sex role encourages dependence andcooperation (Deaux, 1976). For females, seeking help would be asex-role-consistent behavior; for males, not seeking help would be asex-role-consistent behavior. Thus, help-seeking is viewed as presentinggreater psychological osts to males than to females because by seeking helpmales violate their sex role standards. Consequently, females could beexpected to be more willing han males to perceive the need for help, and toadmit his need by actually eeking help. By and arge, the literature ppearsto support this expectation (see McMullen & Gross, 1983, for a detailedreview of sex differences in help-seeking). However, most of the studies


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citing more help-seeking in females than in males are concerned withhelp-seeking n medical or health-related ettings. Sex differences, and the

direction of differences, are not as consistent with respect o help-seeking nnon-health-related ettings. In health-related ettings, the "sick role" maybe seen as clearly more compatible with the context of the traditional emalesex role stereotype. Help-seeking in nonmedical settings may not be asclearly aligned with one or the other sex role. For example, although here sevidence that classroom xperiences during he elementary chool years aremore consistent with female sex roles than with male sex roles (e.g., Etaugh& Hughes, 1975; Kagan, 1964; Serbin, O'Leary, Kent, & Tonick, 1973), t isnot clear that the student role continues o be clearly more compatible with

one sex role to the exclusion of the other throughout he school years. Atlater ages, male students may seek help as much as, or more than, females(e.g., Ames & Lau, 1982; Greenberg & Shapiro, 1971).

Contributions nd LimitationsThe social-normative approach has been useful in highlighting an

individual's sociocultural values and beliefs that shape the help-seekingprocess. Help-seeking s seen as a social behavior grounded n the prevailingvalues and role structures f a given social group or culture. This approachhas tended to focus on the norms and roles operating n groups defined alongdemographic dimensions at the level of the general society. An equallyimportant evel of analysis is at the level of social norms and roles thatstructure he individual's behavior in schools and classrooms.

Evaluations of the perceived normativeness f help-seeking or occupantsof the student role in learning settings are virtually nonexistent. Aninteresting paradox arises, however, in considering he normativeness ofhelp-seeking for students. On the one hand, students are subordinate nstatus to teachers in the classroom, so dependence on the teacher is

consistent with the student role. Giving help s a behavior onsistent with theteacher role, whereas receiving and seeking help are behaviors consistentwith the reciprocal ole of student. Therefore, students would be expectedto seek out teachers for help. Research ndicates hat help-seekers end toprefer helpers who are perceived as being older, competent, and obligatedto comply with their requests for help (e.g., Barnett, Darcie, Holland, &Kobasigawa, 1982; Druian & De Paulo, 1977; Nelson-Le Gall &Gumerman, 1984). The classroom teacher typically presents these samecharacteristics. On the other hand, role expectations or students nvolve

demands or ever-increasing isplays of individual ompetence n academicperformances as evidence that they are learning what teachers areattempting to teach. Thus, although help-seeking is normative for thestudent, ndividuals n the student role may perceive the psychological ostsof seeking help to be too great to incur because the very act of seeking help


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may be perceived by the teacher and other students as a failure to benefitfrom the teacher's instructional efforts.

Although there may be psychological osts of help-seeking nherent o thestudent role, these perceived risks may be mediated by the classroom normsregarding help-seeking that the teacher establishes and enforces. Thepresence of norms discouraging earning n the context of activities otherthan individual achievement and competition may account for students'failure o seek help from their teachers and even from peers. Support or thisidea comes from the substantial iterature on peer tutoring (Allen, 1976,1983). When help-seeking rom peers becomes institutionalized-that is, ittakes place in formal school-based peer tutoring programs where a same-ageor older student assumes he teacher role vis-a-vis another tudent-psycho-logical costs of help-seeking may be perceived o increase or the tutee (e.g.,Allen, 1983; Rosen, Powell, & Schubot, 1978). These psychological ostsbecome particularly alient when a tutee has a younger or same-age child astutor. In such arrangements, he achieved role of tutor is perceived by thetutee to be incongruent with the age identity of tutor and to violatesocial-normative expectations about teaching-learning relationships. If,however, classroom norms support and encourage informal helpingexchanges among peers, the perceived costs of help-seeking may be

lessened.Given the impact of social and cultural norms on help-seeking,

researchers must begin to give more attention to the study of help-seekingbehavior from a cross-cultural perspective. Cross-cultural nvestigationscould highlight variables hat are relevant or understanding elp-seeking asa universal phenomenon. Research must also begin to focus more on therelationships between help-seeking and social norms hat operate n specificsocial institutions within a society. Also, we know relatively ittle about thesocial norms related to help-seeking n educational settings. Researchers

need to give more attention o classroom-level orms and values n attemptsto understand help-seeking as it occurs among students in the classroom.

Studies of social-normative ariables provide some useful information,but are of limited value without an assessment of the processes underlyingnormative differences. Limits o the value of studies of normative and socialvariables are that (a) variability may exist within a given group so thatgeneralizations are not possible and (b) measures of specific aspects ofindividuals' personality and motivational orientations of the environmentappear o have greater predictive and explanatory ower than do normative

variables (Ames, 1983; Fisher, Nadler, & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982).Self-Esteem and Help-Seeking

The self-esteem approach to understanding the phenomenon ofhelp-seeking s similar o the social-normative pproach n that it focuses on


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the role of norms and beliefs in moderating he decision to seek or not toseek help. The beliefs in question, however, are deeply instilled personal

beliefs and conceptions about the self as an individual. Self-esteem-relatedconceptions have used self-esteem-related onstructs o predict and explainhelp-seeking. To date, self-esteem-related actors have received the lion'sshare of attention as personal determinants of help-seeking behavior.Research tends to focus on individual differences n levels of chronic, orpersistent, self-esteem (see Nadler, 1983) and has shown this variable o bean important nfluence on the willingness r unwillingness o seek help (e.g.,Fisher & Nadler, 1976; Rosen, 1983; Shapiro, 1978; Tessler & Schwartz,1972).

Level of self-esteem is viewed as a personality characteristic thatmoderates the individual's sensitivity to the self-threatening ituation ofadmitting nadequacy to self and others. By making a request for help,individuals cknowledge heir nability o cope with a failure and ower theirsense of self-esteem. Self-esteem explanations differ, however, n predictingthe effect of level of self-esteem on the individual's ecision o seek help as aresponse to failure. Two opposing predictions can be derived from thevarious models of the effect of level of self-esteem on help-seeking Nadler,1983). The first prediction s based on notions of vulnerability, he second on

notions of consistency. In explanations elying on notions of vulnerability,low self-esteem ndividuals would be expected to seek help less than wouldhigh self-esteem individuals. That is, because low self-esteem individualshave few positive self-cognitions, hey are more vulnerable o self-threat-ening information and avoid the self-threatening ituation of seeking helpmore than high self-esteem individuals do. In explanations relying onnotions of consistency, high self-esteem is expected to be associated withless help-seeking. This prediction suggests that it is the inconsistency ofincoming self-related information with existing self-cognitions that is

threatening to the self. According to this hypothesis, high self-esteemindividuals with many positive self-cognitions are predicted to perceivemore self-threat han low self-esteem individuals and therefore to be lesslikely to seek help.

In general, the research literature (see Fisher, Nadler, & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982, for comprehensive eview) tends to support he consistencyhypothesis over the vulnerability hypothesis. For example, Tessler andSchwartz 1972), among the first to examine he role of chronic self-esteemin help-seeking, used college students dentified as low or high n self esteem

as subjects. Subjects were presented with the task of identifying nstances ofneurotic behavior in tape-recorded dialogues and were given theopportunity to seek help with the task by consulting guidelines forjudgments, f they so desired. To make this task potentially hreatening otheir self-conception, subjects were told that performance on this task


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depended on the subject's own mental health and native intelligence.Tessler and Schwartz ound that ow self-esteem subjects sought help sooner

and more frequently han did high self-esteem subjects. Other studies n theliterature have shown that high self-esteem individuals are less likely thanlow self-esteem ndividuals o seek help if they feel that they will be unableto reciprocate e.g., Greenberg, 1980), because inability to reciprocate sperceived by the individual to be inconsistent with self-conceptions ofindependence and self-reliance. These findings provide additional upportfor the consistency hypothesis.

Contributions nd Limitations

The self-esteem approach has been most useful in highlighting theinfluence of affective reactions and personality differences on help-seekingbehavior. The focus on psychological characteristics hat may vary fromindividual o individual within the same social group or occupying similarroles is an important contribution. There are, however, several method-ological and conceptual features of this literature hat limit its generaliz-ability and that leave the subject of the relationship etween self-esteem andhelp-seeking n educational settings open to question. Some of the issuesthat arise when findings from self-esteem conceptions are employed as a

framework or understanding tudents' help-seeking nvolve (a) the implicitassumption of globality in children's self-evaluations, (b) the stability ofself-evaluations, c) the nature of the tasks used to elicit failure, and (d) thedirection of causal relations among self-esteem, achievement, andhelp-seeking.

Researchers have usually examined chronic self-esteem in adults bymeasuring t as a global construct. Harter's (1983) research suggests thatyoung children e.g., below the age of 8 years) do not have a sense of self ingeneral. Children at this point in their development appear capable only of

evaluating specific characteristics and competencies of the self. Thegeneralizability of self-esteem models to help-seeking in school-agepopulations is limited, therefore, not only because the problems andcontexts eliciting the possibility of seeking help in educational ettings callfor the individual o make specific assessments of him (her)self, but alsobecause the individuals eeking help may not possess a concept of generalself-worth if they are young learners. Future investigations of therelationship between help-seeking and self-esteem must certainly assessdomain-specific elf-evaluations, especially where elementary tudents are

involved.Furthermore, because the research samples are virtually all adult

samples, the generalizability o child samples must be suspect. It appearsthat the applicability of this perspective o understanding f help-seekingbehavior in elementary and junior high school students is not only


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unproven, t is also virtually untried. For the most part, the self-esteem-re-lated paradigms nvolve the examination of levels of chronic self-esteem n

adults. Needless to say, adults will be more likely than young children ohave stable concepts of self-worth n many more areas of performance.Thus, the issue of stability of self-evaluation becomes salient n consideringthe applicability of self-esteem-related models to children's help-seekingbehavior n achievement ettings. Measuring evels of chronic or persistentself-esteem as is done with adult subjects is also a more complex matterwhen children are involved. Children's elf-conceptions an be expected tobe less stable if one considers hat changes n cognitive processing abilitiesoccur with age, and also that changes in academic environments or

interpersonal roles may bring about dramatic changes in level ofself-esteem. For example, the transition rom kindergarten o first gradebrings about changes n self-evaluations Harter, 1983). Several researchershave also found decreases n level of self-esteem at the onset of adolescenceand the transition to junior high school (e.g., Harter, 1983; Harter &Connell, 1982; Simmons, Rosenberg, & Rosenberg, 1973).

Another limitation is that much of the research on self-esteem andhelp-seeking has taken place in settings that bear little resemblance o thelearning contexts encountered by students n educational ystems. The bulk

of the research has taken place in controlled aboratory ettings with collegestudent populations. Performance s often assessed by a relative stranger,after little or no training, and usually n the presence of few, if any, otherpersons. Typical tasks on which subjects' help-seeking behavior has beenassessed include stock market investment simulations (e.g., Fisher andNadler, 1976) and social judgment tasks such as making judgments ofsymptoms of mental disorder displayed by others (e.g. Tessler & Schwartz,1972). These tasks may be seen as novel, atypical, and generally solatedfrom the individual's sual domains of performance. Thus, extreme caution

must be exercised in drawing inferences from such studies about therelationship between level of self-esteem and help-seeking n educationalsettings.

Finally, a major conceptual imitation nvolves assumptions proposed bycurrent elf-esteem models about the relationship between self-esteem andachievement. The self-esteem formulations of help-seeking focus on thepotential negative effects of help-seeking or the individual's elf-concept ofability, which in turn is apparently assumed to detract from taskperformance. Help-seeking is assumed to lower self-esteem because it

implies the individual cannot succeed without help, and perhaps not evenwith help. These perceptions are thought to further decrease expectationsfor successful task performance, ncrease concern over evaluation, andfurther distract he individual rom he task causing ower achievement. Thisformulation, however, overlooks data from an alternative causal model


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advocated by educational researchers e.g., Calsyn & Kenny, 1977; Harter& Connell, 1982). These recent data indicate that achievement s causallypredominant ver self-concept of ability and perceived evaluation of others.This finding ndicates hat increases n achievement hould ead to increasesin self-concept of ability. If seeking help can enhance learning andachievement, self-esteem specific to one's sense of competence shouldincrease. Thus, high self-esteem can be construed as a consequent ofhelp-seeking. Current self-esteem formulations are lacking n explanatorypower since help-seeking may be both determined by and a determinant fself-esteem; yet this bidirectionality of effects is usually not taken intoaccount.

SummarySocial-normative onceptions and self-esteem conceptions emphasize he

role of personal characteristics hat influence the perception of the costs ofseeking help. When the underlying assumptions about personal values andbeliefs are examined or each of these models of help-seeking behavior, heintegrating theme of consistency between the act of seeking help andinternalized beliefs about self-reliance nd ndividual chievement merges.Because the focus of these explanations has traditionally been on adults'

help-seeking behaviors n noneducational ettings, the applicability f theseframeworks o the help-seeking of children and youth n educational ettingsis limited. Whether self-esteem, social-normative, r other conceptions willprove to be adequate rameworks or understanding he role of help-seekingin learning will ultimately depend upon their ability to incorporate theinfluences of developmental and situational factors as determinants ofhelp-seeking.

HELP-SEEKING RECONCEPTUALIZED

As was illustrated by the preceding discussion of social-normative ndself-esteem conceptions of help-seeking, researchers in the area ofhelp-seeking have usually ocused on the psychological isks and burdens ofasking or help. Viewing help-seeking as incompatible with self-reliance andachievement, researchers have tended to consider only the costs of seekinghelp for the individual's ense of competence rather than the costs of notseeking help for the acquisition and mastery of skills. Consideration f theadaptive functions of help-seeking is particularly mportant to a fullerunderstanding of learning as it occurs during childhood.

Treating help-seeking as incompatible with achievement can lead tooverlooking maladaptive performance patterns hat actually nterfere withlearning. For example, n the achievement motivation iterature, ndividualswho tend to persist at tasks of intermediate difficulty or long periods of timeare considered to be highly achievement-oriented (e.g., Andrews & Debus,


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1978; Feather, 1961, 1962). Persistence, usually measured as length of timeworked before disengagement, may not always ead to task mastery. Some

researchers e.g., Diener & Dweck, 1978) have suggested hat persistencemay sometimes be maladaptive. Children may continue to work at a taskwithout help despite prolonged ack of success and the availability f moreproductive alternative trategies n order o forestall udgments of failure. Inthese cases, children may be regarded as highly achievement-orientedbecause they have spent a long time working on the task. Yet length of timeon task may not be as sensitive an indicator of achievement as some measureof whether the time was spent in active pursuit of a solution.

