Interdependence between Perceived Cooperative Learning, Sense of Belonging, and Generic Skills in Undergraduate STEM Education

The development of sense of belonging and generic skills may be considered important to succeed in higher education and in life and may be enhanced through student group work. For group work to succeed, Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning suggest that group members need to be positively interdependent. In the present study we conducted a cross-sectional survey in a sample of 401 students in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education in Norway mapping the students’ perceptions of cooperative learning, sense of belonging and generic skills. By means of Pearson bivariate correlation analyses and standard multiple regression analyses, we found that 1) Cooperative Learning was positively associated with the development of both sense of belonging and generic skills, 2) Sense of belonging and generic skills were positively interrelated, and 3) Interaction was the cooperative learning principle contributing most to the association with both sense of belonging and generic skills.