The Mathematics Educator 2025 Vol. 33 - No. 1 - A Study of Students’ Help-Seeking Behaviors in Undergraduate Mathematics Tutoring

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia

An observational study examines the help-seeking behaviors of undergraduates who drop in for free tutoring at a university mathematics tutoring center. The research tracks how students enter, act, and interact, comparing two center areas serving STEM majors versus BLSSS majors. Results show most students arrive alone, remain over an hour, and work industriously in both areas. STEM-area students are more social, more conceptually focused, and less dependent on tutors, informing tutor training leadership.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Mathematics tutoring outside the classroom

Study purpose and research questions

Help-Seeking Behavior in Undergraduate Mathematics Tutoring

Definitions and learning context

Social and motivational aspects

The Mathematics Educator 2025 Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 32-60 A Study of Students’ Help-Seeking Behaviors in Undergraduate Mathematics Tutoring Deborah Moore-Russo, Henry Christiansen, and Emilee Coxsey This observational study considers the help-seeking behaviors of students who drop in to receive free tutoring at a university’s mathematics tutoring center. It reports how these students enter the tutoring space, act, and interact with others, comparing the students in two different areas of the center. One of the areas serves students taking mathematics classes for natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. The other area serves students taking mathematics classes for business, life science, and social science (BLSSS) majors. Findings suggest that most students enter the center alone, stay for over an hour, and are industrious, no matter the area they visit. However, students in the STEM area were more social with others in the tutoring center, more focused on gaining a conceptual understanding, and less likely to be dependent on tutors than the students in the BLSSS area. These results add to the research literature on what is known about student actions and interactions in university tutoring centers. They have implications for those who organize and lead mathematics tutor training that might help them provide better support to students. Introduction In colleges and universities, classrooms are not the only places where learning occurs. Mathematics tutoring is a common academic service in U.S. postsecondary education that is provided to support students’ learning outside of the classroom Deborah Moore-Russo is the First-Year Mathematics Director at the University of Oklahoma. She is interested in how mathematics departments support their firstyear courses through tutoring centers, course coordination, and other efforts. Henry Christiansen is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma. He is majoring in both Finance and Economics. Emilee Coxsey is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma. She is majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Deborah Moore-Russo, Henry Christiansen, and Emilee Coxsey (Johnson & Hanson, 2015). Many students have the opportunity to work with tutors, often advanced undergraduate or graduate students (Johns et al., 2023a; Rickard & Mills, 2018), at their campus mathematics tutoring centers, henceforth referred to as math centers. These math centers are usually physical spaces on collegiate campuses “where students enrolled in a mathematics course can get optional out-of-class resources to support their learning” (Mills et al., 2022, p. 3) . The free tutoring services offered at math centers are most often in the form of drop-in, rather than appointment-based, tutoring (Byerley et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2023b) Math centers provide a range of services to students. The services typically offered include guiding students to solve problems, supplying additional problems for students, and offering support and encouragement as students solve problems (Wepner, 1985) . The services provided have led to documented benefits for students, such as reinforcing the ideas addressed in instructors’ lectures (Ali et al., 2015) and providing students with a sense of community (Bjorkman & Nickerson, 2019) . Undergraduates who regularly visit math centers have been found to have higher grades, better retention, and increased degree completion than those who do not (Byerley et al., 2018; Rheinheimer et al., 2010; Rickard & Mills, 2018; Xu et al., 2001) . Even though researchers have begun to investigate math centers and their common aspects (Byerley et al., 2018, 2023), there have been calls for more studies to better understand math centers and the students who visit them (Byerley et al., 2023; Lawson et al., 2020; Mills et al., 2022; Tinsley et al., 2018) . This study provides information on undergraduate students who attended a math center that offers

FAQs

What is the focus of the study on university math tutoring centers?

The study focuses on students’ help-seeking behaviors when they drop in for free tutoring, including how they enter, act, and interact in the tutoring space.

How do the two tutoring center areas differ in the study?

One area serves students taking mathematics classes for STEM majors, while the other serves students in business, life science, and social science (BLSSS) programs.

What key differences does the study find between STEM and BLSSS students?

STEM-area students are more social, more focused on gaining conceptual understanding, and less likely to be dependent on tutors than BLSSS-area students.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia