Student perception of teacher behavior and classroom community on belongingness of 1890 land-grant university agriculture majors
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Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), which includes the 1890 Land-Grant Colleges and Universities (LGCs), fill an important role in higher education. Many MSIs characterized as Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) continue to carry out a meaningful role in higher education supporting 9 percent of all Black college students in the U.S. who attended in 2022 (Hatfield & Anderson, 2024). One of the most important factors in choosing a college is feelings of belonging. Many students who decide to transfer or leave college indicated the reason is due to not feeling like a part of the program. Persistence, commonly referred to as retention, is the ability of an institution to keep a student enrolled until completion of the degree program. This involves multiple, often overlapping components including campus culture, institutional type and characteristics, student profile, and admission criteria. From a broad perspective, a student sense of belonging is important for student retention. Belongingness literature suggests belonging is a fundamental human motivator and is connected to relationships with peers and faculty. Retention, as a function of belonging, is particularly important for 1890 Land-Grant colleges of agriculture. Colleges of agriculture are tasked with educating future leaders within the realm of agricultural science and natural resources, and graduates are essential in addressing national priorities of food security, sustainable energy, and environmental quality. This research is based on the Theory of Model of Support, Belonging, Motivation, and Engagement in the Classroom (Zumbrunn et al., 2014), which determined student belonging and motivation to be directly predicted by supportive classroom environment perceptions, where motivation (self-efficacy and value beliefs for learning tasks) and engagement (attendance and class participation), are hypothesized to predict achievement. The purpose of this research was to determine to what extent differences in post- secondary supportive classroom environments explains differences in student belonging at an 1890 Land-Grant University, specifically with students majoring in Agriculture. The two instrument survey was distributed to all agriculture undergraduate majors via university email. The researcher conducted a census of all students (n = 107) majoring in agriculture and enrolled in an agriculture class in the Spring 2024 semester using the Qualtrics Survey software via online survey. The contribution of Caring and Supportive Behavior and Professional Competency and Communication Skills was significant (p = .02) and explained 10 percent of the variance (adjusted R2 = .10) in Classroom Connectedness as perceived by agriculture students of agriculture instructors. The contribution of Caring and Supportive Behavior, and Professional Competency and Communication Skills was significant (p < .001) and explained 35 percent of the variance proportion of the variance (adjusted R2 = .35) in Classroom Learning as perceived by agriculture students of agriculture instructors. The researcher rejected the null hypothesis and accepted the alternative hypothesis of differences in Caring and Supportive Behavior, and Professional Competency and Communication Skills did explain a significant (p < .05) proportion of variance in Student Connectedness and Student Learning as perceived by agriculture students of agriculture instructors. Teachers who provide Caring and Supportive Behaviors, and Professional Competency and Communication Skills can significantly increase Classroom Learning and Belonging.
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Ph. D.