This paper presents the complete research results of an evidence-based practice investigating students’ sense of belonging in an introduction to engineering class. Studies have shown that student sense of belonging in the classroom, major, and institution can positively impact performance in future engineering classes and overall retention rates. Sense of belonging has been identified as particularly important to the retention of underrepresented minorities and females. This research project explores the effect of embedding small interventions designed to improve engineering pre-major students’ sense of belonging into a first year introductory engineering class. In addition, this study investigates the effect of the interventions on student demographics such as gender and race. This study has the potential to benefit first-year engineering education pedagogies by exploring the effectiveness of small interventions that can be embedded into busy course curriculum without significantly detracting from classroom time available for content focused on meeting course outcomes. This paper describes the design and implementation of the three interventions that were embedded into multiple sections of an introduction to engineering class and presents the results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis. In addition, the authors discuss the challenges and limitations faced during the project including survey design limitations, inconsistency of survey interpretation, questions related to effectively measuring sense of belonging, and student ability to discern change in sense of belonging. The team shares the methods they used to overcome these challenges and presents the lessons learned with an emphasis on best-practices and future recommendations. All work was completed with IRB approval and student identity protection.
Jill Davishahl is Assistant Professor and First Year Programs Director in the Engineering + Design department at Western Washington University. Jill's teaching, service, and research activities focus on enhancing first year student experiences by providing foundational technical skills, student engagement opportunities, and professional skill development necessary to improve success in the major, with emphasis on supporting traditionally underserved student populations. Her current research focuses on creating inclusive and equitable learning environments through the development and implementation of strategies geared towards increasing student sense of belonging.
Dr. Sura Al-Qudah is an assistant professor in the Engineering and Design Department at Western Washington University. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from State University of New York at Binghamton in August 2014 and August 2010 respectively, and her B.S. in Electronics Engineering from Yarmouk University, Jordan, in 2004.
Dr. Al-Qudah research areas of interest are in process improvement methodologies (Lean Six-Sigma), applied operations research, and engineering education pedagogies. Before joining WWU in the Fall of 2014, she worked as a graduate teaching and research assistant in the Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Department at SUNY Binghamton. She also served as an assistant instructor for Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training courses offered through SUNY Binghamton for six consecutive training courses since 2012.
Dr. Al-Qudah is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE) professional societies, as well as Alpha Pi Mu honor society. Dr. Al-Qudah holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certificate.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.