2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Relation between Students’ Sense of Belongingness and their Resistance to Active Learning

Motivation for our presentation of a research study.
Engineering education researchers have demonstrated that despite the benefits of active learning engineering students may resist engaging in active learning (DeMonbrun et al., 2017). Resistance may be related to their feelings of belongingness (Graham et al., 2023). Understanding the impact of belongingness may be particularly important in our efforts to support women (Goode et al., 2012).

Theoretical Framework
We ground our analysis in contemporary theories of belongingness. Baumeister and Leary (1995) posited that individuals must maintain lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relations to fulfill this basic need. Recently, researchers have focused on the effect of undergraduate students’ feelings of classroom belongingness (e.g. Edwards et al., 2021). Although the use of active learning has been related to increased belongingness, if students do not feel they belong in that class, they may actively resist engaging in those practices, thus not receiving the benefits. To understand students’ participation in active learning, we utilize the construct of Resistance developed by DeMonbrun and colleagues (e.g., DeMonbrun et al., 2017). Two types of student resistance are behavioral (e.g., distracting classmates) and affective (e.g., not valuing the activity).

Methods
We employed a longitudinal self-report study. Student participants (n=1,649), were surveyed 3 times in one term and recruited from STEM classes taught by 175 instructors. The surveys of belongingness and resistance to active learning we used have produced reliable and valid responses in prior studies.
We tested all hypotheses using Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) using Bayesian estimation to evaluate the indirect effect of students’ belongingness on their behavioral resistance through their affective resistance in MPlus v.8.3 (Muthén & Muthén, 2017).

Findings
We found a significant direct effect of belongingness on students’ behavioral resistance, b = 0.16, 95% CI [0.10, 0.21], p < .01. Additionally, we observed a significant direct-effect of belongingness on students’ affective resistance, b = 0.30, 95% CI [0.23, 0.36], p < .01. Although we found the pattern of relations to be largely similar for both female- and male-identifying students, the levels of belongingness and resistance were different based on gender.
We observed that female-identifying students reported lower sense of belongingness (x̄ = 5.39, SD = 0.08) than their male-identifying classmates (x̄ = 5.53, SD = 0.07). Female-identifying students were higher in both affective (x̄ = 5.93, SD = 0.07) and behavioral (x̄ = 6.17, SD = 0.05) resistance to active learning compared to male-identifying students affective (x̄ = 5.81, SD = 0.08) and behavioral (x̄ = 6.03, SD = 0.05) resistance.

Implications
These findings suggest that belongingness plays is related to how students respond to active learning and that fostering an atmosphere that supports belongingness may benefit all students. The findings also indicate that female-identifying students feel less belongingness and resist active learning more than their male-identifying classmates. These findings indicate that faculty may need to incorporate instructional practices that facilitate belongingness in addition to traditional active learning practices (Rainey, et al., 2021).

Affective Theories, Structural Equation Modeling, Active Learning