Previous studies on help seeking have identified several factors, which enhance or prevent students’ help seeking in classrooms. Among personal factors (prior knowledge, personal goals and achievement level), social and emotional factors play an important role in help seeking, too, because the help seeker has to approach another person in order to receive help (Karabenick & Newman, 2009; Ryan & Shin, 2011). In classrooms a teacher is regarded as the first and the most valuable help source. However, we know that students prefer using various help sources than a teacher (e.g., Mäkitalo-Siegl et al., 2011) and that some students prefer asking help from some teachers rather than from the others. Recent studies indicate that a teacher’s attitudes and behavior can influence students’ help seeking (e.g., Butler & Shibaz, 2008). There is also empirical evidence, that students’ help-seeking behavior can be influenced by guidance and instructions (Mäkitalo-Siegl et al., 2011; Roll et al., 2011). However, at the same time, we generally assume that teachers, who are experts of teaching, will automatically be experts in help seeking and help giving. Also, student teachers’ help-seeking behavior is a less studied topic in help-seeking research. This study aimed to investigate student teachers’ help-seeking behavior in their own learning just at the beginning of their first university year in pre-service teacher education. Based on the results we will discuss about the role of pre-service teacher education for preparing student teachers to become more aware of the importance of help seeking and the factors which affect students’ help seeking.

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