An investigation of the help-seeking behaviors of high school students with and without learning disabilities

Judith Rosemary Dowler
2006
This study examined how classroom learning environments, including classroom goal structures, teachers' instructional discourse, and the social climate, can facilitate or curtail students' adaptive help-seeking, particularly students with learning disabilities. Qualitative case study analysis of classroom observations and interviews of four students revealed that individual student's help-seeking varied from classroom to classroom. Also different students' perceptions of the same classroom
more » ... d regarding support for their help-seeking. The classrooms that seemed most supportive of student help-seeking were characterized by an emphasis on mastery goals and consistently supportive instructional and motivational discourse as well as a positive social environment. Implications for goal theory and for informing teacher practice with regard to promoting student help-seeking are discussed.
doi:10.14288/1.0101255 fatcat:rfmf3as6qbgaxpgdpwhewbbtiy