Belonging in STEM

This page is still in development

Some of our current work investigates how students experience belonging in STEM courses.

There are two belonging projects.

Belonging in STEM Residential Learning Communities

Collaborators Justin Leibowitz and Craig Seager.  We developed a survey to measure the belonging, academic engagement, and self-efficacy of students in STEM residential learning communities. The survey was administered in STEM residential learning communities at three different institutions.

Published work – Development and Validation of a Survey to Assess Belonging, Academic Engagement, and Self-Efficacy in STEM RLCs in Learning Communities Research and Practice

A project through the Elon University Research Seminar on Residential Learning Communities as High Impact Practice.

Belonging in Introductory STEM Courses

Collaborators Olga Glebova, Matt Horn, and Tracey Murray
Student Collaborators Darian Castillo and Giselle Mak

In this project, supported by the POGIL DBER grant, we used a survey to measure the belonging of students in POGIL courses. We also asked students to explain why they experience belonging and unbelonging in the class. In POGIL classes, social interactions dominate explanations for students sense of belonging. Some of this work is published

A pilot study in Qatar also measured student sense of belonging. This work is not yet published.