Development and Evaluation of the Chemistry Multidimensional Belonging Scale (CMBS)

Abstract

Sense of belonging in postsecondary introductory chemistry classrooms has been correlated with success outcomes for students. Therefore, a surge of programming and initiatives has taken place to prioritize student success and wellbeing. However, there is a gap between practice and evaluation. Current instruments available to researchers and practitioners fall short of the nuance needed to capture the impact of these initiatives or were not developed for postsecondary chemistry classrooms. This study developed and evaluated a chemistry multidimensional belonging scale (CMBS) that can be used to measure four dimensions of students’ sense of belonging in chemistry classrooms. Survey development was based upon previous work that describes a theoretical framework and an iterative process of survey development, resulting in the CMBS, a 16 item Likert scale survey. To evaluate the survey, it was administered to two classes of first-semester general chemistry (N = 289), and the students’ responses were evaluated for internal structure, response process, and relations to external variables. The results evidenced the validity and reliability of the data produced by the CMBS. The resulting instrument items are included, and future work can utilize this survey to examine the generalizability of the findings or evaluate efforts to promote students’ sense of belonging.