Investigation of academic belonging levels of faculty of health sciences students


DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70736/ijoess.1682Keywords:
Academic Belonging, Health Science, University, StudentAbstract
Understanding the concept of belonging in the university environment is a critical factor for students’ motivation, success and professional identity development and is therefore important. In this context, the aim of the study is to examine the academic belonging levels of students studying in different departments at Izmir Democracy University Faculty of Health Sciences comparatively between departments and to reveal the goal-oriented needs for departments. Convenience sampling method was used to determine the participants of the study and 372 university students participated in the study. In order to evaluate the demographic information of the participants, they were asked to fill out the Personal Information Form, which included questions about age, gender, grade level and the department they were studying. The Academic Belonging Scale, which was developed by Kızılkaya and Doğan and whose Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted, was used to evaluate the academic belonging of the participants. In the analysis of the data, it was observed that all dimensions and total scores were normally distributed, so Pearson Correlation test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were used as parametric analyses. As a result, it was determined that the students of the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences had the highest academic belonging and that the academic belonging of the participants decreased with increasing age. In addition, according to the results of the total score analysis of the scale, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups within the scope of the participants’ gender and class level variables.
References
Abdollahi, A., Panahipour, S., Akhavan Tafti, M., & Allen, K. A. (2020). Academic hardiness as a mediator for the relationship between school belonging and academic stress. Psychology in the Schools, 57(5), 823-832.
Ahn, M. and Davis, H. (2020). Students’ sense of belonging and their socio-economic status in higher education: A quantitative approach. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(1), 136-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1778664
Araújo, N., Carlin, D., Clarke, B., Morieson, L., Lukas, K., & Wilson, R. (2014). Belonging in the first year: A creative discipline cohort case study. International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 5(2).
Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2017). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı: İstatistik, araştırma deseni SPSS uygulamaları ve yorum (23. bs.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi Yayıncılık.
Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö. E., Karadeniz, Ş., & Demirel, F. (2018). Eğitimde bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri (30. bs.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi.
Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2020). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı: İstatistik, araştırma deseni, SPSS uygulamaları ve yorum (26. baskı). Pegem Akademi.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education. Routledge.
Gopalan, M., & Brady, S. T. (2020). College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A National Perspective. Educational Researcher, 49(2), 134–137. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19897622
Erb, S., & Drysdale, M. T. (2017). Learning attributes, academic self-efficacy and sense of belonging amongst mature students at a Canadian University. Studies in the Education of Adults, 49(1), 62-74.
Dost, G., & Mazzoli Smith, L. (2023). Understanding higher education students’ sense of belonging: A qualitative meta-ethnographic analysis. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 47 (6), 822-849. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2023.2191176
Guzzardo, M. T., Khosla, N., Adams, A. L., Bussmann, J. D., Engelman, A., Ingraham, N., … et al. (2021). The ones that care make all the difference: Perspectives on student-faculty relationships. Innovative higher Education, 46(1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09522-w
Karakaya Özyer, K. (2023). Aday öğretmenlerin bilimsel araştırmaya yönelik tutum ve akademik aidiyet düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesi. Gümüşhane Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 14(2), 456-470. https://doi.org/10.36362/gumus.1174994
Kelly, M., Nieuwoudt, J., Willis, R., & Lee, M. (2024). Belonging, enjoyment, motivation, and retention: University students’ sense of belonging before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251241231242
Kızılkaya, H., & Doğan, İ., (2022). Üniversite öğrencilerine yönelik akademik aidiyet ölçeğinin geliştirilmesi: geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması. Journal of Higher Education and Science, 12(1), 60-68. https://doi.org/10.5961/higheredusci.954289
Li, Y., Bernardi, R. C., & Burkholder, E. (2024). The effects of active learning on students’ sense of belonging and academic performance in introductory physics courses. European Journal of Physics, 45(4), 045705. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/ad4fcd
MacFarlane, K. (2018). Higher education learner identity for successful student transitions. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(6), 1201-1215. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1477742
Maghsoodi, A. H., Ruedas-Gracia, N., & Jiang, G. (2023). Measuring college belongingness: Structure and measurement of the Sense of Social Fit Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 70(4), 424–435. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000668
O’Sullivan, K., Bird, N., Robson, J. & Winters, N. 2019. Academic identity, confidence and belonging: The role of contextualised admissions and foundation years in higher education. British Educational Research Journal, 45(3), 554-575. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3513
Özçomak, M. S., & Çebi, K. (2017). İstatistiksel güç analizi: Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi üzerine bir uygulama. Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 31(2), 413-431.
Polmear, M., Hunsu, N., Simmons, D. R., Olaogun, O. P., & Lu, L. (2024). Belonging in engineering: exploring the predictive relevance of social interaction and individual factors on undergraduate students’ belonging in engineering. Journal of Engineering Education, 113(3), 555-575. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20599
Raosoft (2024). http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html (Erişim Tarihi: 21.11.2024)
Sung, J., Koo, G., & Dittmore, S. (2015). Enhancement of non-academic enviornment by intercollegiate athletics and its intangible benefit in higher education. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2015.01008
Tovar, E., & Simon, M. A. (2010). Factorial structure and invariance analysis of the Sense of Belonging scales. Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling & Development, 43(3), 199–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0748175610384811
Uysal, İ., & Kılıç, A. (2022). Normal dağılım ikilemi. Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International, 12(1), 220-248. https://doi.org/10.18039/ajesi.962653
Versteeg, M., Kappe, R. F., & Knuiman, C. (2022). Predicting student engagement: The role of academic belonging, social integration, and resilience during covid-19 emergency remote teaching. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 849594. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.849594
Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81, 267-301. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311405999
Yüksek Öğretim Kurumu (2024). https://yokatlas.yok.gov.tr/lisans-univ.php?u=1111 (erişim tarihi: 21.11.2024)
Zahner, D. G. H., & Harper, R. (2022). Validation of belonging among underrepresented undergraduates in stem majors: comparison of former transfer and non-transfer students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Amp; Practice, 26(4), 1072-1099. https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251221146119
Wurster, K. G., Kivlighan, D. M., & Foley-Nicpon, M. (2021). Does persongroup fit matter? A further examination of hope and belongingness in academic enhancement groups. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(1), 67–76. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000437
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Hilal Bahçecioğlu- Gülseren Yürekli- Onur Mutlu Yaşar

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.