2015 - Belonging and Academic Engagement Among Undergraduate STEM Students: A Multi-institutional Study

Attribution: Wilson, Denise, Jones, Diane, Bocell, Fraser, Crawford, Joy, Kim, Mee Joo, Veilleux, Nanette, Floyd-Smith, Tamara, Bates, Rebecca, & Plett, Melani
Researchers: Denise WilsonDiane JonesFraser BocellJoy CrawfordMee Joo KimMelani PlettNanette VeilleuxRebecca BatesTamara Floyd-Smith
University Affiliation: University of Washington; Tuskegee University; Minnesota State University
Email: denisew@u.washington.edu
Research Question:
1) Which levels of belonging are most consistently associated with behavioral engagement as well as emotional engagement after controlling for relevant factors such as self-efficacy? 2) What are the similarities and differences among the different types of institutions in terms of the relationships between belonging levels and engagement?
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Research in Higher Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 56, No. 7, Pp. 750-776
Year: 2015
Findings:
  1. A sense of belonging, especially class belonging, is related to behavioral and emotional engagement among undergraduate STEM students.
  2. Belonging represents a distinct attribute that reflects the experiences of students in the STEM environment and has implications for what they do in class (effort and participation) and how they feel about their experiences in class and their major (positive and negative emotions).These results hold regardless of gender.
  3. The most consistent and significant links among models for the five participating institutions occurred between belonging at the class level and positive emotional engagement, while the least frequent and least consistent occurred between belonging to the university and all forms of engagement. Patterns of association to engagement were also similar for belonging and self-efficacy.
  4. Major belonging was a significant factor related to engagement at only three of the institutions and primarily for effort and positive emotional engagement. These institutions were quite varied in terms of the size of the student body and the types of academic majors offered. In each case, however, either the small size of the academic units or cohort programs within the majors could have contributed to the importance of the major as a mechanism for encouraging a sense of belonging.
  5. It was only at the large research institution that university belonging was a consistent contributor to engagement.
  6. Self-efficacy also emerged as a central variable related to different types of engagement in that there was a consistent pattern of significant relationships across the five institutions.
  7. Mixed patterns of connection between self-efficacy and more positive forms of engagement (effort, participation, and positive emotion) suggest that institutional factors may play a stronger role in how students choose to engage more in their studies.
  8. The results of this study confirm the importance of belonging in the STEM classroom context and provide additional insights into the concurrent importance of self-efficacy in supporting student engagement.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: BelongingGenderSelf-EfficacySTEMRegions: NationalMethodologies: MixedResearch Designs: SurveyAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsMultiple Regression Equation Sampling Frame:STEM Students
Sampling Types: Non-Random - PurposiveAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Mixed-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • The sample consisted of 403 sophomores, 633 juniors, and 471 seniors in STEM majors from the five institutions. These institutions were a HBCU, a private/ faith based college, a research university, a teaching university, and a women’s college. The sample was recruited over a two-year period from Fall 2010 through Fall 2012.
  • DVs:
    1. Behavioral engagement- the behavioral engagement scale was designed to measure students’ effort and participation with regard to work in their classes. Students responded to a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) for each item. Effort evaluated how hard students try to work in their classes and lab/study groups. Participation measured how students think about their participation in class discussions in their classes and lab/study groups.
    2. Emotional Engagement- the emotional engagement scale was designed to measure students’ affective responses to the work in their classes. Students responded to each item using a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Positive emotional engagement measured the level of positive affect that students felt about learning and being in their major classes and lab/study groups. Negative emotional engagement measured the negative feelings that students felt about learning and being in their classes and lab/study groups. The measure contained six items.
  • IV’s:
    • Belonging was measured at three levels (class, academic major, and university). To measure belonging to class and academic major, items were adapted from the belonging scale to assess a student’s feelings of support and acceptance in a STEM class or major. For each scale, students responded to four items using a 5-point Likert scale.
    • Self-efficacy was included to represent students’ academic orientations and was defined as the self-appraisal of one’s ability to master a task. The measure included judgments about one’s ability to accomplish a task as well as one’s confidence in one’s skills to perform that task. Self-efficacy was measured at the academic major level using five items.
    • Year in school was based on the students’ self-reports of their university classification as freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior.
    • Parental education was assessed separately for mothers and fathers or for primary caregivers. Students selected one of seven options that indicated the highest level of education completed by each parent or primary caregiver.
    • Gender.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Factors Related to STEM Readiness
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts