Help Seeking

Reviews the book, Help Seeking in Academic Settings: Goals, Groups, and Contexts edited by Stuart A. Karabenick and Richard S. Newman (see record 2006-03631-000). An edited work, the multiple perspectives and detail with which the many authors examine the dimensions of help-seeking behaviors critically assist us in understanding the strengths and pitfalls of structural educational norms, classroom settings, and what Raider-Roth (2005) classified as a growing “culture of standardization.” The book seems to function in two ways: it attempts to draw distinctions between help seeking that is functional (connected to improved learning outcomes) and help seeking that is dysfunctional (connected to attempts to avoid work or social loafing and dependency); then endeavors to delineate environments or contexts, relationships, and dynamics that facilitate and impede functional and dysfunctional help-seeking behaviors. A sound piece of scholarship, it is said not to shy away from complex conceptual and methodological issues in the help-seeking literature as it addresses the parameters of functional and dysfunctional help-seeking behaviors and environments. Rather, the editors manage to put together a coherent review of the state of the art in help-seeking scholarship while carving out important questions and future directions. The accomplishment of this feat is the major contribution of the work. However, the critical examination of the context and values of the underlying assumptions of the book is an important omission. Two major underlying premises of the work seem to be that (a) the goal as educators is to develop independent learners and (b) independent, mastery-oriented help seekers are the model of desirable, mature, and adaptive help-seeking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)