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EdPsy581D: School Belonging

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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EdPsy581D: School Belonging

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  1. 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

  2. EdPsy581D: School Belonging • 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

  3. 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 • 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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)

  7. 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.

  8. 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”

  9. 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)

  10. 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

  11. 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 • 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

  12. 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

  13. 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.

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