Schafer Jennifer L, Guenther Courtney H, Stovall Daniel B, Brown LaShardai N, Glasscock Laura N, Stern Matthew M
Department of Biology, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2022 Apr 4;23(2). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00007-22. eCollection 2022 Aug.
Connections between students and faculty on campus may influence students' sense of belonging, and a greater sense of belonging has a positive effect on student success. We developed a low-cost, faculty-led program of community-building events and implemented the program in the biology department at a small liberal-arts institution with the goal of improving students' sense of community. Student responses to surveys indicated that the majority of students felt connected to faculty and students in the department; however, Black or African American students initially felt a lower level of connection to faculty than did white students. After implementing our series of community-building events, students surveyed reported high levels of satisfaction with the events. Furthermore, there was a trend toward a higher percentage of Black or African American students than white students reporting that they were more likely to reach out to faculty after participating in the community-building events. Thus, our low-cost program improved connections between students and faculty in the biology department. Collectively, our results suggest that academic departments can implement community-building programs to improve students' sense of belonging.
校园里学生与教师之间的联系可能会影响学生的归属感，而更强的归属感对学生的成功有着积极影响。我们开发了一个低成本、由教师主导的社区建设活动项目，并在一所小型文理学院的生物系实施了该项目，目标是提升学生的社区感。学生对调查的回应表明，大多数学生感觉与系里的教师和同学有联系；然而，黑人或非裔美国学生最初感觉与教师的联系程度低于白人学生。在实施了我们一系列的社区建设活动后，接受调查的学生报告对这些活动满意度很高。此外，有这样一种趋势，即报告称在参与社区建设活动后更有可能主动与教师联系的黑人或非裔美国学生的比例高于白人学生。因此，我们的低成本项目改善了生物系学生与教师之间的联系。总体而言，我们的结果表明学术部门可以实施社区建设项目来提升学生的归属感。
