A theoretical and practical approach to enhancing students’ sense of belonging

In this blog, Prof. Louise Taylor at Oxford Brookes University, describes an activity that she developed, which is well suited to personal tutoring sessions. It is grounded in social-psychological theory and aims to increase students’ sense of belonging by strengthening their identity as a member of their discipline. The activity creates an essential space for students to learn about the impact of identities on their learning, reflect on their own identities, and engage in research-informed activities for strengthening their own discipline identities. By creating this space during personal tutoring sessions, students will be supported to enhance their university student identity, which will underpin improved academic outcomes.   

Theoretical approach to belonging

In the higher education sector, including the academic advising and personal tutoring branch, a lot has been written in the past few years about how to create a sense of belonging for individual students on our campuses. While much of this work is grounded in ‘common sense’ methodology and is motivated by the desire to improve our students’ experiences, much of it lacks a strong theoretical basis.

The work of seminal social psychologists including Tajfel and Turner (1979) has recently been applied to the higher education sector (e.g. by Bliuc and colleagues, 2011a,b) to develop our understanding of individual student experiences and outcomes. Social Identity Theory proposes that an important part of how we see ourselves, or our identity, is shaped not only by our individual characteristics, but by the groups to which we belong (e.g., occupations, ethnic groups). Group identity can help people to find a sense of meaning in social situations, and influences how people will think, feel and behave. According to Social Identity Theory, three processes occur when people identify with a social group, and this results in individuals adopting the norms, values and behaviours of the group:

• Social Categorisation – we see ourselves in relation to a social category, and accentuate the positive similarities between ourselves and other group members (in-group) while emphasising differences between ourselves and members of other groups (out-group);
• Social Comparison – we judge the relative value of our group, and to fulfil the need for positive distinctiveness, favour in-group members over other out-group members;
• Social Identification – we adopt the group identity, meaning that our identity now reflects the norms, values, and behaviours of the group, and we interpret social situations in line with our social identity.

Importantly, the social identity approach argues that our identities (our attitudes and behaviours) can change overtime in response to changing contexts.

 

In relation to education, the social identity perspective views students not as isolated individuals but as being influenced by others around them. Emerging research supports this idea, for example, by showing that the extent to which a student identifies as a member of their discipline (e.g., psychology) versus, for example, as a ‘party-goer’, has predictable consequences for their learning goals, studying behaviours, and academic performance (Jetten et al, 2017; Komarraju and Dial, 2014; Ommundsen et al, 2005; Smyth et al, 2015; Zimmerman, 2000). Thus, the HE sector and research recognises that fostering a sense of belonging, or group identity, is important to support student outcomes, particularly for those who may belong to groups that have not traditionally been represented in the student body.

 

A practical and theoretically-informed belonging intervention

In the rest of this blog, I will describe a teaching tool I developed with students, which is grounded in the social identity approach. It aims specifically to address these issues in the context of a marketised higher education environment, which is known to negatively affect student outcomes (Bunce et al., 2017; Bunce and Bennett, 2021).

The workshop structure is outlined in Table 1. It can be completed in approximately one-hour with a small group of students (up to 20), and is suitable for students at all levels of study, including those transitioning into university. Full details of the workshop can be found at www.brookes.ac.uk/SIIP, and the resources have also been published by Advance HE (Taylor, 2022).  

 

One-hour small group workshop

●      Step 1: Student completes questionnaire to establish strength of consumer and learner identities and discover student ‘type’ (10 min) ●      Step 2: Tutor presents research on identities using PowerPoint slides provided (10 min) ●      Step 3: In small groups students consider discussion questions (25 min) ●      Step 4: Tutor leads plenary to create a summary of attitudes and behaviours that support learning, in order to create a shared social identity as a learner (15 min)

Table 1: Key elements of the workshop

 

After students have completed a short questionnaire to establish the strength of their learner and consumer identities, they are categorised as one of four student ‘types’ (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The four student types according to the strength of their learner and consumer identities

 

After learning about the research on identities through a tutor-led PowerPoint presentation, students discuss the relative impacts on learning of each identity type. Finally, in the plenary, the tutor leads students to co-create a summary of attitudes and behaviours that support learning in their discipline, in order to create a shared social identity as a student learner. Students are given the heading: “Being a successful student in my discipline means …”, and are then asked to agree on a set of attitudes and behaviours that facilitate learning. For instance, ‘...being curious about new ideas by using resources available to me to find out more’ or ‘...asking questions of my peers or tutor if I don’t understand something’. The final list can be posted in their online learning platform and revisited during personal tutoring sessions to support deeper student learning.

Feedback from the workshop so far has been very positive, and it has been adopted by a number of different courses. One student said it “gives me more of an identity as a student and creates more confidence in my ability” and another said it “enables you to understand your learning and how to adapt it to maximise your experience and learning on the course.” A lecturer also said: “This is a really well-designed workshop […] the students were very engaged, and the questions sparked excellent group discussions. Several students said that, having taken part, they could now see the importance of self-motivated study if they wanted to do well at university.”

If you would like to explore implementing this workshop in your institution or with your students, and would like support, please contact the author, Louise Taylor on louise.e.taylor@brookes.ac.uk 

 

References

Bliuc, A, Ellis, R A, Goodyear, P and Hendres, D M (2011a) ‘The role of social identification as university student in learning: Relationships between students’ social identity, approaches to learning, and academic achievement’, Educational Psychology, 31 (5): 559-574.

Bliuc, A, Ellis, R A, Goodyear, P and Hendres, D M (2011b) ‘Understanding student learning in context: Relationships between university students’ social identity, approaches to learning, and academic performance’, European Journal of Psychology of Education, 26 (3): 417-433.

Bunce, L and Bennett, M (2021) ‘A degree of studying? Approaches to learning and academic performance among student ‘consumers’’, Active Learning in Higher Education, 22 (3): 203-214.

Bunce, L, Baird, A and Jones, S E (2017) ‘The student-as-consumer approach in higher education and its effects on academic performance’, Studies in Higher Education, 42 (11): 1958-1978.

Jetten, J, Iyer, A and Zhang, A (2017) ‘The educational experience of students from low socioeconomic status background’, in Mavor, K I, Platow, M J and Bizumic, B (eds) Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts. Abingdon: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group, pp 112-125.

Komarraju, M and Dial, C (2014) ‘Academic identity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem predict selfdetermined motivation and goals’, Learning and Individual Differences, 32: 1-8.

Ommundsen, Y, Haugen, R and Lund, T (2005) ‘Academic self-concept, implicit theories of ability, and self-regulation strategies’, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49: 461-474

Smyth, L, Mavor, K I, Platow, M J, Grace, D M and Reynolds, K J (2015) ‘Discipline social identification, study norms and learning approach in university students’, Educational Psychology, 35 (1): 53-72.

Tajfel, H and Turner, J C (1979) ‘An integrative theory of intergroup conflict’, in Austin, W G and Worchel, S (eds) The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, pp 33-47.

Taylor, L. (2022) Balancing students’ identities as learners and consumers: Advance HE toolkit. Available at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/balancing-students-identities-learners-and-consumers

Zimmerman, B J (2000) ‘Self-efficacy: An essential motive to learn’, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25: 82-91.