{"id":1192,"date":"2018-02-15T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T16:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2019-09-10T17:19:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T23:19:13","slug":"sip-7-5-normalizing-asking-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/sips\/sip-7-5-normalizing-asking-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"SIP 7.5 Normalizing Asking for Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Have you ever sat alone in your office during office\u00a0<\/span><\/span>hours<\/span><\/span>\u00a0only to have your students tell you in class that they didn’t understand the reading or an assignment? Or perhaps you’ve urged a student to go to the Writing Center for help organizing a draft, only to watch that student walk down the hall, right past the Writing Center, without stopping? Or maybe you know a student is struggling with addiction and you’ve mentioned the Counseling Center’s services several times, but every time, the student\u00a0<\/span><\/span>tell<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span>\u00a0you, “I can handle this on my own.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Take a SIP of This:\u00a0Normalizing Asking for Help<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are many reasons students might resist asking for help. They may be unaware of resources, they may feel they don’t have time,\u00a0their home culture may stigmatize asking for help, or their self-identity may hinge on\u00a0self-sufficiency.\u00a0However, taking advantage of campus resources,\u00a0including faculty office hours, can\u00a0improve\u00a0student engagement, retention, and learning. Wouldn’t it be great if students saw asking for help as a normal, expected behavior instead of a sign of weakness?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here are some things you can do to\u00a0normalize asking for help:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Model asking for help<\/b>.\u00a0<\/b>Let\u00a0students see you asking for help when you need it. When\u00a0the\u00a0AV equipment in your classroom doesn’t work, ask\u00a0a student for help\u00a0or call\u00a0IT for\u00a0classroom\u00a0support. When you don’t know the answer to a student’s\u00a0question, demonstrate how you seek out\u00a0answers. These may seem like small things, but these actions help disrupt the notion that smart, well-educated, successful people do everything on their own.\u00a0The key is to demonstrate through\u00a0your\u00a0behavior\u00a0that asking for help is completely normal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Share\u00a0<\/b>stories about times that you asked\u00a0<\/b>for\u00a0<\/b>help<\/b>.\u00a0<\/b>Modeling\u00a0is about letting students see you ask for help; sharing stories is about giving them a glimpse of how you ask for\u00a0help when they aren’t around. For\u00a0example, tell your students\u00a0about how you joined a writing\u00a0group to get feedback on your drafts,\u00a0or how\u00a0when you didn’t understand an article you read, you asked a\u00a0colleague for their take on it. Talk about how much better you felt about a teaching situation\u00a0after a consultation with a colleague. Share how helpful the Center for Faculty Excellence was in helping you troubleshoot a Digital Measures issue.\u00a0Depending on your level of comfort, you might even share stories about you asking for help in your personal job\u2014getting a personal trainer, for example, or seeing a therapist after the death of a loved one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Require students to visit you during your office hours during the first few weeks of the semester.\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>A recent study connects students\u2019 use of faculty office hours with academic success\u00a0(Guerrero & Rod, 2013<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/15512169.2013.835554<\/a>),\u00a0but students are\u00a0often unsure\u00a0of when or why they should go to office hours. Give them some pointers on the types of questions or issues to bring to office hours and then\u00a0make visiting you during office hours an official assignment during the first few weeks of the semester. Once they’ve “survived” office hours, they are more likely to return.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Give shout outs in class to students who ask for help<\/b>.<\/b>\u00a0If\u00a0a student shares in class that they went to the Writing Center or attended a group discussion at the Counseling Center, congratulate them for being proactive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. W<\/b>hen you talk about supports available to students, frame them as supports for smart students rather than supports for needy or struggling students.<\/b>\u00a0This can help to remove the stigma of asking for\u00a0help. Emphasize that these supports exist because the University expects students to use\u00a0them.\u00a0You can also point out that many supports are funded by student fees, which means that students who don’t take advantage of them are not getting something they paid for.\u00a0Help them understand that asking for help is a form of self-advocacy, which is an important life skill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Still Thi<\/strong>rsty? Take another SIP of\u00a0Normalizing Asking for Help<\/strong><\/h3>\n