The Relationship Between Sense of Belonging and Student Outcomes in CS1 and Beyond

Abstract

Students' sense of belonging has been found to be connected to student retention in higher education. In computing education, prior studies suggest that a hostile culture and a feeling of nonbelonging can lead women, Black, Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander students to drop out of the computing field at a disproportionately high rate. Yet, we know relatively little about how computing students' sense of belonging presents and evolves (if at all) through their college courses, particularly in courses beyond the introductory level, and little is known about how sense of belonging impacts student outcomes in computing. In an extension of a previous study, we examined students' sense of belonging in six early undergraduate computer science courses across three consecutive quarters at a large research-intensive institution in North America. We found that women and first generation students have a lower incoming sense of belonging across all courses. When exploring sense of belonging's tie to student outcomes we found that lower sense of belonging was correlated with negative course outcomes in terms of pass rates and course performance. We also found that it is less tied to student performance as students get further into the CS curriculum. Surprisingly, there was no indication that sense of belonging is predictive of retention in terms of persistence to the next CS course outside of the first course in our two-course CS1 sequence. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computing Education.

The Effect of Social Belonging on Persistence to General Chemistry 2

“…1,2,15−18,27,29−32 For example, in both introductory math and computer science courses, studies have shown that women have a lower sense of belonging than men, and this sense of belonging is correlated to performance and motivation in the course. 15,18 Additionally, in both algebrabased and calculus-based introductory physics courses, women have a lower sense of belonging than men even though the percent of women in algebra-based introductory physics is above 50%. 16,27,32 A student's belonging uncertainty has been less studied.…”

“…It has repeatedly been observed across a variety of contexts that women report a lower sense of belonging and a higher belonging uncertainty than men in introductory STEM courses, including online courses. ,,− ,,− For example, in both introductory math and computer science courses, studies have shown that women have a lower sense of belonging than men, and this sense of belonging is correlated to performance and motivation in the course. , Additionally, in both algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses, women have a lower sense of belonging than men even though the percent of women in algebra-based introductory physics is above 50%. ,, A student’s belonging uncertainty has been less studied. In an introductory computer science course, it was seen that women had a higher belonging uncertainty than men and that higher uncertainty was correlated with their perceived potential ability .…”

Hybrid approaches to teaching: Re-imagining the teaching of a foundational science course during a global pandemic

“…Such an approach to teaching foundational science courses does not adequately equip students to become scientists and science learners (Ellery, 2018). In addition, the traditional didactic approach also has the potential to alienate students and strip them of their sense of belonging (Krause-Levy, et al, 2021). While many of the knower dispositions of scientists and science learners could be taught effectively using Emergency Remote Teaching, some were more challenging to teach, and for students to learn.…”

“…These tasks were deliberately designed to be relevant to the global context in which all academics and students found themselves during 2020/2021. By being contextually relevant, DMP also hoped to make the content more interesting and engaging for the students and begin to inculcate a sense of belonging which he hoped would ultimately foster improved academic success (Krause-Levy, et al, 2021). His efforts appeared to have the desired effect i.e., the regulative discourse appears to be enabling epistemic access to the instructional discourse, with several students noting:…”

How did the landscape of student belonging shift during COVID‐19?

“…Within engineering, social belonging (i.e., acceptance and membership) has been positively and significantly linked with grade performance in introductory engineering classes (Schar et al, 2017). And for computer science students, lower (in‐class) belonging, which includes elements of acceptance, membership, and support, has been linked to poorer academic outcomes, whether measured by course pass rate (Krause‐Levy et al, 2021) or a specific post‐course content assessment (Moudgalya et al, 2021).…”