Nelson-Le Gall (1981) argued for a reconceptualization f help-seekingthat shifts the focus away from a view of help-seeking as stigmatizing,self-threatening behavior to a view of help-seeking as an effectivealternative for coping with current difficulties. This adaptive role ofhelp-seeking in learning has generally been overlooked not only byresearchers nterested in help-seeking, but also by those interested inlearning. The lack of attention to help-seeking by researchers studyinglearning has occurred n part because researchers usually study learning nlaboratory settings where learning is more often than not a solitaryenterprise. Nelson-Le Gall's conceptions, and more recently elaborated

formulations e.g., Ames, 1983), can be classified as achievement-relatedconceptions. The achievement-related iew of help-seeking s unique n itsfocus on the costs of not seeking help, and importantly, n its treatment ofhelp-seeking as a part of an ongoing process rather han as a dichotomous(i.e., help-seeking-no help-seeking) decision. In the context of achieve-ment-related explanations, personal characteristics f the individual, uchas perceived control and mastery orientation (e.g., Ames & Lau, 1982;Ames, 1983), and situational characteristics f the achievement setting(Nicholls, 1979) are used to predict and explain help-seeking.

Two formulations f the adaptive relationship between help-seeking andlearning have been developed recently Ames, 1983; Nelson-Le Gall, 1981).Ames's (1983) analysis focused on the cognitive-motivational onditionsthat lead individuals o seek help from others. In addition, Ames attemptedan integration of the extant social-psychological heories n order o providea basis for comparing he conditions eading o the decision to seek or not toseek others' assistance. Nelson-Le Gall (1981) focused on the cognitive-de-velopmental and social-cognitive factors that influence help-seeking inlearning contexts. Each of these perspectives will be discussed in the

following sections.Performance Attributions, Achievement Goals, and Help-SeekingAmes (1983) suggested that individuals process information about their

own actions and performance n the context of value priorities hat assign a


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level of importance o various goals related to achievement. Goals will beselected and pursued o the extent that their attainment mplies something

desirable to individuals about themselves, such as that the individual sindependent or competent. These values, then, are closely tied to theindividual's sense of self-worth. In Ames's formulation, personal andsituational actors determine the salience for a particular alue in specificachievement ettings. This perspective ocuses on the relationship betweenself-worth beliefs, attributions or perceived achievement outcomes, andhelp-seeking.

In attributional ormulations of achievement e.g., Weiner, 1979), thereare various specific causes such as ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck to

which achievement outcomes may be attributed. Seeking help can beclassified as an act of effort n that the help-seeker s actively using availableresources to increase the likelihood of future success. Failing after tryingagain, however, can lead to the inference of low ability and consequently olowered perceptions of self-worth. The attributions tudents make serve tomaintain a self-concept of ability, but the pattern of attributions may or maynot logically entail the alternative of seeking help. To the extent that astudent perceives seeking help to be relevant, that is, to be instrumental ofuture success, the student s expected to be willing o seek help. In Ames's

analysis, help is seen as relevant when the student's attributional beliefsabout achievement outcomes include internal or external controllablefactors. Thus, help-seeking would be perceived as most relevant toachievement when students believe that they are generally capable ofsuccessful performance, hat they failed to master certain skills or concepts,that they need to work or study more, and that biased teachers, bad luck,and unfair, tricky, or impossibly difficult asks were not among the factorscontributing o their performance Ames & Lau, 1982).

Ames (1983) has noted that help-seeking s perceived differentially y the

student depending not only on the pattern of attributions made about taskperformance, but also depending on the achievement goal being pursued.Ames drew upon Nicholls's (1979) and Dweck & Elliott's (1983) reanalysesof achievement motivation. Nicholls (1979) and Dweck & Elliott (1983)have argued that the specific actions individuals undertake to preserve aself-concept of ability depend on the particular onceptions of ability andachievement goals held. Individuals may conceive of ability as a global,stable quality hat can be judged to be adequate or inadequate. This qualityor entity is believed to be displayed in the individual's performance.Judgments of the performance outcome in comparison o the outcomes ofmembers of a normative reference group are seen as indicating whether ornot one is competent. Comparisons of performance outcomes, however,require he assumption of equal and optimal effort across ndividuals. Thisassumption, of course, is not always warranted. In contrast to the entity


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conception of ability, other individuals may view ability as a repertoire ofskills that can be endlessly expanded through efforts to learn what is

presently not known. This view has been labeled the instrumental orincremental view of ability (Dweck & Elliott, 1983). Level of ability isjudged n relation o the individual's wn perceived knowledge mastery, orunderstanding. These alternate views of ability orient the individual owarddifferent achievement goals. Entity conceptions of ability lead to theespousal of performance oals in achievement ituations; hat is, seeking toobtain favorable udgments of competence and seeking to avoid unfavor-able judgments of competence. Incremental onceptions of ability lead tothe espousal of learning goals in achievement ituations; hat is, seeking to

acquire knowledge or skills, to master and understand omething new.According to Ames (1983), help-seeking s more likely to occur when

students are pursuing earning goals. Help-seeking s seen as task-relevanteffort and as such is an investment that increases competence. Whenperformance oals are operative, help-seeking s less likely to occur becauseit is viewed as drawing attention to one's lack of ability and, thus, as inconflict with the goals of demonstrating bility and avoiding demonstrationsof a lack of ability.

Instrumentality f Help-SeekingNelson-Le Gall's (1981; Nelson-Le Gall et al., 1983) formulation ofhelp-seeking as an adaptive alternative to individual problem solving isbased on analyses of achievement activity in everyday learning andproblem-solving ituations. In everyday problem-solving ituations, earn-ers may be afforded opportunities o call upon problem-solving esourcesexternal o themselves (Cole & Traupmann, 981). Under such conditions,the ability to solicit, obtain, and use help becomes an important earningskill (e.g., Anderson & Messick, 1974; Murphy & Moriarty, 1976).

Individuals' use of others to acquire and master skills plays a central rolein currently influential theories of mental development and learning(Brown, 1982; Vygotsky, 1978). In Vygotsky's view, knowledge andunderstanding have their roots in social interactions with more matureproblem solvers who plan, direct, monitor, and evaluate the child's taskactivity. Mental functions irst develop on a social level as children nteractwith adults who serve as supportive, knowledgeable others. Afterinteracting with others in learning ituations, children gradually nternalizethe supportive other role and begin to perform hese regulatory behaviors

for themselves.It has been suggested (Murphy, 1962; Nelson-Le Gall, 1981) thathelp-seeking may serve multiple purposes. The student's goal in seekinghelp may be merely task completion, without comprehension r mastery asan objective. Alternatively, he student's purpose n seeking help may be to


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the development of self-regulatory kills. This point of view is in contrast othat underlying tudies of achievement motivation n which help-seeking s

considered o be the antithesis of achievement behavior (e.g., Winterbot-tom, 1958).

Developmental Role of Help-Seeking n LearningIn contrast to the earlier views of developmentalists, it is now

acknowledged hat the adaptive role of help-seeking s evident in learningcontexts occurring cross he lifespan. Instrumental elp-seeking behaviorsdevelop in the context of the child's early learning experiences. Accordingto Sears (1972), infants not only elicit help with satisfying bodily needs such

as hunger, they also seek help with other domains of development such asmastery of the immediate physical environment.

To cope in the school environment hildren must adapt to the classroomcontext help-seeking kills developed n the context of early social relationswith parents. Students must learn to monitor their own task performanceand attempt to deal with difficulties or problems because the teacher in alarge classroom cannot always perform this function for them. Childrenmust earn to utilize their peers, as well as teachers, as potential nstructors.Naturalistic observations of peer interactions n classrooms suggest that

help-seeking is a frequent occurrence (e.g., Cooper, Marquis, &Ayers-Lopez, 1982). Cooper et al. (1982) found that in a random samplingof peer instructional nteractions in the classroom, the majority werelearner-initiated i.e., a student requested help from a peer). In addition,the requested help was more likely to be for academic or problem-relevantinformation han for social attention.

Individual school assignments often represent steps in an orderedlearning sequence. This means that not only must school tasks becompleted, but they must be completed before the next task n the sequenceis undertaken. n addition, here are often time constraints mposed on taskperformance. Under such conditions, seeking out a competent person foraid or advice may represent a more adaptive strategy for coping with adifficult task that must be mastered than giving up or persistingunsuccessfully at the task without help. Indeed, teachers of elementaryschool children tend to believe that children who seek help are moretask-oriented and more involved n the learning process than children whogive up easily or wait for others to offer them help (Nelson-Le Gall &Scott-Jones, in press).

