When students face academic difficulties and seek help it is considered to be an adaptive behaviour. However, studies indicate that some students are reluctant to adapt and seek academic help when they need it. Education in Indonesia is slowly moving from a teacher centred to a student centred focus. Under a student centred focus, students should have a much more central role in the processes of their learning. This study aims to investigate Indonesian primary schools students’ perceptions of academic support available to them and their own academic help-seeking behaviour (AHS). Fifty five students from five primary schools in Jakarta participated in focus group interviews. QSR NVIVO 10 software was used to identify the main themes that emerged from the data. Results indicate that students find it difficult to ask for academic help even though they believed that they should ask for help when they need it to improve their academic success. Student identified factors that support and inhibiting AHS are presented. The study also confirms that teacher’s behaviours are a significant influence on students AHS. The impact of peers and students’ own internal factors on AHS are also considered. Listening to the students’ voices about their experience of asking for academic help provides a better understanding of the nature of AHS. Also this study provides guidance to facilitating a more conducive and effective environment for students’ AHS in Indonesian schools; and this in turn may provide some directions for other contexts.
Keyword: academic help-seeking; primary school students; students’ perceptions