High-impact teaching practices foster a greater sense of belonging in the college classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT To improve sub-standard retention and 4-year graduation rates, colleges and universities have tried to foster in students more social connections and a greater sense of belonging to the institution. Repeated positive interactions with faculty members are crucial for helping students develop this sense of belonging. Classroom-level belonging specifically is associated with increased self-efficacy and academic motivation compared to campus-level belonging. Additionally, a sense of belonging may support student success by reducing psychological distress and the risk of mental health problems. However, research about how to foster classroom-level belonging has been relatively scarce despite the demonstrated importance of this construct. To address this gap, we asked psychology and education college students to evaluate a course using the Teacher Behaviour Checklist (TBC), the Classroom Community Scale, and the Classroom Climate Scale in an online survey. We found that caring and supportive teacher behaviour (a TBC factor) predicted 1) a community of connectedness and 2) a climate of high instructor organisation and support, professional competency and communication (a TBC factor) predicted 3) a stronger community of learning and 4) a climate of higher academic expectations. Exploratory analyses also revealed that caring and supportive teacher behaviour predicted higher learning and academic expectations; professional competency and communication predicted higher connectedness and instructor organisation and support. It appears that high-impact teaching practices, in general, improve classroom belonging. Our results echo others, highlighting the importance of caring and professional competence to classroom-level belonging in higher education. Implications for student success and faculty development initiatives are also discussed.