Alignment of Goals and Perceptions of Computing Predicts Students' Sense of Belonging in Computing

Lewis, Colleen M.; Bruno, Paul; Raygoza, Jonathan; Wang, Julia

doi:10.1145/3291279.3339426

Cited by 72 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Belongingness has also been found to be associated with motivation [2], achievement [39], persistence [26] and student retention [37]. Known predictors of belongingness include race and gender identity [11,14,28], two facets that we explore in this paper.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been explored within several disciplines, is known to play a role in the transition from second-to third-level education, and is likely influenced by student characteristics (or what students 'bring with them') as well as environmental factors [7]. It is likely that there are also many factors affecting sense of belonging that cannot be controlled for [14]. Sense of belonging has been shown to be influenced not only by traditional educational environmental factors, but by activities such as video games [31], formal research activities [36], and specific technologies and tools such as web interfaces [21].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computing students' sense of belonging

Mooney

Becker

2021

ACM Inroads

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Sense of belonging, or belongingness, describes how accepted one feels in their academic community and is an important factor in creating inclusive learning environments. Belongingness is influenced by many factors including: students' backgrounds and experiences; other people; environments (physical and virtual); academic discipline; external factors such as local, regional, and global issues; and time. 2020 has been dominated by several major events including the COVID-19 pandemic which dramatically impacted education. The Black Lives Matter movement has further raised global awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion not just in society, but in educational contexts. Climate change concerns, and politicallycharged news are also increasingly affecting our students.We have been monitoring our undergraduate computing students' sense of belonging for over three years, providing us with a unique opportunity to gauge recent changes during the pandemic. Our results surprised us. We found statistically significant reductions in the belongingness of students identifying as men as well as those not identifying as being part of a minority. However, investigating intersectionality of self-identified gender and minority status revealed more complicated and nuanced trends, illustrating important shifts in the belongingness of our students that we are only beginning to understand.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computing students' sense of belonging

Mooney

Becker

2021

ACM Inroads

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“…Women also chose computing when they perceived its potential to have a positive impact on society [13]. Alignment of values and cultural expectations not only affect decisions to study computing [13], [14], but are also important for students to experience the "sense of belonging", which in turn predicts retention [15].…”

Section: A Women Studying Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computing degree apprenticeships: An opportunity to address gender imbalance in the IT sector?

Smith

Taylor‐Smith

Fabian

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)

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This paper explores the potential for new workbased apprenticeship degrees to encourage more women into computing degrees and the IT sector. In the UK, women are currently under-represented on computing courses. Meanwhile the IT industry requires more computing graduates, in general, and specifically more highly skilled women to create appropriate products and systems. The UK has recently introduced apprenticeship computing degrees, where the apprentice is a work-based employee. In some models, apprentices spend 20% of their time on Higher Education studies and also gain credits through work-based learning; in others, apprentices spend blocks of time in Higher Education and the workplace. These degrees offer a new and innovative route to studying computing at university. Largely funded by employers, apprentices are salaried, and their fees are paid, paving the way for more people to study for a degree. The work context enables apprentices to keep their jobs (if relevant) or to move into IT roles and start a computing degree without necessarily having computing qualifications; the degrees have no upper age limit. Extending the work-based approach of US cooperative education and student work placement models, apprenticeship degrees have been introduced to increase skills levels through a close partnership between universities and employers. This is particularly important in IT, where the sector is expanding, and employers are looking for both good technical and personal skills. With this model, employers are collaboratively involved in the design of the degrees and apprentices graduate with extensive work experience. We posed the following research question: Are there differences in the paths into computing apprenticeship degrees between women and men? A survey was conducted with apprentices beginning a degree in Fall 2019: Cyber Security, Data Science, IT Management for Business, or Software Engineering/Development. Participants were asked about their routes into the apprenticeship and the IT sector. Apprentices at five universities in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland completed the survey, on paper or online (n=85; 23 female, 59 male).The results revealed a less severe gender imbalance than with comparative on-campus degrees (28% female), but this varied greatly across the subjects, from Data Science, where 55% of respondents identified as female and IT Management for Business (40% female), to Software Development (27% female) and Cyber Security (only 11% female). Apprentices were more likely to have started the degree at least a few years after leaving school and this was especially true for women. More female respondents had also been with their current employer for over five years. However, women were slightly more likely to have joined their employers in order to start the apprenticeship. This initial work identifies opportunities to recruit women onto computing degree apprenticeships, for example by targeting women who have started careers. It also highlights that there are challenges in recruiting women ...

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“…White students often have a stronger sense of belonging than black students [8], and a lack of role models for women contributes to a lower sense of belonging for female engineering students [9]. Additionally, computer science is not always perceived as "friendly to society" which can cause students who want to help society to feel less like they belong in computer science and engineering [10].…”

Section: Belongingness and A Sense Of Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broader examples of using computing to solve engineering problems will allow students to each find something of interest in their classes, positively impacting their sense of belonging and community [12]. In general, we need to de-emphasize the more famous applications of computer science (game design, app development), and instead emphasize the myriad ways that computing helps society [10,13].…”

Section: Belongingness and A Sense Of Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Sense of Community Through an Introductory Computer Programming Course Sequence

Alford

Kamil

DeOrio

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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Alignment of Goals and Perceptions of Computing Predicts Students' Sense of Belonging in Computing

Cited by 72 publications

References 25 publications

Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computing students' sense of belonging

Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computing students' sense of belonging

Computing degree apprenticeships: An opportunity to address gender imbalance in the IT sector?

Student Sense of Community Through an Introductory Computer Programming Course Sequence

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