EdPsy581D: School Belonging
Cross-Sectional Study of Belonging
in Engineering Education:
A Work in Progress
Denise Wilson (Graduate Student or Professor?)
Lisa Hansen, Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Washington
EdPsy581D: School Belonging
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Research Objective
Previous Results
Background: Importance of Belonging
Methods
– Belonging Survey
– Communities
– Analysis
• Results
– Reliability
– Sense of belonging across communities
– Correlation Relationships
• Summary and Future Work
• Acknowledgements
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Research Objective
– To reliably evaluate sense of belonging in the University of
Washington engineering community compared to comparable
Research I engineering communities.
– Populations
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Frontiers in Education, 2005: Engineering Education Conference
IEEE Sensors, 2005: Technical Engineering Conference
NSF Engineering Research Center Retreat
EE331 (UWEE) Microelectronic Circuits Class
– Communities: Immediate and Home
• Example: Belonging at IEEE Sensors
– At the Conference
– At the Home Institution
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Previous Results (UWEE Introductory Class)
• Students were most ambivalent
about feelings of frustration
• A majority of students expressed
feelings of fulfillment but also
felt overworked.
• This contradiction reappeared in
an open-ended question
addressing the same issue:
• Intrigued and stressed
• Excited and confused
• Confident and not
comfortable
• Curious and bored
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Previous Results (UWEE Introductory Class)
• Major Negative Feedback:
– Overwork and
– Lack of relationship
– Are prevalent and major barriers to fulfillment in the educational process
• General Observations
– Students are remarkable self-aware
– “Assistance” for personal/professional growth is inaccessible due to workload
• Major Positive Feedback
– Inherent fulfillment in technical course content
– External failure is not necessarily internalized
• General Resentment
– Things that don’t work
– Lack of application and relationship
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Background (The Importance of Belonging)
• What is Belonging?
– The “powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive”
motivation of humans to fulfill needs for attachment through
social bonds (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
• Impact of Belonging
– Elementary School: engagement, influence and positive
behavior (Solomon, 1997).
– Middle School: academic motivation and efforts, grade point
average, absenteeism and tardiness (Goodenow, 1993)
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Background (The Importance of Belonging)
• Impact of Belonging
– High School: student academic interest and achievement, absenteeism, and
misbehavior (Bryk & Driscoll, 1988).
– High School: 24.2% of high school dropouts cite the lack of belonging as a
significant factor in their decisions to leave school (Center for Educational
Statistics, 1993).
– College: feelings of being cared about and being treated in a caring way
(Cheng, 2004).
– College: caring relates directly to the overall quality of the institution as 1
of the 6 necessary characteristics of colleges and universities identified by
Boyer (1990).
– College: sense of community is moderated by level of extraversion
(DeNui, 2003), which makes it harder for introverts to develop a sense of
community at higher level institutions.
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Methods
• Survey distributed to four different engineering communities:
– Frontiers in Education 2005: predominantly engineering faculty
– IEEE Sensors 2005: predominantly engineering graduate students
– NSF Engineering Research Center Retreat: mix of engineering graduate and
undergraduate students
– EE331 Class at University of Washington: predominantly engineering
undergraduate students.
• Survey Composition (23 total items)
– Validated Belonging Items (Anderson-Butcher, 2002)
• “I feel part of the conference”
• “I feel supported by my department”
– Additional items related to autonomy, competence, belonging
• “I feel technically competent”
• “I feel socially at ease”
• “I feel welcome to ask questions”
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Analysis and Results
• Reliability (Cronbach a)
– Dataset 1: FIE 2005
(N = 101)
– Dataset 2, 5: IEEE
Sensors 2005 (N = 29)
– Dataset 3, 6: ERC
Retreat (N = 29)
– Dataset 4, 7: EE331
(N = 36)
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Analysis and Results
• ANOVA
– Dataset 1,4: EE331
– Dataset 2, 5: IEEE
Sensors 2005
– Dataset 3, 6: ERC
Retreat 2005
– F-test probability
that belonging levels
are the same across
these populations =
2 X 10-7
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Analysis and Results
• Significant Correlations: FIE 2005
– Technical Competence at Conference and Home Institution
– Socially at Ease and Welcome to Ask Questions
• Significant Correlations: EE331
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Accepted by Faculty/Accepted by Students
Technically Competent/Accepted by Students
Ideas are listened to/Accepted by Faculty and Students
Comfortable with faculty/Part of my Department (IEEE Sensors too)
Faculty and Students trust each other
• Accepted by Faculty
• Accepted by Students
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Summary
• Summary
– Engineering undergraduate students in electrical engineering at UW
experience a significantly lower sense of belonging than engineering students
at other institutions
– Relationships (acceptance and support) by faculty are significantly related to
measures of belonging (feeling part of the department)
– ERC sense of belonging at home institution not significantly different from
IEEE Sensors sense of belonging
• Future Research
– Tease out influences of graduate/undergraduate and international/United
States home institutions
– Evaluate impact (on belonging) of interventions designed to improve
faculty/student relationship and fulfillment at UW
– Investigate sources of faculty resistance to soft skill intervention
Belonging in Engineering Education:
Acknowledgements
• Prof. Diane Jones for answering all kinds of questions with patience
• Graduate Research Assistant Lisa Hansen for assisting in collecting survey
data and writing the companion paper
• My graduate colleagues (especially Cathy Bankston) for listening to my
enthusiastic ramblings.
• Funding agencies for having the future wisdom to support this effort.