The importance of instrumental help-seeking for learning and skillacquisition does not diminish across the school years. If seeking help wereprovoked merely because of general inexperience t might be expected todecrease steadily with increasing experience in the problem area becausethe need for help would lessen as a function of the accumulation of


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knowledge and skill. The relationship between increasing knowledge andexperience, however, s not quite so linear. To the contrary, he relationship

between help-seeking and knowledge appears o be somewhat curvilinear(Miyake & Norman, 1979). The more knowledge and experience learnershave, the more likely they are to recognize when seeking nformation an beuseful. In fact, cognitive psychologists have demonstrated hat question-asking is basic to knowledge acquisition (e.g., Flammer, 1981) and isdependent on the individual's current knowledge base (e.g., Flammer,Kaiser, & Mueller-Bouquet, 1981; Miyake & Norman, 1979). In order forhelp-seeking to be both effective and instrumental, he individual mustknow enough to know what is not known, to know what could be known,

and to have some reasonable deas about where and how such knowledgemight be gained. Too little or too much knowledge n a problem area willlessen the probability of using help-seeking as a strategy for solvingproblems hat are encountered. So, to the extent that students acquire moreknowledge and skill with increasing chool experience, help-seeking may bemore likely to occur (given supportive classroom environments) amongstudents at higher, as opposed to lower, grade evels and among students atmoderately high skill levels.

Research shows that children do differ developmentally n the tendencyto seek help and in the ability to use the help available n formal earningsituations. For example, Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) found that 4- and5-year-olds were more willing than 3-year-olds o use an adult tutor in aproblem-solving ask. The youngest children, who most needed help withthe problem, tended to ignore the tutor most frequently. In contrast, theolder children used the tutor, but only when they experienced difficulty orwanted their solutions checked. Kreutzer, Leonard, and Flavell (1975) alsofound an increase with age in the reported usage of seeking help from otherpersons as a strategy or handling memory asks. Similarly, Myers and Paris

(1978) found that sixth graders were more likely than second graders toreport seeking help as a strategy for handling reading difficulties.Age-related ncreases n help-seeking were also reported by Nelson-Le Galland Glor-Scheib (in press) in an observational study of first-, third-, andfifth-grade math classrooms. These researchers ound a higher ncidence ofhelp-seeking at the fifth-grade evel than at the lower grade levels.

Instrumental elp-seeking continues o be adaptive as a problem-solvingskill in formal and informal learning situations into adolescence andadulthood. Analyzing he verbal nteraction of high school students workingin small groups o solve a difficult mathematics roblem, Webb (1980) foundthat achievement of individual group members, measured in terms ofsuccessful solution of similar post-test problems, was greatest for thosestudents who were active explainers and for those who were active solicitorsof explanations.


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The phenomenon of help-seeking occurs in learning situations inadulthood when an individual on a new job seeks out more experienced

colleagues or help "learning he ropes" or when workers or managers radeexperiences on how they have coped with difficult work-related asks. In themore structured apprentice-mentor elationships, he adult in the role ofapprentice equests and receives assistance with problem solving n the tasksituation from a mentor who is an expert in the task domain. In theseone-to-one instructional xchanges, the more expert member of the dyadassists in planning, monitoring, and correcting the novice's task perfor-mance in a manner responsive to the novice's own internal resources(Scribner & Cole, 1973). When help is requested and needed for task

solution, the expert renders more assistance han when help is not actuallyneeded. Thus, it is clear hat nstrumental elp-seeking emains mportant nlearning situations in and beyond adulthood.

SummaryAchievement-related frameworks conceptualize help-seeking as an

activity hat permits he learner o create an environment hat is sufficientlysupportive to allow progress, yet sufficiently challenging to remaininteresting. By seeking instrumental elp from others when necessary, he

learner can undertake more challenging tasks than he or she couldotherwise. Help-seeking thus allows the learner to acquire and masterincreasingly complex skills.

The achievement-related perspectives are more recent than the socialnormative and self-esteem perspectives discussed n the preceding ections;accordingly, research and theory on achievement-related actors andhelp-seeking are less well developed. Nevertheless, his perspective appearsto hold great promise. The reconceptualization resented underscores hefact that help-seeking s often instrumental o the acquisition f competence,and encourages attention to help-seeking as a system of behavior n itself,rather than merely as a measure of dependency. In the context ofachievement perspectives, help-seeking ceases to be a dichotomous socialbehavior (i.e., seek help--not seek help) and is better characterized s anongoing, multidimensional nterpersonal rocess. Thus, the reconceptuali-zation is also timely in that it addresses what are now recognized as glaringgaps in our knowledge about the interface of social development inchildhood with intellectual competence in childhood.

DEVELOPMENT F HELP-SEEKING KILLSThe deliberate use of help-seeking as a problem-solving ctivity requires afair amount of cognitive sophistication. In order to initiate help-seeking,individuals must become aware of obstacles o goal attainment, must learnto view other people as resources valuable for goal achievement, and must


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learn means of enlisting others to help attain these goals. The followingsections present a selective review of research relevant o the development

of important skills involved in acts of interpersonal help-seeking. Theavailable literature concerned explicitly with the adaptive functions ofchildren's help-seeking skills is somewhat limited. Therefore, this reviewbrings together studies from diverse areas of inquiry in psychology,education, and other social science disciplines.

The skills that are discussed in this section were derived from a taskanalysis of the help-seeking process and include both cognitive andbehavioral activities in which the help-seeker may be thought to engageprior o, during, and after seeking help. Children's ability o engage in each

of these component processes depends in part on their metacognitiveknowledge (cf. Flavell, 1977) concerning (a) the characteristics of thehelp-seeker PERSON variables), b) the characteristics f the target helperand nature of the problem (TASK variables), and (c) the suitability of themeans employed to gain assistance STRATEGY variables). Discussion ofthese skills will proceed with reference o their developmental tatus duringthe preschool and elementary school years.

Awareness of Need for Help

Seeking help is an intentional act and therefore is contingent on theindividual's becoming aware of the need for help (i.e., realizing hat his orher own available resources are not sufficient o reach a goal). Individuals'knowledge about the compatibility between themselves as learners and thelearning situation plays an important role in effective problem solving(Baker & Brown, in press). If individuals are not aware of their ownlimitations or the complexity of the task at hand, then they are not likely toanticipate difficulties and take preventive action or to recover easily fromdifficulties encountered. If individuals have some awareness of the

complexity of the task and can monitor their progress on the task wellenough to detect a problem, they are in a relatively good position to utilizehelp-seeking as a strategy to enable them to cope with the problem.

Age differences have been found in children's ability o assess their needfor help. Nelson-Le Gall (1984b) studied third- and fifth-grade ask-relatedhelp-seeking using a procedure hat allowed for an objective assessment ofthe need for help. Children gave tentative solutions to a task, weresubsequently llowed to seek help if they desired, and were then required ogive their final solution to the task. Children were found to engage in both

necessary and unnecessary help-seeking. Interesting grade differencesoccurred n the appropriateness f help-seeking. Fifth graders' help-seekingwas appropriate more often than was that of the third graders. Fifth graderssought more necessary help than did third graders, the net result of thisbehavior being fewer wrong final answers on the task. This age-related


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increase n the adaptive use of help-seeking as a problem-solving?strategy ssuggested also by data on children's entative answers. It shouQ be noted

that third and fifth graders had approximately qual numbers of correcttentative responses (disregarding whether or not help was subsequentlysought). These findings suggest that younger children had difficultyassessing he need for help. One possible explanation or this age differencelies in differential metacognitive skills. The younger children may havemade a less complete or less accurate survey of what they did and did notknow prior to taking advantage of the available help. Also, the youngerchildren may have been simply ess experienced with evaluating heir ownperformances n academic ettings and therefore may have been reluctant o

rely on their own impressions of their performances.The developmental iterature on metacomprehension e.g., Markman,1977, 1979) provides additional support for the notion that the ability toassess one's need for help is a requisite skill for effective help-seeking. Theliterature ndicates that the ability to evaluate the need for help is a skillinfluenced by both maturation and experience. When task demands aresimple or familiar, children as young as 3 years of age appear to employmetacognitive kills such as attempting o execute mentally he instructionsfor performing a task before actually beginning it. When tasks are

unfamiliar or difficult, younger children, compared o older children, mayfail to execute the appropriate mental processing and may become aware oftheir ack of understanding nly through active attempts o perform he taskor through eedback from others. On very difficult asks, even adults mayappear to lack these skills (Brown, 1978).

