Understanding student sense of belonging in introductory STEM courses

Abstract

Women have been found to experience lower sense of belonging compared to men in STEM classrooms, which can lead to underperformance and withdrawal from STEM programs. Sense of belonging is believed to impact how students respond to challenges, which can subsequently affect whether students remain engaged in their coursework and how they perform in the course. Most research about sense of belonging has occurred in the United States, and other countries remain understudied. Scandinavia is an interesting context because there is high gender equality broadly, but the same gender differences found elsewhere are present at Scandinavian universities, where more men earn STEM degrees than women. We studied students’ sense of belonging in four STEM courses at a university in Norway. We employed a mixed-methods study with a concurrent triangulation design and found that women had significantly lower sense of belonging compared to men, and that students with lower sense of belonging received lower course grades. We asked students an open-ended question about the challenges they faced in their courses and how they responded. We found that students with low sense of belonging disproportionately reported feeling overwhelmed and stressed. In their responses to the open-ended question, students shared desired changes to course structure and instruction. Based on those comments, we highlight evidence-based practices that instructors can use to improve their students’ sense of belonging.