2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This empirical full-length paper presents findings on the connection between sense of belonging (SOB) and self-regulated learning (SRL) in engineering education. Shaping first-year engineering students into self-regulating learners is essential for preparing them to succeed in their academic coursework and their professional careers. The continuously evolving scientific landscape requires engineers to not only possess extensive technical knowledge, but to efficiently learn new skills. SRL encompasses behaviors students engage in during learning tasks. For instance, self-regulating learners may plan for a task by identifying key strategies, building motivation, and setting goals; monitor their progress toward goals during the task, adapting as needed; and reflect on their performance in the task by evaluating if their goals were met. Reflection activities focusing on SRL help transform knowledgeable learners into those who effectively self-regulate their learning. Promoting SRL in engineering education leads to the development of sound learning strategies and behaviors that are necessary for solving ill-posed real world engineering problems.

Previous research demonstrates that including peer feedback within SRL-based reflection activities enhances students’ self-regulatory development. Given the benefits of positive peer interaction on students’ SOB, these feedback-based activities may provide multifaceted benefits for students, improving SRL abilities and SOB simultaneously. Additionally, students’ SOB may moderate the benefits of SRL-based reflection activities. Due to the historically exclusionary culture of engineering, understanding the connection between SRL and SOB is especially important for supporting minoritized students’ learning and development.

This study investigates the outcomes of SRL-based reflection activities that feature opportunities for peer feedback. These activities were piloted in a large first-year introductory engineering course at a large southwestern R1 university that is a minority serving institution. To collect a baseline measurement of students’ SRL behaviors and SOB, Pintrich et al.'s Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and Goodenow’s Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale were administered in the first week of class. In the second week, an SRL intervention was delivered in the form of a five-minute mini-lecture discussing SRL strategies and how they relate to academic success. Then, during the third and seventh week, students responded to SRL-based reflection prompts. Written reflections were conducted in pairs: students completed a reflection and then received feedback from their partners on a virtual document. Pairs remained constant across both activities. Common types of feedback included sharing helpful learning strategies and epistemological beliefs. At the end of the term, students were again administered the MSLQ and PSSM.

A quantitative approach illuminated how students’ SRL abilities and SOB changed in response to the mini-lecture and reflection activities. This approach was chosen to assess how students’ initial SOB or change in SOB correlated with their SRL abilities. The analysis focused on how student identity and PSSM scores related to MSLQ scores. Results indicate that PSSM and MSLQ score changes were marginal for all groups in the sample, but that the raw scores positively correlated to a statistically significant degree. Continuing to develop feedback-based reflection activities is essential for developing students’ SRL abilities and fostering a stronger SOB in engineering.