Asking for Help
Asking for Help
Transcript
Too many students understand asking for help as something you only do when you're in trouble. The idea is that if you need to seek assistance or if you need guidance or you need to reach out to someone for support, you must be in some sort of serious distress. The problem with this conception of help is that it really underestimates the power of help and the functions of help. Because yes, we do ask for help when we're in distress, and we do seek support when we're in trouble and when we need it. But asking for help is also just a natural part of the learning process.
In fact, asking for help when you're not in the grip, asking for help and for guidance as part of a learning process, actually promotes good learning. To help us think about this, I want you to think about the idea of a lecture. When most of us think of a lecture, we think of a moment where an instructor imparts some sort of wisdom to students. An instructional moment. But there's another way to think about a lecture, and that is, as a form of organized help. What's actually happening in the lecture is the professor is helping you understand the material. The professor is guiding you through information that you maybe haven't seen before. The professor, in a lecture, is essentially offering academic support. So one of the things that students should learn to do, that you should learn to do, is to think about help, not just as something you do when you're in trouble, but something that you ask for as part of your everyday learning process at school.
So let's talk a little bit about where we might seek this help, whether we're in trouble or whether we're looking for enrichment. If we're looking for academic help, if we're looking for help in our courses, there are a couple places that we can go. The first and most obvious place to go is our professor, our instructor, or our TA. Nobody knows the material that you're covering in class as well as your professor. And so, if you need help with the academic work you're doing in a particular course, your professor is the best place to start. Just remember a couple of things.
The first is that some professors are going to want you to ask for help in particular ways. For example, it may not be appropriate in every course to raise your hand to ask every question you have as that question arises. Especially in larger courses, professors may want you to email your questions or to hold your questions until after class or office hours. The other thing to remember is that while your instructors may be the most useful people to talk to, it may not actually be your professor, but rather, your TA or your graduate student assistant who's the best person to go to first. Not only because that person is a little bit more available, but because it may actually be that person's primary responsibility to provide exactly the kind of help you're seeking.
Second, if you need academic help, talk to your dean or your academic advisor. That is the person who's most likely to be thinking about you as a whole student, not just an enrollee in a particular course. So if you're having some sort of difficulty, or if you just need help doing academic planning, that person is the person you want to speak to. Your tutoring center, your academic resource center, or your writing center are also excellent places to look for academic help.
And remember, the kinds of services that tutoring centers provide are not just for students who feel that they're struggling or feel that they're underperforming or maybe who did poorly on a test. They're also places to seek enrichment. They're also places that you can strengthen already strong skills, and they're places where you can turn B's into A's. So remember, if you want to go to an academic resource center or a writing center or a tutoring center, it doesn't just have to be because you're in trouble. It can also be because you're seeking enrichment and you're doing well and you want to continue to do well. And finally, don't forget that most colleges and universities have offices of disability services to provide help and support to students with documented disabilities. If the academic help that you're seeking is related to a disability, that's the place that you want to go.
One of the reasons that seeking academic help can be so important is because it really helps combat something called imposter syndrome. The constant, sometimes debilitating fear that we don't belong somewhere, and that eventually, we'll be exposed as a fraud. This is something that students sometimes feel when they do poorly on a particular test, or when they enroll in a class and that class is something that they're not particularly comfortable with. They feel like an imposter. They feel like they don't belong. And it can be a difficult thing to manage. But seeking academic support early and proactively can really help manage that sort of fear, because as you build your skills and as you do better in your courses, you'll feel less like an imposter and you'll feel more like you belong. Academic help isn't the only kind of help people seek. You may also need to seek health related help, and again, different campuses are going to offer different services, but most campuses have at least the following.
The first is a health or mental health center, a place where you can go seek support and seek help for health related issues. Most campuses also have a wellness center that helps students think about staying well and leading a balanced life while they complete their studies. Again, the office of disability services is a very useful tool for students with documented disabilities. And finally, think about locating your local VA as a source of health related support that's not located on campus. It's also important to think about how you seek help, because how you seek help, the way that you seek it, is going to influence the kind of help you receive. When you're on your college campus and as you think about the challenges that you may face, think about seeking help, guidance and support early, often, and proactively.
The people on your campus whose job it is to support you will be much better able to do so. They'll be able to offer you much more support and better quality support if they're aware of the kinds of help you need before you actually need it. So seek help early, often, and in a proactive way. But if you find yourself in a situation where you need help immediately, maybe you're in an emergency or maybe you've come upon a situation that you weren't able to think about beforehand, it's better to seek help reactively in the moment as you need it, than not seek any help at all.