The implication f metacomprehension or seeking help in learning s thatchildren often do not ask for help because they are not aware of theincompatibility between their own resources and the task at hand. Thefailure o detect a problem may be due to insufficient ensitivity o internallygenerated signs that a problem exists. Another possibility s that youngerchildren may set a higher criterion han older and more experienced earnersfor when they will attend to possible problems. Young children who are ingeneral less knowledgeable and less skilled than others may as aconsequence be more often confused. Young children may have a higherthreshold for confusion or ambiguity, or it may be that they ignorecontradictions and difficulties so as to avoid having to ask for additionalinformation or help (Markman, 1980). When young children do seek help,however, their requests are less likely to be specific because they are less

likely to have surmised he exact nature of the problem. In contrast, adultsor experts who are able to make complex inferences are able to functionwithout help in more situations than the child or novice. When maturelearners request help from others, the request s likely to be for help that isvery specific and limited in scope.


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Decision to Seek HelpOnce perceived, a problem must be resolved in an appropriate way.

Young and inexperienced tudents may receive more unsolicited offers ofhelp than older and more experienced hildren, but there are no guaranteesthat others will automatically nticipate he child's need for help and alwaysspontaneously ntervene. Because children are frequently novices at manyof the tasks with which they are confronted and may not benefit as much asmore skilled learners from their own continued individual efforts, it isimportant or them to consider the possibility of seeking help from a moreexpert learner. It might be assumed that awareness of the inadequacy ofone's knowledge and skill would be sufficiently motivating o cause a personto seek help (e.g., Markman, 1979; Nash & Torrance, 1974). Help-seekingmay not occur, however, if the learner does not also take responsibility oralleviation of the problem and for task completion. Gumerman (1982)found that kindergarteners nd first graders often did not seek help whenconfronted with problems because they did not assume responsibility orcompleting he task. These children perceived the adult as responsible oralleviating any problems encountered and for accomplishing he assignedtask.

Even when the help-seeker assumes responsibility for the task, thedecision to seek help may be affected by the assessment of the relative costsand benefits associated with seeking help, such as becoming ndebted o thehelper and admitting current skill inadequacies e.g., DePaulo & Fisher,1980; Greenberg & Shapiro, 1971). Although analyses of costs and benefitsmay be of concern o older children and adolescents who, like adults, have amore stable concept of their own competence and who may be more ikely toengage n social comparison Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980), tis doubtful hat such analyses have the same importance o young children.

It has been reported hat children at a "pre-operational" evel of cognitivefunctioning ttended primarily o the outcomes of actions n their verbal andnon-verbal reconstructions f series of events (Brown, 1976; Piaget, 1932,1976). Thus, it may be that some of the psychological osts of asking or helpthat affect adults' help-seeking e.g., loss of perceived competence) do notinfluence young children's decisions to seek help, since children would bemore attentive o the successful outcome than to the manner n which t wasachieved. Whether and to what extent perceived costs of asking for andreceiving help influence the decision of children of different ages and indifferent problem contexts to seek help requires more empirical study.

Type of Help SoughtThe ability to make and convey distinctions among types of help is

important for effective use of help-seeking in learning situations, andresearch needs to examine the acquisition and development of this skill.


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Unfortunately, the studies reported in the literature do not consistentlydistinguish between the types of help sought or even differentiate between

solicited and unsolicited help received. When no distinction is made,generally no relationship s found between receiving help and achievement(e.g., Peterson & Janicki, 1979; Peterson, Janicki, & Swing, 1981). Whendistinctions are made, receiving help has been shown to be effective onlywhen the help is in response to expressed student need (Webb, 1982). Inthese cases the type of help sought has been shown to be related toachievement outcomes (e.g., Nelson-Le Gall, 1984b; Webb, 1983).

Webb (1982) studied junior high and high school students in smalllearning groups and reported that receiving help from group members n

response to questions was significantly related to students' achievement.Webb also reported that the type of response received was significantlyrelated to achievement. The relationship between receiving explanationsand learning the task was found to be positive, whereas the relationshipbetween achievement and receiving no response from group members orreceiving restated solutions without explanations was found to be negative.It is not clear from Webb's studies whether students' requests differentiatedbetween answers without explanations and elaborated explanations as thetype of help desired from group members. Yet the distinction is an

important ne to be made by students, and t appears rom findings of recentresearch (e.g., Peterson et al., 1983; Nelson-Le Gall, 1984b) that such adistinction s evident in students' requests.

For example, Peterson et al. (1983) studied the requests of second andthird graders n small learning groups and found that most of children'srequests were not for explanations. Like Webb, Peterson et al. found anegative relationship between the frequency of a child's receiving answersonly to questions and subsequent achievement. No relationship was found,however, between receiving explanations and achievement. Apparently,the relationship between higher-order esponses received and achievementdepends on the participants' age and skill level. Younger students maysimply not provide as effective explanations to their peers as do olderstudents.

Other studies (e.g., Nelson-Le Gall, 1984b; Swing & Peterson, 1982) alsoreport variations n the type of help sought by students of differing grade andability levels. In one such study, Nelson-Le Gall (1984b) investigated hehelp-seeking bids of third- and fifth-grade tudents of high and ow ability norder to determine children's preference for instrumental e.g., explana-tions, elaborated examples, hints) versus executive (e.g., answers only)help. The findings ndicated hat fifth graders preferred nstrumental helpover executive help significantly more than did the third graders.Low-ability children, boys in particular, did not show a preference forinstrumental help, as did high-ability children and girls. Taken together with


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Peterson et al.'s (1983) finding hat low-ability children nteracting n workgroups tend to get only answers, the findings of Nelson-Le Gall's study

suggest that the reason that young and low-ability hildren are not effectivehelp-seekers s not solely that they may lack skills to recognize heir need orto elicit help; it may also be because they fail to seek the type of help that ismost conducive to learning and mastery.

Identification nd Selection of Potential Helper(s)Having made the decision o seek help, the learner must dentify potential

helpers. One aspect of the social knowledge important or help-seeking sthe knowledge that all persons do not bring equal credentials o the role of

helper. Characteristics f the potential helper, of the help-seeker, and of thehelping context may singly or jointly affect helper choice.

Developmental differences in children's helper preferences have beennoted in the literature. Generally, preschoolers ended to prefer adults andolder children as helpers (e.g., Edwards & Lewis, 1979). Several studies ofolder children's helper preferences suggest that peers are often preferredhelpers (Boehm, 1957; Nelson-Le Gall & Gumerman, 1984; Northman,1978). Bachman (1975) and Nelson-Le Gall and Gumerman (1984),allowing children to make spontaneous nominations, found that family,teachers, and friends were the helpers nominated most frequently amongfirst- through fifth-grade children. Whereas Bachman ound mother to bethe first choice in all grades, Nelson-Le Gall and Gumerman ound that thechoice of preferred helper shifted from parent to teacher to peer withincreasing age. Boehm (1957), using a forced-choice ormat, also found thatwith increasing age elementary chool children ended to prefer advice on aproblem from a talented peer rather than from an adult. Naturalisticobservations of children n their classrooms ndicate that children seek outtheir classmates or help even when such behavior s discouraged y teachers

(Nelson-Le Gall, 1984a; Nelson-Le Gall and Glor-Scheib, n press).Children must earn o distinguish etween various others n terms of their

competence and willingness o help. Two studies, Barnett et al. (1982) andNelson-Le Gall and Gumerman 1984), examined children's perceptions ofhelpers using an interview format. Barnett et al. interviewed kindergar-teners and first-, third-, and sixth-grade children to determine theirperceptions of characteristics associated with good helpers. Kindergar-teners spontaneously reported positive behaviors and global descriptivequalities, such as kindness, as characteristics f good helpers. Thus, a goodhelper was perceived by young children as someone who played with themor someone who was nice. Third and sixth graders also mentioned thesecharacteristics, ut they increasingly enerated specific characteristics uchas willingness and competence as required qualifications f good helpers. Incontrast to the older children, the kindergarteners ould recognize these


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performance, and using physical expressions of confusion or exasperation.Verbal strategies might include directly asking for help, soliciting

information about the problem at hand or about the helper's abilitiesvis-a-vis the problem, making statements about one's competence, andreminding he helper of some obligation o help (e.g., Cooper et al., 1982;Wilkinson & Calculator, 1982).

The effectiveness of nonverbal trategies may vary with the help-seeker'sage. For very young children, nonverbal behaviors e.g., crying, expressingconfusion, establishing proximity and eye contact with caretakers) may beeffective strategies or obtaining assistance rom parents and other familiaradults. Many of these same strategies, however, might be counterproduc-tive when used by older children.Studies of the development of persuasive appeals have identified verbaltactics used by children n convincing thers o accede o their requests e.g.,Bearison & Gass, 1979; Bragg, Ostrowski, & Finley, 1973; Clark & Delia,1976; Pich6, Rubin, & Michlin, 1978). Naturalistic studies of children'sdiscourse have found age differences in the means employed to seekinformation rom children of different ages and adults (Ervin-Tripp, 977;Merritt, 1980). For example, threats and demands may not be the mosteffective strategies for obtaining help from adults, but they may be quiteeffective with peers (Ladd, & Oden, 1979). This literature, as well as thesocial problem-solving literature and the sociolinguistic literature oncommunicating n classrooms e.g., Green & Smith, 1983), suggests hat theimportant questions or research concern he flexibility of strategies used toobtain help; i.e., whether he strategies employed vary with the age and sexof the help-seeker and the potential helper, and whether the strategies aresensitive to the demands of the problem.

Evaluative Responses

Finally, help-seekers need to monitor the help-seeking effort while it isongoing and to evaluate the outcomes. Help-seekers may evaluate thesuccess or failure of the help-seeking attempt n terms of the responses of thehelper approached, he adequacy of the help obtained as an aid to problemsolving, the effectiveness of their own help-seeking strategies, and thereactions of others toward help-seeking. These judgments may influencefuture help-seeking behavior. In assuming that help-seeking is a goal-directed activity, he most important outcome variable s whether or not thehelp-seeker is successful in obtaining the required help. If children are

unsuccessful n engaging a potential helper or if the help received does notfacilitate goal attainment, then they must reevaluate their strategies forobtaining help and/or their choice of helper. The selection of helpers andattempts to engage their help may be repeated until the needed help isobtained; f the help-seeking activity s ultimately unsuccessful, he children


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may desist from active attempts o resolve the problem or pursue the goal.Successful help-seeking

mayhave

positivesocial and

cognitiveconse-

quences (e.g., Webb, 1983), such that children can (a) further theiracquisition and mastery of skills, (b) maintain or enhance their perceptionsof themselves as learners and goal-achievers, and (c) increase their skills nusing appropriate and effective help-seeking strategies.

Recipient reactions to aid among both adults and children have beenstudied (see Eisenberg, 1983; Fisher, DePaulo, & Nadler, 1981, forcomprehensive reviews of this literature). The literature on recipientreactions to aid, however, does not always focus explicitly on the active,

spontaneous acquisitionof aid

bythe

person helped.We can nevertheless

speculate that many of the determinants and correlates of recipientreactions (e.g., age, sex, ability, and need state of the person helped;characteristics f the helper and of the helping context) may also be relevantto the study of reactions to help-seeking. At the present time, however,there are no data that would allow us even to describe he form, frequency,and quality of children's reactions to help-seeking.

CHARACTERISTICS F ACHIEVEMENT ETTINGSIn

precedingsections the influences of

personalcharacteristics were

highlighted. In academic settings, however, it becomes clear that we aredealing with person x situation nteractions ather than with person maineffects. Help-seeking may vary as much with the learning setting as it doeswith personal characteristics uch as gender (e.g., Nelson-Le Gall &Glor-Scheib, in press). A study by Nelson-Le Gall and Glor-Scheib (inpress) provides a good illustration of these influences. Nelson-Le Gall andGlor-Scheib bserved irst-, third-, and fifth-grade tudents of low, average,and high ability during their reading and math lessons. Help-seeking was

found to vary with characteristics f both the learning context and thelearner. For example, although tudents pent most of their time engaged nindividual seatwork, help-seeking occurred with the greatest frequencyduring small group learning activities. In addition, Nelson-Le Gall andGlor-Scheib ound that girls, more than boys, engaged n mastery-orientedhelp-seeking n math classes, whereas boys, more than girls, engaged inmastery-oriented help-seeking n reading classes.

A situational variable of importance to help-seeking in achievementsettings concerns the goal of the achievement activity (e.g., Dweck &

Elliott, 1983; Nicholls, 1979).When the focus of the

activitys to

acquirenew skills and to master current skills, or to effectively complete and alsomaster asks (i.e., to be able to complete specific asks now and on one's ownin the future), individuals focus on the task and on the processing oftask-relevant nformation. Such situations are characterized y task-invol-vement. When students are task-involved, earning s a demonstration of


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ability and thus an end in itself. Accomplishment hrough effort, includinginstrumental mastery-oriented) elp-seeking Ames & Ames, 1978; Ames,

1983) is valued. Feelings of competence are produced rom the perceptionof learning, o students act in ways to maximize he chance of learning and tominimize behavior hat will not produce gains n mastery. In contrast, whenthe focus of the activity s to obtain immediate satisfaction and success indemonstrating skills or avoiding the demonstration of lack of skill,individuals tend to focus on themselves and on their performance incomparison o others. These situations are characterized by ego-involve-ment (Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Nicholls, 1979).

Achievement goals may be defined by the individual undertaking giventask, or they may be imposed rom without by the task or some aspect of thetask environment. Developmental achievement motivation researchsuggests hat all children tart out in life espousing and pursuing earning andmastery as goals of their activity (e.g., White, 1959). It is throughsocialization experiences n the family context (see Scott-Jones, 1984, for acomprehensive eview of family nfluences on children's achievement) andthe school context that children orient themselves increasingly toperformance goals.

It appears hat aspects of the instructional rganization nd procedures of

classrooms may encourage ask- as opposed to ego-involvement n students.Several characteristics f classroom organization ave been identified e.g.,Rosenholtz & Simpson, 1984; Rosenholtz & Wilson, 1980) that maycontribute o task-involved earning orientations by acting as deterrents osocial comparison f performance. One such characteristic, differentiatedacademic structure i.e., qualitatively different nstructional methods andmaterials) is thought to inhibit global comparison among students'performances. A second characteristic s the degree of autonomy grantedstudents o make choices about what work to do and when and how to do it.

Students who are allowed to schedule their own work assignments have thepossibility of increasing heir performance options (e.g., Wang, 1983). Ifstudents are performing different activities at the same time, or even similaractivities but at different imes, or in different ways and in different places,comparisons of ability become more difficult. A third characteristic ofclassroom organization hat may help to promote task-involvement s theextent to which grouping of students by ability for instructional urposes spracticed. When students work as individuals or in varying groups whosemembership s not defined by ability, t is more difficult or others o observe

and nterpret patterns of task performance. A related eature, the structuresfor evaluation of academic outcomes hat operate n the classroom, may alsoinfluence students' ask-involvement. For example, research e.g., Ames &Ames, 1978; Crockenberg & Bryant, 1978) has consistently shown thatchildren in competitive learning environments tend to focus on obtaining


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favorable and avoiding unfavorable comparison of their ability to that oftheir classmates more than do children in cooperative learning environ-

ments.All of these classroom organizational eatures work to reduce students'orientation toward making judgments of their ability that are basedprimarily on social comparison. Students with high self-concepts of abilitycan remain sufficiently confident about their ability in the face of taskdifficulty and thus can remain oriented to the task. This basis for taskorientation would not be available to all students when classroomsemphasize social comparison of performance. When classroom learningprocedures emphasize mastering asks and increasing kills and knowledgeover one's current evels, as opposed to demonstrating hat one knows morethan other students, there is a greater chance that more students will beoptimally task-oriented.

It is somewhat ironic that children find themselves increasingly incompetitive settings and under greater exposure to social comparison nschool at a time when their cognitive and metacognitive apacities providethem with the tools for effectively utilizing help-seeking in service ofcompetence-increasing activities. The distinction between ego- andtask-involvement is crucial for educational thinking, because it is

appropriate o promote help-seeking under task-involved onditions n theclassroom. However, we probably want to avoid promoting help-seekingunder conditions of ego-involvement because such help-seeking wouldprobably be maladaptive n the long run and encourage cheating or otherundesirable performance tactics. It is important, then, to identify foreducators those instructional practices occurring in school, and otherlearning settings to which children are exposed, that may fostertask-involvement and adaptive help-seeking skills.

DIRECTIONS OR FUTURE RESEARCHAlthough the role of help-seeking has been relatively neglected in

accounts of learning, it is in fact a pervasive feature of everyday problemsolving, learning, and skill acquisition across the lifespan. The need forresearch on the effects of help-seeking or children's earning s great. Inremedying the lack of positive attention given to children's help-seekingskills, we will need studies to investigate possible antecedents of individualdifferences n help-seeking. Further research should also attend closely tocontemporaneous ariables associated with individual differences, such as

current achievement evel, motivational orientations, and communicativeand social interactional skills.To this end, a variety of research methodologies will have to be employed.

These include (a) the collection of naturalistic observational data on thefrequency, form, and function of help-seeking activities; b) the collection


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of open-ended and semistructured nterview data on children's knowledgeof what is involved n seeking help and their perception of the opportunities

for help-seeking in specific situations; and (c) the use of structuredinterviews and experimental procedures o highlight the role of develop-ment in the various help-seeking kills. In the following sections a few of theareas ripe for further research are discussed.

Socialization of Adaptive Help-SeekingSeveral existing ines of research on cognitive socialization n parent-child

relationships, eacher-student nteractions, and peer collaboration n dyadsor small groups can complement one another n addressing basic questions

about the child's orientation oward help-seeking and its appropriate se inachievement settings. For example, parent-child, teacher-child, andpeer-child relations all allow for reciprocal elations among partners. Yet inthe various types of adult-child xchanges, child behavior and characteris-tics have traditionally been neglected. When the child's contributions areacknowledged, researchers have tended to focus on the passive or staticmeans of influence that children bring o bear upon the interaction, uch asage, gender, current ability, etc. Recently, however, researchers nvesti-gating the origins of learning skills in mediated learning situations (e.g.,Griffin & Cole, 1984; Rogoff, Malkin, & Gilbride, 1984), have come toacknowledge children's active influence upon the individual in the"teaching" ole. Revival of theories of learning and development hat placeemphasis on mediated learning experiences provides a framework forstudying the socialization of help-seeking behavior in its adaptive mode.Within this framework help-seeking becomes a potential mechanism oftransition from necessary reliance on more expert thinkers and problemsolvers to independent achievement (e.g. Brown, 1982; Feuerstein, 1980;Wertsch, 1979). Successful experiences in collaborative dyads with more

capable partners may provide the context for the development of attitudesand expectancies about learning that promote task mastery. Adoption ofthis framework hould be useful not only for clarifying he continuities anddiscontinuities n children's experiences with help-seeking across varioussettings, but also for highlighting he possibilities or improving nstructionalpractice.

Effective teachers, whether they are parents (e.g., Wertsch, 1979;Wertsch, McNamee, McLane, & Budwig, 1980), professionals (e.g.,Feuerstein, 1980; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Wood, Wood, & Middleton,1978), or more competent peers (e.g., Griffin & Cole, 1984), will attempt ooperate within the child's zone of proximal development n order to inducechanges n skill level and affect earning. The notion of the zone of proximaldevelopment was introduced by Vygotsky (1978) and refers to the distancebetween the level of performance hat a child can reach without assistance


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and the level of performance ttained under guidance by or in collaborationwith another more knowledgeable ndividual. When operating n the zone

of proximal development tudents are presented with tasks that are beyondtheir current evels of successful performance ut are attainable with guidedeffort and aid.

It is interesting o observe the similarity between the child's attitudes andbehaviors when engaged in learning activities within the zone of proximaldevelopment and his or her task-involved achievement behaviors.Description of achievement behaviors under conditions of task-involvement(Nicholls, 1984a, 1984b) ndicate that students show a preference or tasksthat make neither success nor failure certain. The learning asks are those

beyond the child's current state of competence (thus ruling out certainsuccess) but not so far beyond the child's reach that (s)he could notaccomplish them even with moderate guidance from the more capablepartner (thus ruling out certain failure). The merging of the two researchtraditions would help to create a more coherent picture of the learner'sactivities.

An equally important issue, namely, how the help-seeker developsself-reliance n the context of the helping reaction, needs to receive researchattention. With the assistance of a helping other, the help-seekeraccomplishes problems too difficult for him or her. Yet, this success atproblem olving may be attributed o the helper or to the helping dyad tself.Thus, the development of self-reliance and perceived competence is notmerely a question of the development of the skills necessary or competencein the task domain, but it also involves developing the self-perception hatthis competence rests within the self apart from the helping relationship.Researchers tudying parental ocialization of achievement e.g. Chandler,Wolf, Cook, & Dugovics, 1980; Rosen & D'Andrade, 1959) suggest thatmastery may be more salient than independence as a factor in the earlydevelopment of perceived competence and control, because masteryprovides ts own feedback and rewards. Independence, n contrast, may ormay not involve mastery. Parents who encourage mastery of tasks byproviding upport, helpful suggestions, and praise during ask activity, endto have children who develop early self-reliance and a sense of perceivedcontrol. Classroom eachers may also vary in the emphasis they place onindependence versus mastery in classroom activities. The match ormismatch of the teacher's socialization emphasis with that experienced bystudents in the family context deserves further study.

Motivation nd LearningThe motivational components of help-seeking also require further

empirical upport. Studies are needed to examine he role of help-seeking nthe development of task competence. There is the need for data to answer


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questions about (a) the relationship between children's perceptions of theirown competence and their solicitation and the use of the help in problem

solving, (b) the differential use of executive versus nstrumental elp-seek-ing as problem-solving strategies, (c) the relationship between masterymotivation, preference for instrumental help, and microdevelopmentalchanges in problem solving.

Microdevelopment efers to changes n behavior during a work session.Such investigations will require a procedure that allows for controlledobservation of children's more natural or spontaneous help-seekingbehaviors n a problem-solving etting. If help-seeking eads to dependenceon external ources of help, then it would be expected hat over the course of

interaction with a helper, children would ask ncreasingly or adult nput andfeedback on the correct performance of a task. In other words, one wouldexpect to see the child relinquishing ontrol of the solution process to thehelper. If help-seeking s functioning as a mediator of independence andcompetence as hypothesized, then children's behavior in the task settingshould manifest continued (and even increased) nvolvement n the task.There should be more requests for help with conceptualizing he problemand strategies for solving it, rather than for direct help with individualproblem elements. Strategies for problem solution should also become

increasingly ndependent of external assistance over time, and childrenshould initiate successively more task behaviors without input from theadults.

