Interest, Self-efficacy, and Belonging in Classroom Learning

• In Event: How to Create Environments of Belonging for Students: New Perspectives on School Belonging Research

Abstract

Students’ interest, self-efficacy, and belonging are considered essential for classroom learning, as they each have been shown to promote sustained engagement and school achievement. Unexplored, however, is the relation among these motivational variables and its implications for working with students. In this presentation, we overview research that has been conducted addressing these variables individually, providing background on indicators and measurement, and findings specific to classroom learning. Then, using findings from an exploratory mixed method study of a science workshop designed to promote students’ interest, self-efficacy, and belonging, we consider the relation of these variables in students’ learning. Participants were a cohort of 12 (4 boys, 8 girls) urban, Black, middle-school age youth living in high poverty. Within-person analyses showed that the students’ classroom learning was influenced by their interest in the discipline and the lab activities, their belief that they could be successful in working with science, and their feelings about whether they belonged in the science workshop both academically and socially. Synergies among the three variables are discussed as underscoring the importance of considering how students engage to work with disciplinary content with others (peers, instructors).

Authors

• K. Ann Renninger, Swarthmore College

• Lux K. Barton, Swarthmore College

• Gia Bautista, Swarthmore College

• Mary Garcia-Barrios, Swarthmore College

• Iyinoluwa Ogunyinka, Swarthmore College