Every college campus has resources available to help students, so educate yourself on what those resources are on your campus, so that if you need help in the future, you'll know where to get it.
In fact, asking for help when you're not in the grip, asking for help and for guidance as part of a learning process, actually promotes good learning. To help us think about this, I want you to think about the idea of a lecture. When most of us think of a lecture, we think of a moment where an instructor imparts some sort of wisdom to students. An instructional moment. But there's another way to think about a lecture, and that is, as a form of organized help. What's actually happening in the lecture is the professor is helping you understand the material. The professor is guiding you through information that you maybe haven't seen before. The professor, in a lecture, is essentially offering academic support. So one of the things that students should learn to do, that you should learn to do, is to think about help, not just as something you do when you're in trouble, but something that you ask for as part of your everyday learning process at school.
So let's talk a little bit about where we might seek this help, whether we're in trouble or whether we're looking for enrichment. If we're looking for academic help, if we're looking for help in our courses, there are a couple places that we can go. The first and most obvious place to go is our professor, our instructor, or our TA. Nobody knows the material that you're covering in class as well as your professor. And so, if you need help with the academic work you're doing in a particular course, your professor is the best place to start. Just remember a couple of things.
The first is that some professors are going to want you to ask for help in particular ways. For example, it may not be appropriate in every course to raise your hand to ask every question you have as that question arises. Especially in larger courses, professors may want you to email your questions or to hold your questions until after class or office hours. The other thing to remember is that while your instructors may be the most useful people to talk to, it may not actually be your professor, but rather, your TA or your graduate student assistant who's the best person to go to first. Not only because that person is a little bit more available, but because it may actually be that person's primary responsibility to provide exactly the kind of help you're seeking.
Second, if you need academic help, talk to your dean or your academic advisor. That is the person who's most likely to be thinking about you as a whole student, not just an enrollee in a particular course. So if you're having some sort of difficulty, or if you just need help doing academic planning, that person is the person you want to speak to. Your tutoring center, your academic resource center, or your writing center are also excellent places to look for academic help.
And remember, the kinds of services that tutoring centers provide are not just for students who feel that they're struggling or feel that they're underperforming or maybe who did poorly on a test. They're also places to seek enrichment. They're also places that you can strengthen already strong skills, and they're places where you can turn B's into A's. So remember, if you want to go to an academic resource center or a writing center or a tutoring center, it doesn't just have to be because you're in trouble. It can also be because you're seeking enrichment and you're doing well and you want to continue to do well. And finally, don't forget that most colleges and universities have offices of disability services to provide help and support to students with documented disabilities. If the academic help that you're seeking is related to a disability, that's the place that you want to go.
One of the reasons that seeking academic help can be so important is because it really helps combat something called imposter syndrome. The constant, sometimes debilitating fear that we don't belong somewhere, and that eventually, we'll be exposed as a fraud. This is something that students sometimes feel when they do poorly on a particular test, or when they enroll in a class and that class is something that they're not particularly comfortable with. They feel like an imposter. They feel like they don't belong. And it can be a difficult thing to manage. But seeking academic support early and proactively can really help manage that sort of fear, because as you build your skills and as you do better in your courses, you'll feel less like an imposter and you'll feel more like you belong. Academic help isn't the only kind of help people seek. You may also need to seek health related help, and again, different campuses are going to offer different services, but most campuses have at least the following.
The first is a health or mental health center, a place where you can go seek support and seek help for health related issues. Most campuses also have a wellness center that helps students think about staying well and leading a balanced life while they complete their studies. Again, the office of disability services is a very useful tool for students with documented disabilities. And finally, think about locating your local VA as a source of health related support that's not located on campus. It's also important to think about how you seek help, because how you seek help, the way that you seek it, is going to influence the kind of help you receive. When you're on your college campus and as you think about the challenges that you may face, think about seeking help, guidance and support early, often, and proactively.
The people on your campus whose job it is to support you will be much better able to do so. They'll be able to offer you much more support and better quality support if they're aware of the kinds of help you need before you actually need it. So seek help early, often, and in a proactive way. But if you find yourself in a situation where you need help immediately, maybe you're in an emergency or maybe you've come upon a situation that you weren't able to think about beforehand, it's better to seek help reactively in the moment as you need it, than not seek any help at all.
Every college campus has resources available to help students, so educate yourself on what those resources are on your campus, so that if you need help in the future, you'll know where to get it.