Recent developmental and cognitive psychological studies of learninghave provided us with the conceptual ramework and methodological oolsfor undertaking nvestigations on this subject. Studies by Anzai and Simon(1979) and Karmiloff-Smith 1979) provide excellent examples of themicroanalysis f learning. Application of these methodologies o studyinglearning in task-involved situations and the functions of instrumental

help-seeking in such settings are recommended.Instructional Grouping

An immediate line of inquiry to pursue is the relationship betweenstudent ability, potential instructional esources n the lesson context, andhelp-seeking. Findings rom a classroom observational tudy of help-seek-ing among high-, average-, and low-achieving tudents (Nelson-Le Gall &Glor-Scheib, n press) indicated that average-ability tudents sought helpless than low-ability students but more than high-ability students.

Interestingly, however, the help-seeking bids of average-ability tudentswere ignored and rejected more frequently han those initiated by low andhigh achievers. Furthermore, average-ability students received fewerunsolicited offers of help from peers and teachers than their low- andhigh-ability ounterparts. These findings are compatible with those of Webb


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(1980) and Peterson, Janicki, and Swing (1981), yet at present no clearinterpretation f the effects of classroom tructure n learning outcomes or

these students can be offered.In observational tudies of help-seeking n the classroom e.g., Nelson-LeGall & Glor-Scheib, n press) it has been noted that on many occasions,high-ability tudents engaged n little help-seeking n those situations wherehelp-seeking would have been an appropriate roblem-solving trategy. Thelow frequency of help-seeking among these students may be taken to meanthat they understood the material and, therefore, did not need help.Alternatively it may be that because the high-ability students receivedinstruction in the same classrooms with lower-achieving students, they

perceived the pool of potential helpers to be substantially limited.High-ability students may not have engaged in help-seeking when theyneeded help because they perceived help to be unavailable. In classroomswith more homogeneous ability grouping, such as honors programs orenrichment programs, uch high-ability tudents may show appropriate ndsophisticated help-seeking behaviors because there will be more studentsperceived as potentially competent o help. Because there are so few studiesinvestigating academic help-seeking among students of various skill levels,no firm conclusions or recommendations about optimal classroom

organization can be made. The effectiveuess of different classroomorganizations nd nstructional roupings n fostering ask-involved earningconditions for students of varying ability evels warrants urther attention.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONTen years ago the research iterature ocused specifically n help-seeking

could probably best be described as a scattered set of apparently unrelatedstudies. In just the past five years or so, however, there has been an

exponential ncrease of theoretical and empirical activity n the area. In thispaper, current conceptions of help-seeking were discussed and theirappropriateness s frameworks or understanding he role of help-seeking nchildren's earning and skill acquisition was examined. A reconceptualiza-tion of help-seeking hat emphasized ts adaptive and nstrumental unctionsin achievement activities was outlined. The role of instrumental elp-seek-ing across he developmental pan from nfancy o adulthood was illustratedin the context of parent-child nd peer relations, and in formal and nformallearning situations. Prior research on the development of skills relevant o

help-seeking was reviewed. Finally, the impact of situational variations nthe learning and achievement setting of the classroom was discussed, andideas for future research on help-seeking n children were suggested.

In conclusion, it is hoped that this chapter has clearly established theimportance of help-seeking activity for children's learning and mastery. The


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domain of inquiry as outlined in this chapter is in its earliest stages of

development and, thus, many more issues and questions have been

identified than can currently be answered definitively. It appears, however,that an examination of the role of help-seeking in learning will provide an

important lead in understanding why some children are able to overcomeobstacles to learning that serve to defeat other children. Who seeks help,what type of help is sought, and at what point in the learning activity help is

sought are central questions for theories of skill acquisition and mastery.Our continued systematic study of these and related questions holds promisefor the enhancement of children's learning and the effective structuring oflearning environments.

REFERENCESAllen, V. (1976). The helping relationship and socialization of children: Some

perspectives on tutoring. In V. Allen (Ed.), Children as teachers. New York:Academic Press.

Allen, V. (1983). Reactions o help in peer tutoring: Roles and social identities. InA. Nadler, J. Fisher, & B. DePaulo (Eds.), New directions in helping: Vol. 3.Applied research in help-seeking and reactions to aid (pp. 213-232). New York:Academic Press.

Ames, C., & Ames, R. (1978). The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat:Children's elf and

interpersonalvaluations n

competitiveand

noncompetitivelearning environments. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 12,79-87.

Ames, R. (1983). Help-seeking and achievement orientation, perspectives fromattribution heory. In B. DePaulo, A. Nadler, & J. Fisher Eds.), New directionsin helping: Vol. 2. Help-seeking (pp. 165-186). New York: Academic Press.

Ames, R., & Lau, S. (1982). An attributional nalysis of help-seeking n academicsettings. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 414-423.

Anderson, S., & Messick, S. (1974). Social competency in young children.Developmental Psychology, 10, 282-293.

Andrews, G., & Debus, R. (1978). Persistence and the causal perception of failure:

Modifying cognitive attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,70, 154-166.

Anzai, Y., & Simon, H. (1979). The theory of learning by doing. PsychologicalReview, 86, 124-140.

Bachman, R. (1975, December). Elementary school children's perceptions ofhelpers and their characteristics. Elementary School Guidance and Counseling,pp. 103-109.

Baker, L., & Brown, A. (in press). Metacognitive kills of reading. In D. Pearson(Ed.), Handbook of reading research. New York: Longmans.

Barnett, K., Darcie, G., Holland, C., & Kobasigawa, A. (1982). Children'scognitions about effective helping. Developmental Psychology, 18, 267-277.

Bearison, D., & Gass, S. (1979). Hypothetical and practical easoning: Children'spersuasive appeals n different social contexts. Child Development, 50, 901-903.

Beller, E. (1955). Dependency and independence n young children. Journal ofGenetic Psychology, 87, 25-35.

Boehm, L. (1957). The development of independence: A comparative tudy. ChildDevelopment, 28, 85-92.


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Bragg, B., Ostrowski, M., & Finley, G. (1973). The effects of birth order and age oftarget on use of persuasive echniques. Child Development, 44, 351-354.

Brown, A. (1976). Semantic integration n children's reconstruction of logicalnarrative equences. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 247-262.

Brown, A. (1978). Knowing when, where, and how to remember: A problem ofmetacognition. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in instructional sychology (pp.77-165). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brown, A. (1982). Learning and development: The problems of compatibility,access and induction. Human Development, 25, 89-115.

Calsyn, R., & Kenny, D. (1977). Self-concept f ability and perceived evaluation ofothers: Cause or effect of academic achievement. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 69, 136-145.

Chandler, T., Wolf, F., Cook, B., & Dugovics, D. (1980). Parental correlates oflocus of control in fifth

graders:An

attemptat

experimentationn the home.

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 6, 179-195.Cole, M., & Traupmann, K. (1981). Comparative ognitive research: Learning rom

a learning disabled child. In A. Collins (Ed.), Minnesota ymposium on childpsychology: Vol. 14. Aspects of the development f competence pp. 125-144).Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Clark, R., & Delia, J. (1976). The development of functional persuasive kills inchildhood and early adolescence. Child Development, 47, 1008-1014.

Cooper, D., Marquis, A., & Ayers-Lopez, S. (1982). Peer learning n the classroom:Tracing developmental patterns and consequences of children's spontaneousinteractions. n L. Wilkinson Ed.), Communicating n the classroom pp. 69-84).

New York: Academic Press.Crockenberg, S

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