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Student Anxiety and Belonging in a Mastery-Based-Learning Course

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Reimagining Pathways: Nurturing Diversity and Identity in STEM Education

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

34

DOI

10.18260/1-2--48006

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48006

Download Count

106

Paper Authors

biography

Meghan Williams Elizabethtown College

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Meghan Williams is a recent graduate from Elizabethtown College with a degree in Physics Secondary Education. She is currently working as a high school math teacher and will be pursing a masters degree in applied phyiscs in the fall.

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biography

Mark Brinton Elizabethtown College Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7673-2203

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Dr. Mark Brinton currently teaches electrical and biomedical engineering courses at Elizabethtown College. Prior to joining Elizabethtown College, he studied advanced prosthetic limbs at the University of Utah (postdoc, Biomedical Engineering) and electro-neural stimulation at Stanford University (PhD, Electrical Engineering).

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biography

Kurt M Degoede Elizabethtown College Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0118-4951

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Professor of Engineering and Physics, Elizabethtown College. His research interests in biomechanics include developing clinical instruments for rehabilitation. Dr. DeGoede teaches upper-level undergraduate mechanical engineering using a Mastery-Based assessment model and design courses and first-year multidisciplinary courses.

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biography

Elizabeth Dolin Dalton

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Assistant Professor of Psychology, Elizabethtown College

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Abstract

Anxiety and lack of belonging are two major obstacles college students face, particularly those from underrepresented and underprepared backgrounds. These obstacles are even more likely to impact students in demanding degree programs such as engineering. Mastery-based-learning (MBL) could help to lower students’ levels of anxiety and increase their sense of belonging in the classroom. MBL is a course structure in which students have more freedom to work at their own pace. Often, students are given several attempts to demonstrate mastery of topics and are not required to move on to the next topic until they are proficient in the previous. To determine if MBL affected students’ anxiety during exams and sense of belonging, students were surveyed three times throughout the semester. Surveys were distributed in Fall 2022 for students who took the course with a traditional course structure and Fall 2023 for the course with MBL structure. Initial results suggest that student testing anxiety is less in Fall 2023 (MBL) and that students feel like they belong more. The comprehensive results and their analysis will be included in the full paper.

Williams, M., & Brinton, M., & Degoede, K. M., & Dalton, E. D. (2024, June), Student Anxiety and Belonging in a Mastery-Based-Learning Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48006

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